, 1875-06-12
FIGHTING WITH POISON.

] was ePSHulllS SOulc udJSY uOI
many years ago, in beautiful lit
tie country village, with a family
that had more than common at
fractions. The father Of the family,
almost too young to feel that he
was entitled to that honorable ap-
pellation, was a fine, frank hearted
mechanic, with a world of life
bounding in his veins, and dis
position that won him more friend
ship than it had given him of the
goods Of this world. His wife, to
whom he had been married four
years, was singularly beautiful,
They had two children, the one a
lauging, brown-eyed little fairy of
three years, by the name of Bios
som; the second, a blue-eyed,
plump little beauty of less than
year, promising to have all the
charms of the elder at her age.
was sitting one afternoon in a
quiet little room, with my feet on
two chairs, reading, my host away
at his shop, and my pretty little
hostess engaged in her household
duties, when l was thrown out of
my Incidence by a scream that
brought me to my feet like an
electric shock. 1t was a woman's
voice, and had in it an excess of
agony that cannot be indicated by
words, so loud that it rang over
that quiet little village, bringing
everyone forth to ascertain the
cause.
I sprang to the door that sepa-
rated the two rooms, and saw the
whole at a glance. The young
mother stood at the door, with her
first thorn, Blossom, in her arms,
dying! The little girl had been
up stairs, seized a bottle of corro-
sive sublimate in alcohol and had
drank enough to have taken. away
twenty such lives. The little girl
had tottered down stairs, and the
mother had met her at the landing
with the empty bottle in her hand,
and the poison oozing from her
mouth. Was it any wonder that
a terrible shrek had rang out?
But a few moments could posi-
bly, have elapsed since the poison
was taken, and yet the effect was
already fearful. The brown eyes
had lost their luster; the face was
blackened as if after death; and
the teeth were tight set in con-
ulsive spasm that evidently would
not pass away. examined the
little darling for a moment while
the room was nearly half-flled by
the villagers, and lamentations
were issuing on every side over
the fate of the dying child. But
a few moments elapsed before the
father sprang into the middle of
the group. His eye was very stern,
and his lips were firmly compress
ed. He took the child from its
mother. Its eyes were closed, and
a white ooze coming from between
the blaekened lips. Was ever
death more assured
1 saw him open the eyelids and
give a sigh of relief. He told me
afterward that the eye was not
sunken, and so death had not be-
gun. He then attempted 10 open
the mouth, but the teeth were
tight set, and they resisted his ef-
forts. But with a force that seem
ed almost brutal, he wrencbed the
teeth apart and opened the mouth.
ShameI cried one of the by
ISLANDERS. The father did not heed
them, but motioned to a neighbor
to take the child in his arms. He
did so.
Bring me the egg-basket, he
spoke very sternly, almost with
out opening his teeth, to the SER
want.
| What do you want of it? What
can you do with it? He's crazy!
and such remarks followed, but
the basket was there in moment.
He seized one of the eggs, broke
it, inserted his fingers again be-