Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1853-12-07

at the like again-there is one-as much as
We dislike to look at another's grief. Poor
woman The feebler heart Of the two that
went out on life's sea together, has been sud
denly reft of its anchor and hope against the
storms and tides of time ; and the heart,
strugglingWith the desolations thatsurrounds
it, cries out in anguish, and we feel like weep
ing with it.
There is nOblerPss in that brow that tell
US that the weeping widow was not accustom-
ed to the chilling blasts of poverty that beat
upon her now, in her brighter years. She is
a withered flower the wrinkles upon her
brow and around her quivering lips are not
the work oftime trouble has ploughed there
many a sorrowful furrow. Her form bends
and we know the heart is we'll nigh breaking.
There is unm0cking sorrow for you that
poor woman feels her tears as she bends over
the grave of the loved and lost. All !! we dis
like to witness sorrow SO solemn and true as
that I!
The son lie was upon the threshold of
manhood-a noble looking being too, though
clothed in rags and filth. A shudder was OBJ
served to thrill his frame as the rude box that
held the house. forsaken by the spirit Of his
father, poised over the dark mouth Of the
greedy grave, and he seated himself upon
the rough headstOne of an old grave grown
over with grass. He shuddered as he thought
of death and the grave. And well he might
there is somethi&g solemn in MGt-time and
custom can't make that subject common and
congenial to the feelings of the living. The
son shuddered as the grim spectre Of Death
that stands on the shore between this world
and another that we wot not Of, was before
him. He trembled as he sat on the rough
headstone Of somebody's grave, but no tear
moistened his red and fiery eyes. That SEEM
cd strange, for hiS own mother was weeping.
Young as he was, the fountain of sensibility
in his bosom was dry like the failing oasis
in the parched desert, and he could not weep !;
a shudder was has only emotion as he saw
the corpse and its box go down into the grave
and heard the cloGs murmur its doom as they
ratified down On ats Gesounding boards.
The solemn rite was fnishcd-the old Pas
tor prayed a blessing on the mourners, and
then the peasants left, one by one, leaving the
widow and son alone in the assembly of the
dead Of all ages. She knelt on the fresh
clOds piled on the sedld bosom Of her idolized
husband Of younger and better days, while
the son sat on the fallen grave-stone and
unused coolly npon the scene before him.
The widow raised her streaming eyes to the
bright skies that Bonded above, and a silent
prayer found its way to Heaven. That pray
or was for the son that sat so unconcerned
on the grave-stone, that he might not tread
III llC ~ RVttl HFo dLlleI ILL GIdNclCu
down to the drunkHE rs dark and gloomy
grave. Long and wrestling was the widows
agony over the cold earth-couch of the sleep
ing dead an agony afthe. soul for the living.
She sank into @ swoon on the red clods, and
when she her son had gone away into
the wide world.
She arose and went away in search of her
wandering boy. A farewell, lingering look
through tears, Xvas cast at the new grave
marked by , rough sandstone from the hills
aud the Wow went weeping away.
That sOnwas Mortimer hudson; the recen
dead was the merchant the weeping widow
was the wife an mother.
IN" now " will hasten away from tn
city of the dead
Twenty years ago, on the seuiprit's hill
many hundred people were ggathered to wit
. ness the execution of n cQpaenRed. criminal
4 1t was morbid curiosity that drew the masse
| tn re to witness the final wreck Of a felloy
{ he 9 whose fife had been made ohious b
q the commission of many heinous crimes.
The victim to be offered stood on the hig
scafold, with the officer attending him. Th
ministers Of a holy religion, that spoke hop
s to the penitent even while on the cross, spok
h kind words of counsel to the condemned, an
: as the moment drew near, when he was t
try the sublimities Of another world and etc.
" nifty, his feeble frame grew tremulous an
: shame covered his bloated face. lie aroS
before the clamor0us audience from his Sc;
on the coffin. 1t was almost - mob aroun
u him, so clamorOus were the rude people IL
his blood to satiate them for the loss of
n good man in their midst by mis- hands. 'Pu
IF him down. cried out a hoarse voice in tt
crowd. Missiles flew about his bandagt
= hcad-the officer -stormed-the .Eainister e
- horted them to be quiet. All this was but
Is broken straw in the angry mmlstrom of h
n, man passions swaying its pillows around t
IL scaffoid. There stood the culprit with a 70
m about his throbbing neck, and o frenzied m
surging with its pent up wrath.
ho That was a fearful sight to look upon!
The condemned mounted his own cot
I' and the wrecked energies of q .gOdlike mi
nc gathered themselves for q conflict. dts powC
ed had slept for years, but now its fires spark
a. in his sunken eyes, and cleaned out ca
vn haggard face like a lightning fash
he 'Fellow-mortals =
a There was.a searching magic in the tone
va his voice as it rolled cut as from the dep
Of the grave over the tossing ocean Of fac
and 1t touched 6 cherd in every heart. i
hin be heard WAS the cry, and the sto
ne was Rashed as if some master wand l
lis waved above it-some mystic incarnation
III. q Wl6fu SplrlJ nbu lHlleu upon ILdG raw
throng, and q silence like the grave reigI
=. as the young culprit proceeded, and his no
but ruined brow lowered aloft and rocl
with the enthusiasm Of the trying mome
M like q shattered dome of marble upon
her stirring depths of the stormy soul
He SpoEe of his early home and its b
sings-ef a father that fell ignebly in Ii
NJ confict-of a lost mother that wandered
LnT the earth, he knew not whither-of the q
lell crime he had committed in bathing his ha
the in q fellow-citizen's bloOd-of the fear he
ugh Of stepping on the eternal coast just ahea
and of his disgrace-of the warning his hea
inc had-of the terrible rope that chung al
his neck-of the temptations of life, and
in conclusion, he spoke of the cause Of
lcfe rnin-' Rumt' and he screamed the wore
ZION terriically that the s~toutest held their h
our to the ear to shut out the horrid screet
rass, Rum 7 and q curse from the %culprit's fC
the ing lips against the demon that had ca
for his ruin, sent a thrill to the very soul
those who listened to his wierd voice.
'0r lie briefly reviewed his past life, and
to1e how nc had been led astray by the scour
.htly curse that had brought him there. Blu
exon Rum, | should have had the blessing
} bo- father and mother to-day and he sank
own on his coffin and weptl
Tho The throng breathed free as he ceased,
- a smothered murmur ran through the CT
the His honr lacked n faw minutes vet