The Continental Monthly | Page 6

face of the earth.

BONE ORNAMENTS.
Silent the lady sat alone: In her ears were rings of dead men's bone; The
brooch on her breast shone white and fine, 'Twas the polished joint of a
Yankee's spine; And the well-carved handle of her fan, Was the
finger-bone of a Lincoln man. She turned aside a flower to cull, From a
vase which was made of a human skull; For to make her forget the loss
of her slaves, Her lovers had rifled dead men's graves. Do you think I'm
describing a witch or ghoul? There are no such things--and I'm not a
fool; Nor did she reside in Ashantee; No--the lady fair was an F.F.V.

THE MOLLY O'MOLLY PAPERS.
V.
'Hearts are trumps,' is a gambler's cant phrase. That depends on the
game you are playing. In many of the games of life the true trump cards
are Diamonds; which, according to the fortune-teller's lore, stand for

wealth. Indeed, Hearts are by many considered so valueless that they
are thrown away at the very outset; whereas they should, like trumps,
only be played as a last resort. No trick that can be won with any other
card, should be taken with a heart--the card will be gone and nothing to
show for it. If you wish wealth, win it if you can--honestly, of
course--but don't throw in the heart. Are you ambitious--would you win
honor? Very well, if for political honor you can endure it to be spit
upon by the crowd, to have all manner of abuse heaped on you and
your forbears to the remotest generation--a ceremony that in Africa
follows the election, but is 'preliminary to the crowning,' but in this
country is preliminary to the election--but if you can make up your
mind to pass through this ordeal, well and good--but don't throw in the
heart.... Yet in games on which is staked all that is worth playing for,
'hearts are trumps;' and he who holds the lowest card, stands a better
chance of winning than he who has none, though in his hand may be all
the aces of the others, diamonds included. But, lest I go too far beyond
the analogy--as I might ignorantly do, being unskilled in the many
games of cards--I will drop the figurative.... Keep your heart for faith,
love, friendship, for God, your country, and truth. And where the heart
is given, it should be unreservedly. Its allegiance is too often withheld
where it is due, yet this is better than a half-way loyalty; there should
be no if, followed by self-interest.... The seal of confederate nobles,
opposed to some measures of Peter IV. of Aragon, 'represents the king
sitting on his throne, with the confederates kneeling in a suppliant
attitude, around, to denote their loyalty and unwillingness to offend.
But in the back-ground, tents and lines of spears are discovered, as a
hint of their ability and resolution to defend themselves.' ... This kind of
allegiance no true heart will ever give.
I take it for granted that you have a heart--not merely anatomically
speaking, an organ to circulate the blood, but a something that prompts
you to love, to self-sacrifice, to scorn of meanness, and, it may be, to
good, honest hatred. All metals can be separated from their ores; but
meanness is inseparable from some natures, so it is impossible to hate
the sin without hating the sinner; we can't, indeed, conceive of it in the
abstract. I don't mean hate in a malignant sense--here I may as well
express my scorn of that sly hatred that is too cowardly to knock a man

down, but quietly trips him up.
It is well enough for those who think that 'life is a jest,' (and a bitter,
sarcastic one it must be to them,) to mock at all nobler feelings and
sentiments of the heart. None do they more contemn than friendship. I
would not 'sit in the seat' of these 'scornful,' however they may have
found false friends. Yet every man capable of a genuine friendship
himself, will in this world find at least one true friend. Oxygen, which
comprises one fifth of the atmosphere, is said to be highly magnetic;
and any ordinary, healthy soul can extract magnetism enough from the
very air he breathes to draw at least one other soul. Some people have
an amazing power of absorption and retention of this magnetism. You
feel irresistibly drawn toward them--and it is all right, for they are
noble, true souls. There is a great difference between their attractive
force and that kind of 'power of charming' innocence that villainy often
has--just as I once saw a cat charm a bird, which circled nearer and
nearer till it almost brushed the cat's whiskers--and had he not