Cooper's Clarksburg register. [volume] (Clarksburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1851-1861, 1852-01-28

hexiele character something akin to my
own, and that forms tie between us
the only one l acknowledge, though your
blood flows in my veins.
81 have asked to see YOU, not to sue,
Cowardliko, for my life; but to show you
what the son of a governor may become,
when he is cast out, an Ishmaelite, in his
boyhood. I wanted not only to triumph
over you, but to behold my triumph
For my whole life has been one continual
wrong at your hands you have made me
everything that am and I hate and
curse you, father. There. have written
the word, how does it look to you? How
does il sound to say that the murderer in
the condemned cell and the governor in
his princely mansion are child and pa
rent? and that they share the guilt equal
ly between them, the one for having
struck the deadly blow, the other for hav-
ing left his offspring to grow up an out
cast.
"You vince, see you do, as you read
this. l will make you writhe yet with
even keener agony. You have seen the
locket. which send with this it was hers.
given to me with her dying breath, when,
: for the first time, she revealed my paren-
tagc. was then but child. But though
] had known suffering had not known
sin; while SHE lived, angel that she was,
she kept me out of evil. But she died
early, broken-hearted have been told,
that for more than year, when was an
infant, she was crazed.
CATER her death, was left to fight
my way through the world as best could;
for sworc over her coffin, Git was pine
and furnished by the overseers) that yO'l
l would never apply to. You cast her off,
whom YOU pretended to love. Could I,
whom you had never seen, hope to reach
your heart? But, whether could or not,
I would have died thousand deaths,
eooner than have supplicated you.
"Do you know how children Of shame,
deserted like myself, grow up? l will
tell you, and when you make your next
speech in behalf of foreign missions, think
of what l say When you next sit, in
Your velvet lined pew, and hear the Cos
pei preached, remember that hundreds,
almost thousands, arc like your own son,
and within stones throw of your church
but with no gospel preached to them
had no home, and | yet had to live :
what could do, but what others did =
Sometimes l peddicd newspapers; some
times sold obscene books on the wharyes;
and sometimes, when trade WAS dull, and
l had no money to buy papers or meals,
I stole. Very soon | forgot what my
mother had taught me of the Sabbath and
God. | learned to swear as other chill
drcn learn to talk. Sometimes l saw you
in the street, for l had learned to know
your person; and once, when you almost
stumbled over me, as | stood in my rags
Purposely to cross you, you muttered that
such young vagrant ought to be sent to
the poor.house. How often cursed you,
after that; and what savage JOY it gave
me
g You vince again. All this, you see,
was your own work. have your stub
born soul, as hard as granite itself; and
behold what it becomes when left wild
and unchiselled, grew up an ou.cast,
very lshmael; there was no one to care
for me, and l cared for none. The world
would not suffer me to be honest, even if
| would; for once, remembering my mo-
Their, strove, for while, to live as |
thought she would have wished. | found
a store where they took me as GRAND boy
but, soon after, some money was missed
from the till l was suspected; and it
being found that had once been in the
House of Correction, my guilt was con-
sldered clear, They kicked me out of
the shop, and when began to protest my
Innocence, threatened to send for con
stable. That, too, was your work. Do
you think, if had been acknowledged as
YOUR son, that | should have been consid-
cred thief 10y nature?
But why go on? There are thou
sands, like me, growing up, in the same
way, in this city; and thousands more in
every other great city in the land. Yet
you PhIIanthropists-ah do touch YOU
again-thnk there is no call for human
kindness in our direction, nay regard il
no sin to desert your own acknowledged
offspring. Well, we are even with YOU.
afterall. Society and you make Ishmael-
les Of US, and we repay you both by clcr-
nal war, We sell pestiEurous books to
Your other children: we teach them to
swear from seeing us swear in the streets:
we dituSc every where the poison of our
sin and our hate VIC violate your laws,
and laugh at your moral tcrrors.
"Thcy call you great man, a fearless
rcformer and, believe, something also
of saint, You feel like Il saint now,
don't you? Behold your work You
yourself, arc my murderer; sharing my
sin, you sign my death-warrant and re-
fuse pardon, nay even an interview,
because it is against your principles. Oh
blessed Pharisee. Broad is your phylac
Ny,,.,. -. -