The weekly Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1854-1861, 1858-10-21
I VIII Wait for You.

the turf was green, and the birds were sing
ing now. saw staid man in black 60 by,
gravely smiling to the children, and knew
he was the settled clergyman, but not the one
| left there. There were countrymen stand
ing by their carts in the market; women
chaffering with penny.worth purchasers in
the stalls; carriages driving into the street,
filed with ladies on an airing from watering
places near by; old men and young men,
women and girls-the manner of life wos
even as when left 1t; but the forms, the
faces Of those once fOmilor had forever gone
Oh fifteen years make great differences
in returning man. Wherever he may have
passed them-in home as cheerful as the
one abandoned, amidst the caresses OF the
Beloved, surrounded by pleasant prospects,
fondled by prosperity-if he will 60 back to
the place, let him remember that chilly
pain in the heart awaits him there, when he
shall see trees and houses, and the very
street stones stay, but tho living pass away
and are forgotten.
But when q man has spent his absence Us
spent miae-for had not been on the con.
tinent, listening now to Rose Cherie, now
to ThalberC, now to the cathedral cadences
OF Perimo, where the floods break from his
lips under the ever blue arch Of resounding
| sky; had not been waited to the upper cat
aracts; bathed in the nepenthe Of that air
which lulled the old world Memphis gallants
which lulls the Howeji now; had no,
been living with friends who shoulder to
shoulder, worked with me hopefully in the
day time, or welcomed me at night to {
glowing house, ON old hearth in room
where children sat upon my knee, where the
rosy freight danced with the shadows or
the wall; where woman beloved hushet
down the Business echoes in my heart with
rich old ballad in soft young voice.
do not often call up these fifteen years
for they are melancholy, maddening ghosts
But when do, the music with which they
stalk into my thoughts is such as this:
monotonous sound of hammer-clnk, clink
clink--always in the same measure, ant
broken only by the fall Of stone fragments
heavy clanE Of iron doors mercilessly shu
in reveberatiug corridors, with nothing bu
my own pulse, coming afterward; for spen
my fifteen years in prison.
Do you ak how l came there! The stor
is not long one. was junior partner i
the banking house of my elder brother neu
Hartford. One evening, about 8 o'clock, O
as was leaving the steps of my lodging
and turned to see Sheriff " ith his assist
ant, standing close by me. On the oppo
site side of the street, the lights shone mel
rily from the window of the woman lovet
I was on my way to answer an invitation
and felt, as every true man feels on such o
errand, gentle towards all humon'y. So
did not roughly push aside the interloper
hand, as ordinarily would have done, b.
quietly moved out from under it, and sal
"My man, there is some mistake here.-
You have taken the wrong person."
ANY one who knows what it is to loose
completely, in fearful dream, the self-po
session on which he would steady himsel
that he can no longer say, "This is only
dresm," bu, begins to know that it is actu'
will realize how the awful truth broke {
me in an instant as the officer answered,
10, "That won't do; you are John MARKHAM
en- OF Hartford. In the name of the Commo
th wealth arrest you for forgery. "
~ Just then, on the opposite side Of the sire
the curtain went down at the lighted windo
ny and knowing in my soul that it dropped e
'h ever between me and the being, who in
70. held all things for which l lived, fel
''' quick cold shudder of agony run through n
y" and my knees smote together like coward
u7 said no more, but went with my captor'
The first night in jail Ah, that was t
rible The clammy, echoing stones OF
MS floor over which paced in the darkness
u not hurt me in their hardness. The Fl
, coarse pallet on which at intervals thr
en- myself in my bewildered WEAKNESS; '
out w beyond hurt from such things, for in the
" minutes between my lodgings and my ce
had become aware that was brought tt
'as' position whose sublime awfulness could
'ss' be equaled BY anything else on earth
no- Quicker by far than 1 can write, yet in
channel had my thoughts run.
81 MY brother, three days before, gave mt
o' private heavy draft to be collected at
~ other banking house, drawn in his favor
one Of his correspondents and indorsed
rs another. Yes, remember we'll that
n looked restless when he gave it to me;
ign he hurried from the room Immediately al
he ward. / presented the draft; received
adj. money; the books which | keep, bear no
mo. count Of it. He forged the paper. am
he suspected one. / have no means OF pro,
,unt my innocence, unless, perhaps, by pro-
as his guilt. 1
that That, most likely, is impossible. At
ture rate, what terrible step for man TO
wed against his dead mothers only other c
flth And he has lovely wife whom II W
,hen slay. Yes, / myself haye-O, God !
this out her image from me IL must no
IL 10 It; I shall go mad !.
Ss In this grove my thoughts rolled bacl