Cooper's Clarksburg register. [volume] (Clarksburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1851-1861, 1852-01-28
From Peterson's Magazine.
"uAGAR AND ISHMAEL."


1t was miserable garret, black with
age and damp.
A mean bedstead, a solitary chair. and
an old hair-trunk, constituted the entire
furniture OF the apartment
The wind howled without, and the rain
drove through the broken panes, for it
was stormy night in autumn; yet no
fire was in the room, though two persons
occupied it.
And one was mother, still pale and
feeble, the other an infant but four weeks
old.
The first was thinly clad, in light
summer dress, but lily calculated for the
night or season. Yet she seemed to have
forgotten her own sutferings in concern
for those of her boy, who was crying with
cold and hunger.
Hush, baby DEAR sang the miserable
parent, amid her tears, pressing him clo-
ser to her bosom, as she sat rocking on
the edge of the bed, the wind blows, the
rain beats, but mother will protect her
darling. There. little one. sleep, she
continued, as the babe ceased it's plant.
Better times may come for both of US,
to morrow, and then you shall cry no
more with cold and hunger
AS if conjured by her voice the infant
gradually sunk into a quiet slumber,
which the mother watched with sad ten
derness inexpressibly pathetic to see
Her eyes beamed not with the Joy with
which wife looks on her sleeping babe
for love was mingled with agony the boy
was the child of shame.
Yet not wholly sinful had been poor
Ellen Wharton. Born to better days, she
had been compelled, by an early orphan
age, to seek her livelihood in great city;
and what the perils and privations of that
destiny are need not be told. But against
long days of exhausting toll; against
nights of fevered sleep or listless watch
fulness; against cold, sickness, and, worse
than all, utter friendlcssness, she had
borne up until, in an evil time, chance
made her acquainted with young law
yer, far above her own station in life.
Howard Stanley, alas had many idle
hours on his hands that winter, and Ellen
had susceptible heart. The result may
be guessed.
1t is an odd tale. Had the poor girl
had parental home, or a mother to warn
her, or brothers and sisters to love, she
would not, with all her poverty, have fall
len. 1t was the yearning of desolate
heart for affection, the instinct of her sex
to pour out it's treasures of tenderness
somewhere, that led to her ruin. She be-
guiled herself, us thousands have done
before and since, with the hope that hel
betrayer loved her too we'll to abandon
her, and that, in the end, he would give
her wealth and station by marriage.
But Howard Stanley dared not do this
even if he had wished. His family wa:
wealthy and expected him to marry g
wealthy bride. 1t had come also of al
old Puritan stock, and having numbered
many eminent fathers in the church. wa'
proud of its traditional propriety. Tt
have betrayed his crime, or married hi
penniless victim, would alike have made
him an alien and outcast from his home
But he did not wish to marry Ellen. HI
was ambitious, and began already to re
pent of his sentimentalism, as he called it
which had led him to take an interest il
the unprotected orphan. He pitied her
indeed, but as he said to his conscicnc,
it was too late to moralize.' To extri
cate himself from his dilemma, he saileC
for Europe, resolved never to see Ellel
again, but concealing his intention, ant
telling her he went on imperative busi
ness.
When the consequences of her weak
ness became apparent, the terrible expia
ton of Ellen began. She was driver
from her lodgings, she was deprived Q
her work. How she subsisted she coult
scarcely herself tell. The miserable gar
ret, where we find her, had been her las
refuge; there her child was born; AM
there she now sat penniless.
Yet she had endured all with compar
atiye serenity, for she attributed it entire
ly 10 her lovers absence. When he re
turns from Europe she would say t
herself, he will acknowledge his son an
marry me and then how happy, oh hoy
happy we shall be- And she woul
strain her infant to her bosom with tear:
With these hopes she had watched tn
arrival of every packet, and, at last, ha
been blessed with seeing her lovers nam
among the list of passengers. Within
few hours letter, blotted with her tear:
was despatched, containing the narrativ
of her sufferings and imploring the fath
er's blessing ON their babe. E
For the ansssr to this missivs, whicl