Hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington, Iowa) 1843-1845, 1845-02-20

1z1e
For the H4uk Eye
[NTEMPERANCE.-A TALE OF TRUTH.
There stood. beside the altar fair bride,
Gift ed with all that life can charm and
bless,
And proudly happy, one is by her side,
Who VOWS before his God in faithfulness,
To love and shield that trusting girl from
i'll,
TIL lifs's warm pulses in his heart are
And they were blest, for mutual faith and
love
As household gods presided DER their hearth,
Lies thread of purest gold for them seemed
wuye,
And infant voices in their joyous mrth
Joined with their mothers when the day
was done,
To welcome homo the we'll beloved one.
The Tempter came-not as in Eden's bow
ers
To feeble woman-but the strong he chose,
Came in the form Of friends and joyial hours,
And offered him the wine cup drugged
with woes;
He tasted-drank--dra deeply, and be-
came
A loathsome spectacle o! sin and shame.
His wife--his babes--hs home o. mad
ness lies
In thought of these, how can his conscience
bear
To think on his once glowing paradise
No--fll the cup--fl high, until despair
| Is lost in Lethean stupor, and the SO.
| Has wife and children, home-eyen self
forgot.
Within cherries room on Bonded knee
| Is one in earnest prayer, . how she pleads
| For her poor babes now famishing--th that
He.
Who in HIS bounty even the raven feeds,
! Would TO her breaking heart her childrcE
spare,
| And for their wretchcd father--gracious
Heaven,
May that poor, wandering outcas:, be for
eiveE.
That wand'rer heard the prayer, struck by
remorse
His long deserted home once more was
sought,
But e'er his feet its lowly Threshold cross
His startled ear those pleading accents
caught
| Twas like the smitten rock in Sina : Wild.
He knees beside her weeping like a child.
Aguin he vows-again did she believe,
! Again he called upon recording Heaven,
! That never-more would he the cup receive
| Till by that kneelng wife it should be
given
| That soon forgotten oath shall meet his
sight
Written in characters Of living Eight.
| Placed in the centre Of darkened room,
| A shrouded form lies ready for the grave,
Can this be she who in her youthful bloom
Her hearts rich treasures to drunkard
| gave?
| The happy bridegroom who received her
vows
Tis he--why comes he stealthiIy--alone--
| As tho he feared to break her marble slecp1
|
| For all the bitter past All. could he weep
Even tears OF bloJd, they could not wash
away
| The wrongs Of her who now be fore him lay
She was his ling ring angei--how the past
Breathing and iic.lihe rises to MS view,
| Forgotten .ones--looks- come throng
ing fast,
Faster than thought-cold drops his hrows
bcdew,
But tears come not to ease the fiery pain,
Coiling like serpents round his heart aud
brain.
But see-what clutches he within his grasp?
And 10! the stitfencd fingers Of the dead
he twInes around it in an icy clasp,
He stoops--he drinks--then raising up his
head
Excla'ms with fiendish JOY: Now am
free,
My wife's own hand has held the cup for
me-" f. NJ. l..
Burlington, Feb. IT, 1916.
The great abolition scheme of the
British Government in Jamaica, is
lamentable failure. The Negroes are
lazy and i'm provident-the product of
the Island is steadily falling off from
insufficient. labor to ill and gather the
crops, and the condition of the eman.
clpated Blacks is miserable even as