Preble County Democrat. [volume] (Eaton, Ohio) 1857-1859, 1858-08-19

t Piled.
t Misinterpreting her subdued, almost
tender tone and manner, he began pas
: slonately to entreat for a renewal O
= their engagement. Annie, though he
heart beat violently as old memorie
swept through her brain, was firm il
her refusal. She had disciplined her
self into the conviction that he had n,
, right to demand any sacrifices on he
He.was the transgressor, anG
J from him alone must come the atone
ment. Would that all girls similarl,
placed, would think as Annie did!
"You love me no longerl" exclaimed
Harvey, bitterly.
81 do not love the spectre of Frank
Harvey" she replied. "Return to YOU
former self, and you will find Annie Lee
still Annie Lee"
Imagining she referred to his loss Of
property, he said with a sneer, Il sec
how it is-you have heard of my mis-
fortunes, and we are not equal now.
am poor. You scorn me because I am
poor"
"Poorr' rejoined Annie, warmly
You are only poor in character. Money
of itself does not make or confer worth.
If you had not a penny in your pocket,
and were the Frank Harvey of other
times. L would gladly give you my
hand, and my father would as gladly
consent. Oh Frank, Frank, whether
you have been led astray by your own
evil promptings, or fallen before temp
tation, there is time to relent, time to
change, time to turn back to your for
mer self, and, L will say, time to come
and see Annie Lee as you once did in
the bright days before you fell away
from me, from yourself-and, oh! Frank
think of it-from your Maker!''
And so they parted without another
word; Harvey prey to remorse, for, as
he watched her receding figure, the
sound of Sabbath bells fell on his ear,
and as they awoke the past, they dis
turbed his stagnant and putrin present,
and he wept But the day of his deliv
erance was not yet at hand. Depravi-
ties that stop short of crime punishable
by the laws are only corrected by the
severest chastisement and a thorough
cleansing of the moral being.
Self degradation will drive man or
woman to the m ost desperate extremi-
ties. In some stages oftheir disorder they
are unable if willing to beat up against
the wind of their difficulties. Like dis
NAL ships they drift helplessly on the
lee shore of ruin. It was so with Har-
vey. He was overtaken by adversities
and could not put u, against them, al
though he still had the means. The
spirit of the gambler and tipler possess
ed him and his property wasted away
like snow in the sun. In himself hope
lessly degenerated, he had no hope in
the future, and became reckless
Long after he had ceased to hold
any Communication with Annie, OF her
father a glimmering of his actual posi-
ton flashed across his mind, and he
vowed a reformation; but it is only a
terrible shock that can rouse such be-
ings to asense of their danger and duty.
1t came with electric force. As he was
proceeding homeward late one night,
and was passing the cottage of a miser
able tailor, he was arrested by the
piercing shrieks of a woman and the
cries of children-that never appeal
vainly to a mans heart. By an i'm
ed for, seeing the door open, he entered
and beheld a spectacle that curdled his
very blood. On the floor lay the tai
lor dead-in a fit of drunken passion
he had burst a blood vessel and gone
to his dreadful account. His three
children were crying by his side, and on
some rags in the corner lay his wife
PROSTATE, dying in the last stages of
consumption. The crimson and black
clouds through which Harvey had look
ed at the world for many a day vanish
ed-his former self started up, like a
bright angel, and he applied him elf
vigorously to the exigencics Of the case
He aroused the neighbors, procured the
attendance of medical man, and BE-
slowed upon the afflicted all the money
he had about him.
"Annie will not let them starve," he
mentally observed as he proceeded to
the farm sad and thoughtful. lie found
ruined, and knew it, but did not lament
trary he went to bed and slept soundly.
The catastrophe he had witnessed had
completely revolutionized his morbid
nature. In the course of the week he
arranged his affairs, paid his creditors
in full, and, after giving up possession
of the farm to the landlord, found him
self worth fifty pounds. With that in
his pocket he disappeared from the
neig ghborhood, and was never seen in it
again. He bald adieu to none, not ev-
en- to Annie, for he was ashamed of him
self. He did pause at a bend in the
road that commanded view of her
home, and breathed prayer for her
welfare and happiness. 1t was the
sweetest, holiest prayer he had uttered
since he had knclt at his mothers feet
His disappearance did not create
much astonishment in the village, but
to Annie it was a source of deep heart
breaking grief. Despite her keen
Judgment, she had hoped-woman ever
does, even in the darkest hours-and
now that he had gone, without a word
or token, the little flower that had hith
erto bloomed amid the winter of her
disappointment, hung its head and with