The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1870-04-22
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by BERESFORD.

A dark, cold, rainy, windy, Saturday
night, April the month, January the wealth
er A long ride through the storm bright
ems my anticipation of home enioyments,
and as the lamps in my home window cast
their welcoming rays far out into the night,
l watch them nearing and nearing, bright
ening and frightening, with a glow of
fond gratitude in my heart a glow of thank
fulness for home, for love, and all Gods
manifold blessings. God pity those who
have no home! draw my mantle closer
and try to think what it would be like to
wander houseless, homeless, in this search
ing blast, till strong, shuddering sense of
sympathy shrills me. Is it some mysteri-
Gus influence proceeding from some lonely
wandcrer who sees my home lights, and,
thank God, feels the welcome in their
beams? How strange, that following so
close upon my thought should come this
wait and stray, whom l find beside the
kitchen fire, and who must have entered
the house almost when did. '"I saw the
light in your windows, it looked so bright
| thought l might come in" Another
heart warmed by thy kindly cleaning, my
dear home light!
If | question this man, what will he an
swer me? i fall thinking of all those
pretty generalities, those sweet poetical I'M
realities, in which it is so asserted that
every human being has something to love,
something for which to live, some tie to
bind him, some place to call home !;
and | wonder how will this mans story
chime with those rosy falsities; and then,
| fall marvelling how it can be that
in the myriad intersecting circles, the
countless concentrating interests of human
life, any one can find space to be alone
A sadder face than this mans | never saw
Lustreless, sunken eyes, pinched cheeks,
lips tensely drawn and with the look of
never having worn a smile the whole face
an index ofsutfering. He may have known
quarter century of years, but his form is
stopped and feeble as mans who has seen
the allotted term of three score wears and
ten. Cold, hungry, weary, desolate. Fire
warns, food and rest alleviate the suffering
of the physical man, but the kind words of
strangers only serve to make the souls des-
olation bleaker and more drear. Here, my
thought wanders off on another track and
| speculate as to whether such as he have
the capacity to suffer as | would suffer.
Another look at that worn face and | am
rebuked. My suffering might not be as
his, but his has tried his soul none but
hard struggle leave marks such as he
bears.
All night the storm, and then Sunday
Of rain and mist. The poor wandcrer finds
Sabbath rest beneath one roof, and little by
little his story is told short, simple,
dreadful. A foreigner, no parents, no
brother, no sister, no wife, no home, no
friends, no work, no health. God help him!
God help us all Can these things be !
A small pack contains his little ALL and
small as that is it is too heavy for his weak
frame. Where will he go? What will be-
come of him. Where will he die2 These
questions rise in my mind as watch his
slight bent figure grow less in the dimness
of the early Monday morning. Will his
lettering limbs give way and he be found
dead
"Found dead, dead and alone,
On pillow of stone in n roofess street;
Nobody head his last faint moan
Or knew when his sad heart ceased to beat"
Will he die in some "alms house." and
be laid among the scores of nameless ones
gone before him9 viii the misery in his
heart grow too strong for his soul, and the
dark river receive into its breast another
willing victim Is there bright side to
the picture on earth for him No. He
drifts away into the unknown; the grey
mists hide him, mayhap his face will never
- A.