Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1870-07-19
Curses come Home.
A TEMPERANCE SKETCH.

He was dressed richly if not with
taste. A diamond solitaire worth
thousands, rested in the front of his
spotless shirt. A cluster, almost as
valuable adorned the little finger of
his left hand-a hand never stained
with the dark evidence of labor. But
while it was-there were stains on
hand, heart and soul-but no we must
not speak i'll of him. He was rich.
That elegant five story mansion was
his, and he owned tenement houses
elsewhere-and all of his riches had
been gained in the traffic yet carried
on in the ground floor of the noble
house before which he stood. He was
neither more nor less than a rum sell
Ter and evidently proud of it, for Of
ten did his name appear prominent
in the reports of the "Liquor-dealers
Association" Playing with the heavy
guard chain of his Elgin watch he
seemed to be contemplating the pan
Drama of humanity drifting along the
street, but his contemplations were
interrupted by woman, whose pale,
almost haggared face bore evidences
Of having once been exceedingly beau
tilul. Now want, not dissipation
seemed to have wrecked it all, for her
features were thin, cold and angular,
and there seemed to be no blood in
her veins-aDd no life in her thinly
clad shiyeriDg form.
Approaching this man, who though
real character, might say ! attacked
his responsibility if l named him, the
woman in low piteouS tone said:
"Mr.-, l have favor to ask
of you
"Be off, I never give to beggars," he
said, not haughtily, but roughly, bru-
tally.
"Sir, am no beggar, though you
have made me and mine poor, so poor
that my children are thin and gaunt
as |, from starvation. All that | ask
is, please do not give my husband any
more liquor. Once he was good, in
dustrious and happy. Now through
drink, he is worse than worthless.
Twice my tears. and my sufferings,
and the efforts of good temperance
men have brought him to sign the
pledge. Both times led away under
your roof has broken it. Last night
he signed it again. now come to beg,
for the sake Of my little ones-do
not let the temptation reach him HERE
again"
Course you and your little ones
what have l to do with them! These
temperance men would ruin-oh
Heaven-merciful Heaven p
Those last words leaped from
mouth unused to them, but that mans
face was white with horror.
For, far above, out on the window
ledge crept babe-his first born, his
only son-not yet one year old, just
big enough to creep away from care.
less nurse, and now seeing "papa," it
was growing its JOY as it crept toward
not his arms, but into the jaws of
death.
A second-it was an age of horror,
while he stood paralyzed hand and
foot, and like bird dropped by the
fowler's unerring Shutdown, down,
through the air came the little body
in its robes of white-down upon the
pavement wet with misery's tears.
A low thud-a wild scream from.
above, horrible groan from below,
as the strong man fell swooning by
the side of his dead babe, told all
the curse, swift as the lightnings of
Heaven, had come back to him who
uttered it.
Will he who has made orphans and
widows by the hundred, yet keep on
, in the blood-stained trade? God
: grant he may not-lest other curses
come and come, until he, too, is home
less, friendless and despairing.