The Woodville Republican, and Wilkinson advertiser. (Woodville, Miss.) 1853-18??, 1853-06-07


He again wiped a tear from his eye. My
father watched him with strange intensity,
and oountenance unusually pale and excited
by some strong emotion.
was once a fanatic and madly followed
the malign light which followed me TO ruin
| was fanatic when sacrificed my wife and
children, happiness and home, 70 the accurs-
cd demon Of the bowl. once adorvd the
gentle being whom injured SO deeply.
was a drunkard From respectabiliiy
and afiiuence, | plunged into degradation and
poverty. dragged my family down with
me. For years saw her cheek pale, and her
step grow weary. left her amid the wreck
of her home Idols, and rioted at the tavern,
She never complained, yet she and the child,
ren went hungry for bread
"one New Years Night returned late To
the hut where charity had given us roof She
was yet up, and shiyenng over the Goals, |
demanded food, bat she burst into tears and
tod me there was none fercely ordered her
to get some, She 1urned her eyes sadly upon
me, the tears falling fast upon her pale cheek.
At this moment the child in its cradle awoke
and sent up famished wall, starting the des,
pairing mother like a serpent's sting"
ave have no food, James-haye had none
forseveral days. have nothing for the babe
NV once kind husband, must we starve
That sad pleading face and those stream-
ing eyes and the feeble wall Of the child, mad
dened me, and I--yes, | struck her q fierce
blow in the face, and she fell forward on the
hearth. The furies of hell boiled in my boz
som, and with deeper intensity as | felt had
committed wrong. II had never struck Mary
before, but now some terrible impulse bore me
on, and stopped down as well as | could in
any drunken state and clenched both hands IN
her hair
+" God of Mercy, Jamesl" exclaimed my
wife, as she looked up in my fendish counte-
nance, you will not kill us-you will not harm
Willie" and she sprang to the cradle and
grasred him in her embrace. | caught her
again by the hair and dragged her to the door,
and as lifted the latch the wind burst in
with cloud of snow. With the yell Of q
fend, / still dragged her on and hurled her
into the darkness and storm. With a wild
ha! ha closed the doors and turned the but
ton. her pleading moaus mingling with the
wall of the blast and sharp cry of her babe
But my work was not yet complete"
/ turned to the little bed where lay my old
er son, and snatehed him from his slumbers,
and against his half-awakened struggles, open
ed the door and thrust him out. In the ago
NY of fear he called me by name | was no
longer fit to bear, and locked his fingers in
my side pocket. | could not wrench that
frenzied grasp away, and with the coolness Of
the devil, as | was shut the door upon the
arm, ard with my knife, severed it at the
wrist
The speaker ceased moment and buried
his face in his hands as If to shut out some
fearful dream, and his deep chest heayed like
a stormswept sea. Ny father had arisen from
his seat, and was leaning forward, hiscoupte-
nance bloodless, and the large drops standing
upon bis brow. Chils crept back tony young
heart, and | wished was at home. The old
man looked up, and | never have sine beheld
such mortal agony pictured upon human
face as there was on his.
1t was morning when | awoke and the
storm had ceased, but the cold WIS intense.
first secured drink Of water, and then look
ed in the accustomed place for Mary. AS !
missed her, for the frst time a shadowy sense
Of some horrible nightmare began to dawn up
on my wandering mind. thought had a
fearful dream, but inyoluntarily opened the
outside door with shuddering dread. As
the door opened the snow burst in, followed
By the fall of something across the thresh-hold
scattering the snow, andstrikihg the floor with
sharp, bad sound. My blood shot like
red-hot arrows through my veins, and rubb-
ed my eyes to shut out the sight. 1t was-it-
OF God, how horrible it was my own in
lured Mary and her babe, frozen to ice The
ever true mother had bowed herself over the
child to shield it, and wrapped her clothing
around it leaving her own person stark and
bare 10 the storm. She had placed her hair
over the face Of the child, and the sleet had
frozen it to the white check. The frost was
white in its halfopened eyes and upon his
tiny fingers. know not what became Of my
brave boy"
Again the OLD man bowed his head and
went, and all that were in the house wept
with him. Ny father sobbed ike child. In
tones Of low and hear-broken palhos, the old
man concluded:
IL was arrested and for long months raw
ed in deIinum. awoke, was sentenced to
prison for ten years, but no tortures could have
been ike those / endured within my own bo-
som. Oh, God, no IL am not fanatic
am not fanatic. I wish to injufe no one.
But while live, let me strive TO warn others
not TO enter the path which has beenso dark
and fearful a one to me. Iwould see my wife
and children beyond this vale Of tears.'
The old man sat down, but spell as deep
and strong as that wrought by some wizard S
breath, rested upon the audience. Hearts
could have been heard in their beating, and
tears 70 fall. The old man then asked the