The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1866-09-06
WESTMINSTER MD. THURSDAY sEPTEMBER 6. Isee

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in some kitchen a small square red pine
| table which served both as table and
wash hand stand and a single strip OF
rag carpet on the floor. The walls were
dingy and bare. Through one small.
uncurtained window with two or three
| OF the panes broken and patched with
| paper, came the insufficient light.
| The waxen face of the dead was un-
covered. Bending over it was the young
1 husband, his face almost as pale and
! wasted as that upon which his eyes were
! liked. Some one entered the room, but
the mourner neither turned nor moved.
| A mans feet crossed the floor; a man
4 stood beside him: mans voice sobbed
out in a sudden paroxysm of grief
Then he started, rose quickly, and look
ed upon the. intruder and, as he looked
his weak, quivering mouth grew firm
and strong fire flashed in his dull eyes
P--hot blood stained his cheeks. He
drew himself up in wild feryor of an
cry rejection bitter scorn. He
.sIt's. too late sir p he said-notloud-,
dly, but in cutting undertone. ."She
asked for you last night. And, for her
sake, | put away pride / stifed the
adherence / felt for one so meanly cruel,
and went to see you, with her message,
which you refused to hear When [
came back with your savage answer--no
Christian could have said i she cried
cut with such a bitter cry, that I knew
her heart had broken under this i, last
cruel stroke from her fathers hand
| You might have saved her, but you did
not. Nay, worse, you pushed her over
the precipice on the edge of which she
hung trembling, with arms stretched to
you for succor! 'If my mother had
lived" Oh how often she said that.
EFF my mother had lived" The speak
er's voice change to mournful cadence:
"When mother was dying, I heard her
say to father, Treat my child tenderly.
Don't be hard with her in anything. -
He's forgotten all that" Sir, it was
murder! The blood of that dead daugh-
ter is on your garments, never to be
washed out. [ say it,, because [ know
She loved you, though you cast her off !;
and for three long years her. cry has
been toward you At last you. have
| listened to her cry; at last you have
come. But she is dead killed by her
fathers hand And now, sir, will, you
| go away? You can't do her any good.
The young man softened his voice.
l;"Your presence hurts and angers me.
Leave me with my dead 1t won't be
long [ loved, her, if you didn't. ]
would have given my life to save her;
nay, have given my life in the vain
effort 9s - '" a = ''s1i3 '.sf n
His manner changed. He wasalike
one who wandered in his mind. Nay,
he did wander, soon losing himself,
and Mr.. Harwood was alone with his
d lad child. and her crazed husband.
He had never meant that it should
come to this. Oh, no !! Anger, PRIDE,
and a false judgment of the case had
hardened him towards the offenders -
He would punish them long and severe
ly; and he had heightened the period,
because an innate love of power, which
is always cruel, had found delight in
punishment Many times he had re
Tented but always the cruel elements
in his nature prevailed over the tender,
and he held his child away from him,
that she might suffer for her sin against
him little longer. All advances from
her and her husband inspired him with
sudden anger. He meant to abide his
own time, and to be gracious without.
solicitation. But he had waited too
long. To-day is ours for good acts, for
kindness, for forgiveness. tits danger
GUS to trust in tomorrow. They are
sure to disappoint US. Nleat 4
a What ayailed it that Mr.. Harwood,
stricken with sorrow, with shame, and
repentance, took home the body of his
| dead child had it clothed In finest lin
en-, placed in a silver-mounted ccfin,
and buried in the family vault beside
the mothers mouldering ashes !? What
availed it that he ministered, in all posi-
ssible ways, to the physical comfort Of d
poor wrecked being, whose mind, throwns
from its balance by the closing tragedy
of his brief wcdded life, never 1regained
its equipoise He had made for him
self haunting and accusing memories
that would not sleep He had shadow
ed every day ofhis future life.l He had
cursed himself with a curse that no ex-
orcism could remove. Blind with pas |
81 n, and pride, he had trampled on
quivering hearts, crushing the life out
in pain and sorrow with every stroke
of his iron heel and now that he re-
pented of this wrong, it4was too late II /