Eaton Democrat. [volume] (Eaton, Ohio) 1843-1856, 1854-07-13
DEATH IN THE ATTIC.

OF night, has ceased to flow, and the great
metropolis no longer throbs IFS living tide
through the accustomed arteries. The snow
has leen falling fer on hour, and the sharp
gusty wind sweeps round the corner and goes
wailng down the dim avenues as if sorrowing
for human woe. The lamp lights gleam pale
and sickly out through the storm. The police
man, or some Teveller, and the winds alone
disturb the silence that reigns.
Turn downward where the lepers Of want
and vice have gathered az if in sympathy
The foul crater is active, for its more deldly
fumes ascend in the darkness Of the night
Down below tbe surface of the earth, are p Is,
where the rufianly and the vile are at their
revels. There IS faint deadly glare from the
blast, an occasional breath of The rum hell
reekng beneath. And an occasional ha ha !!
to mingle with the shrieking of the wind.
Here is dark alley scarce wide enough to
admit person; running back where no light
breaks in upon the impenetrable darkneSs.-
The foot strikes step, and we climb upward
upon creaking flight Of stairs. The snow
and wind whir fiercely over the roof and
shake the crazy structure to its foundation,
but we lean closer 10 the walls, and mount
upward.
Five stories up, and we stand upon The
nsrrow platform and peer down with whirl-
ing brain into the black ocean below. Turn
ing into narrow hall we stand before shat
tered door, revealing feeble light Within
Even in this winter night, the miasma of pol
luton footS through The building like pesti-
lence.
What scene as we enter that chamber
Here poverty and want reign in their ghostly
| loneliness and solitude. The silence of desc
lation broodS over all, and the faint lamp light
| Pickering 10 its wane is like the beam which
creeps up from the exhalatons of the grave.-
There is not coal in the CRATE, nor a chair
in the room. The gusts of wind sift the snow
through the cracks by the door, and an invol.
untaIy chill steals over the surface and then
into the heart. Starvation, gaunt, pinched
and spectral, stalks before the Imagination ant
mngles a football with every gust that rattle!
the shattered door.
And do human creatures dwell in sucl
abodes as this
| Hist
There is sound in that dark corner. Their
is sound as if life of agony were at ono,
crushed from the heart And then Spectr
form slowly rises and stalks towards the light
1t is woman, but God how thin and hag
lgard A fercer gust shakes the old building
She stands in listening attitude as its loS
wall dies away, and then, wildly staring a
vacancy, takes her seat mechanically on bo
by the light. Her face is thin, and every lea
ture the footprint of unutterable agony. TIL
: eyes are Sunken and inhamed, but as teares
as her cheek and lip are bloodless. The latte
. is thin and drawn closely, as if in mortal SUI
fering, over her teeti.
ri She leans over the waning taper, and take
q garment in her hand upon which she hs
been sewing. How fearfully fearless and cali
she appears. We look until some night-mal
fascination CHAINS us to the spot. Save
startling wldness about the eye, 1t would NJ
seem that those features had ever been stirre
by human passion. She holds her hant
towards the light in the nttempt to thread ht
needle but fails; and still, with her hant
. diStended, stares at the dim taper.
= There is stirring in the heap pof rags besit
o her and tie woman starts as if stung by a
= adder. The faintest flush passes over h
n cheek, and she mutterS to herself as she hu
y riedly essays 10 thread her needle.
/, From that heap OF rags boy has con
e forth Child of len yearS-he stands befo
II that spectral mother, and in husky whispe
IS asks for bread. She stares strangely into b
Y face, and still muitering 10 herself.
= The boy is almost, naked and Shiyeringw
- cold, and upon those childish features hung
), has written enough to pierce the hardest heal
J, The very lock is hopeless, heart-b,eaking al
d ony. The child bows his head in that won
|, ans lap with sob-like moan, and then NOV
+ with languil step to the ate, and lays b
l. fingers already blue with cold, upon the (ros
n iron. The chill causes him 10 start, and he Il
', turns moaning 10 the woman. The hand h
" fallen into her lap, and the boy lays his co
S cheek upon.it and weeps. She laughs, but
, is the low, horrible ha ha Of the maniac.
/ "Mother, dear mother! give me one moutI
/. full Of bread. Haint there enough where
e has gone3 Mother, will God give me bread
r. | say my prayers!
The child kneels, and the prayer his moth
taught him goes feebly ur against the wall
t. the blast, and then with WEAKNESS and hungt
the little pleader falls to sleep on his knet
or his head on his mothers hand.
III That mother smiles as she still stares
$, vacancy.
u IUG olUrIH 1dS pdSoCut ouu lHC HulHl
light of the Sabbath dawns upon the gre
d. city. The church bells are pealing out t
ve Sabbath melody, and gay throngs Of peoI
are vending along TO the richly furnish
s. churches. Here are shawls which a que
might envy, and equipages of princely sple
nd do. .....
Early this Sabbath morning, co 'd-heart
Landlord goes up the lone stairway for
oil promised rent and knocks at the door viii
re the reader has already entered. He ava
ne but fnoment ana angrily enters.
OF "No playing games with me madam. I'll
:" m6ney or leave. Dye hear, woman!"
he The ruflian was used to scenes OF sufferil
no but he started back at the one before him
ed That pale, haggard woman-spectre was 81
seated by the lamp now burned out, the &
I'M ment and needle in her hand, and that houil
an smile upon her features, and that wild {
,rt gazing into vacancy.
cir The lamp Of life, too, had waned dur
,ut that cold dreary night, aud corpse
lin there, holding the needle in the emacia
mr. fingers, and smiling in death. The boy 81
he against the rigid and pulseess form of the I
ar hear- broken, hungered mother.
That day the officer entered the firel
chamber TO remove the dead seamstress.
iu- that dark corner, where the woman was I
BILE seen, was the husband. He had been cor
at for more than ten days, and she toiling TO
cape starvation, and watching with the Shro
led less, unburied dead.
nth The two found home and an endless
IN Potter's Field, and the pinched and sti
ing boy bread in the alms-house.
hail ----~----~~>-----~~---------->-- 1.
lers A Genius has invented spy.glass Of W