EVERY NUMBER EMBELLISHED WITH A STEEL ENGRAVING. THREE DOLLARS A YEAR. VOLUME III.] EDITED BY G. P. MORRIS AND N. P. WILLIS. NEW-YORK, SATURDAY, JUNE 1, 1844. THE SIGNAL. WITH A BEAUTIFUL STEEL ENGRAVING. PAYABLE IN ADVANCE. [NUMBER 9. walked or talked, and, as I was regarded as the life of every circle, I often returned to my own fireside wearied of aniTHE plate of this week is an illustration of the subject of mation, and but little disposed to exert my exhausted powers an Italian novelette. The conqueror of the strong-hold of of conversation to interest my wife, though I can most justone of the nobles of Normandy, makes the burning of the ly assert I always returned to her with heartfelt delight. castle and the life of its lord dependant on a favour demand-When I look back upon that period, I feel assured that she ed of the daughter of the latter by the ruthless victor. The heroine of the story has preferred death to dishonour, and the signal is given for the sack and conflagration of the castle. The life of the heroic daughter and her father is subsequently saved by her intrepidity in executing a stratagem; but besides having nothing to do with the story beyond what the artist has done, we do not rightly remember what the stratagem was. A HINT TO HUSBANDS; Alas! that I should have attributed the occasional listlessness of my manner to her "THE husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church. Therefore, as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything." Now, Christ is the governour, guide, defence, comforter, light, and very life, of the church, and such, acI now wonder at my blindness, when I retrospect the cording to the direction of the apostle, should the husband brief date of my married life! So carefully and minutely be to his wife. The world has particularly fallen into the have I since pondered its events, that my conceptions of all errour of considering the marriage covenant more binding her feelings seem to have become vividly distinct. I can upon the woman than the man. Numberless negligences well recall the light that would illumine her soft eyes when and inattentions are tolerated in him which would be deem. I answered negatively to the servant's interrogation, relative ed culpable in a woman. I do not now speak of immorali- to bringing out my horse, and the cheerful and playful temties. I presume there is but one opinion relative to them. per which made the hours, passed at home, fly so swiftly. I But I refer to those daily, almost hourly, recurring circum-should have told her this, but I did not. I can also recolstances, which call for little sacrifices of personal inclina. lect that, after a day's absence, I frequently found her spirittion or convenience, or exhibitions of interest and conside. less and melancholy on my return, but the slightest exertion ration, whose omission only renders them observable. AI made to enliven her was always effectual, so that I soon wife, palpably wanting in these, would be deemed an forgot her pensiveness; and, as she invariably answered no, anomaly; but their absence in the husband is rather admit. to the question usually proposed ere I set out on an exted than condemned. The world does not expect them from cursion, whether she had any objection to my going, I never him. The Bible teaches us, however, that their obligations connected her occasional sadness with my absence. Someare equal. "She that is married careth for the things of times, too, I would invite a female acquaintance to visit her, the world how she may please her husband." "He that is to prevent her from being lonesome; and then I would exmarried careth for the things of the world how he may perience no regret for having left her, supposing my place please his wife." One announcement is not more explicit supplied. or restrictive than the other. But, alas! for the ignorance and perversity of human nature, we sometimes see men so nervously fearful of being considered uxorious, that they withhold from their wives the common courtesies extended to other females, and publicly affect indifference, and disclaim any particular solicitude about them. They seem to regard any demonstrations of feeling, when the wife is its cbject, as unmanly. Strange, that I should have possessed so little discernment as to think, that the additional effort required to enter. tain an uninteresting guest, would enable her the better to endure her husband's absence! How wearisome must have proved the task of hospitality! Once I signified my intention of sending company to amuse her until my return from a shooting excursion, and, although her reply at the time suggested no idea to me but her preference of solitude, I have since deciphered its meandifferently. "Do you imagine," she said, faintly smiling," that any society can compensate for the loss of yours?" I was one of this description. My friends had given me a reputation for great self-control, and I was supposed to being capable of concealing