Ceredo advance. [volume] (Ceredo, W. Va.) 1885-1939, 1901-05-22

girlish ideal OF Frances Brookin was
dead at last, and slept under the petals
OF faded white rose. Richard Somcrs
was out If her life. out of her heart.
The man she loved had never existed
she told herself. He was a dream. n
romance, an immaculate conception OF
virgin mind. The real man was the
unworthy offspring of base, worldly
passions; he was nothing 10 her but
a name.
Political events fastened the girl
into womanhood and towards that
large tolerance with which the strong
soul at last invariably encysts the in
eNplicable and unwelcome facts il 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 a dav.
the center of intrigue and OF action.
On every side flashed the gold and sill
yer of wars rich trappings. Plumcs
danced lin the brccZes and the confed-
crate gray met the eye, rest where it
would. From the capitol the banner
of new nation hoated proudly. and
beneath ii 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
m a. u,.tr 10,
wade. Among these. her life adjusting
itself easily and gratefully 10 the new
demands, was Frances Brookin. the
tenderness of her fine face softened
and deepencd 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 freighted 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 diving.
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 of 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 album
dant means at her disposal. she made
herself ministering angel wherever
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 sclf-analysiS from
ignorance of the fact that a voice that
has once spoken TO the heart is never
quite silent afterwards, and that
youth when il burieS its dead tramples
not the sod above it. Fiery hatred OF
the invader possessed her. as it did
her sisters; bred in the bone and nour-
ished with the mothers milk. il could
not be que,led except by years Of gentle
association and Il common cause, but
by strange paradox this bitterness
excluded every stained and bloody
blue uniform or haogard northern face.
Out Of the fight. these were ever out OF
the sweep of a southern woman's ven
geance. Upon the suffering prisoners