Fremont journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County [Ohio]) 1853-1866, 1853-11-26

for life Of drunkenness and misery. She ia
worse than dead to them. need not tell
you what l am. If you will take my children
and take care Of them, l will 90 and bring
them directly. ] have nothing to give, but !
hope those who have will increase their char
ity enough to keep my poor children from
starving"
"llave they no relation who would take
care Of them?'
"Relations? Yes, Sir, among the rich and
proud Of the city. too. am proud, il l am
degraded. can bear degradation, but l
could not bear to think my children we're the
paupers Of my own brother, or any relative
who would remind them of their degrated
father, or tell them perhaps. as they met a
ragged woman, staggering through the streets,
that is your mother Never. Sir, never"
"Well, then, bring them here. You need
not TIL your name, or theirs. Only promise
me one thing: that you will reform yourself,
or, at least, try to do it, SO that you can once
more be father to your children"
''I intend to, or never see them. They
shall never be ashamed OF a drunken father.
They will never know their mother Shc
does not know where they are, never will
know. ] will leave the city to-day. Intend
to get away from old associates. and out OF
sight of tho open places Of temptation that
do nothing but drag me down."
So he went away and brought the two
children, pressed them TO his bosom, shed
tears over them, called upon God to bless
them and those who took care Of them, and
sud good bye, and went away with tear in
his eye, and prayer in his heart and moth
ing has been heard of him since.
We became much interested in the two
"haIf orphans" and noticed them as the pets
of the missionary family, in our frequent Wis
it's AT our last one, we missed them from
the family circle, and inquired.
"What has become of-we will call them
Julia and Lizzie"
"Oh have you no, been here since?"
"Since what? Have they gone away
Has the father been back"
"No, they are here. But such circum-
stance has happened. Itis remarkable Do
you remember talking to a miserable woman
in the streets, one ght not long ago, whom
you thought disposed to repentance, aud
whom you directed 10 come here ?"
"Well, l might. l do pass word with
such occasionally, Oh, YES remember now,
a mddle-aged woman who told M a long
tale about her husband and children, and
how she used to drink, and her husband
threatened to leave her, and how he drank,
and then she followed him to a house where
no man should ever go, and then in fit Of
drunken desperation find Jealousy plunged
into a career of vice, and how, af er months
Of such life. her husband turned her out Of
doors, took her children away where she
could not see them-never has seen them
and how the villain who had enticed her
forsook her and left her to be turned out Of
the house where h. had taken her to board,
and how she sunk down t" degree so low
rs to beg for rum Of the most abandon rum
hole keepers ofthe city, who would get her
drunk to exhibit her as a model artist in
ba'k room, 10 draw customers to heir pande.
monium-a place licensed as 'mrdel house
OF accommo !ation for travellers And finally
she said she had drunk the very drrgs of the
bitter cup of sin, and if she could only see
her children once more she would be willing
to die-she did not wish TO live to disgrace
them, but she could not die till she had seen
them again. And then told her to reform
repent sincerely, and try to get back again to
the condition Of life which sne had f.lIen
from, and Providence would perhaps point out
way for her to find her children.
"How can reform? Who will help m
to reform? Who will take ME to thei house,
unless it is house of infamy? Every other
door is boted and b lrred against me. ! can
not reform in the street. | can go to no place
where should not be told every day what a
miserable drunken wicked woman have b4en,
,io,, /
unfit to 1--we. and making me wish was dead"
ayes, there is one place where you G ad go
where the question never will be asked you
who you are, what you have been. where you
came FROM Only, 90 you sincerely wish ia
reform?' if you do, you will be clothed, and
washed, and fed, and given employment un-
til you can live without such care. and then
you shall have place in the country, away
from city mpta'ion, among strangers, who
shall never know that you have been one OF
the city's unfortunates."
"Where. where, where? Oh, tell me
where? Let ne go there. will reform.
will make myself new character, that my
children shall not be ashamed of. and then |
will hope-yes, may then hope. perhaps
accidently to meet them in the street some
day. Perhaps their father. if he has not be-
come as bad as their mother. may consent to
let me see them once, only once, Pray tell
rne where to 60 and God will bless you for
the good deed"
"There take that card. In the morning &c
to No. 2 Little Water-st, and ask to see that
man he is a missionary to the heather Of thai
desert which We permit 10 exist in the very
heart of this Christian city. Tell him what
you have told me, and seq what he will dc
for you"
Well she came. was busy writing in the
front room Breakfast had just been cleared
away Julia and Lizzie wrre busy at play
in the dining room. A boy came up. and saic
a woman wanted to sec me. "What sort oI
a woman?"
"a very common sort, sir; she looks al
though she might have walked the streets al
night and wants some breakfast. She ha'
boan o,-;,,, too Sh. is crvinu n0W and ghf