CHARLOTTE MESSENGER.
1 VOL. I. NO. 1.
Dkub.
Mm*'j buried my love down by the ■*« ;
’’■Li Mother Earth’s cold bosom laid him;
■avy one dnmb look, in cloud the knew,
.’■And the last rite of death had paid him
jMia wind shrieks wildly round the place,
■The owl hoots high in harmonyt •
Bift-winged hawks their circles trace,
■They cannot wake my love for me.
Mis spring-tide eve I watch and wait;
Ml look far oat upon the main;
|Mie sun is shutting his golden gate,
_-®The soft dews kiss the sleeping plain.
Hat hark! There floateth the waters o’er
V A sweet, sad voice 1 know full well;
MU wa tted soft from the desolate shore
■ Where my life and heart in sorrow dwell:
BI loved thee much in life, dear Kate,
B And now in death I love thee more ;
while, forlorn, yon watch and wait,
H I send these words from a distant shore.”
m Wft ’«£e! Behold, ’tis but a dream :
■ There comes no voice from the distant shore:
Ml'it, I would ever sleep, and seem
Bn hear those whisperings o’er and >’sr.
TO THE END.
'They had not met for twenty years.
Twenty years in a man’s life, especially
Ea young man's life, is long enongh
r many things to happen ; long enongh
tor desires to have been satisfied, and
for hopes to have become certainties, so
long ago that desires and hopes are
hardly remembered as such—or long
enongh to have made life an entire fail
ure. Twenty years is long enongh for
friendships to have faded out, turned to
bitter hatreds, been forgotten, even; or
long enongh for them to have grown
(fed by memory and imagination) until
yon will look with greater love on the
stranger who, stranger he be, wears the
smile of an old-time friend on a face
which is half remembered, than upon
•> the friend you have known for half a
lifetime.
Boys together, and friends; hard
workers at Harvard together, and warmer
friqnds still; men, with lives apart.
They had not met for twenty years.
But on that clear, cold, gusty morning
. tp March, eighteen hnndred and eighty
one, they were to meet. Is there such
a thing as Fate?
One was tall, slender, nervons ; full
of life and activity; with shrewd gray
eyes, and with deep lines worn b; worry
and cut by care in his thin, pale face;
a man always in a harry, yet a 1 way a be
hind good fortune, always, a little too
late for the ohaneea that other mew took,
and by which they gained wealth ; forty;
a good man of business—who eould not
have been replaoed by his employers—
buV working oq a salary still, (and a
small one,) and likely to do so to the
end of his life. The other, forty also;
ishort, stout, slow; with fortune written
all over him, from his easy, good
aatured face down to his large, loud
gtepping feet.
Both had travelled widely —the one as
the shrewd, paid business agent of a
' wealthy firm who had had his services
for years—the other as a business ad
venturer for himself for one decade, sad
as a gentleman of leisure and fortune
(or another.
' Both bad arrived in the eity that
toorning, one from the North and the
othei from the South. Both intended
I to leave the next morning, the one going
! East and the other West. One had in
quired in the early dawn for the cheap
est hotel in the place, and be had walked
Ihe other had gone in a book to
it one. One .was walking this
g with long and hasty strides,
the west to visit a factory in the
i on business; the other was
ing south along the most fasb
avenne in the eity, intent on
’ more important than smoking
ning cigar.
was, strangely enough, thinking
ether. Active Charley Biadelev
utter, written more than eighteen
go, closely buttoned in his breast
sad siont Andrew Stowe’s name
i ms at the bottom of it. Bladeley had
• time for idleness, roaaanae or revery; |
* Vhe bad read that letter that mornfog
f tail that—and for the first time in ten
Vs. And he was thinking of “ dear
■4 Andrew” that morning all across
I” Stone was thinking of Bladeley.
CHARLOTTE, MECKLENBURG CO., N. C„ JUNE 17, 1882.
Little seeds stir with life when spring
smiles across the snow-fields which cover
them; molecular life mysteri tsly moves
in the soft iron when the -tear magnet
whispers its nearness. Why should the
daman heart be leas natural than the
seed? Why less responsive than the
iron?
A bloek too aoon for the swift—a
block too late for tba alow—and this
history had never bran written. Bnt
their lives crossed where their paths
did. Too swift or too alow seemed prob
able enongh for-the lives of any two
paths crossed in that eity that morning
—was probable enough in any other
oases—bnt was impossible for these two
men. There is such a thing as Fate.
Bladeley in his headlong rush nearly
overturned a stout gentleman just at a
street corner, made apology without
fairly halting, paused—and an instant
later two hands were clasped with a
warmth that melted the ice of twenty
years’ silence iu a moment.
