The democrat. [volume] (Weston, W. Va.) 1868-1874, 1874-05-11
A SUICIDES ROMANCE.
Weary ., LII. and IL. ,lanlrola ml.srl,..

Weary OF Life and It's Manifold Miseriss.
Sixty years ago ol-what a long way
back itseems through thehalt.forgotten
pathways Of human lifei How much
Of tho winding, devious way runs
through desert, with here 0 bit OF II
half hidden in long grass with tall but
tercups, many on o stem, and there q
stretch Of sunny landscape but these
are mostly o long way otf-at the begin.
ing OF The pathway Sixty years ago !
There is o village in the midland coun.
ties Of England that was n village sixty
years ago. II has not changed much in
the interval. Fashion has not stolen
away its rurality; business has not
robbed II Of It's retirement and peace.
It is the village Of Amesbury. In 1914
there was not oneof oil Its three or four
hundred Inhabitants unacquainted with
the rosy cheeks, yellow hair, aud pratt
Ting tongue Of Little Tom Connolly,
old Tom Connolly the cooper's son, who
used 10 roll in the shavings his fathers
industrious arms accumulated in heaps
before the shed whero oil the wooden
churnS, buckets, and tubs OF the vii
lage found creation.
Those were the buttercup and sun
shine days Of little Tom Connelly's life.
At two o'clock on Friday morning an
old grny.haiied, palo.faced man was
discovered by the police. huddled away
beneath o cart in Cherry street, New
York city, bleeding to death. 1t was
little Tom Connolly, life weary OF his
plodding along the pathway that had
been desert for SO long time.
There 10 nothing new, nothing very
startling in this miserable romance. It
is but an exemplihcation' Of what Sid.
neySmith called thenthe tendency Of the
seand neg b getinto tho square hole.
No doubt thefo was proper orbit for
Tom Connolly TO reyolyc In, II he had
found it q field OF usefulness for him
where his brain power or his sinew
power would have ayailed to mold the
circumstances OF his life, 80 as to make
life endurable TO him, only ho failed to
hit upon II. Times become bad in
England; bad all over Europe, in fact.
Twenty years OF incessant warfaIe had
ground down the people with taxation.
There was glory and Apsley House for
Wellington, the savior Of the nation /;
starvation and the workhouse for the
saved. Peace mado matters worse; o
loaf OF bread cost one shilling and two.
pence, land a mans hard days toll was
not worth o shilling. Evil days over.
took tho senior Connolly; the landlord
and the tax-collector levied upon the
poor, humble mans shed ; out into the
wide world with father and mother and
BARNS, the highway or the ditch or
what not for the man who could not
pay. That was humanity sixty years
agol All this Is changed now. Wit.
ness Tom Connolly yesterday bleeding
to death from self-inlicted wound,
because he had no friends, no work, no
money, no home, and life had become
uncomfortable to him.
Men do not easily lose faith in LIES
possibilities:
..s. ",To.day sad,
Tomorrow glad"
Ia o creed that Hopes benignant lips
teach and all men willingly accept.
Tom Connolly was no exception. he
never married-he was too poor-and
thero were but weak ties 10 connect
him with his native country. As best
he could he picked up his fathers trade
Of cooper, and with that for capital and
his faith in LIES possibilities for en-.
couragement, came to this country
many years ago. He can tell Of CLEANS
Of comparative prosperity-the stretch-
es OF sunshine are in his life's pathway
as in every ones. The country In which
lobor has its dignity had q welcome for
honest Tom Connolly who came to its
shores TO work, but ill.fortune, falso
friends, ill.health,, and old age, with
their cumulative shadows OF desponden.
Icy, deepening and darkoning into do.
SPAR, haye blotted out the sunshine,
and Tom Connolly, infdel TO his own
faith In hope, cut adfift from his creed
Iot liie's possibilities, went out into the
darkness OF tho slums in this city Of
many homes to seek one in deaths GER
taihties. He may not die, but may
come forth from Bellevue Hospital,
where he has been carried, with q re.
newed faith in the possibilities Of life.
Human kindness may yet find sunshine
for the close OF his liie.-M Y En-
press. lt s.aei1 i ir i