Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1874-01-07
temperance.
An Appeal TO the Women Of Springfield
LET 40 WOMAN ram TO READ Vt.

tale better than any words | can command.
For those arc surrounded with the same
difficulties, the same trials, aud lacking the
same helps that | do. They have indeed
their lives and hearts so full OF their own
misery that they have no room for mine
and if they had, are as helpless as ! myself /
am to alleviate their own sorrows, without /
a thought Of helping others.
Nv story is brief one and so like hun. .
drcds and thousands Of others that You
hear of daily. till they have become mat |
ter of Indifference to you. that fear you
will pass it by unnoticcd. Yet, oh, pray
YOU. for Gods sake. listen to me. was
once Young and gay and happy as many Of.
YOU arc [ was raised respectfully and
tendery, aud held my place in the best cir
Gle Of society. When twenty, | welded
man whom | loved intelligent. upright.
honorable, sobcr-as thought had
never seen him drink, aud did not know he
ever tasted anything that would inioxieaie .
We started in our own happy home, with
bright prospects for the future SO bright
and happy were those days gone forever.
But alas, ! directly found that my husband, |
when he met his old associates, would come
home with the smell Of liquor on his breath.
| will not weary you with repetition Of
the common story Of neglected business
the going down, down, the loss Of our lit
tie Eden, the gradual change OF my hus-
bands nature from one Of the most tender
and loving, to a moody, morose, abusive
husband and father. So changed, so be-
sotted and imbruted has be been made by
this consuming appetite, that he is an OBJ
ject Of loathing and terror to those who
once were filed with delight at the sound
Of his approaching footsteps. So low have
we sunk that a miserable hoyel in one Of
the lowest quarters Of the city furnishes us
not home, that word for me aud my
helpless children has no longer any meaning
but a prccarious shelter from the ele-
meuts So destitute have we become that
the poorest Of fare barely saves us from
starvation.
Oar clothing is so poor and scant that
NV children are no lonper fit TO attend
school. and if tbev were the older ones are
/ becoming unable To hear the taunts and
r icers of The other more fortunate children.
Who call thoir father a drnnkard and them
p n drunkard's children. We hear the sweet
a music of the Sabbath bells. calling the
nanny tbe wealthy tho fortunate 10 Sab.
bath school and the sanctuary. But not
h for US do they chime forth on the still,
q balmy air Of these beautiful Sabbath morn
n ings. No place there for the drunkard' 5
@ family Ii we should attempt to 20 in in
7 our faded aud patched garments, you, my
=, sisters, to whom make this appeal, ex.
70 tortod by the depths Of misery and woe
f would be so shocked and Mortified as to
y show it, and add to our modification aud
9 distress, for our condition makes US sensi
l. tive and keeDly alive to every such mani
e festation. No peaceful Sabbath days iol
] us, though we are in Christian city boast
{ ing near twenty churches with their re-
! spectacle, well-dressed audiences. Oh, dc
If ministers Of Christ ever remind you that
while you sit there so comfortably, listening
to the sweet sounds Of the gospel, there
are men and women who never enter the
churches; who, while you are praying and
pralsing in the sanctuary, are living in the
midst OF scenes of drunken brawls and
Sabbath dissertation? Oh, do these minis
5 tiers ever remember us in their prayers
5 Do you, oh my happy sisters, ever think to
. put up petition for the drunkard's family
We are told that the law is now on our
Q side. and exhorted to 70 into the courts and
! prosecute these more than murderers, the
liquor sellers But how little do people
= know of the difficulties that surround thu
c drunkard's wife. The shame and NORTH
a cation of public exposure, woman
g ignorance of law, and the fear of doing
= something wrong. The difficulty of getting
c such witnesses as will testify to the fact
c necessary to a successful prosecution. Tn,
It shrinking from appearing in a court room
C alone, among low class Of drinking mel
T whom the dignity OF the court cannot re
C strain from jeering and making low, coars
. remarks. Where even respectable CD law
y yers can be bought Tor price TO plea
, against her, using low personal attack
4 when the facts iail them
"a, Gould one Of all the Christian women
~ this city be induced even for the love {
;" Christ, to come and sit by her side ?
y Her husband forbidding her and usin
~ = his authority and perhaps violence to pre-
40 vent it, Besides what has poor drunk
~ ards wife to offer a lawyer to prosecut
vi her case? Oh sisters, sisters povert.
wretchedness and black despair are settlin
down upon me ; | have no way to turn
Willingly would give my life. Oh,
would gladly 90 to the stake, If by thi
'us means my once noble, beautiful husbar
IN IN could be restored to his family, to himsel
%, to God But | see no way for me, and a
.cu tempted, so sorely tempted, to take my ow
'ou life and end my misery, and am only r
OF strained because of my poor children an
,Ne yet how can save them from the fate
lsn nlamy and pauperism
~ 1t seems to me | shall 20 mad. He
Us me oh sisters for Cbrists sake. As VI
'gs hone for mercy at His hand in the ore
dov. hear and heed NV anneal. Fain won
ro- | 90 and kneel to each of YOU and tell yc
zen nv woe if | could. Oh, stop only Il
,as moments and consider my case--stop
.a the midst Of your happiness and gayet
~ your occupations with dress and anus
w ments, and consider the hundreds of pc
-, drunkard's wives and children in the CT
lno who have no Que to help or belriend them