Year: 1871




! Mrs. Stoves story in the ChHstata Uhton,
ahounds with graphic passages with their ten.
denotes all on the side of virtue In late
number Is the following testimony of one of
her characters to the temptation and torture
that is not unircqucntly experienced by the
young, the gay and festive, 1t is worthy of
sober thought!


lsuppose no young fellow ever enter
ed the course OF life with more sefre-


lance. had splendid health, high spi-
its, great powers of application and
great social powers. lived freely and
carclessly Oh the abundance of nv pl. VS.
ical resources. could ride and row and


wrestle with the best. | could lead in
all social gaye,ics, yet keep at the head of
my class, aS ] did the first two years of
my college life. 1t seems hardly fair to
us human beings that we should be so
buoyed up with ignorant hope and CON
fidence in the beginning of our life, and


tnat we should be left in our ignorance
to make mistakes which no after years
can retrieve, thought was perfectly
sure of myself; | thought my health
and strength We're inexhaustible, and


that could carry weights that no man
else could. The d"ain of my wide,
awake eXhausting life upon my nervous
system | made up by the insiduous use
of Stiumlants. | was like a man habit.


ually over-drawing his capital, and 10


norant TO what extent. in my third
college year this began to tell precepti,


bly, on my nerves. was losing scli-con.
trol, losing my way in life; | was excit-
able, irritable, impatient of guidance or
rrrproof and at times horribly depressed


| sought refuge from this depression in
social eXhiIaratIon, and having lost con-
troll over myself became a marked man
among the college authorities; in short.
! was overtaken in convvial row,
brought under college discipline and sus-
| pended.


1t was at this time that | went into
Your nelghborhood to study and teach.
found no difficulty in getting the high
est recommendations as to scholarship
from some OF the college officers, who
were for giving me chance to recover
myself; and for the rest | was thorough
~ sobered and determined on new
course. Here commence my acquaint-
ance with your cousin, and there follow
ed few months, remembered ever since
as the purest happiness of my life.
loved her with all there was in me
heart, soul, mind and strength-with a
love which can never die. She also loved
me, more perhaps than she dared to say,
for she was young, hardly come to full
consciousness of herself She WAS then
scarcely sixteen, ignorant of her own
nature, Ignorant of life, and almost
frightened at the intensity of the feeling
she excited in me, yet she loved me-
But before we could arrive at anything
like calm understanding, her father
came between us. He was a trustee of
the Academy, and dispute arose be-
tween him and me in which he treated
me with an overbearing haughtness
which reused the spirit of opposition in
me- | was in the right and | knew |
was, and | defended my course before
the other trustees in a manner which
won them over to my way of thinking
"a victory which he never forgave.


Previous to tbs encounter had been
in the habit of visiting in his family
quite intimately. Caroline and enjoy
ed that kind of unmatched freedom
which the customs of New England al
low to young people. | always attend.
cd her home from the singing-School and
the weekly lectures, ana the evening at.
ter my ancounter with the trustees did
the same. AT the door of his house he
met us, and as Caroline passed in he
stopped me, and briefly saying that my
visits there would no longer be permit
ted, closed the door in my face. / tried
10 obtain an interview soon after, when
he sternly upbraided me as one who had
stolen into the village and won their
confidence on false pretences, adding
that II he and the trustees had known
the full history Of my college life |
should never have been permitted to
teach in their village OF have access to
their families. 1t was in vain to attempt
a defense to man determined to take
the very worst view of facts which did
not pretend to deny, knew that had
been lrreproachable as to my record in
the school, that had been faithful in nv
duties, that the majority OF parents and
pupils were on my side, but | could not
deny the harsh facts which he had been
enable TO obtain from some secret enemy
and WHICH he thought justified him in
saying that he would rather see his
daughter in her grave than to soc her
my wife, The next day Caroline did
not appear in school. He father with |
prompt energy, took her Immediately to
an academy fifty miles away.


| did not attempt to follow her or
write to her; profound sence of dis. |
conragement came over me, and look
ed on my acquaintance with her with a.
sort OF remorse. The truth bitterly told
by an enemy with vivid powe' Of state
ment is tonic oftentimes too strong for
ones power of endurance. l never re-
fected so seriously on the resnonsihilitv