Constitutional Whig. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1824-1832, 1827-07-21


THE INTEMPERATE HUSBAND.
t.cm Mr.. Charles Sprague's Address, delivered be-
fore the Massachusetts Society for suppressing
lntemperauce.
The common calamiiies OF life may be endured.-
Poverty, sickness. and even death may he met-but
there is that which, while il brings all these with It.
worse than all these together. When the husband and
father orgets the duties me delighted fulfill and
By slow degrees becomes the creature Contemporaries
there enters into his house tho that rends the
sbirit-that cannot be ai!egiatad, that will not be
comfortei.
1t is here, abovc all, where she, who has yenturei
every thing. feels that every thing is lost. Woman
silent suffering, devoted woman here bends 10 her
dircst atiicton The of her wo is drunkard
Who shall protect her when he is her usultcr, her OPP
pressoi? What shall delight her, when she shrinks
from the sight Of his face, aud renbles the sound
Of his voice: The hearth is indeed dark that he mas
made desoate There through the dull midnight hour
her gries whispered TO herself her bruised heart
bleeds There, while the cruel author of her
distress drowned in distant revelry, she holds her sol
ary vigil, waiting, yet deading his return, that will
wiring from her by his blindness, tears even more
scaidng than those She sheds his transgression.
! To fling deeper gloom the present, mem
DRY turns back. and hroods upon the past. Like the
recollection ofthe sun-sricken pilgrim, of the cool
spring that lie drank at in the morning. the Joys of
other days come over her, as ii only 70 mock her rac
Ell and weary SPIRIT She recalls the ardent lover,
whose graces ron her til home fher iDancytie
enrapured father who bent with such delight er his
new born chidrea-and she asks il this really be
hlI--tnS sunNeD OeiNB. VINO has nOiV nothing
bnt The soi's disgusting Notwithstanding for those
abashed and trembling children but The sots disgusting
example. Can wonder, that amid these agonizinr
moments the tender cords OF violated affection should
snap asundeT that the scnrD aud deserted life should
confess, ''the:e is killing like That which kills
the heart" that though il oUld have been han for her
to kiss for tue last tine the cold lips of her dead hus
band, and lay his body for in the dust harder
to behold him tebaed in iiie that even his death
would be greeted in mercy? Had he died in the LIGHT
OF his goodness, beTueaiUg to his family the inEcr
ta1Ce of unarnIsed name, the example of virtues
that should blossom for his and daughters from
| the tomb-thougb she would have wept bitterly in
ee the OF grief WO;iId have been the tears
OF shame. But TO behold him, fallen away from the
station he adorned, degraded from emnence TO
igpomny--at home turning his dwelling to darkness
and its holy endcarmcnts to noclsery-abroad thrust
from the companionshp OF the worthy, self branded
outiaw--lhs is the that the wife feels is more
dreadful than death-that she niourUs over, worse
tiian wiCowhCod!
Tie TliamperG!e FsDsae.-There is vet another pic
turc behind from the exhibition Of which / would
willingly be spared.
have ycDturcd to port 10 tiio5c who daily force
themselves before tie world, but there is one whom
the word does not know of-who hides herself from
pTyiBT eyes, in the inneTmcst sanctuary of
her domestic temple. Shall dare 10 rcud the veil
that hangs between, and draw her forth'thc piestess
dying amid her UnhoiY rEes-the sacriGCer and the
sacrifice? o. compass and land, we brave danger
and death, to snatch the poor victim Of heather SUI
pers!itioD from the burning piie-And it is weI-but
shall we rot also save TIC ;OTeiy ones OF own
household, from immOlatinT this foul altar not ONLY
he Perishing body. bat all the s7orshipped graces of
her seZ-lhc glorious attributes Of halowed woman
mood!
Inagnatior'5 e!oomost rcycre never conceived a
more revolving object, tlan tat of wife and mother
dcHing IN her own person. the faire5t work Of God,
and setting al DaUght the holy gemenls for which
he created her. Her husbaud-w WHO shall heiebt,u
his Joys and disspac his cares and alleviate bis sor.
rows She who has robbed him Of all Joy no is the
of hsdeepes 40 lives his sharpes sorrow
These indeed the wife'5 dsghts-but they are not
hers. Her children, who shall watch over their
budding virtues, and pluck up the young weeds
Of passion and vice. She, in whose own bosom
every thing vile grows rank Who shall teach them
I 10 bcud their little knees I'D doYo'ion, and repeat
their Sayiour's prayer against 'tc.nptatioDs' She
who is herself temptations fecrcd slave These are
! truly the mothers labours-but they are not hers
Conuubal love and maternal tenderness bloom no
! longer for her. 3 worm has rnawed INTO her heart
that dies only with its Prey-thc worm ialc0gcrlnce