The Hancock Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Ohio) 1857-1870, 1869-01-29

AN stranger III your NliiaSe, ANU 4
trust may call you my friends. A
new star has arisen, and there is hope
in the dark night that hangs like a
pail of gloom over our country"
With a thrilling depth of voice the
speaker continued ''Oh, God, Thou
who lookest with compassion upon
the most erring of earth's frail chils
dren, thank Thee that brazon SER
pent has been lifted, upon which a
drunkard may look and be healed ;
that beacon has burst upon the
darkness that surrounded him, which
shall guide him back to honor and
heaven-the bruised and weary wand
erer."
1t is strange what power there is Iii
some voices. The speakers yolc,
was low and measured, but tear
trembled in every tone, and before
knew why, tear dropped on my
hand, followed by others like rain
drops. The old man brushed one
from his eye and continued:
Men and Christians! you have
just he ard that am a fanatic. l am
not. As God knows my own heart
L came here to do good. Hear me,
and be just.
am an old man, standing alone al
the end of life s journey. There is 8
deep sorrow in my heart and tears III
my eyes. / have journeyed over Z
dark, beaconless ocean; all of lire,
brightest hopes have been wrecked
[ am without friends, kindred, OF
home! 1t was not so once
No eye could Withstand the touch
ing pathos of the old man. / noticed
tear in the lid of my fathers and nc
longer felt ashamed ofIny own.
NO, my friends, it was not once
so. Away over the dark waves which
have wrecked my hopes there is 4
blessed light of happiness and home.
1 reach again convulsively for the
shrines of household idols that once
were mine, but mine no more"
The old man seemed looking away
through vacancy, upon some bright
vision, his lips apart, and his finger
extended. voluntarily turned in the
direction where he pointed, dreading
to see some shadow invoked by its
magic moving.
81 once had a mother. With ner
old heart crushed with sorrow she
went down to the grave. | once had
wife-a fair, angel-hearted creature
as ever smiled in an earthly home.
Her eyes were as mild as a summer $
sky, and her heart as faithful and true
as ever guarded and cherished hus
bands love. Her blue eyes grew dim
As the floods of sorrow washed away
its brightness, and the living heart
wrung out till every fiber was broken.
l once had a noble, a bright and beau
tiful boy, but he was driven out from
the ruins of his home, and my old
heart yearns to know if he is yet liv
ing. Ionce had a babe, a sweet, ten
der blossom but these hands destroy
ed it, and it lives with One who low
eth children.
"Do not be startled friends-I am
not a murderer in the common accept
ance of the term. Yet there is a light
in my evening sky. A spirit mother
rejoices over the return of her prodi-
gal son. The wife smiles on him who
turns back to virtue and honor. The
angel child visits me at nightfall, and
L feel the hallewed touch of a tiny
palm upon my cheek. MY brave boy,
if he yet lives, would forgive the sor
rowing old man for the treatment
which sent him out into the world,
and the blow which manned him for
life. God forgive me the ruin which
| have brought upon me and mine.''
He again wiped tear from his eye.
My father watched him with strange
intensity, and countenance unusually
pale, and excited by some strange
emotion.
Il was once fanatic, and madly
followed the malign light which led
me to ruin. | was q fanatic when l
sacrificed my wife, children, happiness
and home, to the accursed demon of
the bowl. 1 once adored the gentle
being whom l wronged so deeply.
Il was drunkard. From respecta-
bility and affiuence 1 plunged into deg
radiation and poverty. dragged / my
family down with me For years |
saw her cheek grow pale, and her step
weary. / left her alone amid the
wreck of her home idols, and rioted at
the tavern. She never complained,
yet she and the children often went
hungry.
zone New Years night l returned
late to the hut where charity had Civ
en- us roof. She was still up, shiver-
ing over the Goals. / demanded food.
but she burst into tears and tolG me
there was none. l fiercely ordered
her to 60 and get some. She turned
her eyes upon me, the tears fast roll
ing down her pale face.
sAt this moment the child in the
cradle awoke and set up a famished
wall, startling the despairing mother
like a serpent's sting"
1--WE have no food James-I have
had none for two days. l have moth
ing for the babe. My once kind
husband, must we starve p
''That sad, pleading face, and those
streaming eyes, and the feeble wall OF
the child maddened me, and I-yes 1
struck her a fierce blow in the face,
and she fell forward upon the hearth.
The furies of hell boiled in my bosom,
and with deep intensity, as l felt 1
had committed wrong. i had new
er struck Mary before, but now some
terrible impulse bore me on, and !
stopped down as well as could in my
drunken state and clinched both hands
in her hair"
"'God Of mercy,' exclaimed my
wife, as she looked up into my fiend-
ish countenance, 'yon will not kill us,
you will not harm Willie as she
sprang to the cradle and grasped him
in her embrace. / caught her again
by the hair, and dragged her to the
door, and as / lifted the latch the wind
burst in with cloud of snow. With
a wild cha, hat" l closed the door
and turned the button, her pleading
moan mingled with the blast and the
sharp cry of her babe. But my work
was not yet complete. Iturnedto the