“Charley! Charley! Where on earth
did you rush from ?"
“ Dear old Andrew t Who would ever
have dreamed of knocking you over in
my walk this mornirg ? ”
Bladeley had to attend to business;
Stone tad no business to attand to. 80
Stone wait with Bladeley, making the
latter gentleman later with aareral bus
iness engagements than he had been
before for yean. They talked over by
gone times with all the mast and enthu
siasm of bygone youth—aad Bladeley
smoked more cigars than his eounomical
habits had ever allowed him before in
any one daj, and batte- ones than he
had ever used.
Stone said he could give his friend a
week’s time anywhere and in any way aa
well as not, while Bladeley couldn't af
ford to lose a train. So it was arranged
that they should go East together in the
morning, instead of Stone going West.
They dined together—Bladely always
in a hurry. Stone always slow. Stone
submitted, with a protest, to being hur
ried during the afternoon when assured
that they could have the entire evening
together only on the condition that
Bladeley was allowed to rush his busi
ness first.
" I rushed enough when I was
younger,” complained Btone. “Tvs
been getting slower and slower for ten
years past What a breezy fellow you
are, Bladeley!”
It was a moat uneventful evening
which they spent together. Stone told the
story of hrs life, or thought be did, and
doubtless told it aa oompletely aa any
one oould have done under the circum
stances. Bladeley was to toll his the
next evening in another city a couple of
hundred of miles east, where business
called the business man of the two
They commenced where ♦!*» old-time
acqua ; ntauee left oil: with Stone's last
letter which Bladeley had buttoned np
in his breast pocket
“Where was I when I wrote font? In
California prospecting for gold ? Or had
I gone to Mexioo on that railroad
scheme? Or hadn't I got beak from my
trip after fore up near the Arctic Ocean
in British America ? ”
Bladeley took the letter, a thick one,
frost his pocket, aad opened it. Twenty
four hours before, be couldn’t have said
positively just what vesture his friend
was engaged in when the tetter was
written ; he hal made money in half a
dozen curious enterprises before that
time. To-night, with the memory of it
fresh in his mind from the morning
pending of it, Bladeley started Stone off
at the right peiat at ones, and the letter
waa not teed that evening.
A half hour after be had taken it from
his pocket, Bialeley put it back, but
the last page (writtap on aa odd half
sheet) flattered to the floor unno
ticed by either.
Stone’s life had b wa aa eventful one.
Canada aad California aad Mexico had
not been hia only fields of fortene. He
bad travelled aad traded in South
America, in Bosnia, iu India, in China.
“I never put my hands to anything
that wasn't a anooasa," ha said. “I
never planned a scheme that didn’t ga
through in the beat possible manner,
better always than I exported. I never
pat my name to a note which I couldn't
pay when due, to a check that wasn't
promptly honored, or to anything
whatever—important or unimportant—
that didn’t prove trne. When I’ve ex
preseed opinions, facts have borne them
ont; when I've imposed conditions,
circumstances have shown them trne
and correct; when I have made predic
tions. the fntore has made them true.
Bladeley, I am worth more than a mil
lion dollara.”
Did the reader ever meet an old friend
and talk for boon, to part later and find
bow much had been said, and yet how
little? In his chamber that evening
Bladeley thought of a thousand ques
tions he shonld ask his friend on the
morrow. He had met si man who, slow
though he was, had been almost every
where, and who would think no more of
a journey from London to China than
many a man would of a ride of a oonple
of hundred miles by rail. Where was
his home ? What wa3 he doing here ?
Where had he intended to go next ? And
while Bladeley's last drowsy thought was
as to what he would ask. Stone, was
drifting into dreamland with' his mind
fall of what he would tell nest day.
“The story was only a poor frame
work after all. Til fill it in to-morrow.”
And sleep came.
The train went early. Stone Was in
the habit of rising late. Bladeley had
been walking nervously np and down
tha sidewalk in front of the hotel for a
half hour before his friend appeared.
They were too late for breakfast; they
were too late to walk to the train ; they
might fail to reach it even by hack, for
it was nearly two miles from the hotel
to the station. Stone talked almost in
cessantly all the way. The train was in
sight when thoy arrived, and Stone was
just concluding,— -
“ 1 have as large a fortune as I wish ;
more isn’t worth trying for. I neglected
to tell you last night that I have the
loveliest of women for a wife. I've an
elegant home, congenial neighbors,
perfret servants. 1 wouldn’t say so to
anyone but yon ; for a man with no bus
iness and no ambition would be looked
down on in this rushing age of which yon
are a type; bat I have nothing left to
work for—nothing to look forward to—
no desire ungratified.”
