The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1881-08-18
DIED OF A BROKEN HEART,

Johnny Bouquet in New York Tribune.l
A father in a NewyEngland town had
a soma little, large headed boy Of ner-
vous intensity, with eyes of startling
wonder, and long curling eyelashes,
which started, like his fawn-like eyes,
with quick apprehension and timidity-a
boy who played with all intensity, kept
doing something all the day long, with
out the power to rest, walked off alone
and even when alone spoke with himself,
chased the geese with little legs as lean
and swift, and at the table. eating his
meals could not SIT very still, nor bear
to sit all the morning in church because
his heart was too rapid in his little mar
row chest, where every rib could be
counted against his tenderh flesh and skin.
In the morning lie YVES awake at earliest
light; at evening his tired nature yielded
to the deep sleep of exhaustion. His
mother feared she could never raise him
to be- man. His father thought he was
too long becoming a man in gravity, 70
briefly and formal obedience.
what ails my son? ?" the father sternly
asked. ."Hei is rattle-headed and with
out stability. I fear for HIM. Do you
chastise him enough? Spare not the rod
lest he grow beyond you and your rule"
"Alas |" exclaimed the mother, she
has his little world, we cannot see, per-
haps. He is growing and sensitive. The
doctor says We must not push him at his
studies, but let him play all he can, till
his frame IS equal tohis brain.
The father shook his head and spoke
sternly to the boy, and feared he was GO
ing to give them all trouble growing up
so seldom moulded and unrestrained.
All day the little boy was doing some.
thing, carrying the cat by the tail, carry
ing the dog under his arm, making pic
lures on paper, of engines and steam
boats, and bellows.
He will be an artist !" said his mother
hopefully.
che viii spoil the library" exclaimed
the father suspiciously.
Antagonism grew up between the
father and the boy, born, on the boys
part, of fear ; on the fathers, of criticism
and severity. The boy ran to his mother
and asked her protection from his fathers
suspecting eye. The father feared his
wife was spelling the SON with mistaken
generosity and allowance At times the
fathers habitual suspicion broke away
like the clouds above hard, human
Britain, and he laid his rigorous books of
theology down to take his boy walking,
and they grew q little nearer. Then
again the father observed some voluptu-
GUS tendency in the son which started his
fears anew; some taste for worldly,
passing modes and Joys.
wife" he said, ado you sven give
u boy money!
ga little, she said ga few pennies
to buy drawing materials and colors /; he
will be an artist / think"
Money" exclaimed the sire, sis the
root of every evil. You had better give
him fire or poison. He will become o
wild, ruined spendthrift.
The idea that his wife gave the child
money operated in the fathers head like
jealousy or revenge; it tinted everything
about his sons conduct, and he believed
his wife had set deliberately to work to
indulge her child at the expense of his
soul.
One morning, thinking of such things
the father lay awake in bed, and a gem
tie noise disturbed him. The sun was
the lights and air striking through the
chamber curtains showed the little boy
in his night gown stealing toward his
fathers bed. He glanced. sharply to
ward his father to see If he was quite
asleep, and then swiftly, like a little bird,
hoped upon q chair and ran his lean
white fingers into his fathers vest
pocket.
"Hal" thought the father. "My son
In my pockets by stealth, before I am
awake, and initiating the bad example OF
my wife, who often, perhaps, searches
As he said this q dreadful idea crossed
his mind. That son, spoiled by the
mothers indulgence, already corrupted
by spending money, was a t6ief-a thiei
while yet a child He rose in bed and
spoke in a voice of thunder /:
"Robert, you are stealingm money r.
Horror froze the boy; he dropped from
the chair like a cat, and was into his own
bed In the nex room and covered his face
with his sheets. Anguish and stern re.
solve possessed at once the fathers
stricken heart. He had delayed too long
to chastise his hayward son, now gliding
into ruin. 1t must be done, hard though
1t should be. He awoke his wife, and,
suppressing her replies with an iron will,
related the story Of her depraved child.
"Henceforth, he said, 81 must be the
magistrate and mother, instead of you
Robert, come, dress yourself I"
He thrust the frightened mother back.
The boy fell On his knees but could not
speak n word, SO large the knot that
gathered in his little throat, SO resolute
the startled, fawn-like eyes, as If agony
and perversity worked together to make
him obdurate. Down the stairs and into
the orchard, away from sight, the father
bore his child, and making him knee
upon the grass, struck hard and slow
with the switch of the apple tree, telling
his boy to confess; yet dumb as Isaat
upon the altar beneath his fathers knife
shrinking childhood of the boy received
his hard chastisement. Carried back,
all trembling as with a chill of death, to
the house of mourning, the little boy
was laid in his bed, still frozen tight o.
speech and only the ointment of {
mothers tears fell upon his tortured
back and famine narrowed shoulders
but his large ayes turned to a little boz
that he kept his treasures in, and they
placed it in his bed where he lay all DAY
signing from his ina~rticulate soul.
The fathers heart wa wrenched Il
think of such frail, dear son persistine
in his ~wickedness, and turning from re
pentance.
He sat by his side all that afternoon
demanding his boy to confess and saw,
them both the pain of another chastise
ment. The boy trembled, but did no
speak, and put his arms around his it'll
box as if it was his brother.
The long night through a sigh wen
through the chamber ever and anor
from those suffering lips. Neither maj
nor woman slept. At early day tn,
anguished father felt that the stern pun
ishment must be melted out again unless
his boy spoke and repented. He ros,
and passed into the chamber where tn,
son lay in his lowly bed, all strewn will
his little drawings, and his arms arount
his box. He sighed no more, bu
seemed asleep. Upon his face q colo
paler than the snowy sheets extended
Another guest was in the bed !; the CUES
that cometh like q real thief in tn,
night.