That you could let life's flower fall?
Or was it a greater marvel to feel
The perfect calm o'er agony steal?
Was the miracle greatest to find how deep
Beyond all dreams sank down that sleep?
Did life roll back its record, my dear,
Showing all past deeds dark and clear?
Oh, did love, sweet mistress of bliss,
Affrighted, vanish to shun death's kiss?
For radiant ones in the world above
Forget those whom on earth they love?
Oh, perfect death! Oh, dead most dear,
I hold the breath of my soul to hear!
I listen as deep as fathomless hell,
As high as heaven, nor will you tell!
There must be pleasure in dying, my sweet,
To make you so placid from head to feet!
I'd tell you, darling, if I were dead
And _your_ hot tears on _my_ cheeks shed,
I'd speak, though the angel of death had laid
His sword on my lips, their accents to shade.
Not in vain should you, with streaming eyes,
Beg to know Death's chief surprise.
Oh, foolish world! Oh, precious dead!
Tho' you tell me, who will believe 'twas said?
Who will believe I heard you say
In your own dear, kind familiar way:
"I can speak now--you listen with soul alone:
To the eyes of your soul _all_ shall be shown.
In this land of infinite bliss
The utmost wonder, dear one, is this:
"I see and love and kiss you again;
I smile at your triumph over pain;
I know your heart is honest and true;
I'm a guardian angel to you!
"What a strange, delicious amusement is death!
To live without being, to breathe without breath!
I should laugh did you not cry;
Listen, dear one, love never can die!
"I am now your heaven-decked bride;
My body and not my love has died!
Dear one, _it_ lies there, I know,
Pale and silent, cold as snow.
"And you say, 'May-Bell is dead.'
Weeping o'er my silent head!
_I_ can see your falling tears,
Hear your sighs and know your fears!
"Yet I smile and whisper this:
I am not the clay you kiss;
Cease your tears and let _it_ lie,
It was mine, but 'tis not _I_!
"Dear one, what the women love
For its silent home, the grave,
Is a garment I have quit,
As a tent no longer fit.
"'Tis a cage from which, at last,
My enraptured soul has passed.
Love the _inmate_, not the _room_,
Love the _wearer_, not the _plume_!
"_Love_ my _spirit_, not the _bars_,
That kept your May-Bell from the stars;
Be wise, dear one, and quickly dry
From every tear your laden eye.
"What you place upon the bier
Is not worth a lover's tear;
'Tis an empty shell at last,
Out of which the soul has passed.
"The shell is broken, _it_ lies _there_,
But the _pearl_, the _soul_, is _here_!
'Tis an earthen jar, whose lid
God sealed when it faintly hid
"The soul He made to live on high;
The mind that did not, cannot die.
Let the dross be earth's once more,
Since the gold is in His store.
"God is glorious! God is good!
Now His word is understood!
Life's ceaseless wonder is at an end,
Yet you weep, my erring friend!
"See, the lover _you_ call dead
To immortal bliss is wed!
Loves and homes you lost, 'tis true,
To such light as shines for you.
"Yet deep in your inmost soul
You shall feel my sweet control.
I'll be with you every hour,
Commissioned by Almighty Power,
"To guard each moment of your life
As best befits your angel wife!
At night I'll linger 'round your bed,
With an angel's noiseless tread;
"And while you, slumbering, dream of me,
I'll be present, love, with thee.
Where e'er you go, where e'er you stray,
I'll be near thee night and day,
"Guarding you with zealous care,
Pointing out life's every snare,
Chasing every tear away,
Aiding every joy to stay.
"Chide you when you go astray;
Bless you when you kneel to pray;
Lead you, with an unseen hand,
To view the wonders of a land
"Where Peace and Love and Perfect Joy
Tongue cannot name, nor peace destroy!
Shall ever bless the happy band,
As radiant 'round the throne they stand!
"Once there, we'll never part again,
But _time_, and _love_ while God shall reign.
I cannot, _dare not_, say farewell;
Where I am _now_ you, too, shall dwell.
