Daily evening star. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1852-1854, 1853-01-10

Ao, oiu cuuuucI0u W euluk any human
being could live in such place. The walls
were grey with damp, and in some places
huge beads were formed by the moisture.
and trickled down the sides of the room
Inc mouse was, as We have said, q very old
one, and totally untenantable to any other,
than such poor wretches. The windows
were stuffed with old rags, which FORMED .
poor protection against the inclemenc;es If
the season; and altogether it was SCARCELY
ut for rats, still less for human beings.
Poor Mrs. Briggs. She did not tell her
vlslter how miserable poor they had been
for some time previous to her husbands
misfortune. No one but herself knew how
he spent his earnings for liquor, until thew
were reduced to actual want; and furniture
and clothing, and all, had gone to keen
body and soul together No one knew II.
nor how he beat and abused his little fam;.
ly, and even left the marks of his brutal
hands on her poor crippled body, and cruel.
ly grasped her thin shrunken arms until he
almost broke them. And that, which at
first had been looked upon as a calamity
proved In reality god-send; for their
mants were now attended to, and manv
comforts restored to them to which they had
long been strangers. And when at length
John Briggs left his bed, and resumed bis
labors, he was and altered man, and his
family were again prosperous and happv
But we are getting before our story. Like
Tom with his sled, we are runninr awor
with it. Mrs. Harper left them substant;a,
proofs of her charity; and Tom found his
basket quite easy to carry after thew had
visited couple more families in that poor
neighborhood
"Are these the visits you spoke of Ma 20
asked he, when they lad emerged from
another room, the occupants of which were
recipients OF Mrs. Harper's charity.
"fes'" said she, show do you like es-
cortlng me to make New Years callse"
'Oh," said he, $50 far as the visits
themselves are concerned, don't like them
much; but Ma, if you wanted to impress q
lesson on nae, think you have succeeded
pretty we'll"
GLOW about your sled, my SON."
81 was great baby" said he, "and feel
ashamed to think how very ungrateful
have been for all the blessings enjoy. [
will try to think and act differently for the
future. Only think, Ma, how far three
dollars would 60 to make poor family
aappy to-day; and would have spent all
that on bit of painted wood"
The next place to which they directed
their steps was the house of Mrs. Leland.
the widow of one whom Mr.. Harper had
known in former times, and who had more
| over been brother Mason. He knew the
family had been reduced, but he had lest
all traces of them until a few days before
that on which our story opens, and he re-
quested his wife to find them, and if pos
sible to relieve them. 1t is far more
delicate task to bestow favors on such people
than on the vulgar poor; for misfortune
instead of bunting, seems sometimes to
sharpen their sensibilities, and they are
sometimes apt to resent as insults the well.
meant offers of their friends.
AS Mrs. Harper entered the room in which
she was told she would find them. for they
had hired rooms in q small house not far
from her last visiting place, but in alto.
gether different neighborhood, she hest.
tated how to address them. They were al,
respectfully though poorly clad, and the ap-
pearances of the whole family was prepos-
sessing and refined. An open bible lay on
a small table, beside which sat Mrs. Leland
pale, delicate looking woman, and beside
her stood little girl of about nine years
old, reading portion of those inspired
words of the royal Psalmist. A young man
whose head would have served as a model
for painter, but whose dwarfed and crooked
figure it was painful to look at, was seated
at a little distance anxiously watching them.
Edward Leland had heen q merchant and