The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1874-07-17

I
! whom injured so deeply.
q once was q drunkard. From re-
spectabihty and af1uence, I plunged
into degradation, and pos erty. For
years 1 saw her cheek pale, and her
step grow weary. I left her alone amid
the wreck of her home idols, and rioted
at the tavern. She never complained,
yet she and the children went hungry
for bread.
One New Years Night, I went late
to the hut where charity had given us
roof. She was yet up, and shivering
over the Goals. demanded food but
she burst into tears, and said there was
none. I fercely ordered her to get
some. She turned her eyes sadly upon
me, the tears fell fast over her pale
cheek. At this moment the child in
the cradle awoke, and set up a famished
wall, startling the despairing mother
like serpent's sting.
"'We have no food, James-have
had none for several days. 1 have
nothing for the babe. Ny once kind
husband, must he starve 2
THAT sad, pleading face, and those
streaming eyes, and the feeble wall of
the child, maddened me and, I =
yes, I struck her a fierce blow in the
face, and she fell forward upon the
hearth. The fires of hell boiled in my
bosom, and with greater intensity as I
felt had committed a wrong, I had
never struck Mary before, but now
some terrible impulse bore me on, . and
I stopped down as well as I could in my
drunken state, and clenched both hands
in her hair.
"'God of mercy, James =! exclaimed
my wife as she looked up in my fiendish
countenance You will not kill US -
YOU will not harm Willie 7 and she
sprang to the cradle and grasped him in
her embrace. [ caught her again by
her hair, and dragged her 90 the door /;
and as I lifted the latch, the wind burst
in with cloud of snow. With the yell
of a fiend dragged her on, and hurled
her out into the darkness and storm.
With a wild ha ha I [ closed the door
and turned the button-her pleading
means mingled with the wall of Ithe
blast and sharp cry of the babe. But
my work was not yet complete!
''I turned to the little bed where lay
my elder son, and snatched him from
his slumbers, and against his half
awakened struggles I opened the door
and thrust him out. In agony of fear he
called me by name I was no longer fit
10 DGdIy anu 4OChSO LIS iAbSCL0 AhiO NY
side pocket. I could not wrench the
frenzied grasp away and with the cool
ness of a devil-as I was shut the
door upon the arm, and with my knife
severed it at the wrist.
The speaker ceased a moment, and
buried his face in his hands, as if to
shut out some fearful dream, and his
deep chest heaved like a storm at sea.
Ny father had arisen from his seat, and
was leaning forward {; his countenance
bloodless, and the large drons standing
upon his brow. Chills orept back to
my young heart, and I wished I was at
home. The old man locked up, AID l
never have since beheld such mortal ag-
ony pictured on a human face as there
was on his.
'' It was morning when I awoke- and
the storm had ceased, but the cold was
intense. I first secured a drink of
water, and then looked in the accus-
toned place for Mary. As l missed her,
for the first time sh2dowy scene of
some horrible nightmare began to draw
upon my wandering mind. l thought L
had had a terrible dream, but invOlun-
tarily opened the outside door with
shuddering dread. As the door opened
the snow burst in, followed by the fall
of something across the threshold, scat
tering the snow, and striking the floor
with a sharp sound.
"My blood shot like red-hot arrows
through my veins, and I rubbed my
eyes to shut out the sight. It was-it-
| o God how terrible ! It was my own
injured Mary and her babe frozen to
| ice The ever true mother had bowed
herself over the face of the child to
shield it, and wrapped all her clothing
round it, leaving her own person stark
| and bare to the storm. She had placed
her hair over the face of the child, and
| the sIeet had frozen it to the white
| cheek. The frost was white on its half
opened eyes, and upon its tiny fingers.
1 know not what became of my brave
boy"
Again the old man bowed his head
and wept. My father sobbed like a
child. In tones of low and heart-bro-
ken pathos, the old man thus cOntin-
ued
"I was arrested, and for long months
raved in delirium. I wOke-was SEN
| fenced to prison ten years-but no tor
| lures could have been like those I en-
| dured within my own bosom. Oh, God,
no II am not fanatic. wish to in
! lure no one. But while I live, let me
! live TO urge OluCIS uOb W CLlbCL bAlC BtLbll
which has been so dark and fearful q
one to me. I would see my wife and
children beyond this vale of tears"
The old man sat down, but a spell as
deep and strong as that wrought by
some wizards breath rested upon the
audience. Hearts could have been
| heard in their beating, and tears to fall.
| The old man then asked the people to
! sign a pledge. My father leaped from
his seat and snatched at it eagerly. I
| had followed him, and as he hesitated
| a moment with the pen in the ink, a
tear fell from the old mans eye on the
paper.
e Sign IT, sign it, young man. An
| gels would sign it. I would write my
name there ten thousand times In blood
If it would bring back my loved and
lost ones"
My father wrote " Mortimer Hud-
| son." The old man looked, wiped his
fearful eyes and looked again, his conn
teuance alternately flushed with red
and deadly-pale.
cit is-no, it cannot be-yet how
strange" muttered the old man. ''Pqr-
| don me, sir, but that was the name of
my brave boy"
My father trembIed and held up his
left arm, from which the hand had been
! severed.
They looked for a moment in each
others eyes; both reeled and gasped-
% My own injured boy !"
"My father p
They fell upon each others necks, un-
/ til 1t seemed that their souls would
! grow and mingle into one. There was
weeping IN that church, and I turned
/ bewildered upon the streaming faces
/ around me.