Daily evening star. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1852-1854, 1853-08-20
The Last Letter Of the Drunkard's Wife
BY MRS. F. d. GAGF

The Last Letter Of the Drunkards Wife
By MRS. F. D. GAGE.
Oh. dear Amy, that I should live to
tell you such tale as my pen must tell
this morning. | shut my eyes: clasp
my cold and almost paralysed hand over
them to exclude the fearful vision, but it
will not away. No, it is there, a horrid
soul-thrilling, heart-breaking reality
Amy, my sister, my more than sister,
can ] so crush thee. So dash from thy
lip the cup of JOY which thou art now,
even now, lifting sparkling to the brim,
with hope and love. Yes, /, even I; must
do it. Hard and thankless as is the task
it will be more kindly done by my hand
than anOther's, for love will soften every
word, and sorrow and deep pity, veil every
wrong.
Amy, William is dead; thy loved and
loving brother; my loved and loving hus-
band is dead. Even now while I write
those fearful words, the long white sheet
in yon corner, hides away from my sight
the manly form, the fair broad brow and
laughing lip of William. Oh God . that
this were all that could tell you; that
fever had wasted him. that consumption
had gnawed away his vitals, that the
murderer had struck him in the dark.
But alas no p! none of these forms of
death came to him, to rob the monster
of his appalling form.
But [ must still my throbbing heart
and wipe the cold sweat of agony from
my brow, and tell you all, aye tell you
all, not to wound but to warn lest those
who are now growing up to p'anhood, in
the same paths he trod, may reach the
final goal of life even as he.
You know, dear Amy, when we were
married, five years ago yesterday, (oh.
that fatal yesterday William stood forth
among the crowd as the embodiment of
noble manhood. Just returned from his
long tour Of collegiate study, " let loose"
as he expressed it, in the great pasture of
life, he was the gayest Of the gay. He
told us that evening, with proud look,
that during his eight years of study, he
had not drank one drop of ardent spirits
or wine. He had made the resolve, "to
touch not, taste not, handle not" till the
completion of his studies, till he was old
enough to control himself, till his habits
were fixed; and do you remember it,
Amy, oh. do you remember it, ere had
been ten minutes bride, his father brought
him the wine cup, and pledged him in a
sparkling glass ''to his neW wife" All,
how | trembled and shrank from that ia
theirs first kiss, how my heart misgave
me, how it throbbed when / saw William,
my adored William, yielding to fathers
temptation, following fathers example,
and grasping, without seeming thought,
the contents of that cup.
"Nonsense, nonsense, Emily" said our
father, when I family whispered, Don't
William, you have persevered so long,
don't commence now, but rather renew
your covenant, and resolve never to drink
even wine" Nonsense, Emily; little
wine won't hurt him. | believe in tenn
perance as much as any one, but the
sparkling Catawba'' had worked evil to
my husbands father, or he would never
have spoken thus to me. lie, the kind,
the generous, polite and dignifed, to talk
to me then of being 'squeamish. Iknew
W tll tilClC W uCNll III cup even
sparkling Catawba." Again and again
William was pressed to drink. This was
the first step. We came west-came to
a city where all men, as it were, INDUCED
in wine. GLOW could he refuse to others
what was always offered to him." Thus,
Amy, it was that he fell. Not in those
haunts of wickcdness where the bcastly
bow themselves into the dust into sensu-
alism; not led by the wicked and deprav-
ed into sin and shame; but by his own
fireside, at the altar of home, with his
wife and children around him, his little
ones stretching their arms to embrace him,
and his wife pleading, ever-lovingly,
against his weakness, did he 60 down to
ruin, led by a fathers hand-lured by
fathers example. Year after year he grew
worse till, unwilling that [ should see
him drink, he learned TO tarry at the Of
fee, the hotel, the club room, into the
weary watches of the night; and then he
grew cold, and hard, and-shall I say it
to thee, Amy-brutal. His bloated cheek,
his red trimmed eyes, his distorted face,
told every passer-by the tale. Business
forsook him; his friends forsook him vir-
tue, religion, manliness forsook him. How
could he tarry with the drunkard!