Cedar Falls gazette. [volume] (Cedar Falls, Iowa) 1860-1895, 1867-12-06
Female Fidelity.

man named James Esterly, paid his
addresses to, and won the heart of a
lyoung lady named Marie Pearson, and
married her. They both resided In a
pleasant little city In the State of Ohio.
Esterly was gentleman of high social
standing, was engaged i'm good busi-
ness, and was apparently prosperous in
highly esteemed, and he was cunsde r
ed : s'good match" for any young la,iy
i'm the town. Miss Pearson was also Of
an excellent family, highly educated
and accomplished, possessed of rare
personal charms, and the life and JOY
of the circle In which she moved.
For n year after their marriage they
lived most happily together, Esterly
Treating his beautiful wife with the ut
most affection. But the war fever run.
ming high in his city, he finally sold
out his business and entered the army,
being appointed tn the position of Ad-
jutant in one Of the Ohio regiments.
While In the army, like thousands of
Iothers. he fell intn the habit of intern
jperance, and so sompietely did the fell
ltery OF him. that before he had served
two years he Was apparently hopeless
drunkard. #
He was persuaded by his friends To
resign his position and return home.
they hoping he might reform il his
! army associations were broken off and
removed. He did so, and went home
but there he continued In his course OF
intemperance, and soon, by gambling
the natural adjunct of intemperance
run through with all his property,
and reduced himself andlfamiiy to alb
solute poverty, IL. ~. ia F
During ali the time Of his rapid de-
scent, the young and loving, out now
nearly heart, broken wife. clupg to him,
pleading with him to cast out the de-
mons that were polluting his soul and
surely aud swiftly leading him on to
the most certain and irretrievable ruin.
But he needed not her entreaties he
did worse, tor he beat her: aud when
her heart was breaking under its load
of woe, and her white face would be
! turned up imploringly into his i'm mute
appeals for his reformation, he would
slap her cheek with his brutalized
hands. until her asllen hue was chang
ed TO deepest purple. s3EEa zs7 F4rsg.
| A man would have cursed the brutal
lied husband for such conduct. But
not so with this loving wife. To all app
peals made to her to leave his wicked
home and return To the pleasant one of
her parents. she turned deaf ear, aud
answered only, II love him, and can
not desert him now. / will still save
him through thelhelp of God''
But matters grew worse instead of
better. The wife and Sherl children
were often without food, and the hus-
hand and father seemed to have become
more fiend than human. Still the
faithful wife clung TO him-still she
al f,t Ii, .s.I f..st
unshaken that he would ultimately re-
form, aud again become To her all he
was i'm the first years of their love and
welded life. s'E a
| One night in December 1865. the hus-
band came home at late hour. The
poor fife was crouched- over the fast
dying embers, with her helpless babe
| in her arms. She noticed that Esterly
| looked more wild and crazed than usu-
al, aud that his nerves were twitching
mt fearful rate, yet she did not fear
| him. Finally he asked her why she
had not better fire. She replied that
she had no more wood.
! This seemed to make maniac of
| him, and the demon that had been lur-
king i'm his wake or besettiug his foot
steps, seemed suddenly to possess his
soul and seizing the Infant from his
wife's arms he hurled it upon the Goals,
and for time would not allow the wife
| TO remove it. @ h
He was delerious--the mind had
yielded to the demon pressure, and he
was maddened. desperate iiend. FL
lnally the child was rescued from the
| fire; but it was too late to save 10. In
agony 10 fingered for two days. anil
| God, in his mercy took IL up to Henv-
en-. aud gave il a home among the AN
GELS =
The maniac father rushed out into
| the night shrieking and screaming, but
soon afterward he was seized by some
of the officers of the town, taken to his
wretched home, and there con fined for
days until, through the skill Of u phy-
sician, and the constant nursing of his
wife, he recovered. At first the wife
told that while sitting over the fire
nursing tile child, she had fallen
asleep, and the child had dropped from
hher arms into the lire.
And 10 was this accident. she said,
that had crazed her husband and caus-
ed him to flee from the house. Il was
nearly year<he hefore even her parents
knew 10 the cSntrary.
When Esterly had recovered, the
wife told him how the child came to lis
death. She AYERS with the utmost SOL
emnity that this was the first knowl.
| edge he bad OF It,. Then, she says, he
resolved To lead a sober life in the fu-
ture. In a few months he left home,
went To Southern Illinois, got employ
ment, and is once more engaged in bu.
siness for himself. On Tuesday night
the wife arrived in this city, on her
way to join her husband again. She
remained here with relative, from
whom we derive tile above facts, until
yesterday morning, when she left on
the train of the Louisville, New Alba
ny and Chicago road anroute for the
home OF him who had filed her heart
with such anguish, and darkened so
many years of her life with sorrow,
that might otherwise have been bright
anu hapRy.x aaa8aA
Drunk.
Young man. did you ever stop to
think how terrible that word stands.
DO you ever think what misery and
woe you brought upon your friends
when you degraded your manhood by
getting drunk? Oh, it is a fearful
Thing thus To trample under foot the
high claims that God and man have
upon you-drunk! How 10 rings in
the ear of q loving wife! How IL
makes the heart of fond mother
bleed. How 1t crushes out the hopes Of
a doting father. and brings reproach
and shame upon loving sisters. Drunk!
See him as he leans against some friend
ly house-he stands ready to fall into
the opening jaws oil hell, UNCONSCIOUS
as to his approaching fate. Tie wife,
with fearful eyes and aching heart, sits
at the window to hear her husbands
q A.
Is drunk The husband. the parent. is
drunk, spending his time and money
when he should be at home enjoying
the comforts and pleasures of the fami
ly circle! Drunk! He Is spending the
means of support for liquor. while his