"I am gone before your face,
A moment's time, a little space.
When you come where I have stepped
You'll greatly wonder why you wept!
"You'll know by Love Eternal taught
That Heaven is _all_, that earth is naught.
I beg you not to dread sweet death;
'Tis but the first and faintest breath
"Of the life that God hath given
To fit immortal souls for heaven!
Be _certain_, darling, _all_ seems love,
Viewed from the higher courts above!
"The cares and troubles that arise
Will prove sweet blessings in disguise;
They'll waft you to a home above,
Where I'll await your coming, Love!"
_I_ heard these words and fell on the breast
Of the peerless bride that heaven had dressed.
I yearned for those blissful regions above
With heart overflowed with passionate love.
My peerless flower, tho' nipped in youth,
Perennial shall bloom in the Garden of Truth!
I see in the distance a roseleaf hand
Beckoning me on to that glorious land.
Tho' parted on earth we'll meet in the sky,
Where bliss cannot perish, and love cannot die.
Oh, bliss supernal! Oh, rapture complete,
When earth-sundered ones in glory shall meet.
For years and years I've watched in vain
To see that buried face again;
In vain I've tried, with mortal eyes,
To pierce the mysteries of the skies!
Oh, sweetheart of the days of yore,
Shall we meet on earth no more?
Shall I languish all alone
Without one sympathetic tone--
One glance of love, one word of cheer
From eyes and lips I hold so dear?
Oh, hearken to my piteous cries,
Beloved one, and forsake the skies!
Oh, listen! Earth-born mortals, see!
My angel bride has come to me!
The self-same face--divinely fair--
And heaven-set jewels decked her hair.
Her laughing eye and glowing cheek
Eternal youth and bliss bespeak;
My head is pillowed on her breast,
My brow by her dear hands caressed!
The dulcet tones of her dear voice
Bids my aching heart rejoice;
She folds me 'neath her dazzling wings,
While all the heart within me sings!
Oh, list those melting tones of love,
More soft than note of cooing dove!
Oh, hear the words her dear lips speak:
"Death, dear one, is the boon to seek!
"False are the glittering gems of earth,
Eternity's gold is the gold of worth;
One moment in heaven is worth a life
Spent on earth 'mid care and strife!
"Death is but the dawn of day,
Destroying naught save worthless clay!
The soul lives on in rapturous bliss
More perfect than a virgin kiss!
"Oh, dear one, still your haunting fears;
The love, tho' lost, of earlier years
Awaits your coming to the skies,
And o'er you watch with jealous eyes,
"Lest earth detain you till too late
To enter heaven's wide open gate.
Oh, tarry not on earth too long,
But with me join immortal's song!"
She spake, and through the vaulted sky,
Beyond the reach of mortal eye,
She wings her rapid noiseless flight
And I am left alone tonight.
Nay, not alone; for in my soul
I feel a new-born sweet control
That lures me to a higher life,
Which will please an angel wife!
Farewell, prison blight and bars,
Mine is a home beyond the stars.
Welcome, Death, at any hour,
Since sin has lost her maddening power!
[Illustration]
_ACROSTIC TRIBUTE TO
CAPT. J. S. ACHESON._
BY GEO. W. H. HARRISON.
Just consider, for one moment, all the good this man has done.
On full many a field of battle he the victory hath won;
Swept he with victorious Sherman from Atlanta to the sea,
Ever acting as a soldier, from all fear and malice free;
Proving true in every station, like a soldier tried and true,
He has earned and won the friendship of the boys who wore the blue!
Since his advent in this prison he has, with impartial mind,
Made it plain that every duty can be done and still be kind.
In his bosom rests no malice towards a single human soul;
'Tis his study, night and morning, all his passions to control.
He is willing every prisoner should become his honest _friend_,
And the prisoner's reformation he regards as _law's best trend_:
Crime, he deems is but the fruitage of conditions time can change.
He would lift his fallen brother and no rule of right derange!
