The Tupelo journal., 1903-07-24
LOVES YOUNG DREAM
Bill Arp Recalls the Days When He
Wooed and Won.
Thinks Some Girls Too Much in Love
with Their ClOtheD to Love q
Man-Warns YOung Men to s4&si
Beware Of Trunks.0 WIZ

newore OK Hrunkss NA*al
1t Is now many weeks since the good
st. Valentine told the birds to mate and
the girls and boys to go wooing. St.
Patrick has been out and shook his She
lahlah at the snakes, but still gentle
Spring keeps OF flirting and fooling
with old man Winter and makes him
believe she may fall in love with him.
But she isn't. May and December never
mate, nor March and November. 1t is
against the order Of nature. We old
people can look and linger and admire,
but that is all. We have sailed down
the river and encountered it's perils, it's
reefs and rocks and shoals and quick
sands, but, strange to say, We give no
warning. Maybe it is because we know
that warning will do no good; maybe
because misery loves company; maybe
because it is the order of nature, the
fiat of the Almighty. Verify, the young
people would mate and marry and
launch their boat and sail down that
river if they knew there was a Scylla
and Charybdis at every bend and levi
athans and maelstroms and .c~ataracts
all the way down. Poor, trusting, suf-
fering woman. What perils, what trials,
what Affections does the maternal in
stinct bring upon you? Close up by us,
while l write, is a beautiful young
mother lingering in the grasp Of death
dying that her f1rstborn child may
live. There is nothing more touching,
more pitiful. more heroic in nature.
There is nothing that a man is called
upon to endure that compares with the
death of a mother in childbirth.
But there is a brighter side-a more
charming, comforting picture of life
married life, domestic life-when the
good mother is a matron, and looks
with pride upon her children and grand
children as they come and go lovingly
before her. What calm serenity hovers
over her matronly face. Whatksweet
content, what grateful rest-rest from
her labors, her pains, her care and anxi-
ETY.. Well may she exclaim with Paul:
II have fought a good fight; I have kept
the faith; | have finished my course.
Henceforth there is laid up for me a
crown of righteousness"
To every lad and lassie there is a pc
Rod of life not always thrilling or trag-
ical, but highly emotional and sensa-
tional. OF course, | mean the period
of love-young love-or loves young
dream, which sometimes runs smooth
n sometimes don't. What a luxury
it would be to look behind the curtain
and see just what love has felt and suf-
fered and enjoyed. Such kaleidoscope
would have a world of eager lockers, for
the old are as fascinated with stories of
love and courtship as the middle-aged
and young. In looking over the daily
or weekly paper we may skip the dis
played headings of wal in Servia or
riots in London, or cyclones in Oregon,
but Any little paragraph that has love
in it arrests the eye and demands atten-
ton. Children go to school to study
books. but by the time they are in their
teens they begin to mix a little timid,
cautious love with their other studies.
A sweetheart is a blessed thing for a
boy. 1t straightens him up, and washes
his face and greases his hair and brush
es his teeth and stimulates his ambition
to excel and be somebody. Jerusalem!
How l did luXuriate and palpitate and
concentrate toward the first little school
| girl | ever loved. She was as pretty as
a pink and as sweet as a daisy, and one
day at recess, when nobody was looking
l caught her on the stairs and kissed
her. She was dreadfuily frightened.
but not mad. Oh, no; not mad. She
ran away with bushes on her cheek.
and more than once that evening l saw
her glance at me from behind her book
and wondering if l would ever be so
rash again.
And now, Mr.. Editor, If a thousand
of your patrons peruse these random
memories, 900 of them can finish up
the chapter from their own unwritten
book. Who has not loved, who has not
stolen a kiss, who has not caught Its
palpitating thrill and felt like Jacob
when he lifted up his voice and wept?
Oh, Rachel, beautiful and well favored,
no wonder that Jacob watered thy
sheep and then kissed thee, for there
was no one to modest OF make thee
afraid. That memorable kiss is now
1000 years old, and has passed into
history as classic and pure, but l have
had them, and sc have you, dear reader.
just as sweet and soul-inspiring, and
never said anything about it to any
body. Ours was a mixed school, and
every Friday the larger boys m girls
had to stand up in line and spell and
define. My sweetheart stood head most
| generally, and so | was stimulated to
get next to her, and l did, and my right
hand slyly found her left, and we both
were happy. But time and circumstan-
ces separated us, and we both found
new loves-she married another feller
and was content, and SO did l, but
neither of us have forgotten the stolen
kiss or that tender childish love that
made our s~chooldays happy. But love
becomes more earnest after awhile
more intense, more frantic--the young
man means business, and so does the
maiden. Like the turtle-doves in the
spring of the year, they are looking
around for a mate. This is nature, and
it is right. God said, 1T is not good
for man to be alone; l will make q help
meet for him." And so he made Eve
to help meet the expenses, and that is
what a wife ought to do now, but a good
many Of them don't. They help make
them, and that is why the young men
have almost quit marrying. The rich
r;rlc uop,t hovo fhom and the NOR,