Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1852-1859, 1853-06-06
FROM the Cotton Plant
"Child Lost"
BY snokEa,

Through fashionable and obscure streets--up
and down dark alleys--in the midst of toiling in
dustry and vicious idleness-the bell has rung and
the cry '.child lost, child losr' has been heard
Eyerywhele among the great and low-and rich
poor-the laboring and the idle, those words found
ed or not lost. The belated nurse presses her
charge closer, or grasps the wrists more tightly, as
she hurres home to the alarmed parent. Every
where is sympathy and concern.
GA CHILD LOST! CHILD LOST !! !! A little girl about
five years of age-had on a blue dress with awhile
apron. Has long curling brown hair-large blue
eyes and fresh rosy complexion and is very pretty.
Was last seen in the neighborhood of the JAIL
Lost child-child lost'-and the voice and bell
die away down the durkening street.
The man of business homeward bound, stops at
the cry. The hardened capitalist who has all day
long listened with indifference to the story of q
sinking friend; the modern Shylock who has just
had his ,und of fiesh--blood and all; the gam
bier standing at his den; gddy worldlings in their
drunken revels; the toil-worn labonng man; the
solitary stranger thousands of miles distant from
home and children; every human heart feels the
potency of that sad cry, "chiId lost lost"
the thronged city. 1t is getting darker-blacker
The lamps glow like stars. The sky is overcast.
The rain comes down-faster-now in torrents
What numberless homes are sad for the little
wanderer! Mothers look auxiously from windows
into the streets. Fathers go and stand upon the
door steps. Ever and anon there comes through
the storm with the careening wind, that faint and
distant sound, "child ltst-chld lost-lost-lrst
lost" Little ones around the hearth stone stop
in their play, and look grave. The lost child is
staggering along in terror. lis home is desolate.
There must be such thing an universal hui
man magnetic telegraph. As though by instinct
the news flies from square to square-into fashion
able streets-down obscure alleys-along high
ways and by-ways-to that desolate home and dis
tracted mother-tsT'he chiLdis found-the child is
tound.'' Starting tears gush forth now from Joy.
A thousand little rosy cheeks, surrounded with
brown curls, and lighted up by large blue eyes,
are kissed aud kissed again that night. Every
where is Joy. No one enquiries, no one cares
whether the little wanderer was rich or poor. 1t
was child-a human child. 1t was lost and is
found.
think of the poor child-lost, in depth of un-
fathomable tdegradation-who daily n eets you at
nightfall with hoiloy eye and painted cheek; who
stares at you through prison bars; who glares up
on you from the bells oil chine and public pollu-
ton; who comes up before the face of the CriLi-
nal Court; who stands between starvation aad
crime-betweent temptation and sin-betweenl light
and darkness. "Chld lost-child lost" "rhe
lost is found" Beautiful expression of love
which clings to man, when deserted by his fellow
| man.
Oh! We whose natures are choaked up with sell
fishness, remember, that He who guards you and
yours from harm and danger, and returns safely
| home again those absent objects of affection and
| solitude, expects from you feeling of pity and
kindness for the unhappy outcasts of earth-"losr'
in the most fearful mea ming Of that word. ,T5