American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1872-12-28

bought to suit the sick whimsey of Alice.
who was pursued by dread of being
turned upon the street. that showed how
well she knew the rigors of it. The house
was all that she had left. She had been !;
| year vainly trying to get its price that she
might have the wherewithal Just to draw
breath in the same air her Philip breath
ed. 1t seemed to her in her desperate
mood that fate was against her, and she
never should be abb TO turn her steps
| Eastward again.
! So Mrs. Hamilton sat alone with her
Christmas eve. The hearth was clean.
| the fire was bright, it sparkled on a woman
whose fifty-odd years had changed her
less than you might think. for the hair
was brown and the cheek was smooth !;
| the heart. indeed. was bitter, but tending
| the sick children had kept the eye and
voice soft and sweet. Never once, in all
the twenty years since her boy went an
der Il cloud, had her thoughts lett the
suggestions of one theme, had she done
aught. in very truth, but sit at the prison
gates.
She was thinking the one thought still:
recalling her boys beauty. his lofty
figure, his manly grace. that she had seen
degraded in the SOnvict's garb recalling
his pride, his honor and truth that nothing
could degrade: recalling that brilliant
promi &c that had been put out like a light;
thinking with dull and bitter anger still
of the vigOr and power and talent dying
out like spark trodden into the ashes !:
thinking of that splendid spirit to be
slowly leveled with mere clo' and clay;
thinking if she could only have him now,
bowed. and old though he might be before
his time. If they, alone in this Western
town, far from old scenes and faces. could
finish their DAYS together, she with her
house and garden, he with some prison
taught trade, never signing for the old
luxurious surroundings of their high
bred youth, crust shared with Philip
sweeter than feasts in palaces! What
All ecstatic thought it was to her,
what a throb and thrill of bliss
the mere passing fancy of the inn
possible thing gave her, when she pic
tured him going up and down, bending
to the little children who followed him to
his garden-gate, honored for his integri-
ty, beloved for his gentlcness, and, if any
rrlmor of the long trouble ever spread
wings above him, making it incredible to
any who looked at him and saw how the
fires had burned out and the volcano was
''healed with snow"
1t was too much to think of-that love,
that sympathy, that support, that pres
ence. She leaned back in her chair, and
closed the eyes from which such slow and
heavy tears welled and cOursed down her
cheeks. Oh !! no; instead of that, there
was solitude and WEAKNESS and the grave
for her, and by and by, when the prison
discipline should have made an end OF
him, a lonely death in a cell for her child,
no love near him, a pit in the pOtter's
field. For they had no influence, no
friends, no money; even the places that
knew them knew them no more. What
were the Christmas bells ringing for?
Why were the children carrying their hem
lock and holly in the streets? Why were
the chimes pealing so persistently their
peace on earth, good will to men? 1t was
good will TO men that poured out her boys
What wicked ancestor, she was asking,
gave him the temper that did the deed
Was he predestined before his birth to this
damnation?
The wind was rising as she sat there it
brought a sound of distant storms with it,
those exposed to it in great cities or
on bleak m0Ors. The windows rat
tied and startled her eyes open; she
thought she saw a face against the pane,
but knew she did not. and the appa-
rition led her away an instant into the
hearts of sad eyed women and evil
men, and she remembered that there We're
worse crimes than her sons had b, en-,
worse destinies; the walls that shut out
the world from him shut out vileness and
corruption from him too; and, forgiven
for his one swift. thOughtless sin, he
would hold his soul ready for his Judge,
as white and strong at seventy as it was at
seventeen!
She closed her eyes again, and was
dreaming of that time when the passions
of the world should have dropped from
them, when they should meet under
glory of wings and with a great light in
their faces-a dream she seldom humbled
her tried powers enough to dare be-
lieve in, to. dare hope could come to pass.
The storm bore the chimes in sweet
swells and falls the wild, deep music on
flung her hands up, sobbing out, "Oh
give him back, or take us both this
night!'' And suddenly two hands had
clasped round hers, a mouth was touched
to hers. Was it death? Was it a vision ?
6 Mother ~ she heard, mother!" And
she opened her eyes on her son.
'.Pardoned out! he cried! And ready
to begin the world again. There's half
our lives before us yet. dear mother; for
surely, if man fOrgives me, God will ~
And as she held him off, and looked at
that whitened head, and at that face in
which heavens own peace had sprung OF
twenty years patience and submission
as she listened, rapt, to that voice, rs she |
kissed that slender hand and laid it |
against her cheek, her whole being was |
praising and repenting; she also, as well |
rs the wild swell of the chimes, was sing |
ing inwardly, peace on earth, good will
to men, for Christ was born in her heart |
anew! And though outside there was
the white storm, with all its tumult of
beughs and dying bell-ringing, |
inside there was mother and son and the |
Christmas cheer of heaven!
The TechnoLOgist The best time |
for painting the exterior of buildings is |
during the winter. Paint then applied
will endure twice as long as when applied |
in early summer or in hot weather. In |
the former it dries slowly and becomes |
hard, like glazed surface, not easily af- |
fecttd afterwards by the weather, or worn |
off by the beating of storms. But in very
hot weather the oil in the paint soaks into |
the wood at once, as into a sponge. leav- |
ing the lead nearly dry and nearly ready |
to crumble OF. This last difficulty, how |
against, though at an increased expense, |
by first going over the surface with raw |
oil. By painting in cold w Gather, one an |
noyance might certainly be escaped,
the collection of small flies on the |
fresh paint.
CURE FOR WHooPING CoUGH.-Mr. Jo ohm |
Grantham states in the British american |
Journal that in cases of whoOping cough in |
the last stage, that is after the third week. |
he has had one ounce of the strongest liquid |
of ammonia put into gallon of boiling |
water, in an open pan, and the steam |
kept up by means of half brick made red
hot throughout and put into the boiling |
water containing the ammonia, the pan |
being placed in the center of a room, into |
which the patieAts were brought as the |
steam was passing off. This
method was used in the evening just be-
N