The voice of freedom. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1839-1848, 1847-04-08


y we found seven or eight attenuated younI
= creatures, with a mother who had pawnet
= her cloak, and could not venture out to be.
G for bread, because she was not fit to be seei
e in the streets. Hearing the voice of wailins
r from cluster of huts further up the hill, WE
: proceeded to them, and entered one, anC
t found several persons weeping over the deaC
/ body of woman lying by the wall near the
} door. Stretched upon the ground here anC
there lay several sick persons; and the place
seemed den of pestilence. The filthy straw
was frank with the fostering fever. Leaving
this habitation of DEATH we were met by a
young womani in an agony of despair, because
no one would give her a coffin to bury her
father in. She pointed to a cart at some dis
lance, upon which the body lay; and she was
about to follow it to the grave; and he was
such good father she could not bear to
lay him like beast in the ground; and she
begged coffin " for the honor of Cod
While she was weeping for this boon, cast
my eyes towards the cabin we had just left {;
and sight met my view which made me
shudder with horror. The husband of the
dead woman came staggering out, with her
body upon his shoulders slightly covered with
a piece of rotten canvass. Painfully and ST.
lently he bore the remains of the late compan-
ion of his misery to the cart. We followed
him, and saw him deposit his burden by the
side of the father of the young woman, and by
her assistance. AS the two started for the
graveyard to bury their own dead, we pur-
sued our walk, and entered another cabin,
where we encountered the climax of human
misery. Surely, thought I, while regarding
this new phenomenon Of suffering there can
/ ho al, 4
the bottom of the grave. On asking after
the condition of the inmates the woman to
whom we addressed the question, answered
by taking out Of the straw three breathing
skeletons, ranging from two to three feet in
height, and entirely naEe9-and these human
things were alive If they had been dead,
tacles. They we're alive; and strange to say,
they could stand upon their feet, and even
walk but it was horrid to see them do it
Had their bones been Invested of the skin that
held them together, and been covered with a
veil of thin muslin, they would not have been
more visible. Especially when one Of them
chung to the door, while sister was urging it
forward, it assumed an appearance which can
have been seldom paralleled this side of the
grave. The effort which it made to cling to
the door disclosed every Joint of his frame,
while the deepest lines of old age furrowed
its face. The enduring of ninety years of
sorrow seemed to chionicle its record Of woe
upon the poor child's countenance. 7 could
bear no more and we returned to Skibbe-
reen, after having Teen all the afternoon
among these abodes Of misery. On our way
we overlook the cart with the two uncot1ined
bodies. The man and young woman were all
that attended them 10 the grave. Last year
the funeral of either would have drawn to-
gether hundreds of mourners from those hills,
but now the husband drove his uncofined wife
to the grave without u tear in his eye,without
a word Of sorrow.
About half way to Skibberecn DIR MADDEN
proposed we should diverge to another road
to visit cabin in which we should find two
little girls living alone, with their dead moth
err, who had lain unbured seven days. He
gave an affecting history of this poor woman
and we turned from the road to visit this new
scene of desoaton but as it was growing
quite dark, and the distance was considerable,
we resumed our way back to the village. In
fact had witnessed as much as my heart could
bear.
In the evening I met several gentlemen at
the house Of Mr. Swanton, among whom was
DIR Donovan. He had just returned from a
neighboring parish, where he visited cabin
which had been deserted by the poor people
around, although it was known that some of
its inmates were still alive, though dying in
the midst of the dead. He knocked on the
door; and hearing no voice within, burst it
open with his foot; and was in a moment al
most overpowered by the horrid stencil. See
ing mans legs protruding from the straw,he
moved them slightly with his foot, when a
husky voice asked for water. In another part
of the cabin, on removing a piece ofcanvass,
he discovered three dead bodies, which had
lain there unburied for a fortnight; and hard
against one of these, and almost embraced in
the arms of death lay young person far gone
with the fever. He related other cases too
horrible to be published.
Wool GROWERS CONVENTION. Wepub
fish to-day the doings Of those wool growers
who met in convention on the 10th ult at
Stcubcnville, Ohio We trust that our broth
err farmers will excuse the length of the arti,
Gle, when they consider that it relates to a
very important branch of their occupation,
bnt one which at present is very much de-
pressed.
1t gives us pleasure to read the spirited re-
marks and GOOD sense which are manifested |