The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1898-03-06
ghe aalieha Daily Eagle: Sunday 1orino are g. 1898
...GOSSIP FOR HOrlE PEOPLE,.

too, with a child's democracy, that its ex-
ceiling fneness might hurt some poorer
girls feelings. It had celluloid back,
this album. with blue plush about the
| edges, and its pages were tinted green and
pink and what-not.
And tonight 1 take 1t up. for the first
time in years and read again, not the
words or the stereotyped sentiments,
stiffly, starchily expressed but the names,
the names that are ghosts of the Past.
the names that designate faces which no
longer exist, friendships which are as
dead as last years butterflies, and girl
ish badinage, whose point and purport
have gone with the girlish minds in which
they grew. Most of the sentiments are
written IN violet ink-beautiful violet ink
the letters Of the script show painful, yea
anguished, effort I remember hours were
consumed in selecting a suitable page,
hours in finding a sentiment, hours in
dragging the pen into artistic flourishes-
and the boys too, usually washed their
hands before beginning the job.
But the ghosts-Al. Keller, Feb. 13, 1882,
writes:
Down life's sweet tide
May you smoothly glide,
And bask in the wealth of love;
And DER the stygian waters dark,
May the angel Of mercy guide thy t&rque
A place for it in heaven above.
And where are YOU'LL. Keller? What
has the winds and waves of sixteen years
borne to you, where tossed you, on reef,
or wind-free harbor? Who knows?
February 6, 1882, George Lyen writes:
Disguise so near the truth doth seem to
run,
It's doubtful whom to seek or whom to
shun.
Nor know we when to spare or when to
strike,
Our friends and foes they seem so much
alike
Very true no doubt, but as for disguise,
Mr.. Lyen, it is a poor thing which may
or may not have counterfeited friendship
in your case. For I know not-as
have forgotten you, your voice, stature,
complexion, face-you, all but your name
signed boldly in this little ghost diction-
airy of mine
And Mr.. Frank Phillips of Des Moines,
Iowa. contributes a sentiment with a
word-"Skating" Did I skate with you?
Were you visiting here? And where have
you gone these many years? And how
has it Jared with you? But 1 ask in vain.
for the little album only answers ''Skat-
ing" Frank Phillips. Des Molnes. Iowa.
And Winnie Goodno writes:
There is an album
Filled with leaves Of snowy white,
Where no name is ever furnished
But all is pure and bright.
In the book of life-"God's Album"
May your name be penned with care
And may all who write herein
Sign their names forever there.
Sweet Winnie. Girl Of dimples and sunny
hair. Where have you drifted? This is
your ghost-the ghost of your childhood
I have before me. May your womanhood
be as pure, as sweet, as fair.
And this: Remember me as your
friend and school mate. Frank Gossard,
Wichita, Kansas, March 81, 1882"
I do remember you as a schoolmate-
and that is all. Where have you drifted?
This side the grave, 1 hope, and no fur
Their.
On February Is, 1882, Adah Casad wrote:
Life, it is fleeting make it pleasant
Think of nothing but the present;
For the past, we leave behind us,
And the future may not find us.
Truly said. Adah. We certainly do leave
the past behind US. out of oversight, out
of ear-shot, out of rumor-shot, for these
many days I have not heard of Adah
Casad or of her lot. Our present, then,
how great our past how faint, our future
so insignificant. How great that future
was, withal, so great it swallowed the
then present and the now past. and with
it a very near friendship for you Adah
else 1 had never asked you to write in
this little album Of mine.
Matte HalloweH of Milan, Kansas,
writes. February IS, 1852:
Friendship may weave a garland,
Gold may link a chain,
But one love alone can form clasp
Unbroken TO remain.
You were a dear. sweet creature. Mat
tie. and ] wonder, dreamily now if the
clasp has been formed about your heart
Following is the brief name without ac-
companying sentiment of any sort:
''Lewie buckingham. March ., 1882"
Where art thou. Buckingham? Is It I'll or
well with you2 The poets find but one
smile for death-sleep. But there is an |
other-absence. Where is that bourne !
from which you return not. for have not /
heard your name spoken these sixteen /
years.
And on March is, 1882, Grace Whitehorn |
writes: Peace be around wherever thou |
rovest"
wonder If peace is around dear Grace. |
and where she is and If asked point blank |
where she had once written such a senti- |
ment. she could tell. OF course not.
close the little album and place it
away out OF reach Of the little fingers Of /
my tots.
How dim the faces Of my old friends |
are, How long they've been away. How |
little likely they shall return again And |
this in sixteen years. What misty scenes /
they'll he when am seventy-how faded .
Will you. school-mates OF a happy day.
grow to be at last.
CHANGES AT THE PARK.
BY all means the greatest change ever
worked in the appearance of Wichita Is f.
now taking place. And the strangest part /
Of il is that not one man il ten on the .
business streets knows anything about It.
The average man. without being able 10