The haok stopped. NU one had
ever oalled Charley Bladeley super
stitious, but he glanoed at .his friend
with mtieh the look he -might have
given had a ghost leered at him over his
friend's shoulder. Btone never noticed
it; he wes slowly and ponderously get
ting ont of the carriage, Bladeley,
always in a hurry and always nervous,
rushed away to attend to hia baggilge,
The nervous lines in his fsoe had deep
ened in the last few minutes, Ltone,
who was never in a hnrrv. "and one of
oie fortunate individs .is who can
travel anywhere without luggage, set
tled with the hackman, and sauntered
slowly »cross the platform. Bladeley
looked np from his talk with the bag
gage-master to follow srith a look of
anxious admiration his friend, who was
so entirely hia opposite in every respeot.
He tuned back again, and finished his
business with the agent..
There is always bustle and confusion
at a station at train time, but Bladeley
turned toward the train with hia checks
in his hand with the Impression strug
gling into prominence in his mind that
the confusion was greater this time than
usual. There ware ho.ree cries and
eommaada; a rush forward—a shrinking
bask. A tainting woman waa helped
toward the waiting-room; a pel* man
reeled against thi wall of the building.
Bladeley moved forward. Some one
raid, “Theycame together,” aad tha
crowd silently opened and let him pass
-dazed aa yet to the reason why-be
should bs given privileges in a eity
where he was a stranger. Yesterday he
had gone unwittingly to meet hia friend
for late first time iu twenty yean; now
be went to meet him for the last time in
this world. No one knew how it hap
pened. and no oaa ever found oat; bnt
four men were bringing Andrew Btone
up the track, up from under the train
where be had met hia death.' Ha sailed
at Bladeley, muttered slowly, “not
friendless here—l am lnoky—one friend
—Bladeley—tell my wife that—” and it
was all over. And Bladeley, on his
knees beside his dead friend, groaned,—
“My Ood! I felt it coming.”
No clew to Stone’s borne or family or
friends xpts found on his person
Bladeley eould give no very definite
description of the friend he had known
for only one day in the last sooreof
years ; and no one could attempt to
describe what the cruel wheels had left.
So Bladeley was the only mourner who
followed Andrew Stone to hia grave two
days later. Afterward, advertisements
were of no avail. The description was
faulty; perhaps the name was not an
uncommon one; possibly his home Was
in some distant land. At any rate, the
man who had always conquered, fate left,
no poteney to his friend after him. No
word was ever heard from the friends or
family of. Andrew Stone.
If the chambermaid who swept the
room in whioh Andrew Stone told his
all too fragmentary story of bis lifa bad
saved the scrap of paper she put in the
ash-bsrrel, Bladeley wonld have given
her more money than she had ever had
at any time in her life before. If the old
woman who took it from the ash-barrel
and kindled her fire with it had saved
it, she might have had better food than
she bad ever known.- As she watched it
slowly kindle into flame she spelfed out
the following words written on it :
• So you see, dear Bladeley, I have
made a success in this venture, and a«p
now ready to give my undivided atten
tion. aad my whole strength to the next
one, I am always looking forward;
Anticipation is sometimes more than
realization. A man who has nothing
left to work for—nothing to look for
tfard to—no desires ungratified—had
better die than live. He has ..no place
in this world of work. A quiok death,
and hia place empty forever—this
shonld be his fate. Booh a mas should
count himself lucky to have one friend
to mourn his death. Neither you nor 1
deserve anything better than this end if
we ever allow ourselves to fatisfy these
conditions. Ever yonr friend,
Pure Cistern Hater and How to Get It.
Fore water for domestic use is of great
importance. In most wells the water is
more or leas impregnated with lime, or
other mineral or earthly substance, so
that it is not so pure as rain-water.
Wells are often so deep that it is hard
drawing the water. For family use, I
wonld recommend a cistern. Most
plaoes where a well can be dug, and
where it is not so sandy as to oave, a
Distant ean be plastered with cement
without walling with brick or stone.’
