Martinsburg gazette. [volume] (Martinsburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1833-1855, 1853-05-25
miscellaneous.
CERT


"Doyou know, Gertrude, the opinion prev
alent in the neighborhood, in regard to your
friend Wilton %
"Alother,' said Gertrude, with forced COM
posure, sI know ofnothing to his disadvant-
age. know he has enemies here--bitter,
inlplacable enemies, who would gladly sacri-
flee him. / know too, that their tongues have
not been idle that defamation in its foulest
nature has been plentifully bestowed upon a
virtuous and high-minded gentleman"
"Gertrude," said her mother, 81 know that
the world sometimes condcus unjusly. know
that defamation sometimes hunted down the
pure and yirtuous, and blackened the fair fame
of the upright and praisc-worthy. But, when
so much is ayerred respecting Wilton, when
friends and foes alike acknowledge his aber-
rations, the one BY open attacks upon his rep
utation, the other by doubtful whispers and
expressions of regret, and an evident with
drawal of their warm and confding friend
ship, we may justly fear that there is indeed
reason for such change-that our young
and ingenious friend is yielding to the fasci-
nations of vice-gliding gradually and almost
imperceptibly down that fearful path which
leads from the perfect light of virtue and ho-
lineness''
81 viii not believe -never''-replied
Gertrude, her clear blue eye lighted up with
unwonted energy. Smother, you are deceived
alike by the avowed enemies and the false
and envious friends of Charles Wilton
Believe me, l have not reposed my conf
dence in stranger. know Wilton to be
virtuous and honorable. And who, let me
ask, are those who traduce his character %
| Her beautiful lip curled into an expression of
ineAable scorn, as she replied to her own in
terrogatory. "False-hearted wretches-crea-
lures of envy and malice, who would as soon
dare the falling thunderbolt, as confront the
indignant glance of the man they have so
foully injured"
Gertrude spoke from the impulse of her
heart She could not believe that such a
man as Charles Wilton could debase himself
to the sin of drunkenness-that he whose ma
ture was so noble-so elevated passionate
lover of the beauty of the natural universe,
and of the god-like manifestations of human
virtue, the out-brea king of the immortal
spirit from the darkness of the prison-house,
could, by any possible temptations, yield to
the balefnl enticements of the Destroyer-and
humble the golike image lower than that Of
the ''brutes which perish"
And why was it that when all her friends
saw, and warned her of her danger, she chung
yet closer to the object of their fears Why
was it that when the bosom friends Of Charles
Wilton avoided him as if there were contain
nation in his very presence, that the beau
tiful and intellectual Gretrude welcomed his
approach with snile Of deeper fondness p
She loued him /: and the love of heart like
hers changes not with the changes of the be-
loyed--it burns brighter and warmer as the
shadows of evil close around its object.
And Gertrude became the wife of Charles
Wilton-and his victim also. She died early
but not before every beautiful blossom of
her affection had perished-not before a
death-like whitening had gone over her heart,
until it became as dust, and all its warm and
holy feelings gave place to bitterness and
loathing adherence. Oh there is nothing
in human suffering like wrong and scorn from
those whom we love, and would die for
nothing which 50 changes and chills the con-
fiding bosom. And all this Gertrude felt
and her high spirit sank under the trial,
She persisted the last moments other ex-
istence we're unsoothed by the voice of atfec-
ton. At times, indeed, bloated and loath-
some form bent over her pillow-the wreck
of all which gives beauty and dignity to man
hood and voice, hdeous from drunken
ness, murmured in her ear the disgusting
words of an idiots fondness--to be succeed
cd by the rude oath--the unfeelmg jest--the
savage indifference to mortal suffering, which
characterize the lost and shameless Drunk