The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1875-02-16
CAN SUCH THINGS BE.
BY LOUIS K. JACKSON.

The records OF city mission labors arc
filled with testimonies to the evils of in.
temperance. Take this extract from o
recent missionary report as an example.
The missionary says: RUNS doings give
direction to not little of our labor. A
man whom had set down lazy fraud
and to whom had given the cold should.
er, one day Informed me of sick woman
whom he wished | would call and see,
giving me particular caution not to make
my errand known to any one l should
meet in the house to make no inquiry al
the door, lest her husband should prevent
my seeing her, | was told in what room
the sick woman was lying, and that |
should 60 into the room without waiting
for a summons. Taking my wife with
me | went according TO the directions
given me. found the house quite re.
spectacle in appearance, and opened the
front door without knocking and walked
i'll, and though l saw the husband (as
rightly supposed) at work in the rear
yard at once, without addressing him, |
proceeded to the second floor room indi.
Gated to me, and entered. A very dirty
disordcred, rubbishy room received me
and my wife. A strange mixture of mis-.
cry and comfort was apparent A wo.
man, young and dying, alone and neglect.
ed, was lying on what had been very
nice hair-cloth sofa, under the front win.
dow. an old worn, gray army blank ct
thrown over her, and her head reelng un.
comfortably on dirty and patched fea,h.
er pillow. A smutty. broken lamp was
burning upon large marble top center
table, just at her head. There was not
decent chair in the room, but the walls
we're hung with an array of portraits and
pictures in oil, with guilt frames also a
pier mirror. There was no carpet on the
floor, which looked as if it had not been
swept in six months while heaps Of dila.
pidated odds and ends were scattered
about.
Altogether the state of this dying wo.
man was as deplorable as could well be-.
imagined, or found in the most wretched
tenement in the city and all this the
work of rum. Her husband who owns
the house in which he lives and several
others, had totally neglected his wife, ,anx.
ious that she should die as soon as posi-.
BILE. Though so young, perhaps twenty
six years old, she had been confirmed
iDebriate, with no purpose in life but to
indulge her appetite for strong drink, ut
terly neglectiDg home and family. Her
children were left to run about in rags.
and were found upon the streets in the
depth of winter with no shoes on their
feet. The poor, infatuated woman had
been in the habit of taking the furniture,
bedding, andwearing apparel to the pawn.
shop to get money for the purchase of IL.
quor. When | afterward went to the
husband to inquire about his treatment of
his wife, he showed me in his shop bols-
ter almost emptied of feathers which she
had taken out to sell for rum aud, to
save the carpet from the same disposition
he had taken it off the floor of her room
To the poor, miserable wreck of wo-
man ] spoke Of the compassion of Jesus,
but could get no response. Afterward
she was taken to the hospital, and every.
thing was done that could be done under
the circumstances, but to the last the poor
woman felt she was so far off-too far off
from Jesus-sbe could not reach out to
Him. The city missionaries are laboribg
constantly, not only for the reformation
and elevation of the Incorporate, but also
to prevent the formation of those evil bab.
its which lead the way to drunkenness
and dissipation. Last year they received
twelve hundred and ffty-fve temperance
pledges, and they enjoy the satisfaction
Of seeing much fruit of their arduous toll g,
National Temperance Adrocate.