The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1878-02-20

you wouldn't Know them. Folks sing them
a great deal in the b Biptist church.
Before you could have cooked pistol ii
was as quiet as the grave all through this
place, The officers looked at zone another.
All the men walked up. The women, thew
got together in heap about her. The cap
tain said to me "Doherty's singing hymn
tunesl' | said thought we'd go down and
see; and down we went.
When we looked in at the grating, / wish,
ma'am, yOu could have seen those men-
ragged, rough, drunk. Some of 'em taken
in awful crimes. No. l don't wish you had
seen them But there they ST. as silent as a
row of angels on the judgment day, a-listen
ing to hear that woman sing One and an
other, they said: Hush hushI And one
fellow said: II used to sing that song my
self" He was up for assault and battery.
Badly beaten. too himself about the face.
He crept along the wall, | noticed on his
knees, to get where he could hear her better.
When she stopped, he hOllered out:
Give us SOME more, Dohertyp
And the rest said:
"Doherty, give us another psalm tune"
But one of the women said:
"Come, Nell! Sing us to sleep with the
hymn"
So then she began again; and she gave it
to 'em. one upon another, last and clear.
Heaven knows where the creetur learned
'em. At some Protestant Sundsy-school,
days They go a good deal ON account of
the Christmas presents.
Veal got round her there-the menins
and the officers withOut-and listened for
awhile. / don't think ever heard her sing
so in all my life. Doherty had fine voice,
and no mistake. If she'd been respectfully
born she'd baye been great singer, that
woman / take it; and folks would have been
running to the opera and TO concert halls to
hear her.
SO there she sat aud sung. She set up in
one corner, with her chin upon her hands.
and noticed nobody, but stared str light on
before her. She sang Nearer, my God, tn
Thee" aud depths of Mercy" and she
sung ~ heard the voice of Jesus say" and
Love at Home" and all those. And all
the men ard all the women listened. And
| saw the cap'n draw his hand acrost his
eyes. And I'll own it was too much for me;
L will, indeed.
To see her there, letting out those holy
words so irustfully. as yoI might say, ma'am
that poor -wretched IN madam, it was
enough 10 break your heart TO hear her. 1
couldn't help remembering how pretty she
had been and young. and how she took on
the first night she ever came ID US.
Pretty soon 1 came away upstairs-for she
unnamed me so, before the men; and | set
down here and had it outalone But while
[ was setting here heard lull, and one of
the Irish boys called out:
Give us one more, Doherty! Then we can
take yer sleep yerself"
And then, ma am, she began, quite low
and in a faint voice, and very sweet, and she
sung
"Jesus, Lover of my Soul"
She sung in this way, singing louder now
and then
"Let me to thy bosom fly,
While the billows near me roll,
Hide me, y Thou savior, hide"
And in the midst of the verse she stopped
The men called TO her, and the women, and
the cap'n said
Give us the rest, Nelll"
was rather glad he called her Nell Just
then; for when we got in, wondering what
it all meant and hushing up the women,
ma'am, as best we could, we found her lying
turned little on her side, with her face
against the wall, quite dead