Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1871-06-08
OUR SATURDAY NIGHT.
Wealth in n Garret.
BY BRICK PoMEROY.

This Saturday night He was weary OF
the wickedness of the great city, and
dropped a robe of snow like mantle Of
charity over the streets, alleys and homes
of those whose records need Gods charity
to cover Mans charity covers only in
part But the beautiful snow came over
all, hiding all the dark and the filth from
sight. And so in robe of purity will the
earth be clad, till, in the city, 1T be
stamped to dirt and blackness as the lives
of thousands are blackened. Out ia the
country it will rest till spring-till melt
ed by Gods warm winds and gentle rains
then will disappear, to be followed by
the beautiful green, which reminds us Of
the beautiful Eternal Life to which we
shall awaken when the winter of life here
be over.
Tonight a carriage called for us just as
we were sitting to partake of our evening
meal. Said the servant
ga lady in a carriage at the door wishes
to zee you"
A lady in arriage-alone-at this
hour We will go and see who has ar
rived, and welcome her in.
will you go with me on an .errand OF
mercy tonight? l know not what other
gentleman to ask to accompany me.
"Certsinly, soon as we find hat and
overcoat."
Down Fourth avenue to Tenth street
East on Tenth street to First avenue.
Then to the right, and we stop before q
crazy-looking wooden tenement mouse.
Up to the fourth floor, past dirt, dogs,
filth, and air thick with hundred often
sive yapors. The smell of onions, boiling
fat, burning wooden or leather, and fumes
from general filth and hasty cooking with
out proper conveniences, come from the
various rooms as we climb up the worn
stairs to the fourth story, extreme rear
room to the right.
Here we are-step in! No one will
hurt you. The room is just II feet square,
as we measured. 1t is seven feet from
fl sor to ceiling. One door, one window.
On the floor is an old brownish mattress
filled with corn busks. A dirty blanket
on the mattress-s pale, wan, wasting
man on the blanket was tossing in the sg-
onies of death. No need of ply sician
there, except for the one who was not go
near release from care and sorrow A
pale, worn, weary half clad woman of for
ty years, sat holding the head of a man
smoothed the death damp from his brow
In all the room not piece of ice, cup
of cold water, twenty dollars worth oil
furniture and clothing nor single ounce
of food.
The hours went by like procession Of
heavily laden sleighs on bare ground
The sickening smells from below FIJI the
room. There were curses, laughs, obscen'
| ity on the stairs and in the street. Angry
voices of parents seolding children came
to us at times, for the wells of tenement
houses for the poor are not very thick
But we needed no sound, nor did others
! except when we returned from q drug
store few blocks away.
At ten o'clock the poor man opened hi
eyes, looked so lovingly, pleadingly and
prayerfully into the face of her who's,
tears fell upon bis 5evered brownie slow
ly reached out one of his wan, wasted
| hands till, with her help it rested on tht
| bosom half revealed through her tori
dress, but whether to rest it there, or Il
| hide the breast go dear to him, we couls
not tell Then he drew, more by looi
than strength, her tear swet face to his
there was half-articulated, moving
sound, as If speech. too, were dying
there was kiss-a deepening stiffness
we felt for his pulse-it was gone anG
with it the Soul of one sufferer, but no
tho greatest, for she was left behind
Other tears than hers fell there that night
And they are falling in other homes and
better ones, in many place tonight. Ws
found, while the lady with us watched
with the weeping widow, two "broth
ers," who look to the East for light, ane
with them did but simple duty, and LEFT
them to watch while we took the rest they
said we must have.
That little room had its history-a ro
nance of reality. There love, sickness
poverty, and death, had struggled for the
mastery. There, for five years and tive
months had the patient wife, whose five
children were dead, toiled and cared fol-
husband who was palsied from an scci
dent resulting from dissipation. He was
brought to that room when they occupied
three rooms on that floor, and that one
| was dignifed with the name of parlor
He was brought there on q rude cot, his
legs paralyzed by fall from a stairway
Little by little his furniture, the gift Of
his mother, was sold. Ono room, Their
the other, was given up. Then all the
comforts went. The children begged
while the woman nursed with all wife's
fondness the object of her care. The little
ones died from exposure, and were buried
| by charity. She took to the needle 70,
support, but one little needle in the hands
Of q sickly, weak, broken-hearted, over
worked woman was no match for the
troop of wolves that howled at her door