The Arkansas advocate., 1835-08-28

its woaied fifmness. s.It was your duty,n
 he continued. "to take the despositon of my accuseb and to act upon 1t according 10 the law, But who gave you power, who ] gave ynf right, toinsult me with yeur need sinuatons, 10 wound me with your punY
 wi? The consciousness ofthat protection
 which your station throws around you
 should have made your 1perciful. Incen- sed you by no insoienee of manner, by fio turbulence of conduct. bore your iaunts { with n1ildness: surely il would become you to distinguish between the perperator in great nlisdeeds and the offender in tritling
 ones.
 "What is the amount of my crime? I
 attempted to despoil this man of a loaf of bread. had no money--I had no friends -I had no home; butI had-God of hea- yen bear and forgive me!-I had father an aged, helpless, blind, and dying father. ealing aloud for food, and no raven of the desart to bring 1t to him. Poor old man!
 l would have pluclzed the morsel from hungry bear 10 have given thee, rather than have longer heard thy feeble wailings from
 want-rather than have still heheld thy sighaoss eyesbails rolling in their sockets. and turned towards heaven 10 mplore is l plying help!
 hat had 10 fear from man?-from
 man, who IS fsy brotherl-Gona man, whose heart should feel for misery! Three long days and three miserable nights has my ia { ther lasted. During that time has he pined ineh-moal, away. In that time he has drunk nothing but the stagnant pool, h that lime ] he has cursed his existence. During that time he has groaned beneath the bony grasp et death Stretched on the bare earth. with no shelter from the indictment skies but what tlie enahowefing trees could give him, no pillow for his head but the green turf, no covering for his wasting body but his tat tered elothes-there he lies, dark and fam ished
 1 .sl have shared his hunger-T have sha- 1 red his watchng-E have sat by him, and Ionged to hear his last sigh! Every mo- ment l expected t, and would not leave him. His cries for food evaded believ- 1 ieg. death al hand. shaddered at the thought of lengthening | wretched life a few sad hours! sat in gloomy desperation, hoping to see him expire! AYei-lool1 on
 me with horror!-I panted, thrsted to be~ l hold that wasted form stretched in the arms of deafhi For what is life to the blind, the aged, the needy, and the ailing! Who that Is thus bowed down with the infrmites of nature, and oppressed by the tyranny of
 man, would arrest the silent strides of death! Do you abhor the savage of the desart, who leaves his aged parents 10 pe- rish! He Is more nerciful than we who shut ont the grave, even when we are shot cut ffom the world and the worlds de- lights!
 s'Fixed was my gloomy purpose, and sal in horrid silence by my father leaving l in the throes of death. With the green wa ter of the stagaant pool wetted his lips as often as he called for drink when he moan- ed for food, was silent as the mole; he knew not that l was near him. IIeaft- rending was my task, and dreadfuliy fui- 1 filled 1t. When the darkness of night en- compassod the creation; when all was still ness, solemn and gloomy; thenahaye ] sat, impatienty listening to my father as he gaspedslor life! The fever's fiery fang had unstrung his joints, and he could not move: stillas he called for drink was at hand 1 but when he bade me feed him I answered j not. Vain hope! Each mornings dawn showed him to me still living, but still dy- l ingl
 'sTEle length of my trial subdned my re- solution; the energy which despair and mi sery had lent me was weakened: the iron I purpose of my heart gave way when l saw 1 my father lingering on in the pains of death, 1 yet struggling to live. When l viewed his emaeiated form still triumphing over hunger and inc fever's rage; when beheld him knawing the very earth on which he lay, to gratify the EaYenous cravings of his finnish ed stomach. my soul yearned with pity, and l left him this morning with the desperate resolve of procuring food for him, at what ever hazard. Filled with this resolution, l ipassed your door; repassed t; l hoped to interest your compassion by my looks; 1 but you had no commerce with pity. then seized the loaf and fed not hastily, or l might have escaped. was brought back. An agonizing thought of my poor fathers condition came across my mind 1 l rushed forth again, pursued by you and others. ] was deceived by that lane--f thought il led to where my father lay--ifi 1t had, and could have dropped the loaf by his side, would have turned and delivered myself Up to you without a struggle. But l 1t was otherwise ordained-and now glut your revenge. Here l am, poor, forsa-