Litchfield enquirer. [volume] (Litchfield, Conn.) 1829-current, 1842-05-26
TIE DRUNKARD'S WIFE.
AN OVER TRUE TALE


The gray morning was already dawnng
when miserable wretch turned into dirty
alley, and entering low ruinous door grop-
ed through a narrow entry, and paused at the
entrance of u room within. That degraded
being had once been wealthy man, respect
ed by his neighbors and surrounded by
friends. But alas! the social glass had first
lured him to indulgence, and then TO inebri.
ETY., until he was now common drunkard.
The noise OF his footsteps had been he nrd
within, for the creahing door was timidly
opened, and a pale emnciated, boy, about
nine years Of age, stepped @ onthe landing,
and asked in mingled anxiety and dread,
is that you, father!'
Yes, wet TO the skim curse IT,, said the
man? why aint you abed and asleepyou brat?
The little fellow shrank back al this coarse
Salntatian. but still, tho sinking with fenr,
he did not quit his SIntio.s bafsro the door
'What are you standing there. gaping for!'
sick wife grumbling llday, without having
get to bed you imp-do you heart
The little fellow did not answer fear
seemed to have deprived him ofspeech; but
still holding on TO the door latch, with an
inporng look, he stood ri ght in the way by
which his parent would have to enter the
room.
'Aint you going to mind p said tho man
with an oath, breaking into II fury, give me
the lamp, and go to bed, or III break every
bone in your body
'Oh! father, don't talk so lond,' said the
little fellow bursting into tears-'youi! wake
mother. she's been worse all day and hasn',
had any rest till now. and as the man made
an effort to snatch the candle, the boy, losing
all personal fears in anxiety for his sick
mother, stood firmly across the drunkard's
path and said, you musn't-you mustn't &c
in
What does the brat mean 7 broke out the
Iinebratc angrily-'this comes of leaving
YOU to wait on your mother til; you learn 10
be as obstinate as Il mule-wilI you disobey
me take that, and that, YOU imp and rails.
ing his hand he struck the little sickly being
to the floor, kicked aside his body, and STROBE
into the dilapidate1 room.
1t was truly a fitting place for the home
| Of such vagabond as he. The walls were
low, covered with smoke, and scanned with a
hundred cracks. The chimney piece had
once been white, but was now OF the lead
color of age. The ceiling had lost most OF
the plaster, and the rain soaking through
! dripped with mOnotonOuS tick upon the
floor. A few broken chairs, II cracked
looking glass and n three legged table, on
| which was a rinlesS cup, were in different
parts of the room. But the most striking
spectacle was directly before the gambler
On "a rickriy bed lay the wife OF his BOSOM
! the once rich and beautiful Emily Lacquer
rec, who through poverty, shame and sick
ness, had still chung to the lover OF her
youth. Oh! woman, thy constaEcy the
| world cannot shake, nor shame nor misery
4, I,,l IL God
| that ruined man; indigni,y after indignliy
| had been heaped upon him. and deservediy
wear by wear he had fallen lower and lower
| in the sink of inflmy and yet still through
every mishap that sainted woman had chung
| 10 him-for he was the father Of her boy. and
the husband of her youth. 1t WAS "a hard
| task for her 10 perform but /; was her duty
and when all the world deserted him. could
she. too. leave him! She had borne much
but alas na,fre could endure no more
| Health had fed from her checks, and hel
eyes were dim and suDken. She was in the
last stage of consumption. but Ii was not thai
which was killing her-she aeds dying T Z
| broken heart
The noise made by her husband awokf
her from her troubled sleep, and she hall
started I'D in bed, the hectic fire streaming
,long her cheeks. and a wild. filfui ligh
shooting into her sunken eyes. There wa
a faint shadowy smile Lighting up her face
hut it was cold as moonlight upon SNOW
The sight might have moved felon's bosom
tut what can penetrate the scared. hardened
heart of Drunkenness The'mn besides wa
in passion.
Blast It, woman said the wretch. rs h
reeled into the room, us this the way you re-
Il ceive me after being out all day in the raj
to get something for yoOS brat and yo~1-