The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1872-10-11

COL. DEM. -. VOL. XXXVI.. NO. 34

man. The fatal step was taken,-taken
by her with Love and Faith singing
sweet songs in her trusting heart. 1t
took her some time to disvover what
an error she had made how she had
buried every joy how she now steod
on the desolate shores of a sad reality,
far away from the peaceful pleasures of
the old home that she had forsaken.
What she suffered as the hideous knowl-
edge broke upon her, none save herself
could tell. Still she loved, and trusted,
and hoped, prayed but the dark clouds
grew more lowering, the moro deeply
her husband drank.
zone year passed by, year of mis-
cry to the drunkard's young wife, and
asweet child came to gladden. her young
heart. Then came, when this baby was
only few months old, a second so ter
rible that can scarcely tell 1t to you.-
For weeks, Clarence Midway had drank
deeply, until reason leaving its throne
he grew mad, d,--yes, mad as lunatic
chained In Bedlam. Raving and dam
gerous, his brain on fire with the ac.
cursed stuff he had been drinking, he
was carried home from low den to
the young wife whose life he had made
miserable. For days, that devoted
wife lowered over his bed shocked
at his situation, crushed to the very
earth by grief, she yet clung to the
frantic maniac to whom she was chain
ed by matrimony. He did not recog-
nize her as she bent over him ; he did
not know who it was that looked into
his wild eyes with pity but not fear
For days and nights that loving woman
watched and wept,-as she heard the
madman's rawlings, and saw his fingers
point to imaginary spiders which his
distempered fancy saw on the wall.
zone night, when the watchers, all
save one, the loving wife, had with
drawn for few moments into distant
room, Clarance Midway leaped from
the bed, and seizing a loaded gun,
which stood unobserved in closet,
leveled it at his wife and shot her dead
dead Oh my God, she died shot
to the heart by the monster she called
husband !"
Large drops of agony stood on the
reCtor's brow, and ne covered his face
with his hands ; when he raised them
again, his daughter started back, for he
was ashen pale, and his lips trembled
with emotion. But he went on with
his story he had nerved himself to the
task there was too much at stake to
cease now,-even his daughters happi-
ness.
This dreadful act, done in a fit of
drunken madness, restored him to his
senses. He threw himself on the
ground wildly, and called upon the
dead wife who had loved him so ten
derly and borne so patiently with him.
But too late, too late the pure spirit
had winged its flight above, and the
drunkard's wife found rest and peace
in heaven. Long and loud walls went
up from that stricken mans heart he
kissed frantically the pale checks he
implored forgiveness for the past, and
for this dreadful deed but, though
the wan lips smiled on, they made no
answer. o, my God, my God !" cried
the rector, 81 thank thee that thou
didst, at length, pour peace into this
miserable mans heart, for nowhere
could he have found it but in thee.
sit was decreed that he should drink
moro deeply of the cup of suffering
When the fearful deed was bruited
abroad, Clarence Midway was arrested
and thrown into prison. During those
long and weary days of his imprison-
ment and trial, deprived of the accurs-
| ed liquor that made him brute,a mad
| man and murderer, he came into the
| full possession of his senses. Then his
eyes were opened, and he saw what a
| bitter wrong the drunkard does not on
| ly himself, but all who have tho mis-.
fortune to love him. Sitting in the soil
tude of his cell, as memory carried him
back to his early life, he wept to think
what he was, and what he might have
been he had sold the proud birthright
of his manhood for miserable mess of
pottage.
Overwhelmed with grief for the loss
of his wife; crushed by the fearful,
crime he had committed deeply hui
INFLATED by his painful position, Clar.
ence Midway passed through his tria
| for the murder of the oman he ha6
sworn to protect. car lot 60 over the
distressing details of that proceeding
when the life of this unfortunate man
hung trembling between time and eter
nifty. On the day the verdict was to b.
deliverd, the halls of justice werecro
ed; silent the criminal sat, awaiting tn,
words that were to consign him to lifi
or death. They came, and he stood VI
to receive his sentence, his ears heart
the dreadful words, Hung by the necl
until dead Then all grew black
black as midnight, he was LEI
away from the room.
All this while the girl had refrained
from speaking, but these words seemed
to electrify her, and she caught he
fathers hand convulsively an
said.
"Hung did they hang him ?"
"He walked from the dreary scene Ii
the court room, my child, to his cell il
the prison, and prepared to meet hi
ignominious fate. In vain his friend
strove to obtain pardon petition
were sent to those in authority, bu
there was no pity for the miserabl
wretch who had murdered his wife In
fit of drunken delirium.
Time wore on, and the day OF execl
J tion arrived he had pressed his swet
child to his bosom for the last time, an
rained tears of sorrow on its youn
! head. His friends had taken sad an
, solemn farewell of him, and NOW n
that was left for him to do, was
I mount the scaffold and give his life fC