Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1854-03-15
They stood over him in silence.

nat $1,000 In the IatAef emu OF the Wdru Will
4ouis at his side he said: First his name '
nd then his history from himself-No. 10. i
lie opened the large Register and they
cad mo. 10, Dec. 18th, admitted JAG
lues st. Clair, Resurrectionist
They read no further they looked into
Zach others eyes in breathless a~nxiety-clas- T
ped their hands and looking up to Heaven
exclaimed together-'Our Father!p
They fastened to the bedside of the suffer
err and stood over him. He was awake and :.
calm.
Jacques St. Clair said jerome, striving
to conceal his emotion, 'tell US your past
history
MY history It's a blank replied he look
ing his querist full in the face.
4 am over anxious to hear it. sir, if it
please you to give a short sketch
It's quickly told then, Doctor 81 was
born in France, married there, and after my
wife gave birth to a daughter-a lovely child,
Martha by name-she died from a devilish
engine of poison perpetrated by my own bro
Their. | cIme to America with my child and
married again. My prospects were hattcr-
ing at that time | became wealthy and hon.
ored.- l was the father of another child
sweet little Ada. | had been engaged large
ly in the liquor trafi with my father-in-law.
He became a drunkard-I became a drunk
ard-my wife became a observation-disclosures,
that devil with the glowing eyes at the bed
again, Doctor-and, and we all fell. In one
fatal night while | was drunk and my wife
drunk too, little Ada caught on fire and per-
ished in the flames of her tatters at the door
of our hut and in a snow storm too-Great
-! there's her frozen and broiled frame
now-just ~there-don't you see it? Ha!
ha! ha! the devils arc afraid of it and crawl
away from it-no wonder; it's f~rightful i
Oh! yes, my history you said-well its a
blank at best, sir, but | had two noble boys
-twins-but they were taken away, Heav-
en- knows where. O! sir, its a blank |
might have been a noble man, but for the
accursed habit Of drink-that's killing me
now. That's what made me what you see
me, Doctor, a poor, dwelling wretch, on
whose heart is stamped the red hot foot prints
of eternal woe! | had two noble boys once,
but | can't tell you all it for the tapping
of them blazing wings bothers and torments
me-
Jacques St. Clair said Jerome with tears
in his eyes and laying his arm around his
brothers meek, we are your twins!
f How? who is that p pointing his finger
: with deadly precision at Louis and raising
; up in the bed, staring like a fierce mailman.
All you can't fool me that is Agnes
/ her eyes-her face Now don't dear, good,
dead Aggy, don't come here and he lowered
( his voice Town to the most plaintive, wailing
t strain, please don't come here to torment
me; for | am tor nentei beyond endurance.
Don't come near me,-let me live a little Ion
8 ger-as Heaven is true, | swear that | did
not rob your grave let you rest only
dug down to where they had laid you-I let
you rest, l did Aggy, go away-go-go and
hunt up our little dead Ada. Have you seen
her?'
d Jacques St. Clair, father, we are your
s. twins
ID 'Aggy's eyes-her face-her voice.
lg Don't you recognize your sons, father?
rs 'Aggy's voice-Aggy's voice singing of
s her poor dead father. He persisted in the
to snow storm leaning on the church yard wall
d and Aggy sings its mournful tale-and thus
the drunkard died And thus the drunkard
e, died!
lg A poor old man, with locks as white,
ne As the snow that around him piled,
Froze on the wall one winters night,
And thus my father-th' drunkard died!
Aha! l knew | would catch it after awhile
Why does Aggy sing that mournful song P
[no And thus my tather-th' drunkard died!
10 Jacques st. Clair, we are your long los
as twins can't you remember when we wer,
~ little boys and begged pennies for your
'Aggy's vOice-Aggy's voice she vii
OF sing-hist!
ne The woe that fell and crushed my heart
Was not of God or Heaven given;
. 1t came from Hell-of He'll a part,
:" And left me uin'd-wreck'd and riv'n!
to How strange she sings about little Ada:
Mt Loved 1 once my sweet little b~lue-eyed babe,
My rose-lippd Ada with the 1axen hair
IRE The snow and the fire destroyed my babe
She died in the storm and no mother to care
:: She was nailed in a box to carry away,
And her little red grave was sunk DER there
pa But she laid in the grave never, never a day,
eX- Her bones-her eyes, nor her soft faxen hair
:, And now she sings of herself-and me
e. Once 1 left the old world and its drunken turmoil
And l went down to sleep deep in the grave,
av- And he, who from the gloom of its precinct recoil
~ Must float forever on that shoreless wave
lie must come as I've come, thro' the gloom of tt
~ grave,
lax And float with me ever on the hell-riding wave
nd.
of Did you hear that, Doctor, and float wit
it'll me ever on this hellriding wave!
of Father, Jacques, do you not know yor
of twins, Louis and jerome? They stand owe
lad you calling you to know them again as yor
ads sons, ere you die
the And float with me ever on this heil-ri'
for ing wave!
His mind was a blank ; he recognized not
to ing he was in the dark vale of death :
on through all the long watches Of that terrib
lrn night he was battling with the imaginary d
ing mons about him, and in a distracted mannt
Je- repeating lines from the wailing song that
fancied he heard Agnes singing in anoth,
on world. The sons of the old man sat by hi
hot and did all they could to comfort him thr
ing the long watches of the night, and in Il
ing early lawn his life went like a fickerir
l. lamp with the morning stars.
rat Thus ended his career-thus passed aw;
Dn't one whose name, but for his passion f
you strong drink, would have been glowing I
an day on the brightest page of his country
full annals, and whose memory would have be-
hey handed down to posterity as a sacred rel
heir instead of floating through the pages of a f
the gitive Romance.
Doc The old Resurrectionist was buried
n in Rs cemetry in a decent manner by t
TODD Student and his brother. much to the surpri
lock of those acquainted with the circumstanc4
| on They kept the fact Of their affinity a sacr
bo- secret from the citizens of R-x.
n a. Louis soon took his leave from the Pr
that and went on the wave with his craft, after
nave ing to his legitimate pursuit, and in due til
fy- Jerome graduated with the honors of the
heir s~titution with which he was connected.
cling =
war CHAPTER XXXIX.-AxD THE LAST.
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