Hot Springs weekly star. (Hot Springs, S.D.) 1892-1917, 1898-07-08

eAON y w
bet not so common as to reconcile me-
to my fate. One is never reronciicd to
pain in any form. and that pain of the
heart: that keen. un%rcaSoning sting
which the German word heim"ch rem
ders only more primitive than the Eng
lish homcsirk. is the most homeless OF
pain. TO this day the memory of that
time brings IL sudden relapse of the old
agony. Time usually dnllsthe rccolec-
ton of sorrow or of illness. but he re-
fuses to veil that sore day of ones bit
terest past. He makes II exception
and holds up, without remorse. the
identical homcsick pang that once rent
the soul. 1t all returl,s To me now:
the secret tears at night: the sudden
awakening in the morning with the
duh weight of the day before sill clog
ging the spirit.
l had arrived in ~Bouilnnvi!le one
day in June with letters of introduce
ton to the leading lights of that old
village and l looked for spe, ial atten-
ton. These blythe anticipations we're
ended with Il few FORMAL calls. Din
ners, tea drinking. luncheon and other
intercourse, were MOI for me in Bour
louisville. After IL brgliiing hope of
several months. l yielded. not grace
fully, but in sul!cn Indifference. AL
though hundreds of other towns. the
exact pattern OF Bonrbonville. may be
in existence, this was the first of which
1 had knowledge.
Occasionally the ripple of a social
day among old schoolmates. now mid
dle-aged matrons. reached me. Ma
irons, whose grandparents and parents
had been born there: whose sweet
hearts we're born there and whose
children and grandchildren expected
to be born there. To invite an alien
into this circle was not to be thought
of. This, 1 finally understood, with adj
ditional pangs of isolationa at the knowl-
edge of being forever barred from these
festive occasions.
Bourbonsville was eminently patriot
ic. Twenty years after the war its cit
liens we're still fighting it's battles.
They were u lucky people. too, hav-
ing escaped, in a miraculous way
the horrors of that sad time. No
one-legged man, or worn veterans,
hobbled along it's streets. Its men
had not put themselves in the way
of meddlesome mimic bullets. But they
made up in animosity what they lacked
in actual warfare.
Born and brought up in the farthest
south, / could not keep pace with
them. That my nearest and dearest
had filed rebel soldiers graves, was of
no particular interest, when l refused
allegiance to their school of politics.
That my people were the Rutherfords
and Grahams of North Carolina, and
the Paytons Of Virginia, while many
Bourbonsvillians had come straight
from Massachusetts, was even less
moment. 1t soon become whispered
that my political creed was heretical.
The p%retenious eNc%lusiveness. the
calm indifference of the little commun-
ity would have been ludicrous to one
not furnishing, as /, for a friendly
word. To me. it was despicable. l en-
We'd the brakeman on the train, as it
sped past the town. because they were
speeding past.
The charity that follows experience,
- x,l,u, t1,n ci1,spf rnvnalQd
to me the real nature of the Bourbons-
Williams. They we're not d~espicable.
nor willfully Indifferent. They were
ouly lethargic; the natural result of a
half centuly's isolation from active
business. social and art centers. Each
citizen lived within himself and "the
stranger within his gates" was but &
stranger. Even the habit of study
ing human nature was not considered
Hence. as IL .s,lhject." the stranger was
yalueless. AS II miscr's life and habit:
turn him, day by day. into harder
Ways, so the q%uietude of II town iik'
ness unnatural and unsupported. 4
life of individual i~ntrospectlon eX
cludes Il broad love of humanity; sc
it follows, that "a community of intro
spection is no less given to narrownes
and s%eltishnets. All this came to m
afterwards; for in that time of CON
parative youth, my verdict of Boul
louisville was less charitable. In til
hot wrath of one whose path had bee
exceptionally happy in social ways.
christened it cold, selfish, conceite'
pretentious
Day after day, l watched. idly, u dul
red. brick house standing across til
street, just opposite my window, ii
dingy walls and weatherbeaten windo
blinds a pathetic sight. A lifeles
house, that gave no sound of voice c
laughter day or night. 1t grew upo