Ever ready with the welcome of a smile and word of cheer,
Some may only be respected, but such men are ever dear.
O'er the path of life may Heaven scatter roses at his feet;
None will doubt that every christian shall _his_ face in heaven meet.
_MY MOTHER._
CARR.
One bright Sunday morn, as I sat in my cell,
My thoughts to the outside did roam;
The sweet songs of birds, as their notes rose and fell,
Turned my mind to my childhood's dear home.
Long years they have passed since I saw that dear spot,
But its sweet memories time can ne'er smother;
I can never forget that dear little cot
And the sweet loving smile of my mother.
In sickness or pain 'twas dear mother that brought
Her sweet self and her charms to allay it;
She learned me a prayer and she lovingly taught
Me to kneel at her knees and to say it.
God's word she would read, and impress on my mind
The love that's conveyed by that story
Of the Savior, who died that millions might find
Eternal rest in His realms of glory.
For years she's been dead, and her low, grassy mound
Reminds me that 'neath it lies sleeping
The dear friend of my youth, whose magic, I found,
Could bring smiles to my face e'en when weeping.
'Tis thus the dear birds, as they joyfully sing
And chirp happy calls to each other,
Remind me that perhaps they were sent for to bring
A message to me from my mother.
But, alas! as I think, upon my mind there quickly falls
The thoughts of my sad degredation;
The strong iron bars, and the grey, sombre walls,
Recall me to my sad situation.
But no more will I sin; I'll live upright for sure;
My passions and temptations I'll smother;
And when God calls me home to that bright shining shore
We'll be happy together, dear mother.
_A MEMORIAL ODE._
BY G. W. VAN WEIGHS.
Again the sacred day has come
When tears and flowers shall fall
On the graves of our sleeping heroes
Who died at Liberty's call.
And the tears we shed above them,
As our hearts with tenderness bled,
Is the crown of their matchless glory
And earth's divinest mead.
Their deeds on the field of battle
Were such as a god might do,
And the listening angels applauded
The work of the boys in blue.
The flag they died defending
Still floats above their grave,
And is loved by millions of freemen,
But never looked on by a slave.
The country they loved and bled for,
Still true to her sacred trust,
Will cover their names with glory
And revere their hallowed dust.
The comrades who still survive them,
Like gold in the furnace tried,
Speak, with tear-dimmed lashes,
Of the gallant boys that died.
These flowers will fade and perish,
Tho' hallowed by each grave;
But they will live forever
In the hearts of the true and the brave.
Then let this custom continue
Till tears and flowers shall cease,
And we shall greet the gallant boys
On the shores of endless peace.
_LINES TO MY CELL._
Oh, silent and mysterious cell,
Could I command thy walls to tell
The secrets they have kept so long,
'T would be, indeed, a cheerless song.
A tale of crime, and tears, and pain,
The fruit, perhaps, of frenzied brain,
As none to crime yet ever sank
That had not first become a crank.
"The law of God and man defy,
A wretch you'll live, a felon die!"
These words seem to haunt my brain,
Perhaps it is the sad refrain
Of a song well known to thee;
Yet where its author now can be,
Save thee, perhaps no one can tell,
Thou grim, mysterious, silent cell.
Thy rocky floor has felt the tread
Of many a hapless one now dead;
Thy walls have echoed many a sigh,
Wrung from guilt's expiring eye.
While musing 'mid thy walls tonight
I seem to hear, with some affright,
The wail of many a blighted life,
The prayer of a despairing wife;
A mother, weeping for her child;
A father, grief has driven wild.
And then--I pray thee silence keep;
'Twere best to let thy secrets sleep.
[Illustration]
_A TRIBUTE TO DR. G. A. THARP._
BY G. W. VAN WEIGHS.
Arise, my Muse, and tune your harp
To ring the praises of a Tharp;
His cultured mind and noble soul
Truth and virtue both control.
Tell the world his perfect skill
Can conquer every human ill
That lends to science or to art,
From shattered limb to dormant heart.
