Texas Mining and Trade Journal, Volume 3, Number 11, Saturday, October 1, 1898 Page: 10
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10
TEXAS MINING AND TRADE JOURNAL.
%{ A DREAM WtTHiN A DREAM. ^
'H
AS TOLD BY ROBERT RANDOLPH IN A LETTER TO H!S
SWEETHEART.
pursuits I loved best. By day I hunted or cast my Hy into the
shadows of the river hard by my house. At night, tired with the
day's climbing, I slept the sleep of him who knows no past, who
looks forward to naught but the morrow. I had nothing to re-
gret and asked for nothing save what the day brought forth—the
blue sky, the hills, and the cove, the woods and the valley. My
dogs were my only companions; with them I was content. In-
^ deed, I do not know that I had ever wished for other compan-
ionship.
"Years, I know not how many, of this existence had passed
when, one evening, after I had eaten supper, and had drawn mv
stool into the doorway, wher^ I sat smoking, there appeared be-
fore me a woman. I believe I did not evince any surprise at her
— ^ appearance; why, I do not know. I had certainly never seen a
/T Y DEAREST EvALINE: woman before, nor other human beings, save an occasional ned-
\/j 'On this night of all nights I should like tobewith dler, with whom I exchanged pelts for my supplies of nowder
you. Oh, how lonesome I am! And yet it seems and coffee. Nor did I wonder when I realized that she had Tint
scarce an hour since I held your dear hand in mine, white you come up by the path, nor from behind me nor vet throue-h the
looked into my face and said: 'Yes, Rob., the light you see there tree tops. She simply appeared before me in substance- not
the light you see in my eyes—does, indeed, tell you that I love gradually, as a spirit might be evolved from the mist in -i rav r-f
yn
46
1001 SPRUCE STREET, Dec. 25, 18-
Y DEAREST Ev ALINE:
hand
over
have
face.
you, and if you are as sure of your love as I am of mine, I shall
marry you gladly.'
"As I sit here before my fire, gazing into the flames, among
the thousand images conjured up therein I see your sweet face
smiling up at me. I smile in return. You seem to come out of
the flames to nestle in my arms. Your heart throbs against my
breast. I can feel your warm lips against mine. In imagination,
I brush away your golden hair, which has fallen over my tem-
ples. I incline my head to receive the gentle caress of your
I inhale, over and
again, the air you
breathed into my
It intoxicates me,
and every fibre of my be-
ing responds to the stim-
ulus, each becoming a
tensely strung chord up-
on which is played an in-
finite tune, the eternal
refrain of which is: 'I
love you! I love you! I
love you!' Enraptured,
I gaze at you and ex-
claim: 'Oh, Evaline! Ev-
aline! I wonder if aught
can happen to efface
your image from my
memory? Shall any act
of mine turn that smile
into a frown?' No! No!
I thought and then, for
very happiness, the tears
welled into my eyes,
and I fell asleep, and
dreampt—dreampt of a
lifetime, within a single
moment.
"I dreampt that my
home was among the
mountains. My house, a
single room, was built of
logs, rough hewn from
the ash tree and the oak.
About the door the lau-
rel and the azaleas grew
in wildest profusion. Be-
hind the house the hills
arose until their hazy
summits seemed lost in
the azure of the firma-
ment. In front, the river
flowed, its waters gliding
by with a gentle, swishing sound.
Like a salve to the spirit, restless and weary;
io ease and to soothe me, !o lull me to sleep.
"Beyond the river lay the rolling valley, the green and red of
its fertile fields, ending with a blending with the gorgeous blue
and gold of the horizon.
"Inside my house were hung the trophies of the chase. Over
each of the two windows was fastened the head of a magnificent
buck. Hanging upon pegs, driven here and there in the walls,
were various firearms—a tremenduous brass-mounted squirrel
rifle, the barrel weighing, perhaps, forty pounds; a double bar-
reled deer-gun, so long that I could hardly reach my fingers to
the muzzle when the piece stood upon its stock. Powder flasks,
shot pouches, bullet moulds, and the other paraphanalia of a
huntsman's den were everywhere in evidence. The floor was
carpeted with untanned skins of the deer, the bear, and the fox.
