Welcome the Coming, Speed the Parting Guest

— There are sundry small occurrences in every-day life which so painfully epitomize the great destinies awaiting us that, to a sensitive nature, their repetition is apt to cause brooding, if not misgiving. Take the simple act of courtesy known as seeing our friends off, say even for a short and probably uneventful journey. Many even of our most fervent well - wishers, having opened the door, watched with reasonable solicitude our descent of the piazza steps, and bidden us Godspeed, will turn quickly around and close the door before we have gone twenty steps. Frequent as this experience has been in the course of a lifetime, — of daily recurrence, in fact, in some situations, — I have never passed through it without a sinking of the heart. Although not inclined to he “ sentimental,” but strongly predisposed to hardy and cheerful views of life, the incident mentioned never fails to recall a certain gruesome analogy regarding departures in general, and including the last one.

AS I WENT FORTH.

Once a sturdy soldier of the Irish brigade, who bore upon his broad chest two medals, having experienced with evident pain an instance of this sort of unsatisfied leave-taking, crossed himself devoutly, and relieved his mind by uttering the following proverbial ejaculation : “ Let every one live as long as he can — after this ! ” The poor fellow was on his way to the front, never to return.

And yet simple justice requires of us the admission that the manner of leave-taking may be wholly a matter of breeding. The strict observance of all rules of sympathetic etiquette, as illustrated in that melting line of the poet Moore,

is in great part a matter of habit, whether of the mind or of the emotions, and, being such, must be considered as racial in its manifestations. The omission of such tearful ceremonial would produce upon an emotional race the effect of heartlessness, whereas to the self-contained Saxon the exhibition of such secondary feeling as distress for the sorrows of others would savor of affectation, as in the dictum of their own bard: —

And thus the Saxon prefers to prove his sympathy by deeds, unmindful of the fact that, to suffering Celt or Latin, words are in themselves deeds, and oftentimes something more.

Now as to the welcoming of the guest. English literature abounds in allusions to tliis pleasant experience, from the “ watchdog’s honest bark ” to the promises made in Watts’s hymns,— promises made to our childhood, and never so dear as when, towards tlie close of life, the prospect of fulfillment lies before us : —

There are some persons so eager to welcome the coming guest as to charter a tug and go down the bay with a brass band. But in this case the coming guest is too often, I fear, a politician with much in his gift; therefore, these attentions, these graces, are held to savor of that gratitude which is a “ lively sense of benefits to come.” I have also known people to remain on the expectant wharf through a cold winter’s night, so as to he sure of their own punctuality when the wished-for vessel arrived. These were relations and dear friends. I have known a boy so worn with watching for the steamer which was to bring his mother as to cause almost mortal illness to the watcher. But it is seldom that this “unbought grace of life,” as shown in human longing and human welcome, is subjected to tragical issues. More often, perhaps, than in any other of the minor experiences of life it is the mission solely of joy ; and those do lose much of this life’s happiness who neglect to exhibit or who fail to inspire the outward act of welcoming. The most lovable characteristic of the canine species is, I think, the one already instanced in our quotation from Byron. Dogs have their individual traits, like other people (for they insist upon our regarding them as human beings, members of our family). They show their intellectual perceptions by forsaking their own kind to dwell with us. They partake of our food and lodging as far as permitted. They literally rejoice with us when the sun shines, and they sadden with us when the rain falls. But not all the heart-breaking pathos of a puppy’s gelatinous helplessness, not all the sagacity that guards our portals, brings these creatures so near to us as does the joyous wiggle-waggle of canine welcome when we draw near home. The dog may not be able to teach us morals, but he can teach us manners.