Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1908-08-23
Immortal Love.
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CiiN OL lLt must StlIS uIdE ItdluftS of human nature remarked the anat- osnist lis the breaking up of love be- tween two persons when one dies"
 Love does not necessarily break up ill such an event. rcpief<he psychol- ogist.
 T don't agree with you. Love after the death of the being loved is sim ply memory
 Cases of actual love between the sexes arc very rare-one in a thou sand. They are not mere memory aft CT death; they are immortal"
 Gan you give me such case:" Yes, one. It is the only one that has ever come to my knowledge Lis ten and l will relate it.
 Douglas Bissell knew the moment he set eyes on Caroline La Couf that she and he had been appointed by Providence 10 be lovers. Miss La Cour recognized tie fact at the same in- stant. Bisscll was young northcrner who. after being graduated at college, wenS to New Orleans as teacher Miss La Cour was creole Their love came as child is bOrn-that is, a perfect thing. though it grew as the child grows. It cannot be said that 1t was q case of that turbulent evaneS- cent love which comes with extreme youth, for Bisscll was thirty years old when they met and Miss La Conr was twenty It was unalterable from it's inception.
 'lt was the woman who was taken away. She died during one of the epidemics of yellow fever that occurred about the middle of the last century and but a few weeks before they were to have been married. Such partngs -pa:tingS between beings iii whom there is this real immortal love-are terrible. Miss La Cour in all the phys ical agony of death resulting from that awful disease did not suffer bodily as the lover suffered in soul, and when all was over he fell into stupor from which his friends desraired of ever awakening him. He never was again the same man.
 BisSell never married. He lived alone If he had a companion it was his wife. He told others that there was such companionship, though when he attempted to explain it he failed signally. He could say rather what it was not than what it was. For instance she did not visit him. It was not one of those cases where one broods over a grave. The mortal part of his love was placed in tomb pro- vided for it, and Rissell went there but seldom. He did not consider what was there as being any more part of was elsewhere.
 But one day when he made one of his periodical visits to the tomb to see that the premises were in condition he met with a surprise. He found a man weeping before it.
 "Pardon me- said Bissell, we have q common sorrow. You must be the of him-he who was living in Soutl America.
 "'I was not her brother. l am he, lover
 "For a few moments there was si leHce. ,!u,ing which the two men re gaYdeG each other With strange eX pression on the face of each. Ther Bissell spoke:
 "'You say you are her lover. Tha is my position.'
 "'Pardon me, it is mine.'
 "'Do you mean to assert that sht ever loved you:
 "'She did. We met in Paris. She was but eighteen. I offered her my love, and it was accepted. Circum stances which do not care to revea parted us.'
 "'Strange, replied Bissell half [. himself, that she never told me oi this-affair.'
 ""There was 10 affair. 1t was an undying love-
 ".On your part. not on hers
 "I believed she loved me always. believe she loves me now
 .Bissell carried a cane. It was on. of those sword canes very much ill use at that period. Taking it in botl hands, he partly drew the blade, thel thrust it back
 "'pardon me; 1 forget you are un armed
 "'You mistake; l am armed.' AnG the stranger drew from his own walk ing stick similar blade.
 "'Fortunate, said Bissell, drawing his steel. She whose mortal part lies there is mine. You dispute her pos session with me. We cannot both have her. One must give place to the other But, mind you. if I fall she is stil mine
 There was fervor in the last foul words that could scarcely have beer equaled had the object been a living being.
 "It seems to me- said the stranger refectively, that we are about to fgh for that which has no real existence
 "'Your words show that this love you speak of in your case is not req love. And she-she never considered it worth the while to speak of it tC