Chapter I: Preface

WHO among the readers of this preface has not been invited to write a few words of sentiment in the Album of a friend? As an aid to the many thousands who have received this invitation, and have not known what to write, we offer this collection of choice verse and prose, as an aid to them and all others, with the hope that our labor shall not have been spent in vain, nor be altogether unappreciated. Great care has been taken to procure as many _original pieces_ as possible. Many choice verses suitable for Birthday, Christmas and New-Year celebrations, have been added; which, with the collection of articles embracing sentiment, affection, humor, and miscellany, is offered to a generous public by

THE COMPILER.

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CONTENTS.

PAGE
DEDICATION VERSES, 5
SENTIMENT AND AFFECTION, 9
MISCELLANEOUS, 27
ESTEEM AND CONFIDENCE, 45
BIRTHDAY VERSES, 49
HUMOROUS, 53
CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR, 57

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>--DEDICATION VERSES--<

SUITABLE FOR INSCRIPTION ON TITLE PAGES OF ALBUMS.

GO forth, thou little volume,
Like Noah’s faithful dove,
And bring to darling ----
An olive leaf of love.

* * * * *

MY Album’s open! Come and see!
What! Won’t you waste a line on me?
Write but a thought, a word or two,
That Memory may revert to you.

* * * * *

TO MY FRIENDS:—

MY Album is a garden spot
Where all my friends may sow,
Where thorns and thistles flourish not,
But flowers alone may grow.
With smiles for sunshine, tears for showers,
I’ll water, watch and guard these flowers.

* * * * *

GO forth, thou little volume,
I leave thee to thy fate;
To love and friendship truly
Thy leaves I dedicate.

* * * * *

GO, Album! range the gay parterre;
From gem to gem, from flower to flower,
Select with taste and cull with care,
And bring your offering, fresh and rare,
To this sweet maiden’s bower!

* * * * *

WHEN years elapse,
It may, perhaps,
Delight us to review these scraps,
And live again ’mid scenes so gay,
That Time’s rough hand has swept away;
For when the eye, bedimmed with age,
Shall rest upon each treasured page,
Those pleasant hours
That once were ours
Shall come again, like Autumn flowers,
To bloom and smile upon us here
When all things else seem sad and drear;
’Twill tune our hearts and make them sing,
And turn our Autumn into Spring!

* * * * *

GO, little book, thy destined course pursue,
Collect memorials of the just and true,
And beg of every friend so near
Some token of remembrance dear.

* * * * *

AS life flows on from day to day,
And this, your book, soon fills,
How many may be far away
From treasured vales and hills?

But there is joy in future time
To turn the pages o’er,
And see within a name or rhyme
From one you’ll see no more.

* * * * *

LIFE is a volume,
From youth to old age,
Each year forms a chapter,
Each day is a page.
May none be more charming,
More womanly (manly) true,
Than that, pure and noble,
Sketched yearly by you.

* * * * *

MANY kind wishes will be written here,
And none more sincere than mine.
But----
Words are lighter than the cloud-foam
Of the restless ocean’s spray;
Vainer than the trembling shadow
That the next hour steals away.
By the fall of summer raindrops
Is the air as deeply stirred,
And the roseleaf that we tread on
Will outlive a word.

* * * * *

WE may write our names in Albums;
We may trace them in the sand;
We may chisel them in marble,
With a firm and skillful hand;
But the pages soon are sullied,
Soon each name will fade away;
Every monument will crumble,
Like all earthy hopes, decay.
But, dear friend, there is an Album,
Full of leaves of snowy white,
Where no name is ever tarnished,
But forever pure and bright.
In that Book of Life, God’s Album,
May your name be penned with care
And may all who here may write,
Have their names forever there.

[Decorative Bar]

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SENTIMENT and AFFECTION.

PEACE be around thee, wherever thou rovest;
May life be for thee one summer’s day;
And all that thou wish, and all that thou lovest,
Come smiling around thy summer way.
If sorrow e’er this calm should break,
May even thy tears pass off so lightly,
Like spring showers, they will only make
The smiles that follow shine more brightly.

* * * * *

MAY the chain of friendship formed by the links which are dropped here, serve to unite you more closely in spirit with the friends who have worked it.

May each link be brought to a white heat in the fires of Love; and, forged on the anvils of Truth, may they be strong as iron, yet light as air: keeping you bravely to the duties of Life. And when the chain of human bondage shall be broken, may they become flowers of eternal brightness in the gardens from whence cometh exceeding peace.

* * * * *

OUR lives are albums, written through
With good or ill—with false or true—
And, as the blessed angels turn
The pages of our years,
God grant they read the good with smiles,
And blot the bad with tears.

* * * * *

THE gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without adversity.

* * * * *

TIME advances like the slowest tide, but retreats like the swiftest current.

* * * * *

WHAT’S the use of always fretting
At the trials we shall find
Ever strewn along our pathway—
Travel on, and never mind.

* * * * *

LIFE giveth unto each his space,
A span of earth, an arch of sky,
And unto each a several grace—
To each a separate destiny.
And some were born to win and spend,
And some to love unto the end.

* * * * *

THERE is another album
Filled with leaves of spotless white,
Where no name is ever tarnished,
But forever pure and bright.
In the Book of Life—God’s album—
May your name be penned with care,
And may all who here have written,
Write their names forever there.

* * * * *

DAILY we write our autographs on the minds and hearts of those around us.

* * * * *

“POOR is the friendless master of a world. A world in purchase for a friend, is gain.”

* * * * *

SO slight a favor ’tis you crave,
That I can scarce refuse compliance;
Nor shall I use the page you gave,
To set your champions at defiance.

Dear lady, vainly awed, I praise
That dimpled hand I pressed at parting;
Or those dark eyes, beneath whose gaze
A cupid lurks equipped for darting.

Nor can I hope to lightly touch
On charms so oft the theme of lovers;
To add another, while so much
That beautiful about thee hovers.

I can but add one little pearl
To all the gems about thee scattered;
And say again, sweet, artless girl,
That all thy poets have not flattered.

* * * * *