Each pill and potion that he makes
Relieves your pain and health awakes:
And should he use the surgeon's knife,
He never will sacrifice a life.
His skilfull fingers place a band
As gently as a woman's hand;
And not one patient needs to feel
That he the truth will not reveal.
The poor regard him as their friend,
And on his bounty oft depend;
Well knowing that his generous heart
Dares to act a christian part!
Long may this noble doctor live,
Ease to suffering men to give;
And meet the summons to depart
With the skill he wooes his art.
_AN APPRECIATED FRIEND._
She is a pretty little lass,
Half human, half divine;
And for an angel she would pass
In Heaven's lovely clime.
Her hair is locks of flowing gold,
Her ways are cute and wise;
And her form is lithe and graceful,
With pretty bright blue eyes.
Her manners are just perfect.
Her nature kind and true;
She is a real philanthropist
When charity is due.
She strives to cheer those sad at heart,
And well she does succeed;
And stays the ever painful dart
That often fate does speed.
How different from so many folk
Who frown upon the one
Who, by some simple words he spoke,
Caused "crime" to have been done.
Although the cruel knife of fate
Has made an awful wound,
In her kind words, that come but late,
Sweet balm for sorrow's found.
Oh, that this wicked, wicked world
Could boast more such friendly souls!
Less lives would be so sadly hurled
Into a pit of earthly ghouls,
Where nothing's saved, but all is lost;
And where man's cast, at any cost,
Into a dismal, prison dell--
A gloomy, dreary, earthly hell!
Come, of such friends arise and sing,
With thanks returned to heaven's king!
* * * * *
_SALOME'S REVENGE._
Arise, my Muse, spread out thy wings,
Prepare to soar away!
Tune up thy harp for endless joy,
And turn night into day.
Go dream of Paradise sublime
In the old Empire State!
And when you're done return to me
Your story to relate.
In time gone by--in days of yore--
There lived, in forests wild,
Two families of ancient stock,
And each one had a child.
The children of both parentage
Were born in this country;
They amassed immensely fortunes
In this America.
The Waddington's were pure Scotch blood,
And raised one daughter fair;
They gave her name of Sadie,
She'd blue eyes and golden hair.
Her cheeks were rich with crimson glow,
Her lips were thin and cute,
And many an anxious lover
She sternly did refute.
Her dainty hands and flowing hair,
And graceful curves of form
Would make one's heart quite palpitate--
She carried all by storm.
Trueman Waddington was a man
Who loved his daughter--heir,
And as he rolled in endless wealth
He watched his child's welfare.
Their nearest neighbor was St. Lawrence,
Who lived a little way
Off on the rugged mountain side,
Where children like to play.
Two children he had buried
When they were yet quite young,
And now he was a happy man
'Cause he reared an only son.
This son he named him Trueman,
Because he liked the name,
And tho't 'twould be in honor
Of his neighbor of the same.
"As an act of kindness and of love,"
Old Waddington did say,
"Because you named him after me
I pledge my Sade, today."
The two old friends called in their wives
And asked them to consent
To seal the bargain for each child
On which they were both bent.
The mothers thought it rather soon
To tie so firm a knot,
And begged them not to seal their doom
By such a foolish plot.
But Trueman Waddington was not
A man to easy quit,
And he argued long and labored strong
In a half way frenzied fit.
He said: "I know we are both rich
In lands and kine and gold,
And why not join these vast fortunes
Before they are all sold?
"You've named your only son from me;
Trueman it is, _True-Man_ he'll be,
And now must I sit by in shame
And cannot seal my daughter's fame?"
Then spake the elder man St. Lawrence:
"Dear sir, my neighbor and my friend,
You have my heart and soul and mind,
And these vast fortunes I will bind
"Together with true chords of love.
God help our children find
A part their mothers will not take
In this, to seal their children's fate.
"Now let me, please, suggest a way
To reach this matter of today;
And we will friendly make the deal
So lawyers cannot break the seal."
