The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1882-02-02

tOrtures of mind, but under vile pre-
tense of alleviating the physical tor
ture. Three days after would come the
first day of punishment. My mother
spent the time in reading her native
Scriptures. She spent it in prayer and
in musing, whilst her daughters clung
and wept around her day and night
any people in authority that entered
their mothers cell. That same interval
how was it passed by me? Now mark,
my friend. Every man in Office, or that
could be presumed to bear the slightest
infiuence-every wife, mother, sister,
daughter, of such men, | besieged morn
ing, noon and night. L wearied them
with my supplicatiOns | humbled my
self to the dust. |, the haughtiest of
Gods creatures, knelt and prayed to
them for the sake Of my mother. | be-
sought them that Imight undergo the
punishment ten times over in her stead.
And once or twice | did obtain the en-
cOuTagement of few natural tears
given more, however, as | was told, to
my piety, than To my mothers deserts.
But rarely was heard out with patience;
and from some houses repelled with
personal indignities. The day came! |
saw my mother half uhdressed by the
base Officials-I heard the prison gates
L
magistracy sound! She had warned
me what to do. l had warned myself.
Would | sacrifice a retTlbutiOn sacred
and comprehensive for the mOmentary
triumph over an Individual? If not,
let me fOrbear to look out of doors; for |
felt that in the self-same moment in
which | saw the dog of an eXecutiOner
raise his accursed hand against my
mother, swifter than the lightning
would my dagger search his heart. When
| heard the roar of the cruel mob, |
paused; endured; fOrbore. | stole out by
Oy-lanes of the city from my poor eX-
hausted sisters, whom left sleeping in
each Others innocent arms, into forest.
There listened to the shouting pOpu-
lace: there even fdncied that | could
trace my poor mothers route by the
course of the triumphant cries. There,
even then, even then, | made-Oh! silent
forest, thou heard'st me when | made
a VOW that have kept too faithfully.
Mother, thou art avenged Sleep,
daughter of Jerusalem; for at length
the OppressOr sleeps with thee !-and thy
poor son has paid, in discharge of his
VOW, the forfeit of his own happiness
of Paradise opening upon earth-Of a
heart as innocent as thine, and face as
fair?
81 returned, and found my mother re-
turned. She slept by starts, but she was
feYeTish and agitated; and when she
awOke and first saw me. she blushed, as
if L could think that real degradation
had settled upon her Then it was that
| told her of my VOW. Her eyes were
lambent with fierce light for a moment;
but when | went on more eagerly to
speak of my hopes and projects, she
called me to her, kissed me, and whis-
pered-'Oh, not 30, my son. Think not
of me; think not of yengence; think only
of poor BeTenice and Mariamne.' Ay,
that thought was startling. Yet this
and fOrbearing mother,
as 1 knew by the report of our one faith
full female servant, mad in the morning,
during her bitter trial, behaved as might
become a daughter OF Judas MaccabRus.
She had looked serenely upon the vile
mob, and awed even them by her seren-
ity. She had disdained to utter shrek
when the cruel lash fell upon her fair
skin. There is a point that makes the
triumph over natural feelings of pain
easy or not easy-the degree i'll which
we count upon the sympathy of the by
ISLANDERS. My mother had it not i'll the
beginning; but, long before the end, her
celestial beauty, the divinity of injured
innocence, the pleading of common
wOmanhOOd in the minds Of the lowest
class, and the reaction of manly feeling
in the men, had worked a great change
in the mob. Some began now to threaten
those who had been active in insulting
her: the silence of awe and respect sue
cteded to noise and uprOar; and feelings
which they scarcely understood mastered
the rude rabble as they witnessed more
a I'd more the patient fOrtltude of the
s ffeTtT. Men ces began to rise towards
the executiOneT. Things wore such an
aspect that the magistrates put sudden
end to the scene.
Continued i'll our next.)