The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1859-05-04

but they were all of one kind-all connected
with the poverty and misery of his parents
Hour after hour, had he sat on his mothers
knee, and with childish sympathy watched the
tears that stole down her face, and then crept
quietly away into some dark corner, and SOB
bed himself to sleep. The hard realities of
the world, with many of its worst privations-.
hunger and thirst, and cold and want-had all
come home to him from the first dawnings of
reason; its light heart, its merry laugh, and
sparkling eyes were wanting
"The father and mother looked on upon this
and upon each other with thoughts of agony
they dared not breathe in words. The healthy
strong made man who would have borne almost
any fatigue of active exertion, was wasting be-
meath the close confinement and unhealthy at
mosphere of crowded prison. The slight
and delicate woman was sinking beneath the
combir e1 effects of mental and bodily illness;
the ch ll's young heart was breaking.
"Winter came, and with its weeks of cold
and heavy rain. The poor girl had removed
to wretched apartment close to the spot of
her husbands imprisonment; and though the
change had been rendered absolutely necessary
by their increasing poverty, she was happier
now for she was nearer him. For two months,
she and her little companion wa'c 'chcd the open
ing of the gate as usual. One day she failed
to come, for the first time. Another morning
arrived, she came alone. The child was dead.
''They little know, who coldly talk of the
poor mans bereavements, as happy release
from pain to the departed, and merciful re-
lease from expense to the survivor-they little
know, / say what the agony of those bereavc-
ments is. A silent look of affection and re-
gard when all other eyes are turned celdly
away-the consciousness that we possess the
sympathy and affection of one being when all
others have deserted us-is a hold a stay, a
forti fha taf1 1cb
could purchase, or power bcstow. The child
had sat at his parents feet for hours together.
with his little hands patiently folded in each
other, and his thin wan face raised toward
them. They had seen him pine away from day
to day; and though LIS brief existence had
been a joylcss one, and he was now removed to
that peace and rest which, child as he was, he
had never known in this world, they were his
parents, and his loss sunk deep into their souls.
at was plain to those who looked uron the
mothers altered face, that death must soon
close the scene of her adversely and trial. Her
husbands fellow prisoners shrunk from obtru-
ding on his grief and misery, and left him to
himself alone, inthe small room he had previous
ly occupied in common with two companions.
She shared it with him and lingering on with
out pain, but without hope, her life ebbed
slowly away. -
f'She had tainted one evening in her hus-
bands arms, and he had borne her to the open
=ssisdasx= sTfre-her with the air, when the
light of the moon falling full upon her face,
showed him change upon her features, which
mad him stagger beneath her weight, like a
helpless infant. e- ses
"'Set me down, George sfe sid. family
He did so, and seating himself beside her, COW
cred his face with his hands, and burst into
tears
" 1T is very hard to leave you, George she
said, 'but it's Gods will and you must bear it
for my sake. Oh how thank him for hav
ing taken our boy! He is happy, and in
heaven now. What would he have done here
without his mother!
"'You shall not die, Mary, you shall not die,'
said the husband, starting ur. He paced hur-
icdly to and fro. striking his head with his fist
then reseating himself beside her, ard support
ing her in his arms, added more calmly, Rouse
yourself my dear girIpray, pray do. You
will revive yet ...
"'Ncver again, George, never again. said the
dying woman. Let them lay me by my poor
boy, now, but promise me, that if ever you
leave this dreadful place. and should grow rich,
you will have US removed to some quiet coun
try church-yard, a long, long way of-very far
from here, where We can r.st in peace. Dear
George. promise me you will.
''I do, do'-said the man, throwing him
Speak to me, Mary, another word, one look
but one
s.Hc ceased to speak for the arm that clasp
ed his neck, grew stiff and heavy. A deep
sigh escaped from the wasted form before him;
the lips moved, and smile played upon the
face, but the lips were pallid, and the smile ia
ded into rigid and ghastly stare. He was
alone in the world.
''That night, in the silence and desolation of
his miserable room, the wretched man knelt by
the dead body of his wife, and called on God to
witness dreadful oath, that fro m that hour, he
devoted himself to revenge ker death and that
of his child; that from thenceforth to the last
moment of his life, his whole energies should
be directed to this one object; that his revenge
should be protracted and terrible: that his ha-
tired should be undying and unextincuishable;
and should haunt its object throus h the world
"The deepest despair, and passion scarcely
human, had made such fierce ravages on his i
face and form, in that one night, that his COM
panions in misfortune shrunk affrighted from
him as he passed by. His eyes were bloodshot
and heavy, his face deadly white, and his body
bent if with age. He had bitten his under
lip nearly through in the violence of his mental
suffering, and the blood which had flowed from
the wound had trickled down his chin, and
stained his shirt and neckerchief No tear, or
sound of complaint escapes him. but the un-
settled look, and disordered haste with which
he paced up and down the yard, denoted the
fever which was burning within.
at was necessary that his wife's body should
be removed from the prison, without delay
He received the communication with perfect
calmness, and acquiesced in the propriety-
Nearly all the inmates of the prison had as
sembled to witness its removal they fell back
on either side when the widower appeared; he
walked hurritdly forward, and stationed him
SELF alone, in a little rallied area close to the
lodge gate, from whence the crowd, with an in
stinctiye feeling of delicacy, had retired The |
rude coffin was borne slowly forward on mems
shoulders. A dead silence pervaded the thropg, !
broken only by the audible lamcntationsof of the
women, and the shufiing steps of the bearers
on the stone pavement. They reached the |
spot where the bereaved husband stood; and
stopped. He laid his hand upon the coffin, |
and mechanicallu ndiusfinc. the ,all r.;th .h;eL