The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1876-06-17
WOMANS TEMPERANCE COL.
UMN.
Another Victim.

Come with me to the country farm"
See that old, old man in the chimney cor.
nsr. Wife and children and mind are
gone, and the worn body totters on the
graves brink. See that thin, pale, old
woman, with her everlasting knitting
work, the sole comfort left to her. SEQ
that great, hearty "innocent," with her
merciless, chattering tongue. See that
blind, deformed girl, who has never known
any other home. She is the one human.
izing element to her all are kind and
gentle for all feel and know that nature,
not sin, has brought her here.
Many others the sick, the decrepit, the
old and ignorant are here, but VIC will
pass them BY to stop beside tall, fine.
looking man, not yet thirty years old.
How strong and healthy ho looks How
strong and healthy he looks How in.
telligsntly he converses How sadly,
too, for he has no arms. Was nature SO
unkind No, God gave him strong
mind and strong body. Did some care.
less conductor main him 30? No no
railroad would be permitted or wish to
mutilate and leave him. Did he offer
bis life to his country, and she forget him
when he gave her his arms? No no
country SO bsrbarous as TO forget her
manned ones
His story is brief His good parents
worked hard aud lived frugally TO pay
for and stock the farm; to repair and fur.
nish the cottage, and to educate, not
classically, but well, their only child. A
handsome, bright and good boy he vas.
but farm life and farm duties were not
to his taste, and Christian merchant
took him into his store, and he made q
fine and pleasant clerk. But he slept,
as country clerks do, in the store, and,
unknown to his employer, he was enticea
to the billiard room and to the cafe.
The mother saw and felt the change in
her boy, but he laughed at her fears and
sneercd at her counsels. And the father
died And the lone mothers eyes grew
weary with watching, and weeping, and
then closed forever The iarm was sold,
and the merchant offered him a partner
ship, but he thought he did not fancy
New England country village for home.
He would wait before deciding. And in
balls and billiards, dancing and drinking,
the uninytsted money soon scattered itself
how, he couldn't tell; where, he couldn't
fnd. He had forgotten that water will
leak from a sieve as surely, if not quite
as quickly, as it will pour from bucket.
That night he had been playing bill.
lizards and lost money, then drank a glass
to console himself, and then another, and
20 On, and he, the quiet gentleman, grew
uproaiious, and when they bade him GO
home, threw off his coat and rolled up
his sleeves to fight, and the proprietor,
fearing his place might be as disgraced
as it was and is disgraceful, bade two of
his employees take him home, and they
took him to the back store door and left
him. He must have fallen on his body
in the snow, and his bare arms on the
cold stone, and SO laid that zero night.
The merchant found him and thought he
was dead, but snow bath and friction
brought him back to weeks of suffering
and to death in life long, useless, hope.
less years.
win he who first decoyed him-who
led him on guardedly, cut surely-who
broke his mothers heart-who pocketed
most Of that hardly-carned farm--who
wooed him that night to drink, then let
his men leave him coatless in the dark
ness aud the Goodwill he pension him
now? Will he board him among noble
Christian friends where society and books
may mitigate his weariness and hopeless
ness? VIII he send him the minister
Will he lead him to the bouse of God,
that he, from the bright and glorious fu
ture may catch one beam to light the
dark, lone pathway be now muat tread
Will he az, will he? And oh, yoaug
man will you be the dupe Of one who
can and does always betray? VIII yon