all my emotions, though none who knew me well doubted the strength of my affections. I desired to sustain this equivocal reputation, as well as to avoid the raillery generally bestowed on a newly-married man for his fondness for his wife's society, so forgetful of her feelings; and, imagining her confidence in my attachment too strong to be shaken by trifling causes, I frequently absented myself from Alice for hours together, and spent my time with my bachelor associates. We rode, gunned, fished, She generally inquired at evening how I spent the day, and evinced an interest in whatever had occurred to me. My answers were usually slight and unsatisfactory, for I was never communicative on trivial subjects, and did not reflect long enough on her questions to understand, that the details were merely desirable, because connected with her husband. She gradually ceased her interrogaturies, and as it never oc curred to my mind to question her, relative to the occupations that beguiled her lonely hours, we knew but little of each other's employments when separated. I was, at the time of my marriage, practising law in the county court, but, having few cases and but little business of importance to transact, my professional engagements would certainly have admitted of my spending fewer intervals from home; yet I often made a trifling plea suffice to leave her. I wonder now that consideration for Alice had so little hold on my mind. As months went by in the same manner, varied only by a transient visit to or from our relatives, I began to observe that my wife was not so gay as formerly. Her voice, that almost infallible betrayer of the state of the feelings, sounded lower, and had taken a mournful tone. When silent, there was an expression of deep thoughtlessness about her usually placid brow. I felt uneasy, and, one morning especially, manifested my concern more tenderly than I had done before. I was surprised and startled to see the tears fill her eyes, and inquired their cause with increasing earnestness. "Your affection makes me weep," she said, when sufficiently composed to speak; "it removes the suspicion I have been entertaining of its existence." proportioned to his own, when real objects of charity were presented to her notice. Had she understood her husband's character better, and possessed more discriminating tact, she might eventually have succeeded in tempering his prodigality, without wounding his feelings or provoking a harsh judgement for her own moderation. rence. This is but one of many instances of perpetual occurWhatever militates against the happiness of the being, whose destiny is committed to our guardianship, is of moment, however trifling, in itself and our estimation, the circumstance may appear. By a parity of reasoning, whatever contributes to preserve the sunshine of the spirit, becomes important. Different dispositions require different treatment, in order to secure either improvement or felicity; hence arises the necessity of acquaintance with the moral constitution of our home associates. If it was a weakness in Alice to doubt her husband's love, because its developments were unlike her preconceived idea of what they should be, it ought to have been his greatest pleasure, as it was his highest earthly interest, to convince her of the wrong she did his heart, and thus restore to her aching breast its confidence and tranquillity together. But I seemed wrapt in a most inconceivable heedlessness. Probably, for awhile "A strange suspicion, truly," I playfully replied. "So after the intimation she had given of her distrust, my your old doubts of my sincerity are returning?" "No," she said, with her wonted sprightliness of manner, "I do not suspect your sincerity, for you never make professions now." manner towards her was more tender, for she certainly grew more cheerful; but her pensiveness soon returned. I proposed another visit to her father's, imagining change of air might benefit her. She passively yielded, but expressed no "It is because I regard them as superfluous, then. You pleasure at the anticipation. Unexpected engagements know I love you, Alice?" "How should I know it when you never tell me so?" she asked, sportively. communings. frustrated the design, and I have since thought that she apprehended being questioned by her mother relative to her dejection, and therefore was not grieved by the disappoint"Do not my actions sufficiently prove it?" I inquired. ment. After this my solicitude increased, for her health With her views of love and its evidences, and mine at evidently declined, affected by her spirits, and I spent much this present time, she might justly have answered no; but of my time at home. We rode, walked and read together, she evaded any direct response, and soon after changed the and Alice recovered her vivacity and was happy. The au subject. The few words she uttered, however, ought to tumn and winter flew by, the most delightful I had ever have enlightened my