Then Waddington sprang to his feet,
And warmly did his neighbors greet;
Then shook him warmly by the hand,
And said, "Come, let us seal the band."
And then with fixed and mellow eye
He gazed on high as he stood by
His rugged friend and neighbor, too,
Then St. Lawrence bade him what to do.
"My dear old friend, sit down, sit down;
'Tis easy for us now to drown
All obstacles that's in our way
To carry out our plan today."
Then he proceeded to relate
How easy men in Empire State
Could call in witness to their deed
And satisfy all fortune's creed.
"Now, look-a-here, my friend St. Lawrence,
You cannot be too quick
To tell me how we'll do all this
And make this bargain stick."
And then the sage St. Lawrence did say:
"Look here, my friend, here is our way!
I'll make my will of my estate
(And that, you know, is very great,)
"Unto your fair and lovely child,
If she refrains from being wild,
And when she weds she weds my son,
My noble, brave and kind Trueman.
"Then you, my friend, reciprocate;
You make your will of this same date,
And seal as I do mine;
Make True, my son, your legatee,
"And to him give, in simple fee,
Your lands, your goods, your kine, your cash,
All in one grand and mighty crash,
If he your daughter weds."
The witnesses were duly called;
The wills were then prepared;
The testators did sign their names,
The children they well fared.
The documents were laid away
In vaults of solid rock;
There safely for the children kept,
Their heritage of stock.
Years, years rolled on and Trueman grew
To be a handsome man.
He said: "I'm bound to be "M. D."
And do the best I can."
Sadie, on the other hand,
Grew to be a queen;
And when to college she did go
Trueman there was seen.
They played at home, when they were young,
Upon the mountain side,
And never once did they mistrust
They'd be both groom and bride.
When Trueman closed his college course
He off to Gotham went,
To become an adept in his class
While on his mission bent.
Sadie, on the other hand,
When she had closed her term,
Returned unto her mountain home,
For which she hourly yearned.
Two years had changed this happy home
To one most sadly grieved;
The mother of this lovely girl
Had sadly been deceived.
She, down upon her death bed lay,
When in came Sadie one bright day
And gazed upon the shrunken form
Which now had battled life's hard storm.
Poor Sadie, with a broken heart,
She did the best to take her part;
But long the sickness did not last,
Because her mother now soon passed
From time into eternity,
Where the human soul is ever free.
Trueman now, in city fashion,
Had let die out his old-time passion
For rocks and rills and mountain side,
Where dwelt the queen who'd be his bride.
So much for selfish, erring man;
He'll do the best where e'er he can.
Time, time rolled on, when Sadie's sire,
With renewed youth and boyhood ire,
Took to himself another wife,
And tried anew to live his life.
The new-made mistress of the home
(Who had no place she called her own)
Was mother of a daughter fair,
With dimpled cheeks and flowing hair.
The madame's name was Maria;
_Her_ daughter's was Sarah.
She soon was boss of all the house,
And Sadie driven like a mouse
Into the cold and cheerless world.
Sadie, with a broken heart,
Prayed her father take her part;
But he, with proud and dire disdain,
Forever did refrain.
Then Sadie, on her mother's grave,
Prayed loud and long for God to save
Her soul from earthly wreck.
Then, with a palpitating heart,
With one fond look she did depart
To battle hard with broken heart;
While daughter and a second wife
Should all but ruin her young life.
But father did as fathers do,
When their list of wives have numbered _two_;
He lent his daughter a deaf ear,
For his second wife he then did fear.
His life was short; he soon became
A victim to a raging pain,
Which soon relieved him from this life
And bore him off from life's hard strife.
They laid him low beside his wife,
The pride and joy of Sadie's life;
But Sadie knew not of the fate
Her father had so sadly met.
The new-made widow, without tear,
Prepared to move, within a year,
To far and distant foreign land,
Where neither had a single friend.
The goods were sold, the stock and kine;
The lands were leased for a long time;
The two, with pockets filled with gold,
Sailed for Paris with joys untold.
