Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1859-01-22

/ TtpVIbn VI Hlo uuuSHltTS, SO ulu sue llheWlSC
report to the daughters every word of his
and all his denunciations with exaggerated
severity, at the very time that she declared
herself to be endeavoring to mollify him,
and to be peacemaker between them; and
probably she really believed herself to be
so, because great many people are struck
with an extraordinary blindness us regards
themselves By these means Mrs. Hard
produced a gradually increasing bitter mis-
understanding between father & daughters
We have drawn dark picture Of fami
ly relationships. Would to God that il
were of rare occurrence
That which, also, still more clearly show
ed Hertha the want of true insight and
justice in the amt, as regarded herself and
her sister, was her perfect weakness and
blindness toward her own daughter Amala,
gay and handsome, but scIEwiIed young
girl, who was very much addicted to plea
sure. The mother approved and allowed
her to follow her own whims and fancies
let her amuse herself at parties out of the
house, where her little triumphS were fat
tering both to her own and her mothers
vanity; whilst the daughters of the house
were compelled to hard work for the bene-
fit Of the family. But it was not the work
in the meantime, that they complained Of;
it was the want of light, as it were, in the
doug of it, the want of enjoyment, and
euy future advantage from it, They did
not, howcver, complain aloud; for they
knew if they did so it would merely lead
to reproof and SermOnzug.
Under such a regime spring up in young
energetic natures, amid the best circum-
stances, great revolutionary taste. warm
sympathies for the Poles, the HuugarianS,
and for all oppressed nations, together
/ with the wish to fight for them; in more
| doubtful circumstances, many dark wishes
/ for which people bitterly reprOach them
selves, but Of which they cannot prevent
/ the recurrence; as, for instance, the death
of certain near relations; a fire or some
other violent accident, or for anything, in
fact, which should interrupt the murderous
compulSion and monotony of daily life.
Fewer heavenly rays of light penetrate
into such hell of domestic life than into
any other shadOwy region of the earth
The negroes Of the Slave States of Anne.
rca have their religious festivals, when they
can give full play to their souls in sermons
and in songs, and drink in new life from
the light which flows from the life and doc
trne of the Savior. when they enjoy to
gether their bIisSful commuuons and festi
walls. But in loveIesS homes of the north
a young woman lives a more fettered and
gloomy life than that of the serf and the
slave. 1t is not clothing and food that i,
wanting, neither is it always enjoyments o
common, empty, and Short-lived kind
that which is wanting is an atmosphere o
life, is freedom, and II future, the bread
and the wine which give pleasure to life
lu the first place arises in young girls,
under such circumstances, the longing to
become free, in the only way that which
opens itself TO them, through marriage.
| will get married. even to the dev
himsclfr said Herthn, in her younger days
if only to deliver you, my Alma, from thi,
intolerabIe home!'
Alma, of genter feminine character
than Hertha, would not marry any one
and least of all the devil but
Both Alma and Hcrtha were charming
enough to attract the attention and fancy
of men; but they went very seldom into
company, very seldom saw strangers al
home, and never young men. An excep
ton, however, was made on behalf of one
young man, a relative of the family, and o
more than ordinarily interesting character
He supplied the young girls with books
conversed with them on subjects which
deeply interested them, disputed with Her
tha, and soon became sincerely attached to
Alma, as was she to him. He was very
modest, and according to the old Swedish
usage, first asked the fathers permission
before he declared his affection for the
daughter. But he was rejected by the
father, who considered his worldly pros
poets not sufficiently promising, and who
would not give mp Alma's share of her mo
theirs property, her just inheritance, into
the hands of another.
The severity with which the young man;
offer was rejected, without reference to Al
mas feelings, led him to suppose that she
had no liking for him. Without any ex
planation with her, therefore, he left The
family, and even his country.
This took place about three years before
At the same time an event occurred
which rendered the domestic circumstance
still more difficult The handsome and gay
Amalia, gladly escaping from her dull home
paid frequent visits in the country to young
friends gay and lively as herself. The levi
ty Of her behavior here attracted attention
aud Mrs. Hard was warned; she receiver
these warnings with proud disdain, ye
nevertheless recalled her daughter home
but too late The thOughtless girl was
fallen woman: she acknowledged it, bu
obstinately refused to mention the name 0
him who had brought her to shame, an,
, reproached her mother for having, through
the education she had given her, been tn
cause of her misfortune. This togelhe
with the sorrow and disgrace, were NOR
than the proud, yet at the same tiule MOI
ally weak, woman could bear. 1t brok
her down at once, aud she did not long SUI
vive it. Amalia had, in the meantime, rt
: moved to "a distance, and it was not unit
two years afterward that she returned
, under all assumed name, aud in the deepes
. poverty, to the town where she spent
portion of her giddy youth.
, Mrs. HardS death freed the young daugl
terS of the house from an iucessant ovel
, sight in which there was no love; but, a
their fathers temper after this -occurrenc