Daily national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1854, 1854-01-20
LITERARY MISCELLANY.
For tho National Fra.
THE MANIAC MOTHER.
BY y. A. b. sIMKINs.

From the lips Of female creature:
"0h, God = she mutters, " did they but know
How great the need for tho little they owe
And the gas light discovers face, with woe
Depicted in every feature.
The biting blast and the pitiless storm
Are freezing her tatters around her form,
And she signs as she passes palace warm
And lists to the joyous laughter;
For up in that dark, dirty alley hard BY
May be heard the sad music Of childhoods cry
In garnet, whose window looks into the sky,
And whose stucco is only the rafter!
No laughter resounds in her home so lone
No music is heard cave the winds hoarse moan,
As it enters the chinks in the oldsn cone
OF her cherries habitation;
No shutters has she to make secure
No cheerful Preside. Alas, she's poor,
Oh, Heaven how long must she thus endure
Dread Poverty desolation!
How little they reck, in that mansion warm,
The merciless rage of tho driving storm,
As it chls and bruises the delicate form
tlffhat mnthar pale and weary;
But little she heeds the clustering sleet,
As it blinds her eyes and betrays her feet
Her thoughts away from the stormy street.
In the garnet SO cold and dreary
pitiless glare shoots athwart the sky
As If Heaven had Knocked her latest sigh;
And the piercing blast, as it whistles by,
Alone vouchsafes to greet her.
She pauses she starts--shc quckens her tread
She reaches her home, and with desperate dread
She silently enters, and peers at tho bed,
To SEQ if those infant eyes meet her.
Thera wa;linv With In o.ar "a ,,,h ALI
On pallet of straw in q corner, and rolled
In her mantle the only spare garment unsold
Lie the furnishing little creatures
'Oh, Ma have you now brought US something to
And some wood for the fire. Ma, to warm our cold
feet =
Poor woman. she knows tits horrible cheat
And she heeds not tho little beseechers
In anguish and madness, she hurries away
10 the opulcnt home OF the thoughtless and gay,
Who had lately declined the pale toilor to pay
Tho thrice-earnsd reward of her labor:
The amount was so small" Though the labor was
great,
And the price had been brought the minimum rate
Twas quite inconvenientn The poor woman's fate
Was tho same with the wealthy one's neighbor.
nooleman passes-a great one Of earth -
In lucre not great, nor yet lofty of birth;
One gifted by Nature with genuine worth
heart formed to feel for another.
Despairing and frantic, haffrozen and wan,
She tells her sad tale to this generous man,
Who over is ready, wherever he can,
sister to aid, or brother.
Hope brightens her eye, Joy lightens her tread
Nv bnhea (sha uh. a;as LII ha fsd -
And, breathless, again she approaches the bed,
To gaze each innocent sleeper;
She shudders-oh, horror that sIumber how deep!
wretched one ii ayailsth thee nothing to weep;
Gone forever from earth to Eternitys sleep,
They rest with their good angel-keepsr!
In the midnight of wiater when tempests blow bleak
Glad In garments Of summer, and care-worn, anc
weak,
With wildly-fxed eye. and sorrow blanched cheek,
She wanders about the old dwelling,
Which alone to her sorrow bowed spirit is dear;
And she loves-the poor manac--to linger long here
For oft the bright faces Of flowed ones appear,
Sweet tales Of their heaven. home telling.
And often and of, mid the carnor and strife
Ofthe boisterous mart and the business Of life,
~ " eoe" mark 'no soqusi-Thk lNkbhiATEs
WIPE!
Think Of her grieving, not scorning
Ia her eye is the sadness Of settled despair;
On her brow are the burrows Of cankering care;
Her checks have the death hue, though once they
were fair
As the fresh-blown flower Of morning
Aye, her shivering bosom, now barred to the storm,
With grihoods fond dreams and entertainments beat
warm,
And the garments of comfort protected her form
Then each was q sister or brother.
Misfortune overwhelmed cen in LIES joyous morn.
And the cold canting world left her needy and lorn
And the finger Of ribaldry, folly, and scorn,
Now points 10 the MANIAC MOTHER
Cincinnati, January |, 1854