Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1871-05-04
Our Saturday Night.
WHAT ONE WOMAN DID.
: Come IN =

in one of the better class of tenement
houses 80 easily to be found in this great
city, tonight, perhaps three hours since.
For a few weeks we have been trying
to find time to spend an evening with
an old friend-a ohum of bye.gone days.
but till this evening we could not be
spared from labor, writing, study or that
rest for mind and body one must have
whose entire life is but q warp and wool
of thought and action.
The writing of the week is finished.
Our newspapers have been looked over
and read till the eyes are tired of follow
ing lines and devouring words. Numer-
GUS letters have been read and answered
or consigned to the waste basket, as of
too trivial Importance to consume time
belonging to the public and to our read
ers. Documents, books, pamphlets, ao-
counts and statements from clerks, book
keepers and others have been looked at,
and passed upon-eyery penny due those
in our employ or assistance has been paid
our evening visit has been paid-we
have talke d two hours with an old friend,
and now, if you please, we will tell you
little life history. Our friend will not
care if we tell.
come IN
Thus answered some one to our knock
ing. We entered to find seated in room,
beside a cradle, a man almost forty years
of age. As we entered he arose, extend
ed an honest hand and babe us welcome.
Alone tonight, Harry ?
.No-by no means. Alone with such a
bright, loving boy as that asleep in that
cradle ? Not bit of it. And two mere
little ones, tired from too much playing,
asleep in their little bed Indeed, none
of Us are alone.
Quite right-but the good wife you so
dearly lovs-and you reading all to your
self p
.Nettie is upstairs in Mrs. IS room.
Her old mother is quite i'll and Nettie
has gone up to fix some things, and to let
Mrs 5 go and do some shopping. She
will not be through under an hour or two
When little Charlie was sick Mrs. 5
was very kind and good to us-so we help
one another
'Yes-Tll tell you all about it. Glad to
have chance to-if only to show you
that man, who is a man seldom forgets
a kindness. Let me see ? The last time
we met before we came here was in Chi
cago. 1 remember very well our talk as
we sat in the depot, waiting for the train
to start on which you were leaving for
the East. And all you told me, and all l
promised. l have kept my word. That
was eight years AGO! How time flies
You know | was what was called hard
young man. No one cared much for me.
Ny father was a good man, but the best
to himself. He never guarded his tongue
or restrained his appetite, so his example
never was any good to me. I always
thought if he could drink, and use pro-
fame language, and spend his money away
from home, that it was the right way. So
grew up in his footsteps.
I never thought much of home. When
the sold gentleman" came in there was
no peace in the house till he had gone
He was always more or less under the in
fuence of Hquor-always cross, nervous
and given to finding fault till at last it
sort of got 30 that none OF us cared
whether he was pleased or not. When
boy grows mp. You know, in home. not
blessed with kindness, somehow he don't
have any great respect for home, and
looks upon it only as a sort of convenience
"a place TO start from more than go to
when out.
1 was no worse than other young fel.
lows. But never cared much for nv
self-nobody ever encouraged mel sort
of got along. here little and there lit
tie; earning by day to spend at night,
and 30 l worked my way along with no
definite object other than to be a good
fellow with the boys.
l never knew when formed the habit
of using profane language, or of using
liquor and tobacco SO steadily. First I |
knew had to have these things and was
if I did not, and that all nv
went to crafty my artificial
appetite. ....
SO it went till I met Nettie. I had
been very sick, and one day che came in
to see me-she and her mother While |
she sat by nay bedside I told her had
nothing to live for-no one to love-noI
one to love me, and that it made no diff
ference what became of me. Then che
said was sick-that had much to live
for, and must get we'll anil live for it,
After she went away thought myself to
Sleep and when l woke thought of all
she had told me again.
When got we'll I told Nettie I had
been thinking OF all she had told me, and
If she would think something of me-sort
Of stand by me and tell me once in while
when was doing well-I would try and
be somebody.
don't know how it was, but my heart
came clear up in my throat when che
looked at me 30 long and tenderly. and
said:
Harry, l have wished for years you
would be what you can be r
Nettie had always known me. We
ived near each other before we went to
chicago. But don't want to tell you all
4 that.