Show John E Rewslmrgr the Grave of His Child i 3fy Friends Custom decrees tat at i the grave a word b spoken and straggling i strag-gling against the pangs o this deep woe = I I have summoned courage to perform the task I shall be brief for in an hour like this words at their best are little more than mockerv sound as hollow as the casket clods that soon will fall upon this little It seems doubly sad that on the firs day of spring just a the flowers are getting ready to bud aed blossom our tiny bud should droop and die Yet here he lies withered and dead On Tuesday evening while many mile away a letter reached me stating tHa our pretty babe was sick and very sick But it had been written four days before and a the wires brought fresh tidings I believed that ho was better Yesterday morning I was seated at a table penning a word of cheer to his dear mothertellini her that in a week I would be at home again The thought filled me with joy and in a dream of fancy I saw our darling running to meet me at the door ready to climb into my arms when on the wings of lightning came with staggering force the cruel message Gene is dead deadI is ever so when least expecting i i we stand face td face with Death At dawn at midday as well as at lifes eve he comes His icy fingers dally with youths golden curls as oft a with the silver locks of age The patriarch lies down in his last sleep with bleeding hearts beside his shriveled corpse we place the dimpled babe and then anon blinded with scalding tears bend over the mute form of a companion fallen in the very noon of life l have witnessed wit-nessed this grim monarchs wort have felt the bitterness his presence brings I Oursad experience today was yesterday yester-day your own Within these gates you too have stood as mournershave been called upon to deposit on this sunny slope some loved one I need not tel you that in your hours of grief you had < our unfeigned sympathy I know that we receive yours now and this will make the burden of our sorrow less Dear Gene less than a month ago upon that cheek then warm with life I pressed a parents loving kiss and said goodbye And now upon the cold and pallid lips of my dead child I print a last fond kiss and say farewell |