The Fremont weekly journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County, Ohio) 1867-1877, 1873-04-11

the air. Women had come out ther
with uncombed heads and fifth
tongues, and had accosted him; me
had been lying drunk and sick an
sunstruck in the rooms he passed
ne heard swearing and cursing, ant
children crying on every side. Ant
halGsuftocated and wholly heart
sick, he was ready to swear and cry
himself, with the awful thoughts and
sights and sounds and smells. He
passed q room there, he remember
ed, where six miserable girls herded
together. They might have been as
glad and sweet, if not as lovely, as
this girl, with food and rest and TO-
norance of care and sin. But they
braided hats in a mandatory for
twenty cents day; and they paid
together q hundred dollars 8 year
for their one room, and lived on
crackers, with not enough of those.
They had no place for baths, and no
soap, no towels, no time; they had
no dress but one old gown and a
shawl; their hair had been cut off
long ago and sold; they never read,
they had no lights, no books, no
pennies to buy papers; their single
luxury was broken scrap Of look
ing-glass, in which, they were so
wretched, they had ceased to look;
they rose before day and labored
till dark; and for the rest they veg
etated, and mold and mildew seem
ed to have fallen upon them. One
OF them was singing, as he went by,
a low, sad strain-a single remem-
brance measure Of an old childish
tune. She sung it over and over, as
if she had forgotten what She did,
till another peeverishly begged her
to be done. He remembered, too,
the room, still higher up, where
child lay dying-dying as much
from starvation, the starvation of
father and mother before he was
born, as from anything else. The
young clerks orders had been to col
lect the rent there, or to turn the
people out He hesitated st the
scene before him. From that high
room in the hot roof he could see a
gleam of the sunset and the river.
The child had been lifted for
the sight or for the air;
and he lay in his fathers arms,
while the mother, sitting on the
floor, for there was no other seat in
the room, hid her head in her apron,
as if she could not endure to see the
child, or the world in which he was
"a little white, transparent crea-
ture, the last of five, who had all
gone the same way. AS Dunlap
had looked in the door, the child
was trying to lift his hand to his IA
theirs cheek; but it fell back help
less, and the man bent his suffering
face to hear what he wanted. "Poor
John! poor p'-that was all.
'Oh! what did he say John?" cried
the woman, springing up and bury
ing her face beside the boys on her
husbands shoulder, And then a
light shOne on the little face that
neither parent saw; and the child
had gone. And Dunlap had drop
ped triae of money on the floor, and
had stolen down without word, and
had paid the rent out of his own
purse. Now, as he recalled all these
things, and realized that on such q
so mach of the splendor
and beauty Of this girl before him
had been created, he wondered at
himself to think that he loved her so
passionately-he, her fathers clerk,
not thought dangerous enough to be
kept out Of the way! And then he
said, as if in answer: Her splendor,
her luxury, her toilet-yes, all ere
ated out Of such suffering and sor-
row; but her grace and beauty, and
lovely soul-they were her own, her
self. And it was they that he loved,
that he would serve in silence foreT-
er, and die for ifneed be. And then
be wondered ifthese gallants drink
ing wine with Rose, had read the
evening paper that he had seen Mr..
Marks reading, and grinding oaths
between his teeth, as he read. Mr..
Marks had disappeared into his own
room directly afterward; and when
he came out had walked up and
and down the Verandah with him
self, his head on his breast, and the
evening paper still clasped in his
hands behind him, speaking to mo-
body TIL he came, just before the
gong sounded, and exchanged again
! dozen strong sentences with him
self. Dunlap questioned whether, if
any Of them knew what those dozen
strong sentences were, they would
still be pledging Rose, and sending
heir love glances across the brim of
heir glasses. For now, the edge of
appetite being blunted, one and an
other had some word to say to Mr..
Marks about that evening paper.
"Not the most welcome newspaper
.o-day, Mr.. Marks, was it?" exclaim-
I'd Mr.. Farren.
ga very annoying affair to you
remarks too! Journal
SIN has reached a point where muz
ling is too good for it. Was your
oss seriousT'
81 was quite fully insured" said
Mr.. Marks, grlmly.
"That is fortunate" said Lawrence
Burbridge, "for it was one of the ac-
,idents not to be forseen. In fact,
don't know how the burning of
house is to be helped. /
should think it was to be calculated
upon with nearly as much certainty
IS the return of Encke's comet.
Number of lives lost / see. Sad, but
the stupid creatures were heavy with
drink, l suppose" )"
"Poor things! Oh, poor things~
cried Rose, as she bent forward to
listen, over her suspended ice.
81 don't know" said Mrs. Bur
bridge, from the opposite chair, with
her icy blandness, as they all made
their excuses for the millionaire.
"If they had lived, they had so much
to suffer; and, as 1t is, they have
made a short and swift exit, and are
well over their trouble. ! always
hesitate to say whether am glad or
- = - <b;1oro Da0-lo a,