The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-07-26
A Touching IacIdent.

The following incident of travel is narrated nv q
correspondent OF the Daily Ssratogian. Ii took
place on the Rensselaer, and Saratoga Railroad
On one OF The Northern trains, between Saratoga
and Whitehall:
When the train halted at Saratoga. among the
passengers from the West came a man of about
thirty years of age, elbOwing his way through the
crowd and bearing in his arms a child. He was a
poor man his clothes were poor ; he looked poor.
Around bis hat was tied piece of soiled worn
Grape. II was evidently all the mourning his
scsniy means would permit, for the mother of the
child was dead.
This man was rough in exterior, yet his face
was an bonest one. he handled the baby awk.
wardiy, yet there was tenderness in his sad look
That showed the purity of fathers love- The
Ntile fellow lay asleep On his cosrsely clad knee
stray sunbeam glanced across its tired face
They were both tired, the father and the child
Tor they had come from the far West; and as he
placed his bard, toilwOrn hand to shield it
from the golden rays, there was in his look mix.
lure OF sadness and care, as if his pent up feel.
ngs had been so crowded back into the inner cells
OF his heart that even tears could have been a re.
nef 10 the hidden anguish that was making his
lite mystery.
The poor child cried; it might be the little
thing was tired it might be it missed its mother
perhaps 1t was hungry; perhaps it was sick and
80 It cried. The tears rolled down its baby
cheeks; the father wiped away the dewdrops as
they fell, and then tried TO feed it, He was 90
awkward with the bOtte-his had been a life of
toll and hardship-and he knew not bow to give
his darling its nourshment. As he made effort
after effort TO stfe the cries and check the tears
OF his moiberless babe, how he must have missed
her who. in his life of labor and privation, had
been his solace and comfort An unbidden tear
started to his eye, but he brushed it quickly sway
All who saw him pitied him. At length q woman
richly sppareed, with an infant resting on the lap
OF his nurse beside her-she had been watching
the man--said In gentle tone, " Give me the
chlld.' The poor fellow looked up at her with
look OF gratitude, for there was mothers ten.
deiness in her voice. With humble resignation,
as though 1t were pain to part with him, even for
a moment, be gave her his boy. The woman took
1t; its sOiled clothes rested on her silk; its tiuy
head was soon beneath her shawl, and in a mo.
ment all was still. Like the Grecian daughter
who, through the iron bars. fed her starving
father, so did this high born lady from her breast
feed the hungry child, and when, on her gentle
bosom, the little one lay in calm and unYexed
sleep, she put aside the shawl.
The fathers heart swelled with gratitude. He
said, as a tear weed in his eye, and his voice was
thick with emotion, Thank you. I'll take him
now" Then the womsns nature spoke forth, as
she gently answered, mot yet; you will wake
hlm"-and for mile after mile that noble hearted
woman held that poor mans child, and it was not
nhtll her own babe required such nourishment as
only mother can give, she gently rose and
paced the stranger boy with its father.