Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1906-06-19
channels of criminal gratification.

channels of criminal qualification.
Weeks passed away. In the year,
l1776, there were in the city of New
York such things as gardens, and flow
ers, and shady walks, in places that
have since been converted into the
dusty thoroughfares of commerce.
Latterly, Alexander Hamilton had
limpatiently watched for an opportuni-
ty to declare the passion that consumed
him, and his very soul was burning to
hear the blushing avowal of its return,
THAT he doubted not would follow.
The opportunity he had longed for
came at length, under circumstances
as favorable as he could desire. The
hour was twilight-the time the
dreamy month of May, when the heart
is always full, and the blood dances
gladly through the throbbing veins.
The broad moon had just risen above
the horizon, bathing spire and cupola
in it's mellow rays-mingling sweetly
with the opening bud and the bloom
ing flower, and clothing in robes Of
richer beauty the green turf on which
it rested. Seated in a bower Of fra
grant honeysuckles, Adelaide Clifton
was listening in rapt attention to the
music of his eloquence. Turning from
the scenes about him he transported
her to the sea-girt isle in which his in
fant eyes had first opened to the light
of day, and the happiest years of his
youth few over on sinless wings. He
painted for her a cline where frosts
never come, and the year knows no
changes, except from the balmy spring
to the glorious summer; where the
green tree never sheds its leaves, and
the rose that drops from Its stem,
scorched and withered at monday, Is
sweeter and lovelier, that the dews Of
night have nourished into life; where
the plumage Of the birds that throng
the deep woods, and feast on the lus-
cious fruits of the tropics, are va
riegated as the rainbow, and the rich
music Of their songs swells like
choral anthem from the spirit-land;
where the maiden slumbers by bubbling
fountains, in gardens Of perfume, until
the evening shadows have relieved the
fiery sun, and the moon and the stars
Invite her forth to revel in the glorious
beauties of heaven and dream Of
the wilder raptures Of earth! All the
pictures his memory supplied Of that
Luxurious cline, were placed before
her. Nor did he pause here. He knew
the poTer of sympathy over the fe-
male heart and gradually led his will
ing listener among the varied scenes
that had grown familiar to him In his
adventurous life. He described the sea
when the tempest was unclaimed, and
the strong bark shivered, and the stout
mast reeled and cracked at the whirl-
winds breath. He told her Of nights
upon the trackless deep, when the
heavens were hung with black, and not
star looked down upon the inky flood;
of the wild roar of the breakers as the
doomed vessel dashed among their
foamy crests; of the despairing cries
Of the struggling victims; and finally,
| Of the delirious Joy of the fortunate
| few whom the waves had thrown,
stunned and bruised, upon the sandy
beach!
The genuine pathos Of his narrative
was heightened by its truth, and its
effect was the more marked because he
painted nothing that he had not seen,
and gave voice to no emotion that he
had not felt. stray moonbeam had
stolen through the trellised vines and
rested on the cheek Of Adelaide Clifton.
BY its light Hamilton saw that she was
in tears-tears for his sufferings, his
perils. his escapes.
How little do we know" he went
on, without seeming to notice them,
"the changes that are before us! Eigh-
teen years had not darkened the down
on my lip when l exchanged the
dreamy isle for the boisterous ocean;
the luxurious couch for the hard bed on
the rocky shore. Other changes also
came; and now, at an age when the
boy is scarcely merged in the man, the
merchants pen is thrown aside for the
warriors arms. Perhaps the next
change will stretch me upon bloody
| field over which the gorged vulture
flaps his lazy wing. All beyond tomor-
row is unknown. Of one thing only
can we be always sure. Future joys
may glide away like the cooling
waters that rose to the lips Of Tanta-
lus, whenever we attempt to taste
them; but the present is ours. Ours,
not only in the enjoyments it offers to-
day, but in the memories it sends with
us to gladden. the coming time. Grief
and pain, sickness and wounds are
robbed of their bitterness when there
is one blessed hour upon which we can
look back and feel that it is beyond the
power of fate to deprive us Of the rap
lures it brought"
1T may be as you say, Captain Ham,
ilton," she replied; but what are they
to do for whom the past has no rap
lures ?-whose eyes, turned back upon
the vista of years, rest only upon i'm
ages Of sorrow?"
ITO one whose years had really been
so saddened, l would say,-look for
ward, forward evermore, and conquer
the gloom of yesterday by anticipating
the brightness of tomorrow. But why
do you ask? The question can be of
no interest to you"
More" was the mournful rejoinder
much more than you, perhaps, i'm
agine."
Then, as If afraid of having disclos-
ed more than she wished to reveal, she
added
Just now you yourself painted the
future as unknown and uncertain.
What right have l to claim exemption
from the common lot? Why to me,
more than others. should the sunshine
come unmingled with tears?"
Because you are better, and fairer'
and lovelier. Because the Creator per-
mitted you to stray from your home
among the angels, in mercy. not In an
ger. Because you came to chase away