Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1856-04-23
The Drunkard's Child

Hha1 sight more pitiable than that of the
child OF the wretched Inebriate Ifhe turns
his eyes IN upon the scenes of domestic suffer-
ing ana want, he finds nought but the gloom
mess OF hopeiessness and despair; ifhe looks
out uponthe wos,l for sympathy in his sad
and desolate Condition, he is met by the cold,
chilling gaze of scorn and contempt which
his fathers sins have u~njustly cntailed up
on ma" or repulsel by the stern heartless-
ness OF the Implying throng who point with
derision at the drunkard,s child Sick at
heart, and with every noble impulse wounded
and bleeding within him, ho turns in the ag-
ony OF his loneliness to her who gave him
birth, and he finds on her once beauteous and
joyous face, traced with the pencil of sorrow,
the dark lineaments of hopelessness and des-
par. Or 1t may be, that his Mother, like a
crushed and withered flower, has sickened,
dropped and died and now fills an obscure
grave in the p%otter's field. Oh how unspea-
kably gloomy and cherries is the sad fate of
that poor child. God be merciful to the help
less boy, and save him from his fathers fate.
But it may be there is a picture even more
sorrowfndl tmkhba He has an only daugh-
-asEange osellnesI9uthful face fingers the
the happy days of yore. With no kind voice
to guide her steps Alright and teach her the
paths of virtue and religion, she is doomed te
the performance of Ill manner of d~rudgery,
suffering and sorrow incident to degradation
and crime, exposed to the vulgarisms of tn
low herd which infest the drunkard's lowl,
howell in his hours of debauchery and bias
phemy. What sight on earth more calculates
to arouse the sympathies and excite the com
misseration ofthe beneyolenta and true-hearte
than such a scene as this Is it to be won
dered at that the victim of such influences j
found pursuing the dark alleys ofinfamy an
shame.
Pause, thou infatuated, drunken father
and gaze upon this faintly-sketched scene ia
less horrible than the soul-sickening realit
that surrounds the e If thouhast no regal
for thyself; if all the noble impulses of IL
heart have been obscured by the dark blotch'
ofsin and degradation, and thou hast NJ phi
for thyself, for Gods sake and the sake of q
thou once held dear, have mercy upon tho
of thine own household, thine WI flesh al
; blood, and save them from an infamy viii
~belongeth to thee alone. By the virgin
nocence and purity of thy wife's fond afe
(; ton by her undying devotion which h
elung to thee in the darkest hour Of MIST
tune by that solemn vow of reform viii
/ she extorted fromthee as she lay in expiri
agonies upon her lowly pallet of poverty;
+ the love with which thou first gazed upon
cherubfaeed boy whom thou art now buryi
in the dark sea of misery or leading on
high road to crime and ignominy by the '
gin purity of thy angelic daughter, fit embl
of her mother in her days of innocence &
joy-we c%onjure thee to pause in thy do,
! ward career. Stay thy paricidal hand
rush not into the presence of God with
blood of thine own children reeking on tn
hands. Thou canst yet be a mantle Or
1 of the Sons of Temperance, by a strict adj
" ence to its principles can yet restore the,
cd honor and to God. 1t has saved thousa
de it will save you, if thou wilt adhere to
10 Doubt not, but strike for thy freedom wit
80 firm resolve.
"There's no impossihility to him
Tn Who stands prepared tosconYuer every hazI
- The fearful are the failing.
.