Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1901-03-21

was out of her life, out of her heart /
The man she loved had never existed, '
she told herself. He was dream,
an immaculate conception OF {
a virgin mind. The real man was the
unworthy offspring of base, worldly
passions; he was nothing to her but
name.
Political events fastened the girl
into womanhood and towards that
large tolerance with which the strong
soul at last invariably encysts the in
explicable and unwelcome facts it can.
not avoid. With one leap the fierce
south entered the arena of war, and
Virginia hills echoed the mingled
cheers of contending armies and the
thunder of mighty guns. Richmond
seemed to have become. as in day,
the center of intrigue and of action.
On every side flashed the gold and sill
yer of wars rich trappings. Plumes
danced in the breezes and the confed-
crate gray met the eye. rest where it
would. From the capitol the banner
of new nation floated proudly. and
beneath 1t echoed the tramp Of march
ing legions. the galloping hoof-beats
of horses, through all hours of day and
night. Men. in this hitherto staid old
southern city, hurried. under the spur
of emotions that seemed born of a con-
tagion in the air, and anxious women
went about with willing hands to aid
in every department. they might in
wade. Among these. her lif. adjusting
itself easily and gratefully to the new
demands, was Frauces Brookin. the
tenderness of her fine face softened
and deepened into divine womanliness,
the love-ray eloquent in her melting
| eyes.
Swiftly the holiday side of the war
had faded out of view. Agonized ST.
lence swallowed up laughter. For the
drift was coming IN from where the
storm of battle ragged, wrecks of hui
man forms once sreighted with life's
rarest merchandise. Soon every hos
| pital, every available space in church
and public building and the most spa
cious of private homes were to have
their quota of the wounded, the dying,
and the dead. The southern woman was
entering upon that field of labor. in
which she achieved her noblest dignity,
! her fame its Immortality. Foremost
among those who first gave their en-
ergies, their whole lives to the allevia-
ton II suffering, the inspiration of the
hopeless and the despairing, was Fran
ces Brookin. Free to dispose of her
time as she would and with an abun-
dant means at her disposal, she made
herself a ministering angel wherever
a soldier suffered. Day and night she
labored, sustained by boundless patri.
otism and an elation for which she
could not account, try as she would
She failed in her self-anaiysis from
ignorance of the fact that a voice that
,, quite silent afterwards, and tina,
youth when it buries its dead tramples
, not the sod above it. Fiery hatred oil
!. the invader possessed her, as It die
her sisters; bred in the bone and nour'
j. ished with the mothers milk, it could
t not be quelled except by years of gentle
d association and common cause, bu
e by strange paradox this bitterness
excluded every stained and bloody
. blue uniform or haggard northern face
n Out of the fight, these were ever out o
i. the sweep of southern woman's ven
1t geance. Upon the suffering prisoner
e Frances delighted to lavish the tender
d ness of her nature, now broadened an
g deepened by its own ministry; an
Ie something touchingly human CARRIE
a her among them, although she was no
n conscious of it.
e. For this had come to pass: with
g the heart of Frances Brookin Their
v, lived fiction. the Richard Somers c
IN her girlish dreams: Richard Somers a
i'd she had seen him face to face one nigh
as under the burning match, his voic
n ringing strong and true and tende
upon her hearing. Before him, shu
ting him into the sanctity of her room
she had dropped veil of iridescer
he gossamer, and within that room, see
he only through the veil, the man live
ns and reigned and had, his kingdom
er Through this veil, too, stirred by tt
n breath of the suffering and the dyin
is of his own country, he spoke gent
tn tenderly to her in the lonely hours I
X. nef VlRllS. Inc Otner hlCHdTu liz
SIN been dismissed, not harshly or hastil
TO- not in anger, but sadly-a man u
ce worthy; man at war with the tru
is and nobleness of her nature and atw
cd with her people. No one knows he
If: such fctions come about, but Il
of hearts of most women carry them.
all And time had helped Frances, +
et- looking back she re-established' ma
hut vital facts that lessened the sadness
he memory; the man must once have be
I'LL noble-his deeds of mercy and gent
ew ness proved that; innately noble
ads must have been when she met him,
v in the face of great temptation
ose had kept his promise to his friend, ev
re- to the extent of shutting his ey
all against the girl whose arms had be
inc about him. whose lips breathed love
the him. And somewhere, despite all
Itch trickery, there was still nobility,
or silently he had ridden away, faith
sed to his friend. He had lain under
DRY hands wounded by the pistol shot, a