Smyrna times., 1878-10-23

chair for little while will say to the old |
folks at home: Do you know your son |
drinks?' Then the old folks willlook white |
about the lips, and your mother will ask |
that the door be opened for little fresh |
air, and before the old gossip leaves the |
place she will tell the whole story and let |
them know all about the places you have |
been visiting. Then your mother will go
and sit on the front steps where you used
to play, and she will cry and cry. Then
she will be sick, and the gig of the country
doctor will stop at the swing-gate, and he
will not be able to understand the case, and
the prescription will fail, and the fever will
get worse and worse, and in her last de-
lIrium she will talk about nothing but you.
OF what did she die, the farmers will ask
after they tie their horses at the rail fence
on the funeral day. Intermittent fever,
some will say or of congestion, others may
guess or old age, others may suppose but
it will be found that it was neither inter-
mitient fever, nor congestion, nor old age.
In the ponderous book of Almighty God it
shall be recorded for everlasting ages that
you killed her. Our language is very fer
tile in description of crime. The Staying
OF man is homicide; the Staying of a
brother is fratricide; the Staying of a
father is patricide; the Staying of mother
/
scribe your crime-patricide matricide.
Leaving to other Sabbath mornings the
story of much that l saw, and the answer
to the question why such things are allowed
by municipal government, l tell you of
one thing that happened the night speak
| OF. | said, Commissioner, | have enough
OF this. Let US CO. AS we passed out of
the door and | felt the relief of the fresh
air, there passed me, going in, face that |
shall not forget There was in it a sorrow
only half concealed by an assumed Joy.
Oh, what face 1t was a woman's face, and
l could read on it as on the page of book
the tragedy. One night, far away in sort
of sOmnambulism or walking sleep soul
forsook her fathers house. The night was
dark and her feet were cut on the rocks
and she wandered on till she came to a
chasm down which she bounded from
} boulder, as one in sleep sometimes will &C
where in walking moments no one would
venture; down over rattling shelving
where no owl of the night or hawk of the
day would consent to swoop; down unit
/ she touched the lowest depths of the
chasm. Then, still in walking sleep, she
, began to ascend the other side of the
chasm. She went up rock over rock as
roe boundeth. Her head swan not at tn,
} awful steep. On and up till she had scaleC
{ the tallest crag of the mountain. No ey
= but the sleepless eye of God had watched
v her descent on the one side or the ascen
i on the other. 1t was an August night AM
{ a gathering storm, and there came a lou
+ burst of thunder which walked her from
G her somnambulism, and with frightenet
r eye she looked back over the chasm sh
d had crossed, and was about to fly but saw
n deeper chasm in front Of her. What
G said she 'am | to die here on the mour
tain, chasm- behind me and chasm befor
|. meY She bent over the one and heard til
?. sighings of the past She bent over tn
# other and heard the portents of the future
+ Then bounded by the chasms on all side
,. she sat on the granite cliff and cried: 'Ol
y for my Fathers house! Oh, for dying be
, of the peace in the cottage of embowerin
: honeysuckle! Oh, the past Oh, til
y future o, father! o, mother! o, God! Bu
- the storm of that August night, which ha
- - for many hours been gathering, at la,
,S eliminated upon the sharp and jagge
- mountain peak, and the lightnings wrot
S pC on the sky, just above the horizon, I'll
- way of the transgressor is hard Thunde
81 clap after thunder-clap resounded, Whic
forsalleth the guide of her youth and fc
= getteth the covenant of her God-destroyC
q without remedy;' and the chasm befo
" echoed it, Destroyed without remedy
y and the chasm behind echoed it, 'Dostro
81 ed without remedy And there 81
y perished, her feet cut of the rocks lying
the edge of one chasm, and her long loc
. washed of the storm, streaming over Il
~ ~ other chasm. But by that time the ca
- riage halted at the curbstone of our dwt
: ling and, behold, it was dream"