The penny press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1859-1860, 1859-10-08
A Sad Story.

IA correspondent Of the Inquirer, in
New, York, gives the following melan-
oholy history of a castout in that city:
a 4 Floating along with the current of hu-
nlanity which one encounters, or rather
mingles with, in q large city, is many an
isolated individual whose hearts history,
If uncovered to the gaze Of the world,
would surpass in its intense reality all
the romance ever invented While |
write, an instance is passing along in the
crowd under my window, in the person Of
a wretched looking man, after whom peo-
pie 'ttrn to gaze, and wonder how "a
. human form divine" came to be reduced
toaa degradation SO complete and ire
deenahle. Ragged, begrimmed with dirt
hair uncoihbed and hanging in tangled
? masses to his shoulders, face haggard
and unshaven, head bowed down, and
. eyes rowing restlessly from one object to
another, and scarcely ever fastened upon
the face Of man, uncaring and uncared
for, he moves dejectedly along with the
crowd, as if his worldly hopes had fallen
from him like so many withered leaves.
His story, as | heard it from a person
who is familiar with the circumstances, is
a long and sad one but | will be brief:
I Little more than five years ago, this
poor unfortunate was thriving merchant
in New England city, honored by all
who knew him, well to do in the world,
and with wife and two daughters of
seven and eighteen years of age, enjoyed
the comfort which successful enterprise
had secured to him. About this time
there was introduced in his family circle
one Of his clerks, between whom and the
eldest daughter an Intimacy sprang up.
Suspecting nothing, no objection was
made to his society, but suddenly one
morning he was missing He had gone
too far and the old story was re-enacted
lie had won the daughters affection,
effected her ruin, and deserted her to
escape the punishment he anticipated
Discovering her condition, the young girl
left home to conceal her guilt. The
mother, broken-hearted at the shame Of
f. her daughter, was taken i'll and died, and,
!, as if the hand of Providence was laid in
p wrath upon them, the youngest daughter
in few weeks after was also laid to rest
beneath the chancelstone Only little
while elapsed, and an infant was one
morning found upon the river bank with
IL note pinned to its dress, containing its
name, and few words of penitence and
farewell. Its wretched mother had ter
minated her sorrow by suicide. From
that hour the father was an altered man.
Revenge became the only object of life,
and forsaking his business, he started in
pursuit Of the author of his misery.
Months passed without success, but he
finally learned that the young man, under
ap assumed name, was ina remote town
of the West, and, following with all haste,
he there found him. Both want of space
and ability make it impossible for me to
describe the terrible interview that re-
suited; but it appears that the seducer,
far gone with consumption, was confined
= to his room, and when the broken-hearted
man he had SO deeply wronged, abruptly
entered and stood before him, his own
terror and the fearful agony and denun-
= citation Of the almost maniac father so
worked upon him that q hemorrhage Of
'ethc lungs was brought on, and he died
during the ensuing night Since then the
father has been the miserable wanderer
! have described-"the world forgetting,
and by the world forgot" The only me.
mento Of the past visible about him, is a
dirty cord around his neck, which sus,
pends leather case enclosing locket
with the hair and portraits of his family.
His home is among the squalid tenements
of the Five Points, his daily wants are
supplied by remnant Of his former
property, but with hopes crushed, ambi.
tion destroyed, bitter past behind, and
,'lrayless future before him, his use tc
,' society gone, and he moves among men
human ruin
q 'st "a granite temple orumbled into sand" ..
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