Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1874-01-03

have heard to-day of two men and a
woman found frozen to death i'll differ
ent places | am ashamed of you both
Here, give me my hat again, and L will
freeze the remainder of me in looking
for him, before such disgrace shall
fall on the house of Robert Mowry -
80 Robert, / did not think" my
step mother began, but | cut her short
! y taking the blame that belonged to
me, and springing from my seat. My
fathers words, heaven directed, had
opened my eyes to the enormity of the
wrong and in one moment | had begun
to fear the worst.
"No, father" | said, =" see now
how cruel we have been. No, /, for |
did the act. Sit where you are / will
follow the poor old man all the way to
Ho!dane, and help him If anything has
happened"
Well, go !" answered nay father, re-
suming his seat. You are right now,
if you were wrong before. Look for
him. Stop, take one of the men with
you and whatever you do, when you
find him, bring him back hcrc-HEHE,
Ohcre he bciOngs y
[ had scarcely ever before heard my
father speak so determinedly and cer-
tainly within fifteen minutes my ardent
temperament had leaped to as much
suffering on the poor old mans behalf
as | had only ten minutes before en-
ioyed of prospective happiness. "Oh,
Father in Heavenr' [ almost moaned,
g to think of my expecting to be so
happy, in having all that / love in the
world and then turning poor old
man away from the door to freeze and
die on the public road p | could
scarcely wait until one of the men had
equipped himself to accompany me, and
provided himself with lantern, for
what horrible purpose of close inspec-
ton neither of us cared to think.
1t was at nine when we left the house,
and three i'll the morning when we re-
turned to it. Such intense cold [ had
never before experienced, and have
scarcely ever since felt it's equal. Iron
bands seemed drawn around our brows
the breath froze on our lips ; our hands
and feet grew Jumps of ice, us up and
down, first one road and then another,
we tramped and struggled, slipped and
slid our terrible way. All the way to
Holiane and back the other road, near
y
side road, wherever travel was possible
or Il human track showed itself to the
light of the lantern. Not Il cap-pit
that We did not explore, not dark OBJ
iect that we did not visit with fear and
dawning horror.
| have said that hands and feet were
ice; but my brain was burning fire. |
can only remember chaos of self-ac-
cusation aud abject horror of myself,
rather diminished than increased by
coming upon the object of our search
at what afterward proved to have been
past two in the morning. We found
him under lee of the woods, in Il bit
of side-road, halfway up the hill toward
HolClane, seated at the foot of tree, his
thin rags drawn close around his chest
and throat, where the hands had stiff
fened that held them-dead stone
dead and cold, almost as cold as the
night and our pity!
Heaven would have been very merci-
full if that had been the worst-only
Il man murdered But we brought him
home i'll the gloomy winter morning,
after returning for the wagon for that
purpose-hOme, where entrance only
few hours before, which | had denied
him, would have saved his life. / was
half mad, and my stepmother little bet
ter, but some of them retained their
senses, and Justice was called to act
as Coroner. When they stripped him,
l was called into the room, to have my
eyes blasted quite as fatally as ever the
head of Medusa produced the effect.
On the withered old arm there was Il
ms of tof 60,
are fond of subiecting themselves to
aud from the midst of the stars and
anchors CLEANED ont one terrible line
single name
JAS. HOLABIRD.
| think that l need scarcely enlarge
upon what followed. 1t was only too
plain that one of the long-lost brothers
of Mrs. Golden, an uncle of my Milly,
making his way, old, broken and penni-
less, from some scene of 'ong suffering,
to where he had dimly heard that his
sister resided-had been turned from
the door by me to die so miseraDly
OF course you want to hear the rest
there is not much, and should not be,
to end such recollection. But the rest
was important to myself for thank God
that l was punished i! say it reverent-
ly-thank God that He punished me,
otherwise even than in the stings of
conscience ! ] had expected to be the
husband of Milly Golden ON Christmas
night; before that night came, her
mother, fallen insensible on the body of
her brother, who thus came to her only
in death, had sunk under the blow, and
all thoughts of marriage were as far
away as then seemed happiness. 1t was
sad Christmas and, before the spring
flowers bloomed, Mrs. Golden lay be-
side her brother.
[ suppose l need not say that neither
Milly Golden nor myself thought of
marrying over the body of her dead
uncle, when l was so nearly his murder
er, and with her mother lying hope
less invalid from the same cause. And
when the second blow came, and she
was an orphan, was it much more likely
that we could forget, how that second
body seemed to lie between our loves ?
No-the thing was impossible it was
madness even to think of it. She tried
SO hard, dear girl II know that she did
to think that L had not been to blame,
OF at least that | had not acted more
thoughtlessly than any other young man
would have done under the same cir
cumstances. But what was that, even
if she succeeded? We do not love much
when we are driven to make excuses for
the object that we believe we love: to
be loved one must commend himself to
of ItC ,tI 81 tI,,l, l,o1