The Houston daily post. [volume] (Houston, Tex.) 1886-1903, 1899-11-19
wing SHADOWS OF FANCY

Sminenty the day OF the writer, All kinds.
classes and ages of people write. scrib.
hlerus has risen from the grave to which
Pope consigned him, and is abroad IN the
land The South has made his acquaintance
and is counting his society. From the chl,.
dren's column in the daily paper to the Sci
entihc Quarterly Magazine tho same thing
is in evidence. towit. that the pen makers
ana paper machines of this country are do
ing good busnoss--for themselves.
me Southwest having so recently entered
the arena. Is not yet so skilled nor so widely
known. But quietly, unoonssously. II may
be. oven to itself. growth has been going
on. Esterhrook and elliot, and possibly ,he
old time goose with her quilts are all doing
good business at their new stand. OF the
making Of books. many books. there is no
end, even ~ Texas While no one OF these
has yet established its claim to be con-
sidered classic for the coming generations
stu each one has been enjoyed by its seIec,
circle OF admirers. and hence has served it's
mission.
Amidst this greatest protusion OF written
matter there has now and then appeared :,
volume of genuine merit. One OF the dam
test most suggestive of these is a bookle.
OF lyrics from the pom of Mrs, n NJ. Jou-
venat Of sherman, entitled wing Shadows
OF Fancy. Inspired by n love of the beautiful
"netncr IN nature or in the artistic creations
OF humanity, the poet soul OF the writer has
ioana expression in many passages ex.
quisite in touching pathos, rich in realistic
imagery, sympathetic in earnest appeal TO tho
human heart
s. &c
lima, with ancestry that includes many nota.
BILE personages. Her childhood was spent IN
Tennessee where her father was prominent
in railroad circles. Hero she received her
education and was married. For the past
twenty-five years her home has been In
Sherman. where her two sons have grown up
and passed into business. Her elegant resi-
deuce on North Main street was for many
years the rendezvous of the cultured literary
personages of the city. But the fire fend
despoiled the scene. In her touching little
verse, After the Fire" she refers to tho
ruin and tells us that now
In silence the swaying trees
Beckon with bending knees.
Some viewless form to come.
An ardent lover of flowers, she poured
forth her souls tribute in exquisite verse.
while with her hands she arranged her con.
servatory, or potted her plants. or clipped
bouquets for visiting friend or sick neigh
hor. Possibly II was while thus engaged
that she gave uttcrance to the following do
licious bit of verse:
There was a rose whose matchless grace
NY souls far-seeing eye could trace.
But ere upon the air was shed
The fragrant breath. the rose was dead.
And what, though countless roses blow.
III this lost scent no more ! know
And so the notes OF some sweet bird.
BY waiting fancy only heard
still to my ears the cadence sweet
The phantom echoes oft repeat.
And still my dreaming heart is thrilled
BY hopes that perish unfulfiled.
Thus she interprets the message OF the
flowers to the great heart OF humanity:
II to our dull prosaic souls
No sweet mysterious hope unrolis.
When the soft petals of the rose
Their earniine-ti tinted lips disclose;
If from the yioiets pleading eyes
No hints prophetic of the skies
To our insensate hearts arise.
Nor breaks upon our dumb despair
In odorous pulses of the air
The rhythmic measure of n prayer:
II Covers may bloom and wax and wane
Nor cheat our human hearts OF pain,
i
~
LIES pathway, not always strewn With
roses, has been one full of experiences for
the poet. And there creeps into the lively.
cheerful stanza oftentimes, that which sug
gests suffering and anxiety, The sentiment
Of pathos, strong IN all poets. even in the
laughing Burns and sedate Wordsworth. il
observable in Mrs. Jouyenat's lightest lyrics.
1T times IL borders on the elegiac: as in
Silence" written in memory Of departed
friend Mrs NJ. l.. Nash, long time pres-
dent of the Sherman institute. The following
is an extract:
Farewell Lifes argosy
Drifts out 10 sea.
In vain we stand upon the STRANDS
And hold outstretched and pleading HANDS.
she who majestic les
With darkened eyes,
Now sees the farther mysteries
Beyond LIES brief parenthesis
7'he flowers she held so dear
we shall revere
And for her sake will not forget
VIII love the daffodil.
sweet scent and song like sncense swung.
some old cathedral aisles among.
Her figures arc at times bold and startling,
vet always carefully selected and defty In
woven. II see the grass green ripping Tar IN
4 wild race over the hills
see the rose red blossoms blow,
Chasing the vanqulshed gloom.
Then Hope, wing weary, stoopeth low,
To buthe In this mortal bloom.
And then again. In the lyric, "Exiles,"
where she refers to the birds departed. the
winds otherwhere, the singing notes Of
voice long gone. and even the heart of the
noet in exile in quest Of its companion Or,
'The Old Dress" which brings up cherished
memories OF the past,
\ r.
The present output from Texas pens is
great and increasing From the text book
10 the lyric ballad or philosophical history.
ali forms of literary production, with greater