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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 16, 1890)
WEST SHORE. 5 lis AN IDYL OF THE WEST. I sing of a sturdy frontiersman, who hod a Fine home 'midst the tall, waving pines of AUada, Just outside of Utah and into Nevada. He had a fair daughter, the pride of the prairie, With face like an angel and step like a fairy ; And the had a lover she wanted to marry. Alphonso, her lover, of course, wished to marry her, And to his hearthstone he longed for to carry her, And her sire's disapproval was the only barrier, For the youth could not cast with the wealthy his lot. Cruel poverty threw on his life a dark blot ; The gills had smiled on him, but fortune had not. Her father was rich, for he had on his hands a Large share in that great mine, that extravagania, Which, out in that region, they call the " Bonaota." But Alphonzo's manly spirit he could not be derided for ; He plucked np his courage, and her father be glided for, And he said Angelina Bhould still be provided for. He is poor, to be sure, but that need not impose a Restraint to their marriage, for ere long he knows a Good opening for him down in booming Tarcosa. But the parent was firm and said : " Young man, beware, sir I I'll not trust my daughter to any such care, sir, And your visits to this house must henceforth be scarcer." This plunged the poor lover in fathomless gloom, He vowed this decision decided bis doom, And the flower of his youth was cut off in its bloom. He prayed that the thunders of Jove might be hurled To take them both out of this miserable world, Where the banner of discord is ever unfurled. He wished in his halcyon days he had died. He'd no love and no business, and Fate would deride All his efforts he'd go and commit suicide I Oh 1 What would man do without woman to lighten His heaviest woes, his darkest hours to brighten ! Especially if it's some one that he thinks a sight on. Angelina consoled him, and moved that they flee To a justice's office and there married be. And she said: " Never fear; you'U be happy with me. " Am I not your darling, the Joy of your heart T I have plenty of money and you shall have part, And we never, no never, no niver shall part. And no one need say there is nothing to do You can go be a preacher in far Timbuctoo, Or else be a poet in Kalamaioo." Result of her counsels : Ere another day's sun His course In his chariot bad fiiirly begun The service was read and the two were made one. When this report came to the stern father's door He swore that her bills he'd endorse never more, Which left the young couple exceedingly poor. Way down in this planet's remotest confines, A thousand feet deep, where the sun never shines, They sought them a home in one of the mines. No house rent to pay in that region divine, No agent to call with malicious design ; And the young man felt proud, for be said : " It's all mine." Then their hearts were at peace ; the happy days rolled on The swift wheels of time, and the moments were golden, Like those which first came into Paradise olden. But, ere long, came a miner, let down by the ropes A keg of gunpowder on one of the slopes And, with one charge he blasted their mine and their hopes! Up, np, through the dark, murky air they ascended, Until with the limitless ether they blended- And their mission on this earth was pretty much ended. The moral is plain : Though youth hopeful and rash Is, Beware of a marriage where not any cash it. Rtquittcani in pocitm. reace to their ashes ! Q. L. Conn, mm WW ETCHINGS. A man is the loosest when he is tight. The sun must be a suspicious character to be so often spotted. Keep hope in your heart, but don't neglect to keep something to work with in your bands, In asking for many newspapers it would be quite proper to say, " Please pass the plate." Newspapers are peculiar things you found one this year and next year it can't be found. The Burlington Hawhye is said to be about to change its name to the rTceMy Cyclone .rpoti(or. Don't make the mistake of thinking that inde pendence means dependence upon the bar room of an inn. Distance lends enchantment liberally, but it takes it back with compound interest when you get there. The female bather is quite a noticeable figure on the beach this season. She seems to entirely suit everyone but herself. President Harrison is doing police duty at Cape May. He learned to " keep the crowd back " the first month after he was inaugurated, A count in Chicago not Count de Boeuf has been rawhided by a woman whose husband had pummeled him a few days before. The first whip ping evidently didn't count. There is no use looking for game if yon have no gun, and yet hundreds of men stand on the corners talking about real estate who couldn't buy enough dirt to plant a potato In. Russia is evidently trying to put her army on a war footing. She has offered $115,000 to Jacques Alexandre, the Frenchman who has just fasted forty-two days, for the secret of bis power to sus tain lite without food. Many a man has fallen into trouble by having a type writer, but it Is the type writer he did not have which ruined Captain Miltimore, who has been dismissed from the army for charging the government with a machine he never bought. The castle of Cliapultepec, that was to gal lantly captured by the Americans during the Mex ican war, has again surrendered to an American. Jay Gould has captured It with 15,000,000. Hit conscience must be bad, indeed, if he thinks such a fortress as tltat necessary for his safety. The Portland drummer who wat enumerated with hit entire family three times in Seattle and twice in Tacoma but not at all In Portland, where he lives, it anxious to know where he Is to vote next election and If he can vote as many times in each city as he appears on their census returns. Tolstoi's "Kreulter Sonata" has been de cided " indecent," and has been denied circulation through the mails. The postal authorities have passed over a mass of immoral and degrading trash to condemn a book which, though speaking plainly, is a literary classic, written by an enthu siast and for a moral purpose. Fotslbly the weak ness of censorship could not be better Illustrated thun by this incident. W.