The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1854-02-02
For tho National Era.
THE MANIAC MOTHER
By 8. A. B. sIMKINs.

All silent the streets, and bleak, and bare,
No sound is heard On the icy air,
But the whispered vail of deep despair
From the lips of o female creature:
"0h, God she mutters. did they but know
How great the need for the little they owe"-
And the gas light discovers face, with woe
Depicted in every feature.
The biting blast and the pitiless storm
Arc 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 childhood's cry.
In garnet, whose window looks into the sky,
And whose stucco is only the rafter.
No laughter resounds in her home so lcne-
No music is heard save the winds hoarss moan,
As it enters the chinks il the olden cone
OF her cherries habitation;
No shuttersthas she to make secure
No cheerful freside. Alas she's poor!
Oh, Heaven! how long must she thus endure
Dread Poverty's desolation?
How little they reck, in that mansion warm,
The merciless rage Of the driving storm,
Al it chills and bruises the delicate form
0fthat mother pale and weary;
But little she heeds the clustering slect,
As it blinds her eyes and bctrays her feet
Her thoughts are away from the stormy street,
In the garnet 30 cold and droary
A pitiless glare shoots sthwart the sky,
Ar if Heaven had Knocked her latest sigh;
And the piercing blast as it whistles by,
Alone vouch.afes to greet her:
Sho pauses-she starts-she quickens her tread
She reaches her homo, and with desperate dread
She silently enters, and peers at tho bed,
To sec II those infant eyes meet her.
There, waiting with hunger and qusking with cold,
On pallet Of straw In a cornor, and rolled
10 her mante-the only spare garment unsold-
Lie the furnishing little creatures
sOh, Ma have you now brought us some hing to
cat?
And somc wood for the fire, Ma, to warm our cold
feet?"
Poor woman. she knows its horrible choat,
And she needs not tho little beseechers.
In anguish and madness chs hurrios away
To the opulent home of the thoughtless and gay,
Who had lately declined tho pale toiler to pay
The thrice-earned reward of her labor:
The amount was so smaH,' Though tho labor was
great,
And the price had been brought to the minimum rate
+" Twas quite inconvenient" The poor womsn's fate
Was the game with tho wealthy ones neighbor.
A nobleman passes-a "great one of earth -
In lucrs not great nor yet lofty of birth;
Ono gifted by Nature with genuine worth
A heart formed to feel for another.
I Dcspairing and frantic, half frozen and wan,
She tell her eqd tails n this ma
Who ever is ready wherever he can,
= A sister to aid, or brother.
Hope brightens her eye, Joy lghtens her tread,
my babos" sho repeats as she fies) shall be fed
And, breathless, again she approaches the bed,
To gaze on each innocent sleeper;
She shudders-oh horror that slumber how deep.
Wretched one it svaileth thee nothing to weep
Como forever from earth to Etornity's sleep,
They rest with their good angel-koeper
4
In the midnight of ter when tempests blow bleak
Clad in garmente of summer, and care-worn, anG
weak,
With wildly-fxed oJe. and sorrow blanched cheek,
She wanders about the old dwelling
Which alone to hor sorrow bow cd spirit is dear;
And she loves-the POOR maniae-to linger long hero
For oft the bright faces ofloved oaes appear,
Sweet tales of their heaven homo telling.
And Oft n and oft, mid the clamor and st;ife
OF the boisterous mart aud the business Of life,
May be seen-mark the seluel-THE INEBRIATE's
WIFE!
Think Of her growing, not scorning
In her eye is the sadness Of settled despair
On her brow are the burrows of cankering care;
Her check. have the death hue, though once they
fair
As the fresh blown flower of morning
Aye, her shivering bosom, now barod to the storm
With girlhood's fond dreams and entertainments bea
warm,
And the garments of comfort protected her form
Then each was n sister or brother!
Misfortune o'erwhemed, cen in life joyous morn,
And the cold, cantng world left her needy and lon
And the finger of ribaldry, folly, and scorn,
Noto points to the M MAC MOTHER
Csuc;ooof, Ton,tnr,,1 12Sd