Bellevue gazette. [volume] (Bellevue City, N.T. [i.e. Neb.]) 1856-1858, 1857-08-13

them altogether. looked at Smith, no
doubt with a surprised air, and unconscious
| ly my eyes wandered over his costume.
He must have observed it, for with an
embarrassed look and rather nervous tone
he desired to speak word to me in pri-
vate. The purport of his visit was the
loan of five dollars, and u hasty history
of the loss of situations, one and another,
for the past TWO years in this great city,
from failures, he said of the two or three
concerns he had been clerk for, and at
last he had run through with every dollar,
could get no place, was without cent,
could not pay his room rent nor in fact
buy meal he was reduced, in fact, to
the last extremity. What rapid tum-
bling down the grade of respectabii,y was
this and the smart, dashing Smith, too
the Smith who used to cut us, at Chestnut
Place--the proud Smi'h, to present HIM
self to the unpretending Jenkins, and beg
the loan of five dollar bill to keep him
from almost starvation What story
would l have for Mrs Jenkins at tea
time
| ventured to ask him where his wife
was. .t..f
"She is here, with me-" said he.
"What! in New York;" st'
"Yes, IN this great city, in small
room, containing all we have in the world,
the little remnant OF our furniture, and
here she lives without a soul to speak to
her. except myself and the landlords
agent who calls weekly for the rent he
cannot get; she is broken hearted"
(Smith,s voice was shakey at this point
of his story, and his eyes were filled with
tears,) :" in consequence of my misfor-
tunes, and cries all day long. ! would
have sent her home to her fathers, but
have been hoping and hoping TO get some
thing to do; she is without garment fit
to go into the street with, and to confess
the truth, so am l !" Che glanced at his
seedy and dirty costume,) land, Mr..
Jenkins, many day in the past thirty
we have not tasted particle Of food u" Q
"You have no children ~ l ventured
to say. I 10
"None, thank God, none," said he l
am spared that suffering in my present
condition."
What picture, and his ladylike wife,
too, literally starving to death in this great,
cold, selfish city Iresoged to put my hui
inflated neighbor OH his legs again, if
possible, and our interview was about be-
ing closed by my handing him the five
dollar bill, to keep soul and body together
till something should turn up, when, as
stepped near him, l caught the smell of
his breath. A terrible suspicion flashed
upon me-he drank There could be no
mistake in it--that peculiar smell was
only observable in the class called soakers;
it was the horrid stencil of a completely
burned up stomach, the stencil carried
about only by the me.hodical daily tippIer.
| made up my mind in one moment what
to do. | charged Smith with drinking;
his countenance was one of those that never
show dissipation, and he family denied
the imputation. l. however, pushed the
charge home upon him, and he owned to
me that trouble had driven him TO it. /
never do things by halves, and determined
. to save Smith if possible. He was made
. to listen to reproof and advice, impaired
{ with that kindness and regard to his feel
! ings which brother would have shown;
he felt it, was completely subdued, prom
= ised with the solemnity Of an oath never
to touch another drop l spoke of his
wife, his poor suffering wife Of his du-
ty to himself; of his only last resource
by which to hold on to respectable foot
. ing in the world, his character; begged
him, as he valued his welfare, to never
: : touch the poison cup again, and would
+ strive to get him, rags and dirt as he was,
into respectable clerkship. | accom-.
!, plished it; friend to whom | appealed.
!, as an act of kindness TO me, to put Smith
:, into a position did so, and | once more
a saw him and cautioned him as to the fatal
/ curse which threatened TO blight him. He
/, renewed his promise to me with feryor
: and solemnily which believed would save
: him, and felt the proud consciousness Of
doing good act; restoring the happiness
- of an almost heart-broken woman, and in
4 ducing weak and tempted fellow-being
, TO turn from the error of his ways, and
e become a true man once more. | had told
. the story to my kind hearted wife, and
o she had wept tears Of womanly sympa-
thy over the fallen fortunes of the beauti-
N ful woman whose fate was linked with
a poor Smith, but thanked Heaven that, al
,f last, the husband had gathered himself in
Is his strength, and resolved to be a man
es among men again, and that sunshine
,e would once more visit the desolate heart
a, of his companion. r-re-
III II think it was just one week after Smith
,g heassakea The elerkship | had obtained fol
ed ~ = y called upon me at my Office
in The inslafMhe opened the door smellet