When I built my house, four years ago,
I dag my cistern book of the honse
before I built the summer kitchen, so
as to have it in the kitchen. The
filterer is a small cistern, one or two
feet from tha other oistern, with a tile
for a spout to connect them. The end
of this pipe in the filterer is inqlosed by
a amall-oircular brick wall, or a double
wall of two inches eaeh, with a apace of
two inches between, whioh is filled with
pul Prized charcoal. The surface of this
filtering wall is scarcely a square yard,
and th.. nart of the roof discharging
nto the cistern is twenty-four feet by
forty. Yet it is only the moat violent
thnnder-shower that gives more than
enough water to pass through
the filterer. The main cistern is -1-
feet in diameter and twenty-four feet
deep. This gives us 000 l water all
summer—as 000 las well-water. We
drew with a chain-pump, which keeps
the air and water circulated, so that it ia
pure. I prefer to have the filterer’ out
side the main aistern, and being shallow,
it ia easily cleaned. Both cisterns are
Covered with a brisk arch. In the
aistern of six feet in diameter, the aroh
is started with a groove out in the earth
for the bottom of the aroh. The earth
holds it sufficiently from where the
cistern is plastered. Tha arch rises
three feet, leaving three feet of earth
over "ife ’
A Larky Father.
Aa Austin father complained bitterly
of the way his children destroyed their
dotting. He said :
“When I waa a boy I only had one
suit of clothes, and I had to lake oare
of it. I wai only allowed one pair o
shore a year in those days.”
There was a pause, aad then the
oldest boy spoke up and said:
" I any, dad, you have a much aaaier
time of H now—you are living with
r
W. C. SMITH. Puljlisner.
HUMOROUS.
If your husband smokes, gentle lady,
treat him as you wonld a smoking lamp.’
Don’t pat him out, but let him down
easy. , „ ' .
The jewelry befonging to the Empress
of Brazil has been stolen, whioh leads
to the snspieidn that her highness may
cointemplate going on the stage.
Mary Oleinmer says that only one girl
in five hundred can be happy as a cler
gyman’s wife.' She tried it and she
didn’t see a oirons for eleven years.
“ What is the national fishery ques
tion ? ” pompously exclaimed an orator;
and a squeaking voice in the audience
responded. “It is have yon got a
bite?”
“ Why is it,” asks the Philadelphia
Chronicle, “ we hear so much abont the
Cochin China, but nothing abont the
horse?” Ah, is it a beast o’bhirden ?
A friend of the author who had come
in jnsi at the end of the latter’s new
play—“ Oh, my desr fellow I your play
was charming, delioiotts-and so short! ”
“ I wsnt a little change,” said Mrs. B.
to her husband yesterday. “Well,’
was the heartless response, “just wait
for it. Time bringe change to every
body.”
Polydipsia is the Boston nano for
thirst. When suffering from polydipsia
the Boston man calls for spiritns fru
menti and then washes it down with
protoxide cf hydrogen.
A Western young man aged eighteen
has eloped with a woman of three score
yean. This icsthetio craze for antiqui
ties is becoming altogether too general,
and threatens to cause tronble.
It is understood that Eli Ferkras rode..
Apollo, the horse that won the Derby
at Louisville, Tuesday, In the pictures
and statues Apollo is always represented
its carrying a lyre.
ITEMS OF INTEREST.
Jidhetio coachmen and footmen wear
bntton-hole bouquets of pale yellow
jonquils and soviet tulip blossoms.
Dr. Fonhee, of Madison, Indians, waa
a radical infldal, bnt he has bean con
verted, and haa professed Christianity in
Trinity Methodist Chnroh, of that eity.
The people of (Jenera, Switzerland,
spend more money for wine than for
bread. The expenditure ia three hun
dred francs per head of the whole pop
ulation.
Young English ladies have adopted
the American onstom, and no longer
fear to walk abont London. The fash
ion was unknown twenty years ago.
Secretary Chandler finds that only
one-half of the entire navy is in fight
ing condition. By fighting condition is
evidently meant the came sort of condi
tion that Ryan was in when he fonght
with B alii van—in condition to get
lioked.
Richard King, known all over Texas
rad the West as “Tbe Cattle King.” is
a amal.,Vwa.i b y Irishman, with a limp
ing gait. Hia lameness is doe to the
careless way ia which a broken leg waa
set His flocks of sheep and goats, his
herds of cattle and hia troops of horses
and males are estimated at five hnndred
thousand. _
Missouri haa a new law forbidding
the manufacture or the sal* in that
State of any imitation-of butter, no
matter whether represented to be gen
uine or sot The oleomargarine interest
made a desperate fight in a tost case,
carrying it to the Court of Appeals, on
the question of the law’s validity. The
decision is that the prohibitory. aot ia
constitutional.
Colonel Harvey 0. Lockwood, of
Leonia, Bergen oennty, N. J., was mar
ried to Miss Francis H. Walker, and a
reception followed, where the happy
couple were congratulated by hosts of
Jbrienda. Two days later the bride was
dead, an at!ask of pneumonia laving
carried her off in a single day. Tha
bridat wreath docked the coffin, the veil
became a shroud, orange bloasrtns ware
mingled with cypress, aad ehirees were
obanged to the passing ball.