Grand River times. [volume] (Grand Haven, Mich.) 1851-18??, 1856-03-19

as could in my drunken state, and clinchec
both hands in her hair.
"God have mercy, Jamesw exclaimed my
wife, as she looked up in my fendish counte
nance, "you will not kill us; you will no
harm Willie" and she sprung to the cradle
and grasped him in her embrace. l caught
her again by the hair and dragged her to the
door, and as lifted the latch the wind burst
in with cloud of snow. With yell of a
fiend, | still dragged her on, and hurled hei
out into the darkness and the storm. With
a wild ha! ha! 1 closed the door and turned
the button, her pleading means mingled with
the wall of the blast and the sharp cry of her
babe. But my work was not complete. |
turned to the little bed where lay my older
son, snatched him from his slumbers, and,
against his half awakened struggles, opened
the door and threw him out. In agony of
fear, he called to me by a name l was no
longer fit to bear and locked his little fingers
in my side pocket, | could not wrench that
frenzied grasp away, and with the GOODNESS of
devil, as was, shut the door upon the arm
and with my knife severed the wristw
The speaker ceased a moment and buried
his face in his hands, as if to shut out some
fearful dream, his deep chest heaved like a
storm-swcpt sea. My father had arisen from
his seat and was leaning forward, his counte-
nance bloodless, and the large drops standing
out upon his brow. Chills crept back to my
young heart, and l wished was at home.
The old man looked up, and I have never
since beheld such mortal agony pictured up
on human face as there was upon his.
1t was morning when / awoke, and the
storm had ceased, but the cold was intense.
| first secured drink Of water, and then |
looked in the accustomed place for Mary. AS
| missed her for the first time, shadowy
sense of some nightmare began to dawn up
on my wandering mind. | thought had
dreamed a fearful dream, but involuntarily
opened the outside door with shuddering
dread. AS the door opened the snow burst
in, followed by the fall of something across
the Threshold, scattering the cold snow and
striking the floor with a sharp hard sound
My blood shot like red hot arrows through
my veins and | rubbed my eyes to shut out
the sight. 1t was-it-God, how horrible |!
it was my own injured Mary and her babe,
frozen to ice! The ever true mother had
bowed herself over the child to shield it, and
wrapped all her own clothing around it, leav-
ing her own person stark and bare TO the
storm. She had placed her hair over the
face of the child, and the sleet had frozen it
to the white cheek. The frost was white in
its half open eyes, and upon its tiny fingers.
| know not what became of my brave boy"
Again the old man bowed his head and
wept and all that were in the house wept
with him. My father sobbed like child
In tones of low and heart broken pathos, the
old man concluded
81 was arrested, and for long months
raved in delirium. | awoke, was sentenced
to prison for ten years; but no tortures could
have been endured within my own bosom.
Oh, God, no! am not fanatic. | wish
injury to no one. But while live let me
strive to warn others not to enter that path
which has been so dark and fearful a one to
me. | would see my angel wife and chill
dren beyond this vale of tears
The old man sat down, but spell as deep
and strange as that wrought by some wizards
breath rested upon the audience. Hearts
could have been heard in their beating, and
tears to fall. The old man then asked the
people to sign the pledge. My father leaped
from his seat and snatched at it eagerly /
had followed him, and as he hesitated mo-
ment with the pen in the ink, a tear fell from
the old mans eye upon the paper.
"Sign it-sign it, young man. Angels
would sign it, would write my name
there ten thousand times in blood if it would
bring back my loved and lost ones"
Ny father wrote "MoRTIMoR HUDsoN."-
The old man looked, wiped his fearful eyes,
and looked again, his countenance alternately
flushed with red and death-like paleness.
1t is--no it cannot be, yet how strange"
muttered the old man. "Pardon me, sir,
but that is the name of my own brave boy"
My father trembled, and held up his left
arm, from which the hand had been severed.
They looked moment at each others eyes,
both replied and grasped-
"My own injured boy"
"My father"
They fell upon each others neck till it
seemed that their souls would grow and min
gle into one. There was weeping in that
church, and | turned bewildered upon the
streaming faces around me.
''Let me thank God for this great blessing
which has gladdened my guit-burdened
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