A DREAM OF LOVE.
"Fancies, bright as flowers of Eden,
Often to his spirit come,
Winging through the mind's brief sunlight,
Glad as swallows flying home.
Love is the true heart's religion!
Let us not its power deny.
But love on as flowers love sunshine,
Or the happy birds the sky."
Frank James was an outlaw. The smooth-faced, beardless youth who
came from the school where he had pondered over the thoughts of
Euripides, who had all Greece for a monument, to unite his fortune
and venture his fate with Quantrell's band, had become a man,
bearded and strong, daring and dangerous to his fellow-men. And
the sprightly intellect that had enabled him to lead his class,
and the youthful ardor which had conjured up classic forms among
"the sacred relics of Almighty Rome," as his mental vision was
turned back through the vista of many departed centuries, were now
floundering in the muddy pools, and reveling in plots and schemes,
sordid and debasing. He was not old in years, and yet he was ripe
in experience. Year after year had chased each other down the
steeps of time since Frank James became a soldier of the highways,
a participant in the well-planned ambushment, and an executioner
in the sudden surprise and fatal catastrophe to the enemy who came
into the well-planned ambuscade, and he had witnessed unmoved the
agony of victims when shaken by the throes of death.
Could this man, whose hands were red with the crimson stains left
there by the blood of victims; whose mind was made harsh and hard
by years of struggle against organized society; whose conscience
must have become seared by the long contact with the rude, rough
elements in human nature; whose heart must have become callous by
reason of the cruel scenes through which he had passed--could such
a one have tender dreams of love? And yet we might ask, why not?
The tender affinities of affection which sprang from psychological
causes is one of the most beneficent schemes of God's benevolence,
which traverses all space in its flights, and lives the visible
token of man's divinity on earth and his hope in heaven. The hand
that would thwart them would interrupt the course of laws based on
eternal verities.
The fact is, neither time, space, conditions, nor the recognized
canons of social life, can induce or hinder the inception, growth,
or maturity of a passion, which is acknowledged to be the most
potent of all to which man is subject. Why, then, should Frank
James not be smitten? In his wanderings he had met many fair
ones. And beauty had smiled on him. But he knew that they were
unacquainted with his name and antecedents, and so he refused to be
led captive by these, whose love might turn to hate when they knew
all.
It is said by those who know Frank James, that he is endowed with
a very superior mind; that his education is very good; that he
is able to read the classics, and can converse fluently in both
the German and Spanish languages. With these accomplishments,
he possesses a handsome person and agreeable features. In
conversation, he speaks in a soft, low tone of voice, and in
private life, among his friends, his manners are pleasing, and well
calculated to produce a favorable impression. Frank has been about
the world a great deal, and has mingled in refined society not a
little. It is his custom to visit New York almost every season, and
sometimes he goes to Saratoga, Newport and Long Branch. Friends of
Frank assume that he is in many respects a superior man to Jesse;
that he has more principle, and that there is far less of the
desperado in his composition. He is cool, cautious, shrewd, and
more manly than the other, and is not so reckless nor so revengeful
in disposition.
Frank James was susceptible to the blandishments of the fair sex
in the days of his youth. In Kentucky, he came near being caught
in the silken meshes spread by a beautiful young lady of the
"Blue Grass" country, who had come to regard him as a hero, whose
adventurous career she longed to share.
But fate interposed for her sake, or against him. Frank found
it for his interest to take his departure from Kentucky, and it
was not convenient for him to return for two whole years. In the
interim, another gallant was attracted to her side, and eventually
won her affections, and the young lady was married.
A story is told, by persons who claim to know much of Frank
James' private affairs, about a love affair between that
redoubtable outlaw and an heiress in New York. She was beautiful
and accomplished, and when she met the handsome and gentlemanly
outlaw, who was not known in that character to her, she conceived
an admiration for him which was fast ripening into affection. They
rode together through the parks, and were soothed by the music of
the waves, when the twilight and shadows fell, as together they
strolled along the lonely shore. But circumstances over which she
had no control summoned her away from the side of the Western
adventurer, and they never met again.
So the years passed away, and Frank James found one being long ago
who inspired his heart with tenderer dreams of love than any which
had ever come to him before. For years the fair face, with its
shadings of glossy brown hair, and eyes of deepest azure, glancing
from beneath their long silken lashes, was imprinted on his mind
and shrined in his heart. Frank James had met her many times, and
no more touching story of woman's devotion has yet been told; than
that of the attachment of pretty Annie Ralston for Frank James,
the bold border bandit. In time to come, the writers of the romance
of the period covered by the career of the James Boys, will recall
the name of the fair girl who became the outlaw's bride, and weave
around it the choicest flowers of literature.