Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1876-12-29

you to the first step upon that dread path
marked with tears, sorrow and misery,
whose end is ruin and destruction -
Frank, my husband, your dying wife
inplores your forgiveness and beseeches
that the last words between us may be
those of peace.
what, dyingI' was my startled excla-
nation. The words tore my heart as il
stretched upon a rack of torture.
seized the emaciatcd hand of my wife
and my eyes looked imploringly into hers
as agonizingly gasped
NAY. Alice, not dying! For Gods
sake say to me you are not dying
ooh, Frank, | can conceal it from
myself and from you no longer; my heart
is broken and in but short while naught
will be left to you but my lifeless body"
Eyes that for years had not been
blessed with the moisture of tear, now
became fountains through which tho
swelling grief of stricken heart flowed
She, the dearest Of all to me, my wife,
who through the sorrow shrouded life |
had passed, shed tho only beams of hap
piness that had fitted across it. I'm
murmuringly she had walked the rough
cobbled road with me. smiling when |
! deserved frown, whispering words of
love when deserved curse Her heart
will. the steadfastness of an undertaking
devotion had clung TO me through cloud
and through storm; and now she was to be
torn from my side, leaving me alone and
cheerless. My head was buried in the
pillow on which lie hers and between the
deep sobs that rose from my bosom and
almost stiGcd uttcrance. cried:
ooh, do not leave me, Alice Live
for me and will be a man again. | will
burst the letters that bind me, throw off
the yoke of intempcrance and make the
remainder Of your existence the noon
day of happiness"
Her reply came with gasps:
"Would th--that-I could-li live,
Frank. But am--dying now, drink
no more-and rake care of our daughter"
was just in time to catch with kiss
the last breath that fitted through her
lips-and she was dead The food of
anguish flowed know not how long as
| knct there with my face pressed against
that of my wife and was only aroused to
consciousness BY the mus zeal voice of my
little daughter as she rushed in the house
from n ramble in the woods exclaiming:
"Oh, mamma, look at the pretty
wild flowers | have brought home for
you p
Her voice fell upon "tlc dull cold
ear of death" which heard not its soft
toned music. called her to me, placed
her upon my knee pressed her head
against my bosom and said
CLARA, you have no mamma now.
she has gone to live among the angels of
Heaven"
What, papa, is mamma dcad-dead
dead y
In pitcous waling came the words
from her lips as she sprang from
my knee, rushed to the bed and threw
herself beside the corpse of her mother
crying and sobbing as if her little heart
were breaking. The scene was beyond
endurance and | fled from the house
for drink | procured it and felt under
its strengthening influence my nerves.
grow stronger. Sorrowfully | wcnded
my way back home, opened the door
and stepped in. The scene that there
met my gaze will never be effaced from
my memory. There lie my daughter
beside my wife, and she dead too. Her
little arms we're wound around her
mothers neck and cheeks touching there
they lie--ttc last link broken that chained
my affection to life / buried them, and
since that hour have been wondering
will death never release me from the tor
ture | am suffering. As | glance back
over the path | have trod and permit
my memory to wonder along the in
nocence Of childhood, the cheerfulness of
youth, the promising prospect that
opened upon the view Of early manhood,
the loyc-scenes that decked the progress of
courtship, the beautiful bride that knelt
at the altar with me and the angel babe
that blessed our union, | sit amid the
wreck by which | am surrounded and
wonder if tbs not dream, and | am only
awakened to the dread reality by the
remembrance of that promise made to my
mother and shattered BY my wife. This
life which dawned so propitiously drifted
upon the reefs Of incompetence and is
now but a mournful week waiting and
wishing for the opening of its tomb.
Tbirfv- mint yoara o,,o H. IO,L n