Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1881-12-28
The Inebriate's Daughter.

The Inebriate's Daughter.
Intemperance how many have attempted
to write of its horrors, TO portray its mis-
cries yet we doubt If anyone, who has not
in his own person been in some way vic
tim 10 its ravages, can feelingly speak Of
what IL is, can even imagine what the suf-
ferings of those belonging to the inebriate
are. Awful indeed is it in any way TO be
connected with one who either habitually or
occasionally yields to this vice; yet we may
be singular in our opinion, that daughters
sorrows must be greater than any others,
compelled as she is to loathe him she should
honor to regard with terror him she should
look upon with love and respect.
Sad were the reflections that occupied the
mind of Emily Wilson, as she put the last
stitch in the garment she was completing for
a neighboring shop, listening at the same
time anxiously for the hoped.for yet dreaded
football of her father. 1t was very late.
Orion, which was always seen opposite their
uncurtained window at eleven, had long
since passed by, the candle had nearly burned
to the socket, and the old black stove prom
ised no light and but little heat when it
should have expired. She had persuaded
her mother to retire to rest, and she lay now
in the obscurity Of the farther corner of the
room, in that deep sleep produced only by
WEAKNESS and mental misery.
Emily laid aside her work, and taking
book Chose blessed lighteners Of earthly
burdens) strove to while away some of the
weary moments in reading; but her candle
soon went out, and, leaving her to darkness
and desolation, gave her ample time TO brood
over her sorrows. Thoughts of happier
hours, her sunny childhood, her almost un-
clouded school-days, rose like phantoms,
haunting her with her present misery-her
youth wasting away in such woe as an in
ebriate's daughter could imagine, and none
but her feel. She remembered the bright
intelligent friends she once met in her faith
er's cheerful residence, when she hung on
his words, as a passionate lover does on
those of his mistress; and she thought OF
that father now, that intellect now darkened
by passions called into existence and fos-
tered by intemperance, till she shrank from
him in terror, and felt as if the old demons,
expelled by the compassionate Savior Of the
world from the unhappy of the first century,
had returned to take up their abodes in the
inebriates of the nineteenth. The room be-
came cold, yet she feared to place another
stick Of wood in the stove, lest their scant
stock of fuel should become exhausted ere
she could earn sufficient TO purchase fresh
supply. As she sat shivering, memory re-
counted the miseries Of the past four years.
The articles sacrificed one after another, not
to purchase food and clothing, but to pay
tavern bills; the little school she had gath
cred, to help exc out her mothers scanty
earnings and of which she had been deprived
because no one respected her whose father
was seen reeling through the streets all
hours of the day, in state of beastly in
toxication. She thought of her little broth
ers and sisters, driven from the public
schools because their mother could not bear
to have their young hearts crushed by the
contempt of thoughtless, but cruel children,
who tainted them with their fathers vice
that mother, also, broken spirited and rem
dered querulous by long and hopeless suffer-
ing, often by her almost selfish conplainings
inflicted a double pang on her sensitive
child's already overburdened heart. She
attempted to look into the future with hope,
but thick darkness hung over it, and she felt
as if there must follow only the same suffer-
ing, the same hunger, the same cold, labor,
and even cruel blows, which in moments of
brutal fury had been inflicted on her by her
Infatuated parent.
The intolerable headache which had at
tended her all day became now even more
insupportable 1t appeared as if there were
a band of iron round her brow, and her head
seemed swollen to twice its usual size. 1t
was also burning with intense heat, while
her frame was shaking with cold. To
change the current of thought, which was
goadinp her on to madness, she rose and
walked to the window. The stars had all
disappeared the bowling winds had risen,
and the driving snow and black darkness
added to the dreariness of her mind.
"Why comes he not 2" she asked and then
busy fancy bore her fathers groans on the
piercing blast, and now represented him
perishing in sinful insensibility, amid the
horrors Of the storm. "Oh Lord" she ex-
claimed in agony, show long? how long ?"
and falling on her knees, forgetfulness came
to her relief.
| When she became conscious of surrounding
| objects, she found herself lying on her bed,
weak as infancy, and her father raising to
her lips the water she so eagerly desired.
Worn out by hunger, watching, and agony OF
mind, she had been struck with brain fever,
aud, when her father returned from his mid
night debauch, he found her raving in de-
lirium. Her piteous cries sobered him at
once and as he watched by her couch for
many days, while her beseeching voice rung
in his ears, her shuddering as she saw him
in the raving fits, brought on by intoxica-
ton, her prayers to God for him, all touched
his heart with power he had never felt
before.
1t is not for us to lift the veil, and read
the thoughts which he never revealed to
mortal ear. Enough for us to speak of the
happy results-the blessed fruits brought
forth by penitence so deep that years
after you could see the traces OF it still in
the bowed frame and the hair silvered by
agony of mind.
Well and faithfully did Edward Wilson
keep his vow, made in secrecy and solitude
witnessed only by God "who despiseth
not the signing of a contrite heart and
blessed angels who paused on their missions
of mercy to catch the penitential tears,
more precious in the sight of that Saviour
who wept over Jerusalem than the upright
demeanor of him who looks with Pharisaica,
scorn on his erring brother. All traits of
former years were not quite extinguished,
and the firmness of mind and indomitable
energy that had once characterized him
now, by the blessing of God, enabled him to
retrieve his affairs and regain his former
position in society But it was severe
lesson; and when, two years after, he gave
his daughter in marriage to one every way
worthy of her, and saw himself surrounded
by faithful friends and all the comforts
well-rewarded industry can give, respected,
esteemed and beloved, he shuddered as he
recalled the past, and in deep humiliation
and abasement of soul he blessed au all
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