Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1852-1859, 1853-01-24
The Son of Cen. Pierce.

How vain is human grandeur! The telegraph.
lest night, brought intelligence that the only child
OF the President elect had been killed yesterday on
The railroad. In a:moment, in the twinkling OF an
eye, the brave, beautiful boy, smiling and ckattin.
at his mothers side, ceased TO live, and lay a man
gled corpse beside the suffering parent.
But yesterday. if the question had been p,o-
pounded who was the happitSt man in the United
States, the answer OF nine .tentliS OF the cummuni-
", perhaps, would have been 'the President
e.ect." Chosen by q unanimity, almost unprece-
denied Ill our history. 10 the highest Office in the
git OF the people: surrounded by every blessing
which q prosperous fortune and endearing domes.
tic ties could beStow; in The full vigor of health
and hope, his felicity seems TO be assured almost
beyond the possibility of disturbance. Yet, to-day,
there IS no one, in all the wide land, who is, per
hapS, as miserable as he. Only those who have lost
4 dear child, by some sudden and unexpected
stroke, and that child the only one, s'the sole lamb
OF the flock" can realize his condition. Over the
dead body OF that darling boy, the heart of him who,
Yesterday, appeared above the chances Of fortune,
is to-day breaking. He would give the Presidency,
fame and fortune, ay! hrs own life, TO recall to life
'Aa: niangled corpse. Cod help him!
Yes, bitter as is the fathers grief, il is nothin.
10 The agony which must rend the mothers SOUL
AS she looks down on the coifined face of her Chile,
and remembers that ii was on her bosom he first
nestled; that size first distinguished the falteriur
words with which he liSpci the name of father:
and that now he lies cold before her, never more 10
throw his arms around her neck, never more 10 pray
at her Knee, never more TO talk o the bright future,
never more 10 tell her what great things he wonld
DO for her when he grows 10 be n man oh! as all
ms rnShes TO her memory, how her whole moral
anu physical being must shake with convulsive woe,
how the very heavens must seem black, how the
words OF the PSalmlst must come up 10 her lips.
'AOSalOm, AbSalom, my son, would to God | had
died Tor thee" Station. power, even the glory OF
her husband are nothing TIC her now. The beggar
that mugs her baby 10 her bosom, and asks aims on
the dusty highway, is happier, yes! ten thousand
HineS, than that bereaved mother to-day.
In great griefs like hers tears are unknown
But every American mother weeps for her, their
own wounds opening afre sh, If they have lost a
child; and countless prayers, from innumerable
households all over this vast republic, ascend to the
Great Father in her behalf. May He, who alone
can give the strength, enable her TO bear the blow.
Oh! may she, and he who mournS beside her, re-
lneIlOe., when all things earthly appear 10 them
but as shadows fleeing away, that it has been said
oil Children, by the Saviour himself, that they ssdo
always behold the face of their Father in IIeaven.'
Blessed aSSurance! From the temptations of this
world, from everything corrupting and Sorrowlng
the pure soul of the Child has escaped, and from
the realms of everlasting rtSt he looks back, to-day
rejoicing. over the dark and once dreaded guilt Of
the tomb, saying, 'Oh! grave where is thy sting,
oh! deathf where is thy victory!" May His spirit,
II such things are permitted in the Providence OF
God, descend unseen to whisper peace TO the hearts
OF the bereaved parents.-Phiiudelph ia Evening
Bulletin.