Martinsburg gazette. [volume] (Martinsburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1833-1855, 1836-10-06
M O L NJ x.
From the Passion Flower.
THE VISIT.

Climate, a young physician but lately
married, invited his wife to accompa.
ny him on a visit to one of his patients.
You are romancing, James !;
what! visit a family without an intro.
ductlon or an invitation, or cxchang.
ging cardsf"
"ln this family, my dear Amanda,
there is no ceremony of cards." said
James, I" but they will not be the less
pleased to see you."
never used to 60 to see poor peo-
ple," said Amanda thoughtfully "but
continued she, after a short delibera-
ton, "Tll go with you James any
where"
They passed from the handsome
street of their residence TO a public
square, and crossing over entered a
small alley, in which Amanda saw a
row of houses built in a menner that
showed they were for the laboring class
Crossing the whole range, they erter.
ed the last house. and at the first door
DIR. Ledon gave a gentle rap. A com.
mon looking woman opened it and
welcomed him.
Two chairs were Immediately set,
n with the back broken of, the 9th.
er ricketty and unstable.
Before the fire were two little chill.
drcn seated on the hearth, making a
noise which the attendant female vain.
ly endeavored 10 quell. A girl about
ten years of age came out of a small
paltry bedroom, and smiled as she
spoke.
In a large rude chair sat a thin fe.
male. She looked up when DR.. Le-
don addressed her, but neither smiled
nor spoke. Her complexion was sal.
low by illness, her lower jaw had fal.
len from its socket, and her teeth chat.
tered with the vain endeavor to close
her mouth.
At receiving some nourishment from
the hand of her companion, she seemed
revived.
Pm glad to see you doctor, though /
hoped to be released from wretchedness
before now. do not complain, but
my bones have started through the skin
and | suffer. "-she shivered and stop.
ped an instant ; 81 thought it very
hard when | lost my baby last summer,
but | see it was kind-what would be-
come of it now? must leave these,
young enough, TO take care of them.
selves, and my husband is none of the
StudaeSt."
She did not weep, she was past that
human feeling. Amanda looked on in
silence. She had learned more of life's
state from the scene than she could
have acquired from volumes. She felt
now a wiser woman at eighteen, than
she otherwise would have been at
twenty-five.
1t brings down all our vanity and
little repinings, to behold a spectacle of
such woe. Even the almost total in.
sensibility Of the sick, was more tou-
ching than ordinary sorrow. 1t gave
a feeling of so much that must have
been endured before.
SIS this your sister Z" said the wo-
man.
"No," said James, and Amanda smi.
led as he said it is my wife,"
"Isit your wife I" said she, showing
some vivacity. elbow pretty she
looks. Can she sing, 81 would not
| live always?"'
How often had Amanda sung that
carelessly before. She felt awed and
humbled now by every syllable that
| hoated on her soft rich tones around
the narrow apartment.
The dying looked up SO thankfully
that she even looked pretty. A slight
hectic relieved her livid c~ountenance
-she said audibly, al hear the angels
| singing around" and then ~relapsed in
/ o a monotonous groan of WEAKNESS.
The little girl shook hands beseech-
ingly as the young couple left, and in
a subdued voice, Amanda whispered,
I" we will take care of you"
Who, like a physician, save a min
lister, is called upon to see human ma
ture in every shadow of a tint? The
rich and the poor, the delicate and the
coarse, the learned and the ignorant,
come before him without disguise.
Amanda thought before that she had
loved her husband ; but luxury is a
Dead Sea atmosphere, in which the no.
Bile passions sicken and render life mo-
tioniess. She chung to James arm ashe
returned home, with a feeling OF devo-
ton 70 him that she had never imagin-
ed before, and in the pleasures she ex.
perienced, in softening the horrors OF
her fellow creatures poverty, she
found new cause to rejoice in having
shared her fortune with n who, If
he brought her no share of earth's
wealth, had taught her that there is a
way Of EMPLOYING il that will awaken