The Fremont weekly journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County, Ohio) 1867-1877, 1869-07-16
WASHINGTON LETTER.
LCOrrespOndenee FEemontJ0urnal.l

J.
Correspondents Fremont JOurnal.l ,isla
WASHINGTON, D, O., July l2, 1869.
A beautiful spirit has Just left us. Arnold
, Petrie. of Little Falls, N. Y, a clerk in the
, Internal Revenue Office, after disabling i'll
ness of several month, died on Wednesday
: night, aged &c. A woman fit to be his wife,
with her little child, mourns her. early be-
reavement.
J cannot take your room to describe his
constitution of mind as I would like. He
was graduate of Union College, and enter
ed the legal profession; but, while bis
reasoning faculties were of the highest order,
his respect for human enactments and de-
cisiOns was surpassed by his love for the
greater range, certaiuties, constancies and
beauties of nature and art; and he therefore
never became practitioner. He. indulged
in the widest variety of reading, from the
exact and occult in science to the daintiest
poetic effiorescence. He delighted in music,
and could give fit expression to the esthetic
harmOnies of his nature by voice and instru,
ment. As may be supposed, it was not in
every one he found congenial companion;
and he could not endure any other, He had
a poets love of nature, and luxuriated il. a
stroll through the woods and fields, aud
along the waters edge. He struggled at
nothing; he had no ulterior object in doing
anything. All came easy, and for the love
oft Now 'he stopped to touch the loftiest
thought now eloquently admired flower,
or poured like lava his hot indignation and
scorn over the perpetratOr of some meanness;
and now sang an exquisite little ballad-ali
alike without effort spontaneous expressions
of the varying inspirations of hissouls Here |
was fault. The knowledge and influence
of what he was were too confined for his
own material, and perhaps spiritual, adj
vantage aud the benefit of others. In con-
sequence character 50 richly adorned with
all the graces leaves Us at S9 years, unknown,
save to the small circle of his own private
friends. ..-- ~ r,-I
l mention this death for one sole purpose.
This noble, generous, exquisite nature, this
richly endowed and accomplished young |
man, was driven away from wife and child,
from father and mother, and from all the /
world, in the fresh fullness of his manhood,
by the use of intoxicating liquors. ~ His
digestive organs were 50 far destroyed that
they could not appropriate sufficient food
to keep his body alive; so it died of starva-
ton. a., -.f..r
Think Of it. Despite his high, refined
nature, and intelligence. The appetite
oermastered all. This is painful truth to
tell. No one cherishes more teuderly my
most estimable friends fair nams, or can
be more regardful of the feelings of those to-
whom be is nearest. But there are higher /
and weightier considerations than these by
which am governed, Ny regard for the
living thousands in danger, to whom this
amazing example will come, it is believed, L
as more effective warning than volumes of
arguments from the platform or the press,
has impelled me to the statement aiH
Imet a strange lady from 100 miles, OF so,
down the Potomac, the other day, in the
cashiers room Of bank; and while we both
waited for that officer to make his appeat-
ance frank conversation sprang up between
US. She was dressed in deep mourning;
and was old enough to be grandmother of
bright boy of l3, her daughters son. Her
sOn-in-law was dead. How he died she
didn't tell me. 1 suspect he died Of con-
federate service somehow. He left 2lOO
acres of land to his widow, part of it en-
numbered with an $4,000 mortgage. To
help her daughter meet the interest due on
thie mortgage was the lady's business at the
bank. She wished to sell the remnant Of
some stock which, before the days of the
SOuth's great calamity, formed her source of
Independent income. Her heart was full of
the welfare of her grandchildren. The
whole of that land did not afford profit ,
enough to send tie two Oldest away to
school; and, of course, school near home |
was impossible, unless wholly supported on
the plantation. But the children must not ,
grow up in ignorance. That must be avoid
ed in sOme way. She had heard of the
Public Schools of Boston, and she had told !
her daughter, she would be willing to have
the little boy 60 to one of those poor /
schools, as she called them, rather than to q
none, if they could only provide money for {
his support there. She had often appealed !
to the little fellow to do all he could at home !
TO learn. She would tell him the negroes /
were all ambitious to learn, now they were +
free; and surely be wouldn't fall behind
them; and she would take up history, per- ,
haps, to read to him. But he would reply !
20, grandma, I'm so sleepy, and soon drop +
of, overcome by his really severe physical t
laboFs about the faEm-for they had already !
trOdden under foot in their progressive
march, the inherited notion that labor is, !
necessarily degrading .5aa II
All this, and more, she told me, a strau-
ger, with charming frankness an d feeling
1 found it both interesting and instructive to- /;
myself and though it might be SO to your :
readers. take it to be representative of
the changes that hsve come over the circum-
stances and notions of thousands of families
in the South, and of the cOnsultings, plan 4
nings, struggliDgs and savings, to gather il
up the fragment Of their broken fortunes
and their broken domestic circles, and pre-
pare as best they may for the new order of i
things. Il
Our pending Alabams account against
England is unfortunately for the Cuban
putting our Government, f.
sake, upon extreme neutrality {
policy. v
Hon, VIM. A. Howard, Minister to China, :
is at the St. James Hotel; and Hon. John :.
Rose, New Dominion Minister Of Finance, il
ID hare, J.E, 81