Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1854-05-27
miscellaneous.
DEATH IN THE ATTIC.

which are now deserted. The busy thronr which
has swept the thoroughfares until late at night has
ceased to flow, and the great metropolis no longer
throbs its living tide through the accustomed ar
teries The snow has been FILLING fast for an hour
and the sharp gusts sweep round the corner and 90
walng down the dim avenues, MS if sorrowing for |
human woo. The lamp lights CLEAN pale and
sickly out through tho storm. The policeman or
come reyellcr, and the winds, alone disturb .he
silence that reigns.
Turn towards where the lepers Of want and vice
nave gathered, as If in sympathy. The foul crater
is active, for its more deadly fumes ascend in the
darkness OF the night. Down below the surface of
the earth arc pits, where the ruianly and the vile
nrc ne their rovels. There is faint. dcathy glare
from tho dirty windows, aud in spite of the wntry
blast an occasional breath of the rum hole rccking
beneath And then there often comes up some
startling ho ha! to mnglc with the shrieking of
the wind,
:. Here is dark alley, scarce wide enough to nd
init person, running buck where no light breaks
In upon The impcnctrablc darkness. The foot
Strikes step, aud we climb upward upon n crcak-
Ing Hight of stairs The snow and wind whirl
hercely over the roof aud shake the crazy structure
20 its foundation, but we lean closer to the walls
and mount upward.
Five stories up and we stand upon the narrow
platform and peer down with whirling brain, into
the black ocean below Turning into narrow
hall, we stand before shattered door, revealing
feeble light within. Even in this winter night the
,niasma of pollution floats through the building
like pestlence.
What a scene rs we enter that chamber Here
poverty and want reign in their ghostly loneliness
and solitude. The silence Of desolation broods
over all, and the faint lamp light Pickering to its
wane, is like the beam which creeps up from the
exhalations Of the grave There is not a coal in
the CRATE nor n chair in the room. The gusts Of
wind siit the through the cracks by the door,
and an involuntary chill steals over the surface,
and then into the heart. Starvation, guant, pnchcd
and spectral, stalks before the imagination, and
mingles football with every gust that rattcs the
shattered door,
And do human creatures dwell in such abodes as
thisg
Histl
There is a sound in that dark corner. There is q
sigh as if life of agony were crushed at from
the heart. And then n spectre form slowly rise;
and stalks towards the light. 1t is woman, but
God! how thin and haggard fercor gus
shakes the old building She stands in q listening
attitude, its low wall dies away and then wildly
staring at vacancy takes her seat mechanically
upon box by the light. Her face is thin, and
every feature the footprint Of unutterable agony
Tho eyes are sunken aud infamed but fearless
MS her cheek and lip are bloodless. The latter is
thin and drawn closely, as if in mortal suffering
over her teeth
She leans towards the waning taper, and takes q
garment in her hand upon which she has been sew.
ing. How fearfully calm and fearless she appears
We look until some nightmare fascination chains
10 the spot. Save a startling wdness about
the eye, it would not that those features had
over been stirred by human passion. She holds
her hands towards the light in the attempt to
threads her needle but fails; and still, with her
hands extended, stares at the dim taper.
There is stirring in the heap Of rags beside her
and the woman starts il stung by an adder
The faintest flush passes over her cheek, and she
nutters to herself as she hurriedy essays tc
thread the needle.
From the heap of rags boy has come forth
child of ten years, perhaps-he stands before tina
spectral mother, and in husky whispers asks 70
bread She stares strangely in his face, and still
mutters to herself.
The boy is almost naked and shiverng viii
cold, and upon those childish features hunger ha,
written enough to pierce the hardest heart The
very look is n hopeless, beart-breakng agony. The
child bows his head in that womans lap with a sol
like moan, and then moves with langud ster
TO the crate, and lays his fingers, already blue with
cold, upon the frosty ron The chill causes him tC
start, and he returns moaning to the woman. The
hand has fallen in her lap, and the boy lays hi'
cold check down upon it and weeps. She laughs
but it is the low, horrible ha ha! of the maniac
"Mother, dear mother give me one mouthfu
Of bread. lIain'ttherc bread enough where Pa ha
gone? Mother, will God give me bread if sa
my prayers y
The child knecls, and the prayer his mothe
taught him goes feebly up against the vail of tn
blast, and then with wearness and hunger, tn
little pleader falls to sleep his knees his hea
on his mothers hand.
That mother smiles she still stares at v
cancy.
The Storm has passed, and the morning light
the sabbath dawns upon the great city, The churC
bells are pealng out the sabbath melody, and ga
throngs of people are vending along to the rich
furnished churches. Hero are shawls which
queen might envy, and cquipages Of princel
spcndor.
Early this sabbath morning, q cold hearted lan
lord goes up the lone stairway for the promise
reut and knocks at the door, which the reader ha
already entered lie awaits but moment, an
angriy enters.
"No playing games with me- madam Th
Money or leare Dye hear, woman"
The ruffan was used to scenes Of suffering, b
he started back at the one before HIM. That pal
haggard woman-spcctre still seated by Il
lamp, now burned out the garment and needle
her hand, and that horrible smile upon her feature
and that wild eye gazing into vacancy.
The lamp had burned down and died out in
socket. The lamp of life, too, had waned duri
that cold, dreary night and corpse sat the
holding the needle in the emaciated fingers, a
smiling in death The boy slept against the riS
and pulseess form Of the toll worn, heart brok
hungered mother.
That day the officer entered the freless chamb
10 remove the dead seamstress. In that dark c
ner, where the woman was first seen, was the h
hand. lie had been corpse for more than
days, and she toug TO escape starvation, 0
watching with the shroudless, unburied dead
The two found home and an endless rest
Potter's Field, and the pinched and starving b
bread in the ams-house.