Fremont journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County [Ohio]) 1853-1866, 1860-01-20
TEE MANIAC MOTHER.


ny p A. p. siNPKINs.
All silent the streets, and bleak and bare,
No sound is heard on the icy air
Save the whispered wall Of deep despair
From the lips Of a female creature;
"Oh, God |" she muters, "did they but know
How great the need for the little they owe,"
And the gas-light discovers a face with woe
Depicted in every feature.
The biting blast and the pitess storm
Are freezing her tatters around her form,
And she signs she passes palace warm,
And lists to the joyous laughter;-
For mp in that dark, dirty alley, hardly
May be heard the sad music of childhoods cry,
In garret whose window looks into the sky,
And whose stucco is only the rafteri
No laughter resounds In her home so lone,-
No music is heard save the winds hoarse moan,
As it enters the chinks in the olden cone
Other cheerless habitation;
No shutters has she to make secure-
No cheerful ireside; alas she's poor;
Oh, Heaven | how long must she thus endure
Dread poverty's desolation'
How little they reck, in that mansion warm,
The merciless rage of the driving storm,
As It chills and bruises the delicate form
OF that mother, pale and weary;
Dub niue hne ilteuh lne DluSterlng EleeIg
As it blinds her eyes and betrays her feet
Her thoughts away from the stormy street,
In the garrett so cold and dreary.
Apitless glare shoots athwart the sky,
As ifheaven had Knocked her latest sigh
And the piercing blast as It whistles by,
Alone vouchsafe's to greet her;
She pauses-she starts-she quickens her tread
She reaches her home, and with desperate dread
She silently enters, and peers at the bed,
To see if those infant eyes meet her.
There wailing with hunger, and quaking with cold
On a pallet of straw, in corner, and rolled
In her mantle-the only spare garment unsold,
Lie the famishing little creatures:
"0h Ma, have you now brought us something to eatl
And some wood for the 6re Ma to cold eeti"
Poor woman she knows tbs horrible cheat,
And she heeds not the little beseechers.
In anguish and madness she hurres away
To the opulent home of the thoughtless and gay
Who had lately declined the pale toiler to pay
The thrice earned reward of her labor:
'The amount small" (tho' the labor was great,
And the price had been brought the minimum rate
ct was quite inconvenient." The poor woman's fate
Was the same with the wealthy ones neighbor.
nobleman passes-a "great one of earth,"-
In lucre not great nor yet lofty of birth;
One gifted by Nature with genuine worth
A heart formed to feel for another.
Despairing and frantic, half frozen and wan,
She tells her sad tale to this generous man,
Whoever is ready, wherever be can,
sister to aid, brother.
Hope bHghtens her eye, joy ghtens her tread,
"My babes," (she repeats she es,) shall be fed,'
And, breathess, again she approaches the bed,
To gaze on each innocent sleeper;
She shudders, oh, horror that sumber how deepl
Wretched one it availeth thee nothing to weep;
Gone forever from earth, to Eternity's sleep,
They rest with their good ange-keeper
In the midnight Of winter when tempests blow bleak,
Clad in garments ofsummer, and care-worn and weak
With wildly-fxed eye, and sorrow -blanched cheek,
She wanders about the Old DWELLING
Which alone to her sorrow-bowed spirit is DEAR
And she loves-the poor maniac-to inger long here,
For oft the bright faces Of loved ones appear,
Sweet tales of their heaven-home telling.
And often and off, mid the clamor and strife,
or the boisterous mart, and the business oflife,
May be seen-mark the sequel !-rHg INEBRIATE's WIFI
Think Of her grieving-not scorning.
In her eye is the sadness of settled despair;
On her brow the furrows of cankering care;
Her checks have the death hue tho they were f
As the fresh-blown flower of morning.
Aye her shivering l4spm, now barred to the storm,
With girlhoods fond dreams entertainments beat warn
And the garments ofcomfort protected her form,-
Then each a sister brother
Misfortune overwhelmed e'en in lifes joyous morn,
And the cold, cantng world left her needy and orn,
And the finger of ribaldry, folly and scorn
Nov points to the MANIAC MOTHER!