Daily evening star. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1852-1854, 1853-11-09

concentration OF heatheniSm, Bedford
street, we trayersed it q short distanc,
and turned into q narrow lane that led tC
the rear of an old wooden building, ont
side of which had decayed so entirely as
to give the house a reeling position, a fit.
ting sign for the drunken inhabitants Of
the neighborhood. ''Be careful now y
said the child, 1.-The stairs are broken, and
some of them are gone: be careful or
you'll fall She clambered up the steps
leading the way: the steps trembled, and
the wind ratified the loose boards like the
playing of a castinct band out of time.
The State-house clock added to the hollow
dreariness about us, as its solemn and
measured tones proclaimed, as it seemed
with unusual deliberation and precision,
the hour on the verge of which we enter
upon another day.
The door opened hurriedly. and the
figure of a woman stood before it to re-
ceive the little wanderer, 40 where have
you been till this late hour-I have wait
ed so long for you, and, began to fear you
were lost and would never come to me
again." Hush, mother, gentleman
has brought me home under his umbrel-
Ia" "Heigh there, has Mamie come
you're rather late; | can't wait so long
another night,-hand over the change >
said trembling broken voice. Father,
father, gentleman is here, don't talk
about the money now" The woman had
lighted bit of tallow candle, and as it's
first faint glummer reached the more re-
mote corner, and revealed the miserable
appointments, shrinking feeling came
over us. The gaunt form of the mother
as She held the light in her hand, looking
the perfect embodiment of despair, her
eyes directed to straw bed on one side
where we directed our gaze and discov-
cred thereon the father-the natural guide
and protector, bloated and besottcd, strug-
Cling in the last days of drunkard's ca
reer-all plainly told the demon, rum,
had driven them hereSfrom their quiet,
peaceful home that lived in the mothers
recollection and the child's imagination
this had pursued, and was still pursuing
them. The bitter draught of misery had
been swallowed even to the dregs earth
gave them no hiding place, save in her
bosom-there the relentless foe is baffled
the victim is sheltered there.
There was no inclination for conversa-
ton, no words came up to express the
thoughts which such a scene crowded
upon us. Suggesting the propriety of
dry dress for the child, we were told she
wore all she shivering and satu-
rated in the only clothes she had! She
was late, and he who once provided for
her, had, in consequence of her being
late, pawned the last change she pos
sessed. No fire, and no place to make
one, a sickening consciousness of suffering
without power to relieve, hushed us into
silence, and only able to do the little to
redeem the pawned clothing, We turned
sadly and thoughtfully away, full of the
strengthened resolution to labor on and
on, with fixed purpose which shall
never yield, until the last child, young
and innocent, is sent forth in the pelting
storms in the night time, to feed the in
satiate fire kindled and kept burning by
rum. We left Mamie there then, but
remembered her well the thought of her
on that dismal night never left us, and
now she is cared for in the Home"
where many worse than orphan finds
an asylum, away from vice and tempta-
ton, where temporal wants are cared for,
the blighted soul is warmed and quick
ened into new life, and prepared for USE
fulness here, and peaceful rest beyond.