Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1848-10-05
The FOrsaken Wife.
BY URIAH II. JUDAH.

"Though he should spun me, will calmly bear
His madness and should sickness come, and lay
Its paralyzng hand upon him. then
would with kindness all my wrongs repay,
Until the penitent should weep, and say
How injured and how faithful had BEEN"
The hour is midnight, and the countless thou.
sands of human beings are calmly reposing-
some, wearied with their daily toll, have sunk
upon their pallets Of straw others, who have
been blessed with the luscious sweets of plenty,
pleasantly recline on the couch of affiuence.
While many are thus sumbering, unconsci-
Gus Of the forlorn wretchedne4s and abject mis-
cry around and about this busy metropolis, let us,
at this hour of silence and soemnity, while the
nnumerable stars glitter, and ere the moon goes
down, enter an abode of detected poverty that
we may delineate, in glowing colors of truth, the
dependency and gloom therein triumphant
In scantily furnished and cherries room, we
have beheld miserable group of beings-a moth
er and six ragged children-pining away in
wretchedness and want; we have gazed on a
heart-broken woman, and noted the tears fall and
flow on her babe as she Rugged it to her bosom
as shield from the chill blast of winters
wind.
And yet it was not always thus; the time has
been when Heaven smiled propitiously on her
course, and life was decked with every hue, of
glory and of Joy. In her midnight loneliness,
memory will oft recall those happy hours passed
amid love paternal, in childish sports unchecked
the flowers she loved to tend-the doting moth.
er who leaned upon her arm when twilight sum-
moned them to an evening walk:
GA father she loves is away from her now,
Oh could she but print sweet kiss on his brow,
Or smooth the grey locks to her fond heart SO dear
How quickly would vanish each trace of a tear"
Woman slove! strange it is that man does moi
place proper estimate upon gem SO produc
tive of happiness to the possessorl Wonderful tha
he seeks the companionshp of the proAigate ant
abandoned, and lorsakes her whom he has sworI
to love and cherish, for the society OF those VINO
can feel no interest in his welfare. 1t may b.
the intuitve nature of many four sex to be eve
roaming and inconstant-to be wasting upon tn
vile those caresses which our faithful wive
should share perhaps, tits failing beyond gu
control to remedy. But why, then, enter tn
peaceful roof of the parental home, and bigh
like an untimeIy frost, the oveliest flower of tn
field? Man know you not the feminine hear
is nourished by love?
Time, ever on the glide, hath told the thr
hour of morn, and that forsaken wife is still sea
ted where we left her, with no fire to suppress
her shivering, and the last remnant of candle
already blazing in its socket; we behold her q
heretofore, giving scope to bitter tears of sorrow
and loudly repining at the increased misery "
in store. Poor woman the frail cords of life b
which thou art earth-bound will soon loo:
their hold, for thy manifold sufferings have nea
ly reached point beyond which human end
rance ceases to be virtue.
Look ye there, lady He comes But not
the prodigal son, penitent for past transgresslo
He comes But not as a new made man to as
thy forgiveness, and extend the hand of frien
ship. He comes But not to pour healin
balm upon thy bleeding wounds, nor to bind IL
silken cords around the shattered fragment of IL
broken heart. He comes But bringeth
food for thy furnishing children; neither is
laden with that which would prevent them fro
freezing. Lady his return will overflow Il
cup of affection
TO think upon that lost ones girlish bloom,
And see that sickly smile and mark her doom
1t haunis me now-her dim and wildered brain,
would not look upon that eye again"