Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 March 1909 — IMMORTAL LOVE. [ARTICLE]

IMMORTAL LOVE.

“One of the most singular features of human nature,*' remarked the anatomist, “is the breaking up of love between two persons when one dies.” “Love does not necessarily break up in such an event,” replied the psychologist “I don’t agree with you. Love after the death of the being loved is simply memory.’’ “Cases of actual love between the sexes are very rare—one in a thousand. They are not mere memory after death; they are immortal.” “Can you give me such a case?” “Yes, one. It is the only one that has ever come to my knowledge. Listen and I will relate it. “Douglass Bissell knew the moment he set eyes on Caroline La Cour that she and he had been provided by Providence to be lovers. Miss La Cour recognized the fact at the same instant. Bissell was a young northerner who, after being graduated at college, went to New Orleans as a teacher. Miss La Cour was a creole. Their love came as a child is Dorn—that it, a perfect thing, though it grew as the child grows. It cannot be said .that it was a case of that turbulent evanescent love, which comes with extreme youth, for Bissell Was thirty years old when they met, and Miss La Cour was twentyfive. It was unalterable from. “It was the woman who was taken away. She died during one of the epidemics of yellow fever that occurred about the middle of the last century and but a few weeks before they were to have been married. Such partings—partings between beings in whom there is this real Immortal love —are terrible. Miss La Cour in all the physical agony of death resulting from that awful disease did not suffer bodily as the lover suffered in soul, and when all was over he fell into a stupor from which his friends despaired of ever awakening him. He never was again the same man. “Bissell never married. He lived alone. If he has a companion it was his wife. He told others that there was such a companionship, though . when he attempted to explain it he failed signally. He could say rather what it was not than what it was. For instance, she did not visit him. It was not one of those cases where one broods over a grave. The mortal part of his love was placed in a tomb provided for. '/But one day when he made one of his periodical visits to the tomb to see that the premises were in condition he met with a surprise. He found a man weeping before it. , “ ‘Pardon me,’ said Bissel, ‘we have a common sorrow. You must be the brother. I often heard my love spefe-k of him—he who was living in South America.’ * “‘I was not her brother. I am her lover.’ “For a few moments there was silence, during which the two men regarded each’other with a strange expression on the face of each. Then Bissell spoke: , “ ‘You say you are her lover. That is my posiyon.’ “ ‘Pardon me, it is mine.’ “ ‘Do you paean to assert that she ever loved you?’ “ ‘Stfe did. We met in Paris. She. was but eighteen. I offered her my love, and it was accepted. Circumstances which I do not care to reveal parted us.” “ ‘Strange,’ replied Bissell, half to himself, ‘that she never told me of this —affair.* “ ‘There was no affair. It was an undying love.’ “ ‘On your part, not on hers.’ “ ‘I believed she loved me always. I believes she loves me now? “Bissell carried a cane. It was one of those sword canes very much in use at that period. Taking it in both hands, he partly drew the blade, then thrust it back. “ ‘Pardon me; I forgot you are unarmed? “ “You mistake; I am armed? And the stranger drew from his own walking stick a similar blade. “ ‘Fortunately said Bissell, drawing his steel. ‘She whose mortal part lies there is mine. You dispute her pos-* session with me. Wo* cannot both have her. One must give place to the other. But, mind you, if I fall she is still mine? ‘There was a fervor in the last four words that could scarcely have been equaled had the object been a living being. “ ‘lt seems to me,’ said the stranger reflectively, ‘that we are about to fight for that which has no real existence.’ " 'Your words show that this love you speak of in your case is not real love. And she —she never considered it worth the while to speak of it to me, though perhaps she may have oonsldered your preference for her as sacred? “The words angered the stranger. His eyes flashed ominously, and he placed himself on guard. “One of the workmen in the cemetery, hearing the clasji of steel, rushed to the La Cour tomb, but only in time to see Bissell fall pteroed through the heart His antagonist was unhurt.” The speaker paused. He seemed to consider that he bad established his point “What place,” asked the anatomist, “do you give the stranger in this trio of love?” “None* at all. In a year he'waa mar-ried.”-D. Hunter Halsey.