Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1866-04-13
A City Night-Piece.

The clock has just struck two the ex-
piring taper rises and sinks in the socket
the watehman forgets the hour in slumber
the laborers and the happy are at rest
and nothing wakes but meditation, guilt,
reyelry and despair. The drunkard once
more fills the destroying bowl; the robber
walks his midnight round; and the suicide
lifts his guilty arm against his own sacred
person.
Let me no longer waste the night over
the page of antiquity or the sallies OF con-
temporary genius, but pursue the solitary
walk, whore vanity, ever changing, but
few hours past walked before me--where
she kept up the pageant, and now, like a
forward child, seems hushed with her own
opportunities.
What gloom hangs all around The
dying lamp feebly emits a yellow CLEAN
no sound is heard but the Ginning clock or
the distant Watchdog; all the hustle of
human pride is forgotten. An hour like
this may wen display the emptiness of hu-
man vanity.
There will come time when this tenn
porary solitude will be made continual,
and the city itself, like its inhabitants, fade
away, and leave desert in its room.
What cities, great as this, have triumph
ed into existence, had their victories as
great, joy as just, and as unbounded, and.
with short-sishted presumption, promised
themselves immortality Posterity can
hardly trace the situation of some; the
sorrowful traveller wanders over the awful
ruins of others: and, as he beholds, he
learns wisdom, and feels the transcience
of every sublunary possession.
Here, he cries, stood their citadel, now
: grown over with weeds there, their SEN
: ate house, but now the haunt of every
noxious reptile. Temples and theatres
d stood here, now only an andistinguished
heap of ruins. They are fallen, for luxu-
y ry and avarice first made them feeble
y The rewards Of state were conferred or
amusing, and not on useful members o
= society. Their riches and opulence in
- vited the invaders, who, though at first re
pulsed, returned again, conquered by per
" severance, and at last swept the defendants
into undistinsuished destruction.
rs How few appear in those streets, whicl
u but some few hours ago were crowded i
ie And those who appear now no longer wear
u their daily mask, nor attempt to hide theil
N lewdness or their misery.
ht But who are those who make the streets
he their couch, and find short repose from
sr wretehedness at the doors of the opulent
y These are strangers, wanderers, and or.
is phans, whose cireumS tanees are too humble
y to expect redress, and whose distresses are
c too great even for pity. Their wretched-
It ness excites rather horror than pity
n Some are without the covering even Of
: rags, and others, emaciatei with disease,
II Tie world has disclaimed them, society
% turns its back upon their fistress, and has
r given them up to nakedness and hunger
e These poor shivering females have once
'e seen happier days, and been fiattered into
g beauty.
5. Why was born man, and yet see tht
rs suffering Of creatures cannot relieve =
Poor houseless creatures, the world viii
Y. give you reproaches, but it viii not give
nt you relief. The slightest misfortunes o
IS the great, the most imaginary uneasines,
a. of the rich, are aggravated with all the
e, power OF elo9uence, and held up to en-
g gage our attention and sympathetic sor
d, row. The poor weep UNDECIDED, persecui
$ ed by every subordidare species Of tyran
ny; and every law which gives others Sc
IF curity becomes an enemy TO them.
n Why was this heart Of mine formed
ID with SO much sensibility? or why wa
j. not my fortune adapted to its impulses p
in Tenderness, without the capacity Of reliev
$ ing, only makes the man more wretche,
is than the object which sues for assistance
10 - Goidsmiths 6 Citizen of the World"