The Ohio Democrat. [volume] (Canal Dover, Ohio) 1840-1900, 1841-09-16
From the Southern Literary Messenger.
THE DRUNKARD'S WIFE.
BY EIieu Burritt;--the Leaned Blacksmith

SuHIhCNo'p WHN'u Iho NU0 llgn OI ulHIHn BIdTSt
are ye, the eye OF nan, and operate upon hu-
man society. Ever since the image of the
Godhead was first sketched IN Eden, its great
Author and angels have been painting upon it;
infuences, like the incessant breath of Heav-
en-, have left each it's line upon the canvass;
siIl the flashing stroke Of the pencil will not
be accomplished until the last lingering surviv.
or Of "the wreck Of matter and the crush Of
worlds" sis changed in the lwinklnR Of aa
eye"
The hemisphere Of the present age s stud
ded all over with such pearls sand palnes Of
bright gold" az never shone before in the
heavens of the human soul In these latter
days, the waves OF time have washed up from
depths that angels never fathomed, "gems of
purer light serene" than were ever worn be-
fore IN the crown of man. We are now but
half way advanced in a new cycle of human
history. The race is but just emerging from
the long-reachng shadows of an iron age, and
coming out into the starlight and sunlight Of
new Influences. If, as we are assured, scores
OF new stars have taken rank with the heav-
enly hosts, during the last two centuries, stars
brighter than they have, 10 the same period,
kindled up new lights in the moral armament.
Among these news stars, one a little lower
than that of Bethlehem, had Just appeared
above the horizon. 1t lie the Star of Woman's
Influence. Influential Woman is a being of
scarcely two centuries; up to that period, and
almost hitherto, her influences have fallen up
on human character end society, like the fec
BILE rays Of a rising winters sun upon polar
fields Of ice. But her sunsis reaching upward.
There is glorious meridian TO which she
shall as surely come as tormorrow's rising
sun ehall reach his in our natural heavens.
What man will be, when she shall shine upon
him then aud thence, we are unable 10 divine;
but we can found an anticipation from the in.
fluences of her dawnins rays. Her morning
light has ghded tho visions of human hone,
and silvered over the night shadows of human
sorrow. There has been no depth Of human
misery beyond the reach Of her ameoraiing
influence, nor any height Of human happiness
which she has not raised still higher. Who
ever has touched al either Of these extremi.
ties, or any Of their intervening points, could
attest that "neIther height nor depth, nor prn-
ciPalitiss nor power, nor things present nor 10
eome," could divert or yiiiate the accents and
anodynes Of her love. Whether we trace the
light OF her morning sun, or 10 the living
beams OF her risen day, we find that she has
touched human society like an augel. II would
be 'rreverent 10 her worth 10 say, 10 what
walks of life she has walked most like IAN an
gel Of light and love; in what vicissi,udes, in
what joys or sorrows, in what situations and
circumstances, she has most signaly dis
charged the heavenly mnistrations Of her mis-,
SION; what ordeals have best brought out the
radiance Of her hidden jewels; what fruitions
Of earthly bliss, or furnaces OF affection,
have best declared the fneness Of her gold
Still there is a scene, which has escaped "the
= vulture's eye," and almost every other eye,
where she has cast forth her costliest pearls,
and shown such qualities Of her native char
Rcter, as almost merit our alteration, This
scene has been allotted to the drunkards wife
How she has. filed This most desperate outpost
Of humanity, will be revealed when the secrets
Of human life shall be disclosed 'sto more
worlds than this" When the history Of ho-
vels and Of murky garrets shall be given I'M;
when tho career Of the enslaved inebriate shall
be told, from the first 10 the lowest degree of
| his degradation--there will be a memorial
made Of woman worthy of being told and
heard in heaven. From the first moment she
gave up her young and hoping heart, and all
treasures, into the hands Of him she loved, 10
the luckless hour when The charmer, wine,
fastened around that loved one all the serpent
spells Of is sorcery--d down through all the
crushing Of young born hopes-lhroush years
Of estrangement andstrange insanity; when
harsh unkindness bit St her heart withsan adj,
ders tooth; thence doSa through each sue.
Cessive depth Of disgrace and misery, uot
she bent over the drunk&d's grave; through
all these deeds halo of Syinity has gather
cd around her, and stirred her 10 angel deeds
Of love. When the maddensd victim tried 10
cut himself adrift from the synpaihy and So
Ciety OF God and man, she hasSlung 10 him g.
held him TO her heart "with hoSks of steel. !"
And when he was cast out all dchled with bis
leprous pollution, when be was reduced 10 such
thing as the beasts Of the field woSld below
at, there was one who still kept HIM thr oned
10 her heart of hearts; who could say over The
fallen, dwelling creatrre: "Allnough ypu are
nothing to the world, you are the world tSme.'
/ When that awful insanity Of The drunkarS set
in upon him. with all fts fiendish shapss\o Of
torture; while he lay wrilhinE bsneaih tAe
scorpion slings Of the fiery pbanlasies and fu
ries Of delirium tremens; there was woman
bv his side. enslaved with MI The atfrihutau