Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1854-08-30
One of LIES Dark Pictures.

y NANFAO CrH0NCI
in The life Of one who commended her career
under tho most hattering circumstance of
wealth, beauty and social position, is given
in The Independent, by a writer who pro-
fesses to draw the picture without any shade
of coloring. We have no doubt of its truth
and we arc confident that it is by no
means a novel experience.
Will you become my wife p said an en-
terprising youth to Mary @. NO. very
scornfully did she answer do you think |
will become the wife of one who expects me
to be q kitchen drudge?' The young man
was already possessed of competence, and
was on the surs road to wealth and though
he keenly felt the barbed arrow Of the naughty
maiden, he loved her, and therefore kindly
answered, 8 | would not wish you to be a
kitchen drudge. / only wish you to superin-
tend the household as / do the farm. The
work shall be done by Others No. she
still as proudly answered, i am q lady, and
will live a lady. The dsst of your kitchen
shall never soil the soles of my feet
A brilliant match she intended to make,
and her wealth and beauty purchased for
her many brilliant offers but ere her fas-
tidiousness could be gratifed, wealth and
beauty suddenly departed. Misfortunes and
bad speculations deprived her father of shis
lands, and a terrible Illness wasted her roun-
ded form, and scattered ashes where roses
had bloomed upon her cheeks.
Years pass on, and, one by one, kindred
are cut off by death, or remove to distant
lands, and she is left alone and almost for
gotten. Her home is with an humble rela-
tive, who can i'll afford, and is less willing to
take care Of her, and she is made bitterly to
feel that she is eating the bread of Independence,
and is unwelcome in the house of her kim
dred.
Then the youth who had felt her scorn,
and was willing to return good for evil, and
perhaps to heap Goals of FIRE en- her head
took her to his house and gave her all the
comforts of a home. She made herself use
full, but not without feeling deeply the hui
initiation Of being compelled as an humble
dependant to soil her feet with the dust of
the kitchen over which she refused to preside
as it's mistress, though she was never re-
minded of her misfortunes by n unkind
illusions. Here she had been a few months,
when domestic calamities made it impossible
that she should remain longer, and she was
thrown upon the world in utter poverty and
desolation.
who bids Who bids lowerf' This is
the cry of the auctioneer, and the wretched
creature sitting there to be taken by the Lowest
bidder, q town pauper, crouching in fear
and hopeless misery and degradation, is thu
once rich and beautiful and naughty Ma
ry c.!
The lowest bidder proved a coarse, un
principled, and unfeeling wretch, who hope'
to make her a kitchen drudge and a source o
profit. But misery had done its terribl
work, and she was carried to his house
maniac. For a long time her rawlings wer
heart-rending to hear, though she was harm
less but at length she partially recovered
and went about mournfully humming a son
she had blithely sang in early life, or slowl
drawing her wasted fingers through her au
burn t~resses, which fell in tangled masse
upon her shoulders, repeating for hour
some unmeaning words, wandering alOn
Spot, UppurvuUfy UUusorous OI IrUF UUu1IIrdI
but without mental or physical energy t
emancipate herself.
After two or three years she recovered en-
tirely, but those who had the care Of her live
far away from any who had known her in cir
hood or ripper years. There were none t
f whom she could appeal. She felt no conf
dence that she could support herself, and bt
ing humbled inthe dust by her sufferings an
r~everses, she lived long in obscurity an
wretchedness, as entirely forgotten by all VIII
had hattered her in the day of her p~rosperit
as if she had never lived.
Alter ner recovery she was very diligent
the use OF her needle, and did indeed far MOI
than support herself. Her history during III
twenty years she remained there would be
} record fthe most inhuman treatment and r.
voting crime which the annals of heathendol
or slavery present, and it took place in a r
t mote and quiet country village in New-Enl
land.
, For twenty years her life was one long da
of sunshine, and she fitted to and fro as ga
/ and happy in her thoughtlesSness as bird
butterfly. She was not taught to sympathil
s with sorrow, and never spent a thought.
s gave a penny for the relief of mise ry. VIII
g was the world TO her? Why should she tro
n BILE herself about other peoples sorrow N,
d she hated the sight of poor people, and cou
q not endure the thought of the sick and Attic
e ed. Of what use was it to make herself mi
s cradle about othersq She preferred to
happy, and every body else might ifthey choos
There are many who dive as she lived, al
g go all the way through life basking in Il
d sunshine Of prosperity, never learning the 81
y lesson Of change. Why was it that she rea
ed such bitter fruits of false education al
thoughtlessness? All! this is one of the nv
teries which time can never solve.
At the end of twenty years of seryitude a,
suffering, Il friend who had known her in gi
n0od happy hours, returned TO MS ear
! home after a long absence, and inquired I
u her in the village where she was born, amol
. her early companions, and even among h
kindred, and no trace of her could be foun,
2 she had passed away from their sight-h
passed away from their memories. But tn
= had not heard of her death, therefore it W
concluded that she must be alive. But ~her
T They had not heard Of her marriage eth,
and they began to wonder what could ha
n become Of one who was the life of the villa
circle-the gayest of the gay. Some had be
= absorbed in their own sorrows, and Others h
been too happy to think ofany but thenselv,
as Now it seemed strange to them that they cou
- have so forgotten her.
u Yes they found her. Alas! it was like
thunder bolt and the sharp lightning in
al village circle yes, they found her, and learn
that, not twenty miles from her birth plaC
Il she had lived more than twenty years a pa
az per! There. was not atrace other early bloc
n or beauty upon her form or cheek vast
II and haggard and furrowed wretchedncss W
of written in every line of her wrinkled brow /
MT rich auburn tresses had become coarse and 81
"a and gray, and her dress of home. spun betray
IS the effects of d~ludgery in every motion of /
of once graceful figure. Eighty years of ordit
ry sorrow could not more entirely have OBJ
no Grated every charm of mind or person. M
those who had SO long neglected her awoke
the duty of providing her with a comfortal
and congenial home, and when kindness h
restored her to some degree of healthfulne