Grand River times. [volume] (Grand Haven, Mich.) 1851-18??, 1856-03-05
THE DRUNKARD'S STORY

y Review we select the ensuing scene from
real life: .....
"a few Sabbaths since, at morning ser
vice, one of the most degraded specimens o.
humanity that ever greeted my vision, came
staggering into the chapel Of the House O
Industry. His wild and frightful looks, rag
ged and dirty beyond description, his face
bruised and swollen, rendered him an object
of terror and disgust. He seemed to look al
the children with wonderful interest, occa-
sionally muttering to himself, Beautiful
beautiful! Oh, that mine were here. He
sat an hour or more, and then, with a long
earnest look at the children, staggered out Of
the chapel, and went up to the dark valley
of the shadow of Death" Cow Bay.
AS the bell rang for service in the after
noon, and while the children were clustering
together, the same wild looking man stagger-
ed in once more. He surveyed the faces Of the
children with the closest scrutiny, and at
length his eyes rested on two bright
eyed little girls, who were singing one of
their little hymns. He sat immovable as a
statue during the whole service, gazing in
tently ON the faces of these two children.
The services closed, the congregation dis
persed, yet he fingered, and the tears came
coursing down his cheeks thick and fast
Dr. S. asked him what was the matter.
81 am drunkard A wretch-an out
cast; homeless and without penny. Once
l had home and friends who loved and re-
spected me. Time passed. and | became a
drunkard One friend after another left me !;
still drank on, and down, down, down l
fell.
Father and mother both went down to
their graves with broken hearts, Ny poor
wife clung to me when all others had desert
ed me. | still drank on, pawning one arti-
Gle after another, till all was gone and when
my wife refused to give me her wedding
ring, which she had clung to with the tenaci-
ty of death grasp, felled her to the earth,
seized her finger. tore off the ring and pawn
ed it for rum. That fatal blow maddened
her, and in despair she took to drink, and to-
gether we wallowed in the gutter.
"Pennyless, we begged our way to this
great city. Here we hired small cellar in a
lark and dismal street, and sent our children
put to beg. Many a weary day we spent
IN that cellar, while our children were wan
lering in the streets, begging for their drum
Ken parents. About forty days since, my
little girls went out to beg, and from that
hour to this have not seen them. Without
food or fire clung to my dismal abode, till
hunger forced me out to search for my chill
lren. My degraded wife was sent to Black
wells Island, to the House of Refuge, to the
tombs, and in despair I wandered to the
Five Points, and for the last few days l have
lived in Cow Bay, among beggars and thieves
To-day | saw children, who, if they had not
looked SO clean and sung so sweetly, I would
have called them mine. Oh, would to God
they were!"
"Tell me the name," said DR. S., "and |
will see." In a few minutes two interesting
little children were led towards him. At
the sight of this fearful looking man they
shrunk back. The poor man sprang to his
feet exclaiming, "They are mine mine -
come to me my children. Father loves you."
He reached out his arm; the little ones were
timid at first, but uttheys soon climbed upon their
fathers knee, while the tears were streaming
down his cheeks.
"Kiss your poor drunken father, my chill
dren." But the face of the man was so black
and filthy that no place could be found.-I
soon they forgot the dirty face and remem-
bered their poor degraded father; and each
their little arms around his neck
the elder one said with a voice that touched
every heart.
"Father we are so happy here that we
want to stay, won't you come and live here
too, pappas What makes you drink SO ?-l
Dear papa, do sign the pledge, and not drink
any more. Mr.. Pease found us in the streets
begging, and now We are happy. Do, papa,
come and live here, and be good as you used
TO be-" For more than an hour they sat
together, till at last the old man arose, still
,linging to his children, and exclaimed, "The
pledge! the pledged 1 will never drink
againw / gave him the pledge, and from
hat hour he has faithfully kept it. He is
now man again; engaged in business, earn
mo- ten dollars a week, and none could re-
,ognize in the well dressed man-who still
boards in the house-the degraded original,
whose portrait can still be seen at the House
If Industry, daguerreotyped in its striking de-
ormity and squalor.
The Womans Advocate, published at st.
Louis, says: awe always liked the Wings,
md are sorry for their downfall. They wore
such good clothes, looked so gentlemanly, and