The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1860-03-30

The 1amaritan.
We have heretofore called attention to q
WORT WITH this title, written " member OF |
the Howard Association of New Orleans, and
giving an account Of sceGcs 81 suffering and
death, witnessed and relieved, during times o. |
pestilence, by members Of that tene violent sos |
ciety. There are In this book tales Of real wos
which far Transcend Ia horror and In pa'"os
all the inventions and imasinations OF TO-
nance. and which, In the simplicity ana ma
tur,,ness of the narrative, strike deeper cnoIus
Of sympathy and sensibhty 'nan INC "os'
pe~fect master OF the art Of fiction mas ever
beeu able to touch.
There are few persons In AGRICULTURAL com
mnui.ies. like that Of Virginia, who know
.nv,hinx OF the extremes Of misery which are
found in our large cities, and Few even in those
c,,iss who realize the depth Of those abysees
of human agony which open at their very feet
In a time Of Iestilcnce all the ordinary evils
and woes of poverty are Increased tenfcld and
aggravated to a bitterness Of which we can
form scarcely any conception. 1t Is perhaps
well that man cannot appreciate more keenly
the SORROWS of his brother man. Reason could
hardly maintain its throne after long con-
temptation Of such miseries as those which the
.sSamari,an " Of New Orleans describes, and
whica--(iod bless them he and his brethren
of the Howard Association, and the Catholic
and Protestan religions Of that city. have Ia
bored 80 long and successfully to mitigate and
relieve. Were we long to think Of such sad
and horrid realities, the earth would appear
covered with sackcloth and ashes, the sun be
turned in to darkness and the moon into blood.
Were the head CONVEX ted into waters and the
eyes into fountains of tears, they could only
weep day and night over the tribulations Of
our unhappy race.
1t is not alone, nor even chiefly, the scenes Of
restitution and Of death, which, in this re-
markable volume stir SO deeply the fountains
| of human impressions. These, it is true. are
enough 10 touch the hardest heart, to make
| the most ungratefnl thank God that he and
! those he loves have been spared such calami-
| ties as the poor suffer in time OF pestilence,
| to make the most querulous and repining con-
| ten ted with a lot which is exempt from such
evils. The stranger, dying Of the plague in a
strange city, far from his home and friends;
| the SON. q mothers pride and hope, suddenly
smitten by the plague, and falling. as IL struck
| by lightning, at his mothers feet; the widow,
| deprived of her only stay and protection, and,
| above all. the poor orphans, collected together
| by the Howard Association and by the Sisters
| of Charity calling in vain upon father ana
| mother and eagerly gazing among the strange
| faces which surround them, in the vain hope
! of finding the loved and lost,-these. indeed,
| are exhibitions of human Indebtedness which
might we'll convert heart Of stone into
| heart of flesh, and make even devils feel some
! twinges of remorse over the misery they have
| brought upon mankind. But there Is a lower
deep which this Good Samaritan has beheld,
| deep which he has not hesitated to descend,
| aud all whose unimagined horrors he has lad
bare with pen of light to the public view
And. as we hear his solemn voice, describing
| these scenes of shame and woe, we feel that
! death is among the least of human evils, and
| shudder at the pictures of that living DEATH
| which may be found in every large city, and
| in comparison with which the sharpest
| scourges Of the pesiilence are mercies and
| blessings.
| Itwas the duty of the members Of the How
| ard Association to send out and relieve suf-
fering wherever it was to be found, among both
| sexes and among all classes of their fellow
beings They did not finch from the perform
ance of this sacred duty; there was no thresh-
old so poor that they did not cross; nc abode
| of vice and crime so abandoned that they did
| not enter. And it was in these last that they
| saw unfortunate and fallen humanity in its
| lowest and most forlorn estate. Why should we
drop a veil over these fearful narratives -
There is in every large city a class of wretch
| ed women, stunned and despised by all the
! world There is no death which can be COM
| pared to such a life. A single sin has pros
| trated them beneath such a load OF moral and
| physical ills, beneath such an avalanche OF
obloquy and scorn, that there seems no hope
| for them in time or eternity. Among the first
| victims of this pestileEce III New orleans, IS
| elsewhere. the members Of the Howard As
| ISOLATION and the Sisters OF Charity sought
them out. ministered to their wants, listened
| to their confessions of sin and sorrow, and
sought to pour the balm OF Divine consolation
| into their stricken souls. There, as elsewhere
a portion Of this class of wretched beings had
| been led to evil courses by the indulgence of
criminal passions in early life, and these were
| among the most Obdurate and difficult to re-
claim. But there was another and a larger
number who had been virtuously educated
who had been taught lessons of piety and
purity at a mothers knee-Who had once been
pure and spotless. Let the destroyer of
female innocence read the revelations which
were made by this latter class to the "Sa-
| maritan.'' and shudder at the terrific ruin
| which he works. and tremblc at the tremen-
dous retribution which such crimes mus pro-
woke! These unhappy women, who had seemed
! the gayest of the gay, were in reality the most
| miserable Of the miserable they realized the
| full depth of their degradation; they needed
not to hear the ignominiOus term which de-
| scribes their class, TO understand the stima-
| ton in which they were held they felt that
| they had no sympathy from the partners of
| their crimes, nor from their female compan-
| ions in guilt, and no right to expect mercy
| from Heaven. Yet they were not wholly de-
| PRAYED, nor degraded beyond redemption. In
| sickness, they We're kind and compassionate
| TO each other and, II they had kindred of their
! own SEX who were pure and autographed,
| they We're as solicitous as DIVES amid the
| flames, that those they loved should not also
| come to that place OF torment. Some of them,
| in their last sickness, exhibited every sign OF
| true penitence welcomed death as good angel
who would rescue them from the worse death
| Of a life Of sin and shame, and others who
survived, and were provided for by the $50.
ciety of the Good Shepherd - exhibiting in the
proprety and purity OF their subsequent lives
| the hast proof Of repen' ance and reformation
| which man can give.
! We thank this Good Samaritan for the no.
| BILE service which his book will do in the cause
| Of fallen and su iiering humanity. Why should
| the man who deceiyes and degrades the other
| sex, who, by the instrumen tality often Of their
| best affections, reduces them to misery and
| crime, escape the maledictions of society," aud
| his weak and unhappy victim be crushed be-
meath q loadof pu bile execration and ignominy!
| Surely, the mereifnl genius OF Christianit
does not warrant this harsh and unequal re-