The Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, S.C.) 1836-1851, 1840-02-01

him at her heels, and he over the hedge
encouraging the baste to tear her in pieces.
The dog soon was up with her, and then
she kept him otf as well as she could with
ner crutch, cursing the entire time, ard |
was very frightened, but ! darted to her
siee, aid, with a waffle pulled out Of the
hedge, did my best to keep him off her.
Master Nixon cursed at me with all his
heart, but | wn'nt to is turned of that
way. Stacy, herself, laid about with her
staff, but the ugly brute would have !::!rish-
cd her, cnly for me. | don't suppose Nix
pn :aeant that, but the dog was savage,
and some men like him, delight in cr-:e:ts.
We'll, beat the dog off; and then had
to he Ip the poor fainting woman, for she
was both faint and hurt. | didn't much
like bringing her here, for the people said
she wasn't lucky; however, she wanted
help, and l gave it. When | got her on
the noor.t | thought a drop Of wh!skey
would revive her, and, accordingly, ] offer
ed her glass. | shall never forget the
venom with which she dashed. it on the
ground.
DO yon want to poiso', me- she shout
led, 'alther saving my llfeP When she
came to herself little, she made me sit
down by her side, and fixing her large grey
eyes upon my face, she kept rocking her
body backwards and forwards, while she
spoke, as well as | can remember-what
III try to tell you-but can't tell it as she
did-that wouldn't be in nature. Ellen
she said, and her eyes fixed in my face, Il
wasn't always poor lone creature, that
every ruffian who walks the country dare
set his cur at. There was full and plenty
in my fathers house when | was young,
but before I grew to womauiy estate, its
walls were bare and roohess. Whatmade
them so! drink! whiskey! NY father was
in debt; to kill thought, he tried to keep
himself 50 that he could not think: he
wanted the courage of man to look his
danger and difficulty in the face, and over
come it; for, Ellen, mind my words, the
man that will look debt and danger s.aad!-
n n the face, and resolve to overcome
them, can do so. He had not means, he
said. to educate his children as became
them: he grew not to have means to find
them or their poor patient mother the pro-
per necessaries of life, yet he found the
means to keep the whiskey cask flowing,
and to answer the bailitfs' knocks for adj
mission by the loud roar of drunkenness,
mad, as it was wicked. They got in at
las, in spite of the care taken to keep them
out, and there was much fighting, ay, and
blood split, but not to death; and while
the riot was a-foot, and we were crying
round the dcath-bed of a dying mother,
where was he they had raised a ten
gallon cask of wh;skey on the table in the
parlour, and astride on it sat my father,
flourishing the huge pewter funnel in one
hand, and the black jack streaming with
whiskey in the other; and amid the fumes
of hot punch that flowed over the room,
and the cries and oaths of the fighting
drunken company, his voice was heard
swearing she had lived like a king, and
would die like kingp'
THANK God !! she died that night-she
died before worse came, she died on the
bed that, before her corpse was cold, was
dragged from under her-through the
strong drink-t through the badness of him
who ought to have saved her; not that he
was bad man either, when the whiskey
had no power over him, but he could not
bear his own reflections. And his end
soon came. He didn't die like king; he
died smothered in a ditch, where he fell;
he died, and was in the presence of God
how? Oh, there are things that have
had whiskey as their beginning and their
end, that make me as mad as ever it made
him The man takes drop, and forgets
his starving family; the woman takes it,
and forgcts she is mother and wife.
It's the curse of Ireland-a bitterer, black
or, deeper curse than ever was put on it
By torci ign power or handmade lawsF"
"God bless usp was sLary's halC-breath-
ed ejaculation.
Il only repeat ould stacy's words" said
Ellen; "you see l never forgot them.
You might Think she continued, that l
L,I o,,,,oL +o l-oo,, mo from, bay