Meigs County telegraph. [volume] (Pomeroy [Ohio]) 1848-1859, 1858-12-07

aud too dreamy to think, have concluded
to do what is halfway between--light a
cigar and lose ourself in smoke and revery
Whois that approaching in the distance?
A Afr ,sty crown encircles his brow like a
king. His rosy. red face, and stout form
enyeloped in furs, bespeak him a hale and
hearty companion. Oil tits Old Decem-
berl The very mention of his name Starts
a shiver, and mental icicles hang 10 the
very letters as we write them. Yet, to MS
he is no unpleasant or unwelcome visitor.
We have known him long--more years in
fact than we would care to mention in the
presence of the ladies', but he Lrings to us
no teno,s A little ehy at his first ap-
proach, we tremble little, but glowing |
fire provided by our landlord, takes away
whatever there is Of rigor in his face, and
we greet him cordially as most excellent
friend
A fire provided by our landlord! 3es'
and as it glows, see what q reflection II
throws from the icy mirror in the hand of
our old friend, Decemberl But hold! that
is not reflection, it is a picture! Let us
examine it. All! we have seen the reality
Of which that picture is the shadow! Ii
WAS years ago, when fire, not provided
by a landlord, sent its cheerful warmth
through chamber, not SO lonely as this
seems. Little feet were upon the fender
lust as they are in the pictulel Hand
cIasped hand, and warm hearts beat in uni
son with hearts as true, and gentle vol ces
called it "home"-just as it is in the pic
ture! After awhile, two of the little feet
and hands grew weary and were folded
gently TO rest, and the loving spirit that
had used them went to her other and
brighter home among the Angels And
soon another of the group-its soul aad
center-went to her--just as it is in the
picture! The rest Of the group are scat.
tered-strangers occupy the home that
was, and our kind landlord thinks
we are alone in the comfortable chamber.
by the glowing ire he has provided for us.
But we are not alone. The paper we are
writing on, however, has, somehow, be-
come spoiled, and we can't sketch the
other scenes in Mat picture now.
{ But see! there are other pictures! All!
yes, they are the shadows which coming
! events cast before" them, and they tell us
what Old December will do when he gets
, here. He will go tosthe rickety house
that poor emigrant has rented, and search
ing out every crack-and there are many
of them-he will blow his chilling breath
upon the shivering inmates, and laugh at
their piteous efforts as they try in vain to
drive him away with the mere mockery
+ of a f re that their last bit of money was
spent to procure! Now, he is after some
n very poor people who have been sick ard
out of work He obsses them into all the
}, miserable dark rooms and damp cellars IL
p town, where he makes them huddle to-
> oether in their comfortless and forlorn re.
d treats to keep the life in them. If they
n venture out, he stands ready to tear the
;. scanty clothing from the limbs that have
t. already begun to show the blue veins fllet
with the cold, weak, and unwholesom
-e fluid, that has usurped the place of wha
is should be red, warm blood !! Now h
te comes to the cherries home of that poo
q. widow, and as she bends over the wash
Il, tub, toiling for pittance with which t
lp feed her hungry children, he sets her fran
of tic, almost as he points his icy fingers
g. their thin, white lips, TO tell her they al
er half -famshed now, and that he will tnis
ul with his frost the work already begun b
h, famine! Oh, the inexorable tyrant! yo
4fe exclaim! This Old December is. to II
or poor, a merciless master!
ay Not sol This is only an oppeoronc
he We too often take the appearance OF thing
nd for realities, and are deceived. If it we
on not for such scenes of deep suffering
lip utterly helpless destituhon-the gulf b
ict tween the rich and the poor the prospe
u Gus and the unfortunate--would becon
art wholly impassable, and society would Sc
,re tie down into classes-castes even--so a
ith solutely separate and distinct, that, in IL
,er resulting denial of common humanit
w. the higher and holier sentiments of Il
wo soul would be blotted out, and men wou
nis be transformed into monsters.
ow However artificial and conventional q
tn cumstances may, and unhappily do, pla
for seeming barriers to the social intercour
he of those whose outward conditions great
the differ. yet there is, deep down in the col
d." mon heart of humanity, however it m
are be corroded by care, or covered up and
ord parently smothefed by seeming sel6shne
the and pride, symsathetic chord that nee