Montour American. (Danville, Pa.) 1866-1920, 1901-06-27
THE LATER HARVEST
THAT WHICH COMES FROM A LONG,
LOVING Welded LIFE.


In the Sunset Time Happy Are the
Two Who Can Sit Together and
Dream OF the Long Journey, with
Its Rough and Smooth Spots, They
Have Made Side by Side.
The wedding anniversaries Of the aged
are especially rich in memories and in
the summing up of the value of welded
life as apart from all their other relations
to the world or to humanity, that indie
scribable line of separation from every
other tie and interest which a husband
and wife feel so strongly when they say
I'VE" and mean the dual life which is
yet one in mysterious unity. The we'd
ding day "reminiscences cling together
within that close drawn boundary, and
they lie in the daintily adjusted scales in
which we weigh life's values. The heart
asks, What have all these years brought
to me? These joys, these hopes so often
unreaized, these deep felt trials, these
sometime discords, these intensities Of
emotion births, deaths, meetings and
partings-what have they left me? Hap
py they who can say ''left u.s."
Two aged people sitting together, hand
in hand, recalling the past make one OF
the loveliest pictures which we see in our
intercourse with men and women, and
there are very few who, remaining thus
united after sharing the stress and strain
of life's battle, will not say fervently,
Life is indeed worth living"
What q harvest field ii has beenl How
every day in all these long years has con-
tributed its portion to the weaving of the
great tapestry at which they worked
without seeing one design! Now, with
its face turned toward them, they see
what it all means-rich, glowing color
where JOY and ardOr and prosperity guild
ed the needle; spots of faded brightness
where tears had washed the weavers ma
terial with such salt floods that it had lost
all charm, yet now lending tender con-
trast to the sunshine paths. Yes, each
was needed in its place, and nothing
would have been perfect without the
countervailing influence of light upon
shade, of grief on too vivid joy.
| do not believe that any day in our
personal calendars has so much import as
the anniversary of our wedding day. Our
birthdays are of feeble value in compari-
son, and the heart does not then SO Ques-
tion itself as to what share We have had
in the outcome of the years. Had | been
more yielding there, had been more ten
der at that critical time, had | been BRAY
er, more true to my convictions, more
willing to bear temporary displeasure for
future gOod-how questions rush to the
lips while the great roll unfolds itself and
we see the past as we could not see that
present which can never be recalled!
But where is there such a harvest as
comes from long, loving, welded life?
Those single detached men and women
whom we know, reaching out after some
satisfying verify to fill the hunger of
their hearts-sister's children, art, sci
ence, public charites-look so pathetic
when put in the balance with the deeply
moving, intense emotion of those whose
every word and act had a reflex action
upon another heart and soul and in whose
influence and character lay the possibili-
ties of good or evil to a nature indisSOlu
bly, united to its own.
What autumn festival is like that
which a devoted old couple keep togeth
er? Their vintage is over, but the good
wine their love pressed from the rich
grapes of their young lives warns their
veins now, AMI no winter can chill
them. Children and children's children
call them by name, and no wind of power
ty can rob them of their chief treasures.
There is something most touching notice
able in the self satisfaction shown by
very aged people If they outlive the ordi-
nary limit of united lives. The golden
anniversary of so years brings out even
a recurrence to some token of bridal or
nament, and if 60 years are allotted there
really seems to be a show of personal
pride, as if they were in themselves meri-
torious so long to remain in happy unity,
an example to the young.
The large majority of old folk have,
alas, to abide alone after death has taken
the other half of their lives into the land
which no man can enter without his aid.
Lonely they may look; set apart and sep.
arate they must feel; MANNED and halting
they must go on until the strong, tender
hand of the releasing angel leads them
within the veil. But to these also there
appertains an aftermath. No arid place
can come into hearts that have been
nourished by faithful, pure, unselfish
love. He who goes forth in the morning
for the abbreviated labor of his failing
strength misses the audible voice of
blessing and the tender touch which sent
him cheerfully forward In happier days,
but he is not destitute of the influence of
what, being once his, cannot be taken
from him. The door does not close with
out gentle echo of the "voice that is
still" being spiritually heard, and ''the
vanished hand" has left an imprint which
will always cling to him. He is never
really alone In truth. Love does not pass
out and away from lives hallowed by
fidelity and unceasing tenderness. Lone
ly he is, but not alone.
And where many q white haired wo-
man sits silent in the sunset hour of her
wedding day, with the setting sun SYM
boliZing her life in its bright, steadfast
radiance, you will often see an express
sion of peaceful serenity upon her face,
and 1t needs no interpreter to explain
that she Is dwelling in close companion
ship with that which, though unseen by
others, is integrally part Of her very ex-
istence. She also knows that the es
sence of that happiness which made her
so proud of her titles of wife and mother
Is unQuenchable, and her sunset hour is
sustained by the harvest Of her faithful
years.
There seems a magnetism in these elo-
quent though fading lives which ought to
be an appeal to a higher and nobler esti-
mate of married life. These sweet times
of later harvest have come not to the
Iuerulous, the irritable, the selfish, the
unreasonable. The married life which
has been spent in endeavor each to con-
al Ind ~
the other leaves no sustaining power for
this soft after growth which is so price
less when strength fails and the hand
losesits cunning.-New York Post.
Cleaning Lace.
A dressmaker, especially successful in