Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1868-03-19
A SAD INCIDENT.
A Drunkeh Husbabd's Maud
lin klumber.
He AwaIxes, Deserted by His
wife and Child.

III IL be true NJ Ill thht oue-uth tho
world know not how the other half live,
how doubly true must il be Of those who
make up the population Of great cities
and act before the argus eyes of scru-
timing socicsy their parts in the great
drama Of human life, in which every
player wears a mask and seeks to seem
that which he is not2 It's only now and
then, when the mask falls from some hid
den lifs-pow and then, when we look
behind the scenes-tbat we discover,
shorn of the tinssl and rose tint Of as
sumed joys, the sad, sad truth and how
striking then is the picture. Even
where but single wall divides
squalor from sfiuence, misery
from happiness and vice from vir-
tue, hundreds breathe the same air and
walk the same paths in Ignorance OF
each other. Bat now and then the cur
tain between them rolls up and the one
extreme gazes upon the other in wonder,
envy or compassion. An incident that
reached our ear this morning, but too
strongly illustrates the ignorance, if not
indifference, to the veal Of those around
us that city life begets.
For some months past married couple,
with one child, little girl of tender
years, have been occupying a room in
an upper story Of the building 248 Front
street, the father and husband a
confirmed drunkard-the mother and
wife a constant laborer for the sup
port Of those around her. While the
former had been poisoning his life
and drowning in the intoxicating cup
the last vestige Of his manhood, the lat.
ter had taken in washing or used her
needle by night to keep the wolf from
her door. Thus for months had they
lived, until even the strength of womaps
fidelity and forbearance began to relax
in the heart of the wife and mother, and
ere that her hands which had thus far
warded off starvation. should fail, she
finally determined to part forever with
the unnatural creature who had violated
every vow of their betrotbal, and sunksn
so low as to forget the duties and respon'
sibilities of father and husband.
Having so resolved, on Monday last
she approached her husband in a mo-
ment of partial soberness, aud instead
of entreating as before, threatened to-
leave him with his child. He heard her,
and left the room with his little one call
ing to him to return. After being out
all night, Tuesday morning he staggered
into the apartment, again overcome with
the poison of the bowl, and fell upon the
floor. His eyes closed, and in moment
he was insensible of whatever might
transpire around him. His wife looked
upon him and determined instanter to
put into execution her threat of the even
ing before. Gathering together, there
fore, what she could and taking her
little one by the hand, she passed out OF
the room. When her husband, then no
more her husband, awoke from his maud
lin slumber, he found on the floor at his
side this simple note:
DEAR JOHN: You will never see me
again. When you miss me you will re-
pent Heaven have mercy on you.
Good.by. MARY
Ere the blood-shot eyes of the slum-
berer opened to trace these words, she
whose hand had traced them was with
her child on their way to St. Louis,
there to seek again the home she had
once left with the author of her misery
and disgrace,