Mexico Missouri message. (Mexico, Audrain County, Mo.) 1899-1918, 1902-10-30
A WEDDING TRIBUTE
BEAUTIFUL WORDS ADDRESSED
TO PROSPECTIVE BRIDE.
Exquisite Thoughts and Harmonious
Diction Combined in This Germ Of
Poetic Fancy-sienifcance Of cere.
mony at the Altar.

The following beautiful letter was
written several years ago by q gentle.
man to a bride on receiving her we'd
ding cards. 1t is exquisitely fresh and
original and full of poetry. Though
not intended for publication, 1t found
its way into print, and we think it is
too much of a gem to be lost entirely:
Il am holding some pasteboard in
my hands. Three stately pluckihgS
from the bush of ceremony! | am
gazing upon a card and a name-a
name with which your gentle life be
gan-a name with which your throb
ing strange about that card. The
maiden sign still looks from it, calm
and customary. as 1t looked ON many
a friendly visit, as it lies on many a
formal basket. | am gazing, too, upon
a card where the nearer parent tells
the world she will be at home one
day, and that is nothing new. But there
is another card, whose minging there
puts fiery tongue into this speech
less pasteboard, enameling fate on
commonplace. 1t tells us that feeling
is maturing into destiny and that these
cards are but the pale heralds of a
coming crisis, when hand that has
pressed friends hands and plucked
flowers shall close down on him to
whom she shall be friend and flower
forever.
Il have sent you few flowers to
adorn the dying moments of your sin.
gle life. They are the gentle types Of
delicate and durable friendship
They spring up by our side when 9TH
ers have deserted it, and they will be
found watching over our grave when
those who should cherish have for
gotten us; it seems meet to me that a
past so calm and pure as yours should
expire with kindred sweetness about
it. The flowers and music, kind
friends and earnest words should con-
secrate the hour when a sentiment IS
passing into a sacrament.
The three great stages of our be-
ing are the birth, the bridal, the
burial. To the first we bring only
weakness; for the last We have moth
ing but dust. But here at the altar
where life joins life, the pair come
throbbing up to the holy man. whisper
ing the deep promise that arms each
others heart to help on the life strug-
gle of care and duty.
The beautiful will be there, borrow
ing new beauty from the scene; the
gay and the frivolous, they and their
flounces will come to gaze on all its
scattered thoughts pant for; and age
will totter up to hear the old words re-
peated that to their own lives have
given the charm.
Some will weep over it as If it were
the tomb, and some will laugh over II
as if it were a joke; but two must
stand by it: for it is fate-not fun
this everlasting locking of their lives.
And now can you, you nave
oueened it over so many Bonded forms,
can you come down at last to the fru
gal diet of a single heart?
Hitherto you have been a clock,
giving your time to all the world. Now
you are a watch. buried in one par
ticular bosom. watching only his
breast marking only his hours, and
ticking only to the beat of his heart
where time and feeling shall be in uni
son. until these lower ties are lost in
that higher wedlock, where all hearts
are united around that great central
heart of all.
Hoping that calm sunshine may
hallow your clasped hands, | sink ST.
lently into a signature