Preble County Democrat. [volume] (Eaton, Ohio) 1857-1859, 1857-06-25
THE FELON FATHER AND HIS
CHILD.

Oh NAS "PPSbA
Court of this State may be found the
case of a soldier named Wilson, who is
at present under sentence of death fol
killing a fellow soldier. The offence
was committed at Baton Rouge, where
Wilson is now in prison, and his wife
and children have, since "the trial,
occupied a tenement near the jail IN
which he has been confined. To this
fond wife and these trusting children
the condemned felon has shown true
touches of nature, while to all else he
has been a stern, stubborn and unteel-
ing ~,
What cared he for the world2 The
stain of blood was on his hands, and
washing could not make them white to
the worlds eye. Even to
his own eye, perchance, there va a
damned spott" which would no
Il" out; J" but TO truthful eyes of his wife
his hands were not unolean. For the
fond ones he had a place in his heart, a
small warm heartnotentirely encroached
They could still love him and he loved
them-all else in the world was a dark
dreary void.
During the long summe months,
when the angel of death was abroad
over this Southern land, the damp cell
Of the prisoner, was rendered brighter
for a few moments each day by the pre-
sence of his wife; and often at night
fall, his little daughter young child
of but four summers-would beg to be
left with her father in the dark, and
would sing to him a tiny song of hope
as she lay beside him on his rude prison
bed.
But the dark, damp cell was ne fit
ting place for n SO tender in years as
was the fclon's daughter, and at length
a shadow fell upon her from the death
angels wing; and she could 10 longer
visit her father in his damp, grated
dungeon.
She sickened, and diedl
Oh, how ~anxiously from day to day
the mother watched over the sick couch
of her little one, and how a~nxiously,
when morning came, would the con-
demned felon- father inquire concerning
the fate of his dear, fond trusting child
That hope which led him to believe
that his child would recover, and would
again visit him in his cell, and fill his
ear with an instructive melody as from
a better land.
His hopes, however, proved deceptive,
and at last the sad news came that his
little innocent was no more. What his
reflections then were we leave to the
imagination of our readers. Shut out
from the world, and all but dead to
every civil right, had been deprived of
the privilege of smoothing the pillow
on which his daughter rested her dying
head, and of catching a last fond glance
from her trustful eye ere it closed for
ever on the things of time and sense,
In the father the felon was forgotten,
and the ties of nature were assessed by
a dread convulsive agony of grief.
All now that the prisoner seomod to
wish was an opportunity of seeing the
body of his child before it was conveyed
AWAY forever to its narrow dwelling.
But this, the stern jailor could not per-
NIT, unless the corpse were itself brought
to the prison, that it might there be
seen.
As he could see it no other way, the
prisoner begged that it might thus be
Drought, dIlu SO IL hdS"iLS USNo Oh "a
visit to the living!
To the %jailor's room the mother and a
few kind friends accompanied the little
innocent on whom the seal of the skele-
ton archer had been affixed, and there
they awaited the entrance of the con-
demned felon the husband and the
father.
1t was a solemn mceting-that meet
ing of the living and the dead.
The strong, stout man entered, with
a load of gives upon his limbs, and a
double load of gilt and grief upon his
heart; and the sound of his mourning
and the sharp clank Of his manacles, as
his convulsed frame shook, mingled in
strange disonance of sound.
There too, stood the mother, like
Rachel, refusing to be comforted. But
her grief was divided between her child
that " was not and her husband that
,ods. And there were some of the little
playmates of her who had ceased to be
and the kind friends above referred to
and the stern jailor. None were I'M
moved. Nature asserted herself by the
trickling pearls of sympathy. But on
the lace OF the corpse d smile SClll rested,
there was no grief there. Sorrow and
signing from it had passed away, and
the glories of the spirit land had opened
to its angel eyes an unercated light.
The father stopped down and appeared
to listen fol the music of that voice
which so late seemed sweeter to his ear
than the song of birds, and he arose, as
if a small voice had stirred among the
tendrils of his heart. Who shall say
that there was not a silent, yet persu-
asive eloquence in those pale, cold lips,
which warned a parent of the anchor of
hope?
After a time the cofin-lid was closed,
and all but the father and the jailor
on their fearful mission to con
sign the little sleeper to its early rest
ss ashes to ashes dust to dust"
The felon father had returned in sor-
row to his cell; and the mother, to her
domicil, where, by the hearth,
there was a vacant place. Both, in
their dreams, are visited at times by a
presence which they call their
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