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Article A COUNTRY RECTOR'S EASTER VISIT TO HIS RUSTIC PARISHIONERS. ← Page 4 of 4 Article THE INVISIBLE SHIELD* Page 1 of 4 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
A Country Rector's Easter Visit To His Rustic Parishioners.
the national church—no need of squabbling in the House of Commons about a parliamentary measure to educate the people . Adieu , calm monument of man ' s dishonesty , depravity , and hypocrisy ! Night gathers her sable garments around her , and I must away ! Some day we'll meet again , when I will pace thy deserted aisles , and moralize amidst thy desolation upon the past , the present , and to come . ( To be continued . )
The Invisible Shield*
THE INVISIBLE SHIELD *
BY A PAST MASTER . IN the year 183— , the writer of this was a resident in the town of K , one of the many new places then springing into existence in the luxuriant West . Some thousand inhabitants already constituted what the sanguine proprietors anticipated was but the germ of that mighty growth of population , which in a few years was to make K
a great city . Business and residence " lots" were freely bought and sold in the market , and speculation ran in a stream which had the seeming of a river of prosperity , bearing all who would embark upon it to the wide ocean of wealth , independence and luxury . —Alas ! how has the lapse of ten fleeting years dissipated the hopes then . indulged in , whelming the gay dreamers in bankruptcy and ruin 1 The paper fortunes amassed at the time I speak ofhave vanished into thin airand
, , K— - — , instead of flouting the heavens with " the gorgeous palaces " of a city , groweth rank weeds in its market-places . Its glory hath departed with the reign of speculation , and the present dwellers there no more resemble the people who founded it , than does the lonely barn-door fowl the gorgeous bird of Paradise . A glorious set were those early founders of the now quiet , town of
K ! Fashion did then , and there amongst , establish a vice-dukedom of her empire , and Pleasure busied herself in devising new ways to spur old gaffer Time along in his course over this dull and lagging world . Dance , and song , and wine , and the inspiration of woman ' s beauty , all were laid under contribution ; and for a year or two the tone of society in K went " as merry as a marriage-bell . " I cannot but sigh when I remember those " good old times , " and look upon the change which hath been
wrought in the worldly condition of those who were the principal actors therein . —Many of the gallants of those days have been metamorphosed into sober married gentlemen—the meek fathers of half scores of children , and patient delvers in the mine of life ' s realities ; some have settled down into antiquated , hopeless and subdued old bachelors ; others have emigrated to Texas , that El Dorado of the desperate and the adventurous , and become Congressmen or Indian fighters under the single-starred Republic ; others again , who were once accounted " bucks of the first water , " have gradually subsided through all the
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
A Country Rector's Easter Visit To His Rustic Parishioners.
the national church—no need of squabbling in the House of Commons about a parliamentary measure to educate the people . Adieu , calm monument of man ' s dishonesty , depravity , and hypocrisy ! Night gathers her sable garments around her , and I must away ! Some day we'll meet again , when I will pace thy deserted aisles , and moralize amidst thy desolation upon the past , the present , and to come . ( To be continued . )
The Invisible Shield*
THE INVISIBLE SHIELD *
BY A PAST MASTER . IN the year 183— , the writer of this was a resident in the town of K , one of the many new places then springing into existence in the luxuriant West . Some thousand inhabitants already constituted what the sanguine proprietors anticipated was but the germ of that mighty growth of population , which in a few years was to make K
a great city . Business and residence " lots" were freely bought and sold in the market , and speculation ran in a stream which had the seeming of a river of prosperity , bearing all who would embark upon it to the wide ocean of wealth , independence and luxury . —Alas ! how has the lapse of ten fleeting years dissipated the hopes then . indulged in , whelming the gay dreamers in bankruptcy and ruin 1 The paper fortunes amassed at the time I speak ofhave vanished into thin airand
, , K— - — , instead of flouting the heavens with " the gorgeous palaces " of a city , groweth rank weeds in its market-places . Its glory hath departed with the reign of speculation , and the present dwellers there no more resemble the people who founded it , than does the lonely barn-door fowl the gorgeous bird of Paradise . A glorious set were those early founders of the now quiet , town of
K ! Fashion did then , and there amongst , establish a vice-dukedom of her empire , and Pleasure busied herself in devising new ways to spur old gaffer Time along in his course over this dull and lagging world . Dance , and song , and wine , and the inspiration of woman ' s beauty , all were laid under contribution ; and for a year or two the tone of society in K went " as merry as a marriage-bell . " I cannot but sigh when I remember those " good old times , " and look upon the change which hath been
wrought in the worldly condition of those who were the principal actors therein . —Many of the gallants of those days have been metamorphosed into sober married gentlemen—the meek fathers of half scores of children , and patient delvers in the mine of life ' s realities ; some have settled down into antiquated , hopeless and subdued old bachelors ; others have emigrated to Texas , that El Dorado of the desperate and the adventurous , and become Congressmen or Indian fighters under the single-starred Republic ; others again , who were once accounted " bucks of the first water , " have gradually subsided through all the