The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1874-01-08
City Mfseries.

On small ungraded street or alley,
in an old house, child few days
since was lying sick of the measles,
with no comforts about it. A good
lady, whose heart ever beats for others,
gave friend jellies, and lemons, and
good advice for the child, and with
these he made his visitations ON the
sick. Three pretty but dirty children
were playing at the door. The fourth
was found within, lying on bed, the
coarse drilling sheets of which were alb
solutely grimy with dirt. A broken
chair, tin washbasin, and a rickety
table completed the furniture. The
adjoining room was no better supplied
with furniture, excepting rusty stove,
and few pots and cracked cups which
occupied the table. The rough, un-
covered floors were thick with black
dirt; the windows, innocent of shades.
showed broken panes of glass cob
webs hung from the smoke e-stained cell
ings, and from the wide cracks in the
plastered walls repulsive insects crept
in and out without fear of molestatiou.
The comfortless, desolate air of the es-
taklishment cannot be pictured in
words.
The mother came-a blear-eyed wo-
man with dropsical cheeks and scar
on her face, such as might have come
from falling over a hot stove. Her feet
were bare her hair tangled and un-
cared for; the one loose garment she
wore was draggled, dirty, and hung in
rags from her round shoulders. The
expression of her face was repulsive,
yet pitiful. There was nothing of the
woman left in that face, except when
she spoke of her sick child. al have
not slept for two nights" she said
"and L have no money to buy medi-
cines or luxuries for my poor baby.
You are the first mortal who has offered
to do anything for me and mine"
The visitor delivered his little parcel,
and asked concerning the child's symp-
toms, promising to consult a physician,
and giving such meagre advice as his
little knowledge of the disease warrant
ed him in Offering.
"She is very sick-I think she will
|, die," said the woman and then, in a
harsh, loud voice, and with q vicious,
cat-like energy of gesture, she added ::
eff she does die, I'll murder him
, Sick at heart, the visitor left the place,
followed by a sullen thank you" than
which no acknowledgement at all would
) heve teen more acceptable.
Next day he came again, briNging
medicines. The woman was seated
sideways in a chair, asleep, her head
: dropping over its back. The husband
: was there, puttering over the stove-a
dreadfully repulsive wretch-bull-head
| ed, low brow, dull small eye, cheeks
and chin red with unseemly scars, not
from knife or pistol. He took the SIM
l pie remedies which good-natured doc
, tor had prescribed for the child, but
I seemed ill-pleased at the intrusion.
, Was the child better? Yes, the child
b. was better But, in what a voice he
5 made his reply harsh, grating, cruel,
= beastly-the words half articulated, as
e if the organs of speech had been man.
Il gled and bruised out of shape, and left
D almost useless the voice, one which
: could be identified on the darkest night
if ever heard before, so unhumanlike
: was it. Gladly the visitor turned to
: go. The woman, reused from her sleep,
S looked stupidity at him, and the fumes
! of stale spirits saluted him as he passed
t her. Just without the door, the three
d children were endeavoring to amuse
$ themselves with few bits of broken
a crockery and an empty bottle, playing
Il "party."
y Low people, these E? Yes. But not
always low. Each, the man and tho
woman, is well connected. Each haC
the benefits of schools and society. HI
g preferred the society of the vicious
e and from gamester turned to be pro
y fessional gambler. By night he feecet
IS fools, and by day lounged on street cor
a ners, extravagantly dressed, ogline
y women and putting cigar smoke in thei
n faces. By and by he met this woman
(, then pretty, foolish girl, her head full
g of romantic notions gathered from sill,
!, love stories-a head so i'll set that
rs staggering valet in broadcloth and dia
|. mond studs could turn it in msmen
y until it would become dizzy with de
II light. He married the girl-she fifteen
d he old enough to know better. Will
', the fancy was fresh, they agreed whel
d the fancy waned, he neglected her, an'
i she, though she cared no longer 70
d him, was piqued. They quarreled, o
c. course. Children had come to them
y yet these did not render their live
a more pleasant. From neglect to abus
rs was an easy transition. Then came tn
n mans curse. He reaped a sad harves
Of from the seeds he sowed through life
st a harvest of painful, disgusting sick
~ ness, from which he arose an object s.
d, repulsive that even his old associate
he ignored him, and the victims he longe
er for avoided him as they would pes
st thence.
le What next? Poverty, drunkenness
c. decentralization. Down, down the
in went, each day sinking lower, fndin
a in whisky a wild, vicious comfort
an which, each time it was indulged il
,ir turned them into fighting beasts. But
'ir through every disaster, the woma
go clung to her children. When sober
it she cared for them as well as she could
of The miserable place in which hcvisito
I'll had found them she had rented, he
lie friends allowing her few dollars
ld week to keep soul and body together
The man hung round her, although sh
cursed him, and lived off the food sh
bought with the little money she di
We not spend in drink. Each day the di'
10 graceful scenes which were enacted b,
re came more dreadful. In the earl
n morning the neighbors would be avail
to ened by shrieks, yells, and loud bla
ed pheming, One of the two would hay
of come home, crazy drunk, to find I'll
,st door barred. Stones to the windows
!at billets of wood to burst in the door
he A crash, a dreadful yell, two Graz
he voices raised in blasphemous reviling