Young Sarah, who was quite a belle,
When in old Paris she did swell
Her wardrobe with both silk and lace,
And numerous paints to ply her face.
She was the very counterpart--
Although 'tis strange to say--
Of pretty _Sadie_ Waddington
In all her dainty ways.
She spread herself around, about,
In all society's halls,
And never failed, when chance availed,
To attend the stylish balls.
She was a favorite with them all,
In fact, the Queenly Belle,
And many a suitor's prayer she heard
While on bended knee he fell.
One evening while on promenade
Within society's halls,
She met a handsome, tall young man
She'd seen at some of the balls.
When introduced, both their eyes met,
She blushing timidly;
He heard the name, "Miss Waddington,"
Then asked most courteously:
"From what part of America's soil
Do you and your friends hail?
Or have you lived in Paris long?
On what liner did you sail"?
She said: "I'm Sadie Waddington,
From the city that bears my name;
It borders on the old St. Lawrence,
A river of world-wide fame."
Then spake the handsome gentleman:
"I, too, am from that place;
And if you are Sadie Waddington,
I ought to know your face."
Her cheeks grew flushed and flushed again,
As on her he searchingly gazed;
She looked up in his solemn face
And saw he was greatly amazed.
It was Trueman St. Lawrence she saw,
As she gazed on his beautiful form;
She was more than bewitching in her ways
To capture him all by storm.
The Doctor went to his hotel
To ponder the matter o'er:
"That's not the Sadie Waddington
I've seen in days of yore."
His brain was puzzled, his face was flushed.
He was in a frenzied mood;
He could not fathom the mystery
To do the best he could.
If that's the girl in days of youth
I played with on the mountain side,
Before I leave this old city
I'll make her my darling bride.
So saying, he sank upon his couch,
And slept in dreams so rich and gay
That loud his servant called and called,
Because 'twas late--far in the day.
That day he had a trip to make
Unto a neighboring town,
And visited a hospital
Kept by a Doctor Brown.
In passing from one of the wards,
While in the open door,
He chanced to turn, and looking back
Saw, kneeling on the floor,
With outstretched arms and pleading eyes,
The girl for years he had not seen;
She'd grown into full womanhood,
She was a perfect fairy Queen.
"What! what!" he cried, "am I deceived?
If I'm my father's son
That girl I see back yonder
Is _Sadie Waddington_!"
He hastened back to where she knelt,
And bade her to arise,
And clasped her to his manly breast,
While tears rose in his eyes.
Then 'tween her sobs and moans and groans
She slowly did relate
How she was driven from her home
Back in the Empire State.
She told of awful suffering,
Of wandering far and near;
Of the death of father and mother,
To her _all_ that was dear.
She told him how she had returned
Unto her mountain dome,
And as she was told that all had been sold,
She was left without a home.
The Doctor stood transfixed with awe;
Listened to her relate
The story of the sale of all,
Back in the Empire State.
The Doctor said: "My dear Sadie,
It matters not a bit to me
Whether you have lands, or goods, or gold,
I have vast fortunes yet untold.
"What's mine is yours; 'tis always so,
My father told me long ago,
Before I left the Empire State
And came over here to study late.
"I offer you my heart and hand,
And pledge to seal it with the band
Of holy wedlock, faithfully.
Now set your heart forever free
"From labor and the toils of life,--
Come, say you'll be my darling wife!
I feel a pang about my heart
That pierces like a flashing dart."
"Oh, True. St. Lawrence! Oh, can it be
That you do really care for me?
I, who have lived by a false name
To hide a step-mother's wicked shame?
"For five long years my name has been
(As you directly would have seen),
Not Sadie W., as you have known,
But the Sadie changed to plain Salome.
"The Waddington I changed, also,
For the common name of Van Harlow;
Then among strangers I did seek
For work to do, although 'twas meek.
"I came across the ocean wide,
As servant to a new-made bride;
She was taken sick and died out here
Before she'd been a bride a year.