Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1902-04-24

should result In our enforcement forever.
And the woman was right. II after all
that Christ and Christianity have done
for woman, she can 90 again and again
to hear such assaults, she is an awful crea-
ture, and you had better not come near
such reeking lepress. She needs to be
washed, and for three weeks to be soaked
in carbolc acid, and for a whole, year
fumigated, before she is tit tor decent
society. While it is not demanded that
woman be a Christian before marriage,
ligion or she is bad woman and IN
worthy of being your companion IN HE
charged with such stupendous solemnity
and vicissitudes.
What you want, O man! in a wife, is
not butterfly of the sunshine, not a
giggling nonentity. not painted doll:
not gossiping gadabout, not a mixture OF
artifcialities which leave you in doubt as
to where the humbug ends and the woman
begins. but an earnest soul, one that can
not only laugh when you laugh, but weep
when you weep. There will be wide, deep
graves in your path of life, and you will
both want steadying when you come to
the verge of them, tell you. When your
fortune fails you will want some one to
talk of treasures in heaven. and not charge,
upon you with bitter, 81 told you So.
As far as l can analyze it,, sincerity, and
earnestness are the foundation OF all
worthy wifehood. Get that, and YOU get
all. Fail to get that, and you get moth.
ing but what you will wish you never had
got.
Don't make the mistake that the man
of the text made in letting his eve settle
the question in which coolest Judgment
directed by divine wisdom are all-im-
portant. He who has no reason for his
wifely choice except pretty face is like
| a man who should buy farm because OF
the dahlias in the front dooryard. Beauty
| is a talent, and when God gives it He in
tends it as benediction upon woman's
face. When the good Princess OF Wales
dismounted from the rail train last sum.
mer, and ! saw her radiant face, | could
understand what they told me the, day
before, that, when at the great military
hospital where are now the wounded and
wars, the Princess passed through, all the
sick were cheered at her coming, and those
who could be reused neither by doctor nor
nurse from their stupor. would get up on
| their elbows to look at her, and wan and
wasted lips prayed an audible prayer:
"God bless the Princess of Wales. Doesn't
she look beautiful
But how uncertain is the tarrying of
| beauty in human countenance! Explosion
Il
ton. and scoundrel with one dash of
vitriol may dispel it, or Time. will drive
| his chariot wheels across that bright face,
cutting il up in deep ruts and gullies. But
| there is an eternal beauty on the face OF
some women, whom rough and ungal..
liant world may criticise as homely; and
though their features may contradict all
| the laws of Lavater. on physiosnomy, yet
| they have graces of soul that will keep
tkpo, Co. tp,n UlnrlniIS
through all eternity.
There are two or three circumstances
in which the plainest wife is queen, OF
beauty to her husband, whatever her
stature or profile. BY financial panic or
betrayal of business partner, the man goes
down, and returning to his home that
| evening, he says: II am ruined; l am
/! in disgrace forever: ] care not whether
l live or die 1t is an agitated story he
night He says: ''rhe furniture muHt
go, the house must go, the social
position must GO" and from being
sought for obsequiously they must be
| cold -shouldered everywhere. After he
ceases talking and the wife has heard all
| in silence, she says SIS that all? Why,
you had nothing when | married you, and
| YOU have only come back to where you
started If YOU think that my happiness
| ana lnaC OF Inp tIlluTen utIcHu VII lntS'
trappings. you do not know me, though
we have lived together thirty years. God
is not dead, and the National Bank Of
Heaven has not suspended payment, and
| if YOU don't mind, | don't care cent.
What little we need of food and rament
the rest of our lives we can get and |
don't propose to sit down and nope and
groan. Mary, hand me that darning-
needle. I declare! | have forgotten to
set the rising for those cakes! And while
she is busy at It he hears her humming
Newton's old hymn. Tomorrow"
The husband looks up in amazemcnt,
and says "Well, WELL you are the great
est woman ] ever saw. ] thought You
would faint dead away when | told YOU.
And as he looks at her all the glories of
physiognomy in the Court of Louis XIV,
on the modern fashion plates, are tame as
compared with the superhuman splendors
of that woman's face. Joan of Arc, Mary
Antoinette, and La Belle Hamilton, the
are nowhere.
There is another time when the plainest
wife is a queen of beauty to her husband.
She has done the work of life. She has
reared her children for God and heaven,
and though some of them may be little
wild they will yet come back for God has
promised. She is dying. and her husband
STANDS by. lneV tnlnk over all tne years
of their companionship, the weddings and
the burials, the ups and the down, the
successes and the failures. They talk
over the goodness of God and His faith
fulness to children's children. She has no
fear about going The Lord has sustained
her so many years she would not dare to
distrust Him now. The lips of both of
them tremble as thew say good-by and en-
courage each other about an early meeting
in better world. The breath is feeber
and feebler. and stops. Are you sure of ii?
just hold that mirror at the mouth, and
see if there is any vapor gathering on the
surface. Gone! As one of the neighbors
takes the old man by the arm gently and
says: Come. you had better go into the
next room and rest" he says: "Wait
moment: l must take one more look at
that face and at those hands," Beautiful!
Beautiful.
Nv friends, I hope You do not call that
death. That is an autumnal sunset That
is crystalline river pouring into a crys-
tai sea- That is the solo of human life
overpowcred by hallelujah chorus That is
queens coronation. That is heaven.
That is the way my father stood at eighty
two, seeing my mother depart at seventy
nine. Perhaps so your father and mother
went / wonder if we will die as well.
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Hear Rroke Tin the Dance.