The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-11-05

 deeply dyed.
 She afterward married shepherd, who deserted her for milkmaid. l
 About this time Vulcan was wonder ing, What's the use?"
 He had sufficient evidence that Venus cared nothing for home and less for him.
 He found Title satisfaction in Cupid, who at an early age smoked cigarettes and romped over the hills with the shepherd and the shepherdess.
 So Vulcan closed the famous old shop and acquired pleasure in spend- ing his fortune.
 He became with Bacchus, the wine merchant, the most notorious roue of that day.
 Stories of his escapades still endure.
 He wore fine clothes and smoked cigars. He drank deeply and to excess. and lost and heavily. | He went to see the ponies run and lost again and heavily. He dined the chorus girls on white Rhine wine and turkey. At his banquet board, with lithesome step the maidens danced to cymbal crash, and Vulcan found his homeward way full of pitfalls at the dawn. | The rugged strength gave way to | flesh and stomach came for dignity. A round bald spot adorned his head and ruby wine had made his nose too ruddy.
 Vulcan became a grouch at home and he and Venus quarreled.
 Beauty cared no more for Strength and Strength no more for Beauty.
 Cupid evaded the unsavory atmos- phere, and servants stood about dis 1 mayed.
 Then camecthe crash. Vulcan's fortune left him all bereft of friends and Entertainment. He stood alone in all the world, stranded ana disconsolate. Venus sued for divorce and simple jurors saith, Aye, aye!" l Cupid, reared in the lap of luxury, dreamed of wedlocl1 with dowry.
 But Vulcan's stuff was from stern- CT mould.
 He pulled himself together one June morning, tore away his linen fine and rich apparel, donned again the leathern apron and opened wide the famous shop.
 The bellows famed the coals to heat and hammer beat the molten brass.
 Rugged strength returned with |health's delightful touch. | He fashioned out new implements for carpentry and agriculture. He made the tire for chariot wheel and preserved the hoof of beast with shoes. Happiness returned anon. He thought no more of Venus.
 He strode the forests unafraid and rode abreast the storm in strength.
 Vulcan now was Vulcan as of old, not Jeffries nor another.
 Venus, with advancing age, retained her fatal beauty despite the envious Jealousy which boiled within her bosom.
 Psyche came with the loveliness of the morning.
 Venus writhed with hatred because the people declared her fair. Cupid loved and welded her, but bore her far away from mother-in-law, and kept her well with honest toll. And Venus following pictured Psyche a pretty doll, ill-suited for the spouse of honest poverty, told the story of her humble birth, and aroused un- grounded jealousy.
 Cupid. in despair between the love of tender wife and motherly injunc- tion, wandered far away into the night.
 Psyche, left alone, became the prey of Venus From morn to dewy eve lshe toiled at tasks impossible.
 In filthy rags, illclothed, she thought of Cupid and begged the gods to hasten his return. And thus by dreams and tender revery she steeled her soul against contumely.
 And Cupid came with Vulcan's blood a-boil and carried war against his mother. Fairly beaten, she sued for peace, employing the wiles of beauty rare to gain her ends. | And Cupid builded her home, fal and not too far from that his own, and Venus there survived for many years. She cleansed her soul of envy's seed and jealousy spent her all among the i'll and suffering, guiding the stumbling foot of youth, and pointing out the gold amid the dross. | Beauty such as never woman wore fingered well until the end, and when she died many honest tears were shed | for her.
 Until this day artists assay to paint the Venus face, and her figure stands | in chiseled stone, beauty's standard for all ages. About the glowing hearth in after years Cupid and Psyche, happy in re- covered love, spoke of Venus and her man of iron.
 'Ill-mated they,' was Cupids terse | solution.
 Perhaps" replied the thoughtful Psyche. But Venus was in greater fault. She used her art to tempt the man, and loved him not. No greater sin than this."