The Portland daily press., 1865-09-13
MR.. SMITH.



laid ON top to keep it in its place. You have
undoubtedly passed the day in New England
at some period of your miserable life.A You
have felt your coarse nattlre repulsed, too,
when some weary and desolate little child has
dreannily pinned a bit of paper to the hinder
most verge Of the garment men call a coat,
and then called the attention of passers-by to
your appearance. You have despised that lit
tie, weary, hollow-9yed child for it. Beware
how you strike that child; for tell you that
the child Is the germ OF the thing they call man.
The germ will develop; it viii grow broadly
and largely into the full entity of Manhood
In striking the present Child you strike the fu-
tIlre Man. Ponder this thought well. Let it
Tester in your bosom. IAe8 ofisaa
John Smith sat at his table, in the lowest
depths Of dreamy coatnine, and helped HIM
self to some more pork and beans. know
not what there was way down in the black ra-
cesses of the mans hidden soul to make him
want so much pork and beans. / look into
my heart to find an answer to the question,
but no answer comes. Providence does not
reveal all things to us. Is it not well it should
be so?
de was hard, iron-looking, adamantine
man. His eyes were glowing crucibies of
thought. You felt that he saw you when he
looked at ycu. Els nose was like red gothic
tower built amidst broken angles of suIlied
snow, and his mouth was the cellar of that
lower. Ills ualf Was Ot Tile SOTb budU TGSlSLS q
comb. You have seen the same sort on the
heads Of men of great thought. 1t is the tan
gled bush IN which the goat Of Thought loses
itself. ~ @48 T&t
John Smith hiccupped, as he helped him
sef to some more pork and beans. He did
not notice that the foot which he had semi
consciously placed on pale sickly child, was
beginning to move. But it did move and there
craWled from under it the shape of a diseased
dwarf of womanhood. This timid, pallid thing,
upfted itself to its bleeding feet and nestled to
the side Of John Smith.
"Y.o hae been separated by unspeaking
space from dis humble leetle place for some
hourslonger that zis boosom could uncomplain-
ingly indure,-y'o have.'
The child meant to say, in its coarse, brutal,
unlettered way, that the man had been absent
too long.
John Smith helped himself to some more
pork and beans. He was a man, you know,
and could hot answer without deep thought.
He took his knife and wiped 1t thoughtftllly up
on her head, and then shaved OF a sickly yell
low curl When he placed that curl on the
same plate with the pork and beans, its coils
seemed like those of some golden snake.
"Girletta," he said, with ring of iron in his
tones, "why is it that the beasts never want to
marry? God made them as he made us; yet
they lever ask priests to make them slaves to
each other"
The siclly little waif cringed closer to the
inscrutable great heart which underlaid a soul
. of eternal questioning. She shuddered like a
wounded hog, but could not answer. An in
ward fever was devouring her. tsstteB
The man took some more pork and beans.
"Girietta," he said almost tiercely, "the beasts
teach me lesson; but will not, dare not,
SHALL not heed it, l want home my heart
demands some one to work for me, and do my
washing. love you Have me-
The atom womanhood contorted her dis
eased features into the pale twist of agony, and
her bosom heaved with stormy wavings like
the sides ofa tortured and choking BRUTE
Falling to the ground, she writhed, and strug-
3 gled and kicked eonvulsively, as though seized
with some inward pang, Then she rose slow
" to her shattered little feet and drew an old
cupboard to the middle of the wretched cave
and beat her head against 1t,
It was the ehild's first taste of that great
mystery Of perfect love which woman is DOOM
ed to share with the thing called Man.
''Y'o air indulging in secret cachinnation,
at the expense Of my sair heart"
The child meant that be was laughing at
her. sW aoEHss4 SO
John Smith helped himself to some more
pork and beans, and sat back in his stern, dark
chair What were his thoughts as he looked
down on that miniature fragment of womanly
humanity? Perhaps he thought that there
her Bright seraphs, with ruby eyes, and silver
wings, and golden harps, and just such pale,
haggard, gaunt ,sunken, and bleared little IA
ces, sala saa ~ sssr
"Girletta," he said II hereby make thee
mine, Take some of the pork and beans"
She fell upon his bosom.
There let us leave them. Do you think they
were any less happy, because they. were
way down in dreamy, rayless coal-Inine,
where men work their souls away to give 9TH
ers warmth If you think so, you never have
felt what true love is. Your degraded and star
less nature has never had one soul to lean up
on. When you lean upon a soul, you see ev-
erything through that soul, which gives its
u own hue to everything Mans love is a pane
IN his bosom, and through that pane the eyes
O. woman look forth TO see the new world
Inc medium is the ultimatum. God gives us
love that we may live more cheaply and happi-
ly together than if we were separate. Al bre sd-
pudding Is richer where there are two hearts.
than plum-pudding is to one alone. The
world will learn this yet, and the lion will lie
daYp with the lamb, and even Won will he iess
deDraved The First of Apri ,nun,l ToSn
Smith unmarried, but it left him nearly ,vad-
ded. Let US think Of this when the snrino
birds sing again. II will make us more hmm an
more charitable, and filter to be hlest.