Year: 1869

Twenty years ago the inhabitants of
German village were the interested witnesses
of an event, which, common as it has been
ever since the world began, can never occur
without enlisting the attention Of even the
most stolid. Hans and Gretchen were mar
ried in the old ivy-grown church, and the
ancient formula of bushes and smiles and
tears, of good wishes and kind words, per-
haps of a little hidden envy and little open
fault-fnding, was gone through with as much
of zest us If the occurrence were perfectly
new one and nobody else had ever walked
that rose-strewn path, before.


The rustic courtship that ended there be-
fore the altar, being changed into wedlock
by the few magical words of the gray haired
minister had run the customary course, not
entirely smooth one, but with just enough
of hindrances and interruptions to give it a
little music and a little sparkle.


The customary doubts, and fears, and
jcaousics,-all the more intense because the
love out of which they sprang was warm and
it,, ~ ha~n gone through and left be
hind, and with the consent and appreciation
of the limited public of that retired ''dori,"
the twain were made one.


You have noticed that usually romances
end with the marriage of the principal
characters. 1t is often cried out against
and complained of, bat the fact Is that such
proceeding is in entire accordance with u
great law. When the intensely real life OF
the married state is entered upon, the life OF
dreams and shadows, of reveres and illusions
is necessarily left behind. A man in love is
deliciously delirious. A married man is
one who has recovered his senses. The
one is as in dream; the other has wakened
up. Happy for him if by a gentle transition
he has passed out OF his visions into Gle AT
and open sight. 1t is a very uncomfortable
thing to be rudely aroused from sleep filled
with fascinating fancies. 1t is not so un-
pleasant to waken and find that birds are
singing, and the sun is shining, although
the brightness and beauty are less than il
that imaginary realm from which you have
| just emerged.


So as the story-books end when the mar
riage benediction is pronounced, the romance
of real life closes under similar conditions.


Then, however, begins the history whicl
is acknowledged to be much drier and les
interesting affair. Nevertheless it must b,
entered upon end carried through. TIL,
breakfast next morning is much less poetl
and ornamental meal thau the wedding
supper of the night before, but il is fully a
Indispensable. The question of how TO pro
vide il, is very frequently one of monentou
import. The indulgent and benevolent pap
who gave the feast and his blessing, gener
ally does not feel called upon to furnish tn
viands for the following day, and all thos
that lie beyond it.


Therefore, although Hans and Gretche
were very glad to have the kind wishes an
good words of the venerable pastor an
their young friends, and of Greichens father
the school-teacher and organist, they wer
fully aware that all these would not SUI
ply buttered parsnips OF any other edible
With quiet earnestness then, they bethougl
themselves of the ways and means of gair
ing a livelihood, and did not consider then
selves bound to remain in the father lant
dearly as they loved it. They turned the
faces toward the setting sun, and joine
themselves TO the multitude of those wi
follow the star Of empire, though it lcat
them across the sea.


They landed at New York, plain, simpl
hearted German peasants, with very lit
money, and with no prospect or expectatit
OF anything but hard and constant work.
that great city they set up their rest. Ha
was shoemaker, and soon found emplo
ment They lived in a tenement house wi
the usual liberal accommodations which su,
structures afford-a room and a bed-roo
for each family, be the same larger or sma
er. Their life was that of hundreds of tho
sands OF German immigrants, quiet, uni
markable, monotonous.


BY and by sunbeam stole into that ma


row room on the third floor and made


bright, and blooming. A little yiolet-ey


girl lay on the knees of Gretchen, who ]


membered her own dead mother and call


the child by her e--Wilhelmina.


But this tiny maiden was only the aval


courier Of a troup. Year by year they can


now brother and then sister, until t