Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1861-10-23
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A Sad Scene.

sue OF luesc uoues arc PlAceu tue 1OV,uVV AEoo
shops of our lsnd-and . little apart from these,
three. fourths of the poor houses, and jails, and
prisons, and q large part Of the lunatic asylums,
and not Q smaller share Of hose houses whose
are fully within the confines of he'll
and Just in the suburbs our 10000 distilleries-
and Just back of these a large burial place. But
7 need not add any more items--ue have already
the largest city in Chr stendom, and a Pandemo-
mum such ss no one of us would desire to en-
ter. But you MUST go with me and take a birds
eye view Of what is going on within 1t. The ar
my you just saw is now disbanded, and they are
all in their daily Of nightly avocations. We win
first look into two or three of the houses. Here
is q large half clad family of children, shivering
with the cold. and no fuel for a fire and famish-
ing with hunger, and no food to eat-the pale and
broken>hearted mother, unable to rise from her
couch of rag and straw, folds her lean hands and
bony arms around a newborn infant-for hersei
she longs for the sweet repose of TIE grave; bat
then the MOTHER yet lives in her heart, and looks
out from her wild eyes for the sake of THESE she
prays to live. But hunger and cold are compare.
lively siderable, if they come by unavoidable
misfortune, and in spite of the we'll directed eff
orts of a faithful husband and father. When he
comes home, if he be not able to bring the wood
and the bread, if he bring a husbands and a faith
er's heart, and amind all their woes lifts to Heaven
a Christians prayers, family affection and conf
dence and sympathy, and the hope of q better
country, will bear away half their suferings, and
infuse a sweet ingredient into their cup of tears
But in this family ne such mitigation of their
suferings exists-the bitterest ingredient in their
brimfull cup, is the fact that he, who SHOULD BIZ
the husband and father, has fallen to be q swine
In the ten thousand scenes of woe that meet
our eyes, we are too apt to overlook the produ.
cling causes, not seeming to think that these, &C
cording as their characters may be, inconceiva
bly, mitigate or augment them. Our eyes aloni
constitute a poor guage of the dimensions of an,
scene of suffering. Virtue, with all her atten
dant train of heavenly affections and heaysnl,
offices, difuses something of good into every cir
Gle over which she presides-and Vice, with al
her crime and shame, adds poignancy to ever,
woe she brings. There are thousands of mother
and children in this proud country, whom we be
hold daily toiling beyond their strength for tn
support of life, and after all, suffer for the want G
many comforts-ws sometimes see them wee,
and we pity them, and give them money, and clio
thing, and bread, and then talk of their bein
comfortable. But ah we see not the iron that
!. fostering in their souls they wesp not beoaus
they arc poor, and hungry, and naked, b,
because the father is a D%RUNKARD! Their unse,
! agony of shame and modification, too often 70
gotten in our SUI erfcial kindnesses, demands O.
' sympathy, and should never, never be forgotte
But I have no time to moralize let us pass
; . half a mile, and look in upon another scene.
(: But what is here? A helpless husband lying u
a on the floor by a lifeless wife, whose blood he h
just shed with a knife. Three fourtts of t
y crime of this land comes of rum.
: Let us enter one more home. Open your e,
! now, it you can, upon the scene before YOU.
y There lies a drunken wife upon the Goals of t
fire, and n drunken husband lies upon the 60
unable to help her Off and two men arc in
rs chamber, too drunk to descend for her cries
SO She burns to death! This occurred in Westt
at New York in the winter of Al.
But it would take too long, and it would be
Mt sickening, to go around even to a few of tn
N groggeries, and behold their fighting, and bio
IN murders, and hear their dwelling blasphemies
.r- 1t would take too long, and be too much for OF
IT. nary nerves to endure, to pass along by all tn
re grated doors, and look in upon those u.s. 900 or
inals that rum has barred up with them, pin
en- away under the burdens of an ever present M
DRY, or fast sinking into the arms Of idiocy.
:. would take too long to visit those 200, 900
as mates of the poor houses, bereft of their
self respect, and consequently not only wretcl
but prepared, when temptation asSails them,
on the worst of crimes. Nor can we spend but q
ts- moments in those asylums, in viewing those
,et- reason dethroned, raving in the maniac's chs
or giving only the idiots stare.
ian
ss- A CAMP INCIDRNT.-The Fairfax Corresponds
Nn; the Richmond Dispatch relates the following
law week an Irishman deserted from the Federal DRAG
vas while on picket duty, and came into our lines.
says he has long desired to escape, but has neye
yht. fore had an opportunity. His brother is in the
federate army, and he wishes to join him but v