Jasper Republican, Volume 2, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 January 1876 — Advice to an Expectant Bride. [ARTICLE]

Advice to an Expectant Bride.

Thb following letter was recently ad that the young wife died soon after her marriage. from the bash of ceremony! lam gazing upon a card and upon a name—a name There is nothing strange about that card. The maiden’sign still looks up from it, calm and customary, as it looked on many a friendly visit, as it lies in many a formal basket lam gazing, too, upon a card where the nearer parent tells the world she will be “At Home” one day; and that is nothing ne<J But there is another card, whose mingling there puts a tongue of fire into this speechless pasteboard, enameling fate on commonplace I It tells us that feeling is maturing into destiny, and that these cards are but the pale heralds of a coming crisis; when a hand that has pressed friends* hands and plucked flowers shall close down on him to whom she

are the gentlest types of • delicate and our side when others have deserted it; graves when those who should cherish have forgotten us. It seems meet to me that a past so calm and pure as yours should expire with a kindred sweetness about it; that flowers and music, kind friends and earnest words should consecrate the hour when a sentiment is passing into a Sacraifient. The three great stages of our being are the birth, the bridal and the burial. To the first we bring only weakness—for the last we have nothing but dust! But here, st-the altar, where life joins life, the pair come throbbing up to to help on in the'life-struggle of care and duly. The. beautiftil will be there, borrowing new beauty from the scene. The gay and the frivolous, they and their flounces, will look solemn for once. And youth will come to gaze on all its sacred thoughts pant for, and age will totter up .to hear the old words repeated that to the/r own lives have given the charm. Some Will weep over it as n it were a tomb, and some will laugh over it as if it were a joke; but two must stand by it, for it is fate, not fun, this everlasting locking of their lives. And now, can you, who have queened it over so many bendjng formSj Can you conM> down at last to the frugal diet of a single heart? Hitherto you have been a clock giving your time to all the world. Now yotf are a watch, buried in one particular bosom, warming only his breast, marking only his hours, and ticking only to the beat of his heart—where time and feeling shall be in unison Until there lower ties are lost in that higher wedlock where all hearts are united around the great Central Heart of all.. Hoping that calm sunshine mt? hallow your clasped hands, I sink silently Into a signature. , , ■ D, S. D.