  Mrs. Elvira (Sydnor) Miller Slaughter, the "Tatler" of The Louisville Times in the old days, and a verse-writer of considerable reputation, was born at Wytheville, Virginia, October 12, 1860. When a child Miss Miller was brought to Kentucky, as her mother had inherited money which made necessary her removal to this State in order to obtain it. She was educated at the Presentation Academy, in Louisville, by the same nuns that had instructed Mary Anderson de Navarro, the famous actress. She was subsequently gold medalist at a private finishing school, but she still clings to the Catholicism instilled at the Presentation Academy. Shortly after having left school Miss Miller published her first and only book of poems, Songs of the Heart (Louisville, 1885), with a prologue by Douglass Sherley.
THE SOUTH AND SONG [From The Midland Review (Louisville, Kentucky)] SUNDOWN LANE [From The Louisville Times] Through a little lane at sundown in the days that used to be, When the summer-time and roses lit the land, My sweetheart would come singing down that leafy way to me Oh, I threw my arms about her as we met beside the way, And her darling, curly head lay on my breast, While she told me that she loved me in her simple, girlish way, And then kisses that she gave me told the rest; For a kiss is all the language that you wish from your sweetheart, When you meet her in the gloaming there, so lonely and apart, And she set my life to music and made heaven on earth for me In that little lane at sundown in the days that used to be. Through a little lane at sundown we went walking hand in hand, 'Mid the summer-time and roses long ago, And the path that we were treading seemed to lead to fairyland, The place where happy lovers long to go; Oh, we talked about our marriage in the quiet, evening hush, And I bent to whisper love words in her ear, And her dainty pink sunbonnet was no pinker than her blush For she thought the birds and flowers all might hear; Oh, that dainty pink sunbonnet, bright in memory still it glows, It hid her smiles and blushes as the young leaves veil the rose, When she set my life to music and made heaven on earth for me, In that little lane at sundown in the days that used to be. Through a little lane at sundown I go roaming all forlorn, Though the summer-time once more smiles o'er the land, And the roses seem to ask me where their sister rose has gone With her dainty pink sunbonnet in her hand. But false friends came between us and I found out to my cost, When I learned too late her sweetness and her truth, That the love we hold the dearest is the love that we have lost, With the roses and the fairyland of youth. Now the flowers all bend above her through the long, bright summer day, And my heart grows homesick for her as she dreams the hours away, She who set my life to music and made heaven on earth for me In that little lane at sundown in the days that used to be. |
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