The comet. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1877-1882, 1879-01-18
WHAT THE. SNOW FLAKES HID.
DetroHFrce Press.


= You talk about charity to the poor, ant
: you sit by your warm fires and pity them
I; but have you penetrated the streets anC
opened the doors at which the wolf of colo
and hunger and misery stands waiting from
, November to May?
Have you ever passed through the door
and seen with your own eyes how terrible
tho poverty, how fierce the hunger, and
! how woeful the wretchedness that lives day
in and dav out within a stones throw of
residences where every inmate has every
want gratified?
This woman knew what it was to sit the
cold day through without fire. to shiver
through the long nights on her bed of
straw; to gnaw the bones already white
and dry when hunger cried aloud.
People wondered that she did not die
last year or the year before; none opened
her door without feeling that they might
see her corpse on the musty straw. None
could see that she had a single thing to
live for, and some how were but little bet
ter off whispered that they would not blame
her if she took her own life What link of
love fastened her to earth men and women
could not see, and perhaps she could not
have told them
The other day one who knocked at her
door found the old woman Just as she had
often been pictured-dead on her heap of
straw. Her arms were outstretched, as if
grasping for something open eyes had
terrible stare, and her face bore such a
look as comes to those who die by inches.
There might have been tears shed over her
as the women gathered, but yet they
Whisper d among themselves that none
could miss her When one woman wonN
dered if the dead before them had passed
to a brighter life, another replied;
g [ do not believe she has one good deed
recorded in Heaven"
The body was taken away and buried in
Potters field, The new made grave seemed
tho only one in all the great cemetery, for
the thousands of others were hidden under |
the snow, while this one was CHASTITY in its |
freshness Ihe grave-diggers left in with |
sod and earth and stone heaped together, |
and the night came on. The oak tree |
which thrusts out its limbs over the grave |
had no leaves to shake down and cover the I
damp, fresh earth, but in the darkness a
sailing lazily through the chilly
air, settled down upon the heap as a bios.
som falls to earth.
"She wac old and poor" said the earth
to the snow-fakes. "Those who pass by
will only see that another pauper is buried,
md they will jest sooner than grieve."
''Was she good and faithful?' asked the
snow flake
''It is not for the earth to judge She
stands before her record in Heaven
''Then lest man judge her more harshIy
han God we will cover her grave with the
same mantle which covers ALL said the
now-hake as it rose on a gust and sailed
lway 1t returned in a moment with
,thers. Some fell at the head and some at
he foot of tie grave, and before the night
vas old the branches above whispered to
ach other:
"Where is the grave which we saw
pened here as the day waned? Behold,
n old woman, dead of wretchodness and
lunger, has as pure inantl. over her
rave as any one here !"
"And God will judge her only as He
as thom!" whispered the snow-tIakes as
hey crowded close to keep the cold wind
ut