Southern sentinel. [volume] (Plaquemine, Parish of Iberville [La.]) 1848-1858, 1856-01-12
"A HAPPY NEW YEAR"

IL was highL IN Tue great city, the last night
OF the year, when merry lips pause in their
thonghtless jestng and laughing eyes gaze
tearfully into the dim Past When Christian
hearts bow in Thanksgiving and throb again
with hope, and worldings fill high the bumper
of pleasure TO cheat their spectre. .guest-Re-
tlecion. When the temperate man tastes of his
simple meal gratefully, and rises from his board
with prayer, while the inebriate grasps at
the intoxicating bowl and swallows its poison.
Gus contents in clamorous despair When
Charity with benevolent hand dispenses % the
poor, while Mammon counts over the dollars
ana dimes, to see how much has been added TO
his misery store since the dying year first bes
gan. When Wealth lounges on velvet tap
estry, to talk of new schemes, while Poverty,
with shiyering limbs and tattered garments,
fingers at his threshold, begging aims When
Plenty giveth his crumbs to the dogs, while
Want sits, like scorned Lazarus, at his very
door. When Piety ''enters her closet" to be
alone with God, while Sin stalks abroad. brsnd
ed wi tn shame. When Faith and Hope Join
hands with renewed zeal, while Unbelief strives
to feel there is no hereafter. When Life looks
into the future with a smile, while Conscience
whispers into the death-closng ear, 'eternity,
eternity" 1t was night in the metropolis, such
a night in its calmness and beauty, as rested
upon Gethsemane, when, overwhe lined with
painful sense of his coming doom, the sinless
prayed, "My Father, if it be possible, let this
cup pass from me-" There was no cloud in
the clear, cold sky, no wild bowling of wintfy
winds, no jarrng of angry elements threatens
ing the coming tempest. AL was quiet and
beautiful and serene, as though man, in his
first innocence. still walked through Eden.
But gazing from afDopen window in low
drinking shop on-Sreet, was an eye which
had looked upon the wne>when it was red, un-
til Nature, in her fairese gard, seemed hideous
10 him. Charles Munford had sinned until its
punishment had NO terrors for him, until con-
science indeed he'd ceased TO reprove OF COM
'demn. THAI night memory proved his good
angel, and TIL tell you how 1t was about
that very hour seUen gears before, directly after
his first spree, that dim old eyes welcomed his
return home, and a voice, broken by age and
disease, whispered in his ear, as the trembling
arm circled his neck, Charley, be a man.
Those eyes had now been long closed and
the kind voice hushed in death, yet sunk, de-
graded, abandoned as the poor youth was, he
had not forgotten his mother. Her form haunt
ed him everywhere, and for years. despite his
reckless and dissipated life, skeleton arm
a0ouId clasp his neck, and voice, full of
mournful tenderness, plead in his ear, 'FBe a
man" At such moments, heretofore, he had
turned back to the bottle for oblivion, but now
even the bottle had failed to comfort him: he
was alone and wretched. Thoughts, at this
propitious hour, pressed heavily upon him. He
had been child, and remembered with bitter
regret, the hallowed joys that clustered around
this flowery spring-tme of his life. He was
now in the twenty-fourth year of his age, and
yet tile glowing richness of good works, high
aims and lofty purposes, which belong to the
bright summer of manhood, he had never
known. Old years had died out, and new ones
had come in under his gaze, but yet the close
Of the first had brought only remorse for the
past, while despair cIonded Invariably the com.
mencement of the other. Must it be 80 al
ways! Was there no terminus to these wild
scenes of a wicked life? Yes, there was ter.
minus, but sohere3 Conviction answered, The
grave!
Starting from his painful revery, he stood
up, sobered, before his God, and drawing from
his bosom the cherished likeness of his mother
pressed it 10 his lips, and, in an agony of re-
morse and repentance, cried out, "lHother, ~
be mani"
It was after midnight and 10! the dawn oI
"a Happy New Year" over his spirit.