mind relative to the cause of her de- known, perhaps the most delightful she had ever known. pression; but, I did not reflect upon them, and pursued my Spring brought an accession of company to the neighbourprevious course. As I write confessedly, and entirely for hood. I was rallied on my fondness for retirement and the the benefit of married men, I must here remark, that who-society of my wife, and again Alice was left to her solitary ever desires to ensure happiness in the conjugal relation, ought to study the peculiar characteristics of those to whom they are united, and accommodate their deportment accordingly. I do not wish to be understood as recommending the toleration of flagrant fauts, although I believe even these may be corrected by judicious kindness, where mutual affection exists. But there are some weaknesses attached to all of human origin, which should be treated with indulgence and consideration. Even virtues, if not properly modified, may disagreeably conflict so as to create uneasiness. To make my meaning plain by illustration, I will add, that I have seen a man liberal even to a degree of prodigality, united to a woman, whose early education had ren-check them. dered her cautious and economical in all her expenditure, "Then do not entertain them, love. They spoil those even to excess. His love, manifesting itself characteristi- bright eyes. No man thinks his wife handsome in tears.” cally, frequently induced him to lavish on her the most costly gifts. Devoid herself of taste for such magnificence, in- || stead of receiving his donations in the spirit in which they were bestowed, and thus evidencing her appreciation of his affection, she would take them with a grave and almost reproving manner, and inopportunely animadvert on the folly of such extravagance. Her husband certainly must have felt both disappointed and indignant, and realized a keener consciousness of her parsimony and ungraciousness, than his own profusion. Yet, that woman was not a niggard, but capable of generosity I persuaded her to visit, which she was always willing to do if I was with her, but she never cared to go without me. In reply to a request from her to accompany her somewhere that I had previously urged her to visit, I one day jestingly remarked, that she must not expect me to be continually beside her. The tears started to her eyes immediately. I felt annoyed. I was in excellent spirits myself, and had no sympathy with a dejection for which I saw no cause. "Whence those tears, Alice ?" I asked, with more impatience than tenderness. They came unbidden," she answered, endeavouring to "He should, then, if they are a proof of her love for him," she said with more spirit than she was wont to display, and her tone evinced how deeply she was wounded. "He asks less distressing proof," I gaily replied, and my voice sounded even to myself discordant with the sadness of hers; " and now good-by for awhile. We part friends, do we not, Alice?" She bowed assentingly, without raising her tearful eyes, and I left her, I doubt not to weep bitterly. I returned earlier than she expected me. A flush of pleasure brightened her checks as she rose to greet me, but some unpleasant re membrance seemed to come back upon her, and I thought her salutation cold. How could it have been otherwise, when I had so heartlessly repelled her expressions of affection, and, with the hum of a mirthful tune upon my lips, so carelessly left her to a day of solitude and tears? parents believed me, what I believed myself, the most devoted of husbands. They compared me with others whom they knew, and they gained by the contrast. I accompanied my wife to her father's, and remained with her several days. My attention to her was unremitting, and when I bade her farewell, intending to return in a short time, her recovered cheerfulness made me hope that she was happy, and would soon be well. I ought to have had some explanation with her ere we parted; for, although I doubt not my devotion had proved her best medicine, and brought back those beaming smiles, which I then imagined were called forth by the scenes of her early years, the wound in her heart was dressed without being first probed; the dart was, therefore, unextracted, and left to corrode within. Hence, reflection only inflamed her suffering. At the moment of saying "adieu," she trembled excessively, but, as she did not shed tears, nor express any desire for me to defer my departure, I attributed her agitation to momentary nervousness, and thinking I left her secure of tranquillity, pursued my journey. I afterwards learned that she wept much when I had gone; and her Bible, which, since her recovery from that terrifying delirium, had been her constant companion, appeared her chief comforter. Her friends believed her depression was the effect of debility; and, happily for their peace, were never better informed. I attempted to engage her in conversation, but her replies, although polite and respectful, were