Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1847-04-08

gLOuHu anu she begged CONN " Tor the nOn0T
OF Zoe" While she was wailing and weeping
tor this boon, cast my eye 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 will not dwell upon
the details of this spectacles. Painfully and
slowly he bore the remain of the late companion
OF his misery to the cart. We followed him
little way off, and saw him deposit his burden a.
long side the father of the young woman, and by
her assistance AS the two started for the grave.
yard to bury their own dead, we pursued oul
walk still further on, and entered another cabin
where we encountered the climax of human mis-.
cry Surely, thought l. while regarding this
new phenomenon of suffering, there can be nc
lower deep than this, between us and the bottom
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 tc
three feet in height and entirely Naked and these
human things were alive ! If they had been
dead, they could not have been such frightfu
spectacles. They were alive and, wonderful
to say, they could stand upon their feet, and ev.
en- walk but it was awful to see them do it,
Had their bones been Invested of the skin that
held them together, and been covered with vel
of thin muslin, they would not have been more
visible. Especially when one of them chung tc
the door, while sister was urging at forward, il
assumed an appearance which can have been
seldom parallel this side of the grave. The eff
fort which it made to cling to the door disclosed
every joint in its frame, while the deepest lines
ofold age furrowed its face. The enduring OF
ninety years of sorrow seemed to chronicle its
record of woe upon the poor child's countenance
could bear no more and we returned to Skib-
berecn, after having been all the afternoon a.
mong those abodes misery. On our way we
overlook the cart with the two uncoffined bodies
The man and young woman were all that at
tended them to the grave. Last pear, the funer-
al of either would have called out hundreds Of
mourners from those hills but now the husband
drove his uncoffned wife to the grave without a
tear in his eye, without a word of sorrow.
About half way to Skibbereen Dr. Hadden
proposed that we should diverge to another road
to visit a cabin in which we should find two lit
tie girls living alone, with their dead mother
who had lain unburied seven days He gave an
affecting history of the poor woman and we
turned from the road to visit this new scene Of
desolation but as it was growing quite dark
and the distance was considerable, we concluded
to resume our way back to the village. In fact
| had witnessed as much as my heart could bear
In the evening | met several gentlemen at the
house of Mr.. Swanton, among whom was DR.
Donovan. He had just returned from a neigh.
boring 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 at the door; and, hearing
no voice within, burst it open with his foot and
was, in a moment almost overpowered by the
horrid stencil. Seeing mans legs protrudng
from the strw, he moved them slightly with his
foot, when husky voice asked for water. In
another part of the cabin, on removing piece Of
canvass, he discovered three dead bodies, which
had lain there anburicd for a fortnight; anC
hard against one of these, and almost embraced
in the arms of death, lay young person fa
gone with the fever. He elated other cases too
horrible to be published