The Conservative. (M'connelsville, Ohio) 1866-1871, 1870-11-18

DOuuO III Lio 4
"And now, Madam, farewell
Your mode Of recalling yourself to
nv memory reminds me that your
fanatlcal mother lnsulted mine in
the last days of her life, (Which was
marked by every Christian virtue,) |
by the presentation of a tract adj |
dressed TO Infdels. l remember,
also, that the same heartiess woman
introduced herself, with less rever.
ence than a Mohawk squaw would
have exhibited, on the chamber of
death, and interrupted with her
jargon almost my very last inter-
view with my dying parent Such
"reminiscences warrant some severi. |
ty; but If more be wanting, know
that my poor sister has been excl.
ted by a circle of canters like your
self into a religious frenzy, and is at
this moment in o private mads
house."
That explains all. And terrible
was the revenge which he TOOK up
On all the tribe of hypocrites ; for 1
suppose no man v lived who did
SO much TO make the can't religion
odiOus and loathsoms.
The close confinement of an en-
~graver's Office soon told upon his
health ; for he was q delicate uId
sensitive boy. He was. therefore,
sent to a relation IN Scotland, where
he remained for two years as q
clerk IN a countIng-rOom; and II
wasI Sc otland that he first began
to write for the public. Returning
to London In his twenty-second
year, be obtained employment IN the
Office of o magazine as proof reader
and editorial assistant. He began
forthwith to write humorous con-.
iributions for this periodical in
prose and verse, few of which, how
ever, have been thought. worthy Of
republication. His connection with
this magazine made him q literary
man for life, and, in thas career, he
achieved, at length, a fame which
extended as far as the English Ian
guage is known.
At twenty-five he married that
admirable, that devoted, that mar
tyr wife who gave herself up so en-
tirely to her suffering husband, and
upon whose cheering presence be
was at last so dependent, that he
could hardly write at all if she was
not near him. The 6rst years of
his married life we're happy and
fortunate, for no had enjoyed toll
cradle health /; he could produce
saleable natter with astonishing
ease, and he had q sufficient in
come.
Ten years passed. He had saved
some money, which he invested in a
publishing business, as Sir Waiter
Scott did in the great Edinburgh
house that published his novels
The firm of which poor Hood was a
silent member, failed IN 1884, by
which no lost all that he had saved,
and was plunged into debt. HIS
friends advised him TO avail himself
of the Bankrupt Act, or, as he ex-
pressed 1t, to 'store off his debts
with legal whItewish or q wet
sponge" But be chose 10 follow
the example of Scott. and resolved,
If health continued, to discharge his
obligations by honest toll II his
profession. With this object IN
view, be removed with his family
to Coblentz, a town on the Rhine,
where the neccssaries of life are
much cheaper than IN England
On the Passage over tho channel,
be narrowly escaped shipwreck,
and suffered so severely, that his
delicate constitution never recover
ed tSc strain.
How be few to his task how
patiently he toiled ; how fearfuIly
he suffered with what Indomita :
bio gayeiy OF heart he bore HIS dali
ly ard nightly anguish ; how kird
he WAS as father, husband, and
friend ; how tenderly he felt for the
sorrows of the poor and friendless ;
how nobly he tolled in the service
OF the forlorn and afl icted ; an6
how, while he suffered, he enlIven-
ed and blessed ten thousand homes
with his honest, cheerful, and inno-
cent writings, cannot here be told,
for my space is exhausted. The
story Of his life has never been rela-
ted as it ought to have been. The
memorials published some years a.
go by his children are of the deep
est interest, and would almost move
a heart of stone to pity , but we
feel the tale to be incomplete, and it
provckes curiosity rather that sat
isles 1t.
He died in 1916, aged forty.six
years. He was buried IN q eemete-
~ near London, where an unusual
" beautiful monument covers his
remains, to the erection of which q
prodigious number of the best
hearts In the British Empire cons
tributed.
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