Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1859-09-21
WRITTEN FOR THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE.
The Drunkard's Daughter
(coNcLUDED.)
CHAPTER v.
BY SARAH J.. C. wHITTLEsEY.

1.-THE rich man down, you mark his favor
tie flies"
Through the influence of his wife and
daughter whom he tenderly loved and caress-
ed, as in olden times, when not rendered in
sane and brutal by the poisonous liquid, Mr..
Raymond removed to the country, at length,
to escape the irresistible temptations that be-
set him on every hand, in the rum-dealing es-
adjustments that disgraced and polluted the
Aplace Of bis
~ntie1oving hone-circle, of his entire re-
iormatlon, but In an evil hour he fell and
shattered the golden vase that held the bril-
llant blossoms of sweet anticipation that glad
dened the domestic hearth. .
henry Raymond "resolved and re-resolyed'
to abandon his pernicious habit. and live
henceforth for his heart-breaking wife. and
pale, toiling children !; but relapse succeeded
reform, until mania q potu was the final re-
suit OF his inordinate indulgence, and it be-
came absolutely necessary to render the Work
house his temporary resistance to obviate IA
tai consequences in his own humble home
intemperance effected a perfect transforma-
ZION OF his natural temperament, and the gen.
tle-souled, tender hearted, sober Henry Ray
mond, was converted into a "~roaring lion.
seeking whom he might devour," by intoxi-
cation.
during q dreadful paroxysm, Nina fed
from their poverty-pinched home, to the dark
woods, in the deep night, with her two little
frightened ones, to escape his frantic violence.
and were drenched with a chilly October rain,
that laid the foundation of an insidious dis
ease, that ere long sent them all three to the
friendly grave, sweetly sleeping side by side,
from the sorrows and degradation of a drunk
Grds home!
This great bereavement Frustrated the frail
form of Mary, and she was borne from the
~drunkards novel, to the home of a maternal
relative in the city, apparently only to die
but a strong constitution triumphed, and even
the blessing of insanity was denied her. But
the sweet spring Of youth was forever dried
In her desolate heart, and no cool gush of
pleasant waters has since moistened its parch-
ed and thirsty urn.
And the great world rolls heedlessly on,
nor pauses in its round of gayety and dissi-
patton, to think how desolate and yearning
must be the heart, robbed in its earliest bloom
OF glrlhood, OF all the green things that glad
den the May-time of life and only God knows
and pities the great agory that swells and
surges in that lonely breast, for the cold world
has no sympathy for the poor and suffering.
And many a one, blessed with home and
thwarted purpose, ana tal.s-@1 :.
Ply lot, as peculiarly unfortunate, and them
selves as God-forsaken, when the troubles
they realize and repine at, would be but 'tri-
fes light as air" to the crushed and writhing
victims of the monster-murderer, INTEMPER-
ANcE.
All! if those who grieve over adverse for
tune, could look down in the arid waste of
| Eunr khAA 49, -@A1 L.
gratitude would 60 up to God, for blessings
a murmuring and unthankful world.
Mary's proud spirit shrank from Deepen
dence upon relatives for subsistence, whose
affection would have shielded her from indi-
vidual e~xertion, and her musical accomplish.
ments were brought into ~requisition to sub
serve her independence.
Mr.. Percy, who once petted and praised
her, will a greedy eye to her fathers Golfers,
now passed her with a stiff jerk of the head,
meant for an aristocratic bow, and coarse
grunt of 'how-de-do" Specification, like any
other swine. Mary's lip curIed with supreme
contempt at every sight of the old hoary-hea
ded Shylock, with one foot in the grave, ant
both avaricious hands clinging to the COLDER
rails of the world with a desperate, misery
clutch and memory of the noble lover, blu
ried in the morning of his manhood, in
living tomb, by the old miscreant's superla
tive meanness, filled her heart with doubl
refined hatred for the despicable wretch, an,
gave her mind a tone of misanthropy tina
shut her in from ali social intercourse.
The death of his wife and children, unde
the circumstances, stung the soul of Mr.. Ray
mond to remorseful madness, and in a fit
drunken desperation, he inflicted a woun
upon his person, that confined him long t
the Poor House, and had well-nigh prove
mortal, and by many who once knew him, h
is thought to have died from the insane stall
but a long-suffering God raised him up fc
some inscrutable purpose, and to-day 20
have witnessed the result of his restoratio
to physical strength and access to the intox
eating cup"
Gracious fathersi was that Henry Ra,
mond, Julia ?'
mo, not the once good and noble and ma,
ly Henry Raymond, but his oreck, F!orenc
stranded upon the fearful beach of INTEMPE
ANcE, and drifting down the tide Of Time
the bottomless pit Of eternal despair, as sur
y as there is truth in the divine declaration
: mo drunkard shall enter into the kingdom
> heaven"-there is no redemption for him
, II don't know about that. NY organ
. Hope, when contemplating infinite mercy,
: like that ring you're twirling so ~nervously.
: endLess-and | wouldn't give him up, if
: were poor Mary, till the very last beat in /
7 bar of his existence since the thief on i
: Cross was pardoned, l believe firmly that
+ awhile the lamp holds out to burn,
q The vilest sinner may return"
- But where is the Drunkard's Daughter, a
:. why do you so deeply sympathize with hel
Florence, that man-Henry Raymond
u as l have called him, is-my Jatherr
J, X =
!, Reader, this is no fancy sketch. The CHI
= %acters portrayed in this story are living nc
, and fac SMILES of the sam are scattered o,
J the habitaLle globe, wherever degradati,
% misery and chine are found.
Go to the pauper's home, just beyond
: limits of our corporation, where the idiot g
bers, the maniac raves and Migrants
=, through the long, tedious and dreary da
and there, in the haggard visage, hopel
y eyes, and prematurely aged form, you n
see the once handsome, amiable and maj
Henry Raymond, as We shall continue to