brief, and her tones measured. I thought her offended without sufficient reason, and, therefore, I grew stern and indifferent. I felt, when it was too late to rectify the errour, that she imagined her exhibitions of attachment annoyed me, and hence determined to repress them. Thus, were her emotions driven in upon her heart, to congeal there. Days and weeks elapsed without any explanation. I was grave and taciturn at home, and frequently absented myself for the whole day, and when I did not, spent the hours in the fields or garden, generally, when in the house, selecting the apartment in which my wife did not happen to be. An acquaintance, of whose society I was fond, occasionally visited me, and he and I amused ourselves as we chose, without any reference to the entertainment of Alice. She neither sought nor avoided my presence, performed her customary avocations, and was quietly attentive to my comfort and wishes as usual. She looked very sad and pale, but her demeanour was calm and self-possessed. Her hours must have passed more solitary than ever. One evening, an evening I shall never forget, Important business, at this time, required my presence at although the remembrance brings anything but remorse and home, but I determined to render my stay as brief as possiwo, we were sitting alone together. The rain had been ble. I was very anxious about my wife, and, from the mofalling all day, and I had occupied myself with writing || ment of my leaving her, a weight came upon my spirits, which nearly the whole time. The gathering darkness obliged I could not shake off. I have since regarded it as a foreme to forego my employment until candlelight, and, folding boding of the misfortune which was so soon to overwhelm my arms on my breast, I sat gazing into the fire. There me. My house seemed to me very lonely, and I missed my had been no quarrel between myself and Alice, and the com- wife constantly. On the second day after my return, the mon-place remarks about the weather, roads, etc. etc. had hours were particularly wearisome. It was a dull, drizzling occasionally varied the silence of the hours. She had been Sabbath. I had not been able to attend to business, and sowing, but had put up her work. I did not notice her had not then learned the blessedness and delight of commuappearance, but heard her sigh frequently. At length shenion with God. I scarcely knew how to "lash the mo rose from her seat, came behind me, and, stroking back my ments into speed." When the evening arrived, they seemhair, clasped her hands upon my forehead. I felt that she ed to increase in tediousness. As I sat alone in my parlour, considered herself in errour, and wished to call forth some my eyes chanced to fall upon my wife's writing-desk, and, acknowledgment on my part, by this tacit movement to- merely to beguile the solitary hour, I determined to examino wards former confidence. I was in a wayward humour.its contents. Some loose papers, which seemed to have She stood thus some moments, but I took no notice; and presently said "Shall we have candles? I want to finish writing?" She rang the bell, and resumed her seat. been hastily thrown in, attracted my attention. They contained verses in the handwriting of Alice. I remembered to have heard, previous to our marriage, that she occasionally wrote poetry, but she had always playfully refused to permit me to see her productions at that time, and since our union I had never thougnt to request it. What would I not now give to recall that evening! Those dear hands never again pressed my brow! She retired soon after, observing that she was indisposed, and the next morn- The page, which first met my view, was dated, and I thus ing was in a high state of delirium. A messenger was learned that, the verses it contained, were traced about three despatched for her parents, and for many weeks they watch-months before Alice became my wife. They were executed ed with me beside her bed, expecting every day to see her in a clear, beautiful hand, and I hurriedly perused them. gentle spirit take its flight. Very slowly and gradually she grew better, and her anxious mother insisted on taking her home with her. Alice made no objection, and her physician recommended a change of scene and her native air. Strange as it must appear to the reader, that I should have been so blind, I must inform him that I never, for a single moment, connected the illness of my wife with my own de meanour. I had no sense of personal condemnation. I knew that I loved Alice more than my life, and was wholly unconscious of being other than a kind, indulgent and affectionate husband. I had, it is true, been a little vexed by her suspicions of my attachment, but her recent danger had banished from my heart every feeling unallied with pure tenderness. I was too wretched to affcet stoicism, and her There was another sheet whose record evinced, that, either MUSINGS OF AN AFFIANCED BRIDE. Ere again into autumn the summer declines, |