Literary cadet, and Saturday evening bulletin. [volume] (Providence, R.I.) 1826-1827, 1827-04-14
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THE UNNATURAL FATHER


Let him groan under't long; lingcr age,
In the worst agones, and pangs Of death,
And find its case but late JAFFIER.
"Ah. hapless woman! she that's DOOMED TO beg
And sell the sa acred pleasures Of the bed;
Compelled to suit each temper TO the taste,
Scorn' d iftoo wanton--hated if too chaste."
The VICTIM.
The tale which, we shall proceed to relate, in
our feeble way. does not owe its publication to
ciden; il is not the mere eiluslon of tancy:-t is
founded on facts; facts susceptible of proof, and
and which if proved will hold an unnatural Faith
er up, TO the cxccra,ion of the world. We shall
not make any direct alluson to the-real names of
the parties concerned, since we are not disposed
TO drag them before the world, or to contaminate
our paper with the name Of one Of them-the
father, a man, who by his conduct has proved
himself dead to all the nobler feelings Of man
kind, and insC nsible to those softer emotions,
which distinguish our sex, from the brute creation.
We shall recite the tale, under of duty,
and without more ado, we proceed TO do so.
Adelaide Vllars, is the daughter, of man,
whose early life, was passed i'll pursuing menal
cmpoyments; but by assuming the rigid rules of
economy and industry, by the time he arrived to
the age of thirty, had accumulated sufficient
of this worlds goods, to place him beyond the at
tacks of poverty; though he was far from being
wealthy Some ten or fifteen years since, his
wife, ii woman of correct and viruous principles,
but like her husband, uneducated, died, leaving
behind her, an infant daughter, the heroine Of
this simple story. AS the mother breathed her
last, she fondly pressed the hand of her husband
and with her last sigh, implored him to be kind
and afIectionate to his daughter;--gave the then
infant girl dying bcnediction---fell into the
brace of death, and her pure spirit winged its
way to heaven.
For some years, the father remained single, and
Adelaide was the pride of his heart-he dotted
,,non ber, ,,afic cd fondness and tbouubt of
but little else than the dawning virtues, and well
fare of his daughter. But Adelaide, was destined
20 ince' hnri fate; and the union Of ,rc- fsthcr
to a second wife, sealed her msery--it was the
harbinger of those sorrows and suilerngs, which
we shall undertake to deineate.
The new wife, was scarcely introduced to the
dwelling of her husband, when she began to exer-
else that arbitrary authority, which step-mothers
not unfrequently assume; and Adelaide was COM
PEELED to perform the whole of the menial labours
of the family-she was literally the slave of her
tyrancal step-mother Jealous Of the attach
ment her husband manifested for his daugh-
ter, and being of opinion that all his affection be-
longed to herself alone, she began to poison his
mind with unfounded tales, impcachng the iideli-
ty of Adelaide; and rosorted TO every art and
stratag gem, 10 withdraw his affection from his
daughter, In this she was too successful, for the
husband, willing TO listen to the tales of the wife
of his second choice, conceived i'll feelings for
his daughter, and commenced treating her in
manner, which but too plainly told, that the step
mother, had gained complete mastery over him,
and withdrawn from his bosom, those emotions of
affection, which he once manifested for his nno-
cent, and much injured offspring.
Adelaide, had already reached that period OF
life, when the heart becomes susceptible of those
refined feelings, which an intercourse with the
serner sex, never fails to engender. A young
man addressed her, he offered her his hand in the
holy estate Of wedlock, and it was accepted, by
the too confding and much injured girl; who to
relieve herself from state of tyrannical thral-
dom, reoiced at the prospect of happy freedom,
and sighed for the blessed hour, when her bosom's
lord and master, would claim her his wife, and
relieve her of a load Of cares and sorrows, which
had so long oppressed her. Little dreampt she,
that the chosen one, was to be the destroyer of
her future happiness, or that he upon whom she
too fondly hung, and for whom she wept, and
whom she worshiped, was to be the betrayer of
her virgin innocence.
But alas. our future destinics are not revealed to
us; the ways of chance, are dark, uncertain and
mysterious, and aware of our danger,
we plunge down that frghtfu abyss, from which
80 there's no return. -
Adelaide, too soon found herself betrayed, and
when she thought she was approaching the haven
Of domestic bliss she woke from the delightful
dream Of fancy, to behold her own disgrace, and
weep over her own ruin.
In this sad hour of calamity, when the misguid-
ed and deceived girl needed the succour and sup
port of all who loved her, and when ruin rrepa-
rable, stalked before her, she found herself aban-
doned by ALL and left to the mercy Of an unkind
and an unfeeling world. Her growing disgrace,
escaped not the scrutinizng eye of her unfecling
step-mothor, and her moro unnatural father;--and
they reIocod, that they had now something TO
plead in mitigation oftheir conduct and abandon
ment of every christian feeling, and their every
cnobling principle.
No longer entertaining the least regard for his
offspring, and lost TO all the sensbilities of our
species, the unnatural father, pushed from his
doors the helpcs Adelaide, and bade her go, and
find an asylum among the abandoned of her sex,
and seek succour at the hands of the libortme and
the licentious rake. Covered with shame and
dsgrocc, sorrowful and heart broken, without
frierld upon tho wide world to whose friendly bo-
sem she could conidc the story Of her misfortunes,
the wrotchcd Adelaide commenced her wander
ings; and hoped for happier days, as she wopt
over her un,imely fall and disgrace. Friendless,
unnotieed and unknown, she wandered she knew
not whittier, and listed not the winds they
blew, or the tempest as it roared around her.
Feeble, ema ciated and half famishcd, the luck
less grfat last attracted the attention OF pow
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