All about there was an air of ease and crude comfort which ap-
pealed most gently to my love of quiet and solitude.
"How it happened that?I should be in this place my dream did
not reveal. I recollected only that I found myself, one day, sit-
ting at the table partaking of a meal of my own preparing. Corn
bread, milk, and butter, and a tender steak of venison was my
fare. When I had finished eating I divided the plentiful remains
of my repast among half a score of deer hounds, over which no
question of ownership seemed to trouble me.
"How I came here, I say, I do not know. What my life had
been before was as an unopened book. I knew only that I was
perfectly satisfied with my lot. My time was occupied by the
COLONEL JAMES A. SEXTON.
The new head of the Grand Army of the Republic has an excellent record sa a
soldier. Colonel James A. Sexton was only 17 years of age when he enlisted for service
in the civil war, throughout which he served with gallantry and great credit to himself.
He resides in Chicago.
the moon's light. She was dressed in a material and in a manner
I had, of course, never seen. To the fawn—the most graceful
thing I knew—I compared her figure. Her step was like the fall
of the thistle down upon a bed of moss. Her smile was more
radiant than the sunlight through a rift in the clouds. Of her
whole face I cannot tell. To me, 'twas beyond the power of
thought's expression—more beautiful than all the loveliness Na-
ture had ever shown me. It seemed perfectly natural that I
should arise to bid her welcome, whe", in a voice sweeter than
the murmur of the rip-
ling brook, she asked:
" 'May I obtain shelter
here!'
"My reply was deliv-
ered without embarass-
ment, when I said:
"'Certainly, Madam;
my home is your own as
long as you may honor
it.'
"It had not occurred to
me that I should wonder
at her appearance. It
did not occur to me now
that I should not expect
her to share my single
room with me.
"We entered together,
and sat before the fire—
the night was cool—she
upon my stool and I up-
on a bear skin at her feet.
"Meantime I thought
no more of whence she
had come than did I of
whence I myself had
come.
"Thus, when she offer-
ed me no expiation I ex-
pected none. So uncon-
cerned was she, so un-
conscious of the unusual
situation—as I look back
upon it now—I can only
judge that, like myself,
she first knew herself at
my door; that she real-
ized her own existence
only at that moment;
and thus, like myself
again, she knew no past,
and looked not into the
future. We talked of the things which had always interested
me—the only things I knew—of the mountains and the valley
and the little world encompassed by them. Our conversation
was but a poetical rendering of what we saw in our mind's eye.
"Finally, when she became wearied with talking, she laid upon
a bed of furs and fell asleep.
"For hours I sat and gazed intently upon her face. About her
brow the firelight sent a halo of brightness, and this, reflecting
its beams upon her face, lent to it an expression seraphic. One
hand, thrown across her bosom, rose and fell with the gentle
breathing; the other lay entangled in a wealth of brown hair
beneath her head.
"Gazing upon her thus, I say. I became fascinated. There
surged through me a feeling unknown, wonderful, and yet
withal, so delicious that that my whole being quivered with
gratitude. Like a magnet to the pole was I drawn to the cause
of it—this woman whom I had known but an hour. Kneeling by
her side I took one hand in mine, and, drunk with the love
which I now knew had come upon me, I kissed her full upon the
lips. Asleep, yet she smiled. I buried my face in her hair my
lips in the palm beneath her head. In long, sweet draughts I
inhaled the delicious perfume.
"Is this a dream? thought I. My God! Thou hast kept so
long from me this, the secret of human bliss; wilt Thou, when
Thou hast permitted me to taste of it, snatch away the lucious
cup from my lips? And then I dreampt that I fell asleep, and
dreampt that I awoke with a start. That the woman whom I
loved was still at my side, and looking upon her face I saw you
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Rose, John R. Texas Mining and Trade Journal, Volume 3, Number 11, Saturday, October 1, 1898, newspaper, October 1, 1898; Thurber, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth200544/m1/10/: accessed April 20, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Tarleton State University.