Richmond palladium. [volume] (Richmond, IA [i.e. Ind.]) 1839-1854, 1839-09-21

/, listen 10 me, Larry, and believe, that though
| spake this way, [ regard you truly and if | did
not, I'd take the trouble TO tell you my mind.
Like Mick Brady's wife, who, whenever she
tbrashed him, cried over the blows,a and said thew
were all for his goed,' observed her brother slyv
| sNonsense!-Lisien to me, say, and I'd tell
you why | am resoluie. It's many long day
since going TO school, ! used to mse,-Michael
minds her too, I'm sure-an old bent woman;
| they used to call her the Witch OF Balaghton.-
| Stacy WAS, as | have said, very old entirely,
wlthered and white headed, bent near y double
with old age, and she used TO be ever and always
muddling about the streams and di,ches gather
ing herbs and plants, the girls sad to work charms
with; and at first they used to watch, rather far
off, and if they thought they had. good chance
! of escaping her tongue and the n,ues she flung
| at them, they'd call her an sfsns.s or two, aed
sometimes, old as she was, she'd make spring al
them sideways like crab, and howl, and moot,
and scream, and then they'd be off like flock
pidgeons from hawk and she'd go destur-
bing the greene ted waters with her crooked
stick, and muttering words which none, if they
heard, could understand. Stacy had been a we'll
/ reared woman, and knew dale more than any Of
US; when not tormented by the children, she
mighty well spoken. and the gentry thought
dale about her more than she did about them; for
she'd say there wasn't one in the country fit
tie her shoes, and tell them too, if they'd cal.
her any thing but Lady Stacy, which the rale
gentry of the place all humored her in but the
upstairs, who think every civil word to inferi
or is pulling down Of their dignity, would
turn up their noses they passed her, and may
be she ddn' bless them for it.
One day Mike had gone home before me, and
coming down the back bohreen, who should see
moving along it bu. Lady Stacy; and she
came, ma terlng and mumbling to herself till she
got near me, and she did, heard Master Nix
on (the dog man's*) hound IN full cry, and seen
him at her heels, and he over the hedge encoura-
Tho haoff boz 1or
soon was up with her, and then she kept him off
as well as she could with her crutch, cursing the
entire time, and was very frightened, but dar-
ted to her side, and with waffle pulled out
from the hedge, did my best to keep him off her.
{ Master Nixon cursed at me with ali his heart ::
but wasn't TO be turned off that way. Stacy
herself laid about with her staff, bu, the ugly
brute would have finished her only for me. |
don't suppose Nixon ment that, but the dog was
savage and some men, like him, delight in cruel
ty. Wei! beat the dog OIL, aud then had to
help the poor faintng woman, for she was bnih
faint s...r.-s ,.s1s,, .--..h Ike brincinp her
err, she wanted help. and I
her on the fiDor,t | thought drop 81 wh'ske'
would revive her, and accordingly, offered her
Class.t shall never forget the venom Win witch
she dashed it ON the ground.
{, ID, YOU want to poison meg she shouted, al
r. Their saving my llfe!' When she came to her
self n little, she made me sit down by her SIDE
e and king her large gray eyes upon nv face sht
G while she spoke, well as | can rememoer-
If what I'll try to tell youbnt can't tell It as sh
IS did--ihat wouldn't be in uature. Ellen, sh'
10 said, and her ewes fixed III my tace, \ wasn't a
WAYS poor lone creature, that every ruiiln wh
r. walks the country dare set his cur at ther
Id was full and plenty in my fathers house when
" was young, but before grew to womanly estate
a it's walls was bare and roohess. What made the
I'd so?--drink !-whiskey! NV father was IN deb
pu to kill thought nc tried to keep himself SO that
IN could no, think; he wanted the courage o, ms
AT to look his danger and difficulty IN the Tao
ak and overcome 1t; for Ellen mind my words, Il
Is man that vii! look debt and dagger steadily IN Il
face and resolve to overcome them, can DO :
nc He had not means, ne said, to educate his en-
TO dren as became them; he grew not to have mea
to find them their poor patient mother the pro
5 a err nccessaries of life, yet he found the inca
me to keen the whiskey cask flowing. and TO ans"
the baiIif s knocks for admission by the loud re
i've of drunkenness. mad it was wicked. In
OF got in at last: IN spite af the taken TO Ike
op. hem out. and there was much lighting. aye. a
uld blood spill but not death and while the riot
ael, a-foot and were crying round the death
- of n ,}vIno mother, where was as!-lhey
we raised ,en-gallou cask Of whiskey on the IN
in the parlor, and astrde ON it sa. <ny father'
self shing the huge pewter funnel 10 one manu.
the The black i,ck streaming with whiskey IN
fess other: amid the fumes of hot punch that fio'
nv over the room, and the cries and oaths OF
rhtv fighting drunken company, his voice was ne
that swearing he had LIVED like king, and wo
I'M DIE like king!
life .And your poor motherr ! asked.
may Thank God, she died that night-she died
fore worse came; she died on the bed that, be
tina, her corpse was cold, was dragged from unde r
through the strong drink-ihrough The bad
. tp- of him who ought to have saved her; not tina
ut was bad man either when the whlskey had
power over him, but he could not bear his
reflections And his end soon came. He d
, use die like king: he died smotherod IN a d
have where he fell; he died, and was in the presen
to be God-howe Oh. there nre things that have
whiskey as their beginning and their end,
ad in makes me as mad ever 1t made him.
man takes drop, and forgets his starving far
drop. the woman takes it, and forgeis she Is a M
make and a wife It's the curse OF lreiand-a b
face backer, deeper curse than ever was on Il D.
e;on mower or handmade laws"
con- God bless us!' was Lsrry's half-breathed
IT not ulation.
YER i onlv repea, ould Stacv's words said
svou see never forget them. you might Il
BOD in abe continued. that I had warning enoue