The Oxford intelligencer., 1860-09-26

or bad; but my husband had TO account f.
ii, Of course, as If it was all good. tn
men would begin at daylight-(what sigh
it was TO open the shutters, aud see the pee
pie who had been waiting all night Dam
they went on kindly all dag. Towards even
ing the men would grow silent and sigh AM
at eleven or twelve o'clock they would say
Sir, you can't get more out Of me than is il
me; can't do il, Sir. ! have had no re
freshment all this day. and TIM done up.
am willing TO stand by the people as long a
! can, but I can't do more hlan | am equa
to- Then my husband would say, Well
so to your supper, and my wife and vii
tufa TO again Cor an hour, lest some Of. thesS
people should die before morning. Bat we
will shut Up IN an bonr;.by that time sic
worst viii be served We did shut up in an
hour, leaving, perhaps, sixty or seventy peo-
pie outside. But when tie men had sat
down Cor awhile, and had had tlleir supper
aud apipe, they would cheer up; aud thon
tlqy agreed 10 shat my, husband said
There arc only sixty or seventy lot ussend
thGn away, and then We eau perlsps go to
sleep, having done ogrbest.' SO we opened
again, and went on tiIl two or three in the
morning. Bat that, you sec, was willie peo-
pie were still able TO pay"
h" How could things be worse when the
money was gone !" ssa. ,f satoa..
"Why, it was almost worse to know
where hunger was, without being told, than
70 have ii come before our eyes. We knew
pretty well how matters were with some
good many people who ceased to send for
meal, and who were never to be seen in the
daylight: people who lived ia good houses,
full Of good furniture, which Of course they
couldnot sell. Myhusbandmantionel this to
the Friends Relief Committee, and they i'm
desired him TO do what mas ne
cessary for such persons, in the way in
which they could receive il. So, when the
days work was done, we used to put up bags
Of meal, and my husband would have the
horse pnt into the cart and he would 90
round and drop these bags at the proper
doors in tie dark. A difficulty eame out Of
this, however. They supposed they owed
these gifts TO my husband; and it was not
an easy matter to explain ut the time. But
II don't know-perlaps some sights were
worse than knowing things that We did not
sec. People would come to that window
with two baskets, one before and one be-
hind, and-and-a dead child in each"
After pause she went on
my husband aud used to think that il
was the peoples way-thcy thought it right,
Of course-to sacrifice one child to give a
chance TO the rest. We used to observe
that one child was particularly petted-al-
ways in its mothers arms-and hat one was
always excessively emaciated, and died pre-
'enfly; and we used to think its share was
given TO the Others and--t. d., ,,,, il,d o,a
I" This is unbearablc!r Iexclaimed. But
IN moment | considered what il must have
been to see il, and was ashamed. Iasked
her TO GO on. She did. 1t was relief to
her. -'' '''' o.. "'
1t was terrible thing to have 10 go out
1t that time and afterwards, when the fever
md cholera followed the famine The dead
and diving used to lie in ones path. One
aty, crossing a field through the long grass,
'ound a chiId-a little hidden athete,
dive but insehsible?.' She was saved and
% was little orphan creature Of Two. Years
Did, who had strayed away ~ himself to q
lung-Liil on the, road, whore pig seized
iim and would have destroyed him but for
,ar happening to come up at the moment.
There wore cases every day of little creatures
,eihg found among the nettlcs, or squatted
indcr turfstacks, or asleep at the door Of
,abih where the last Of their relations lay
lead within. One oftIlose saw the Old roof
umbled in on his m9thefs corpse. Some
leighbor who had jn1t strength to do that
lid it, because there was n9hody TO barry
ier." tai ie.3 .r7tr.. ..'siia o. II -io'is.r
@ /" Has not the lowest class of cabins dis
appeared since that time, or nearly so.F" |
nouire1. ,a ii.r b ln..i asgya W sai
yes. The unroofsd cottages, with thcir
stone gables standing up bare-a sight
which you think so sad and forlon-were
houses of a better order than the mud cabins
rou,lave read so.mueh about. These stone
cottages were inlrabiteSlsby tenants who have
-one to America aud elsewhere, as well7as
Dv people who died of fever and ffnine.
The mud cabins have meIiedi away. Some
which you suppose to-be dung-hills or mud
heaps, are plainly ruined cabins TO our expe-
fenced eyes. No'doubt many Of them are
-raves Of uncCfIined corpses. Tile bones
viii be turned up by the plough or spade
some day; and then, when they are found,
,ingly or IN families, men win say, These
IRE people who died in the famine There
are many children now in the orphan school
who. the last survivors of4heir families,
know that one parent was 'jnst hidden IN the
ground in bag, and the other without any
covering at all, while the brothers and SIS