The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1884-01-04
Temperance Reading
THE DRINKING HOUSE OVER
THE nay.
Az INcrnENr or rnr cn11s,nn

THE WAY.
AN INCIDENT OF THE CRUSADE.
The room was so cold, so cherries and bare
With its rickety table, and one broken chair
And its eurtainless window with hardly a
To keep out the snow, the wind and the rain.
A cradle stood empty, pushed up to the wall
ana somehow that seemed the saddest of all
In the old rusty stove the fire was dead;
There was snow on the floor at the foot of the
bed.
And there all alone pale woman was lying;
You need not look twice, to see she was
dying;
Dying of want-of hunger ana cold.
Shall tell you her storV-the story she told9
No ma'am, I'm no better, my cough is so
bad:
It's wearing me out though, and that makes
me glad,
For it's wearisome living when ones all
alone,
And Heaven they tell me is just like a home
Yes, .ma'am. I've husband, he's some
where about;
| hoped he'd come in fore the fire went out;
But guess he has gone where he's likely to
stay,
/ mean to the clearinghouse over the way.
1t was not so always; hope you won't
think
Too hard of him, lady, it's only the drink.
[ know he's kind-hearted, for oh, how he
cried
For our poor little baby the morning it died!
You see he took sudden, and grew very
bad,
And we had no doctor--my poor little ladl
For his father had gone--never meaning to
stay,
1 am sure-to the clearinghouse over the
way.
And when he came back twas far i'll the
And 1 was so tired, and sick with the fright
OF staying so long with my baoy alone,
And it cutting my heart with its pitiful moan.
He was cross with the drink, poor fellow, 1
know
1t was that, not his baby, that bothered him
But he swore at the child, as painting it lay.
And went back to the clearinghouse over
the way.
II heard the gate slam and my heart seemed
to freeze
Like ice in my bosom, and there on my knees
By the side of the cradle, all shivering,
WANTED my mother, 1 cried and prayed
g. The clock it struck two fore my baby was
still,
And my thoughts they went back to the home
on the hill, e
Where my happy girlhood had spent its short
Far, far from that clearinghouse over the
way.
Gould be that girl? I, the heart-broken
There watching alone, while that dear little
life
Was going so fast, that had to bend low
To hear if he breathed, twas so faint and
SO slow.
Yes, it was easy his dying, he just grew
more white,
And his eyes opened wider to look for the
light
AS his father came in, twas just break of
Came in from the clearinghouse over the
way.
"Yes, ma'am, he was sober, at least mostly, L
He often stayed that way to wear off the
drink.
And l know he was sorry for what he had
For he set a great store by our first little son.
land straight did he come to the cradle-bed
where
Our baby lay dead, so pretty and fair;
l wondered that could have wished him to
When there was drinking house over the
way.
g He stood quiet awhile, did not understand,
You see, ma'am, till he touched the little cold
hand;
Oh, then came the tears and he shook like a
And said; Twas the drinking had made all
the grief
" The neighbors were kind, and the minister
And he talked of my seeing my baby again;
And of the bright angels-I wondered if they
Could see into that clearinghouse over the
way.
"And thought when my baby was put in the
ground
And the man with the spade was shaping the
If somebody only would help me to save
Ny husband, who stood by my side at the
grave.
If only it were not so handy, the drink!
The men that make laws, ma am, sure didn't
think
Of the hearts they would break. of the souls
they would Stay,
When they licensed that clearinghouse over
the way.
Be pitiful, lady, to him when I'm gone;
He wants to do right, but you never would
think
How weak a man grows when he's fond of
the drink.
And it's tempting him here, and it's tempt
ing him there;
Four places I've counted in this very square
Where man can get whisky by night and by
day.
Not to reckon the clearinghouse over the
way.
"There's a verse in the Bible the minister
read:
No drunkard shall enter Heaven it said;
And he is my husband, and I loved him 50,
And where / am going, want he should go.
Our baby and will both want him there;
Don't you think the dear Jesus viii hear to
my prayer?
And please, when I'm gone. ask some one to
pray
For him, at the clearinghouse over the way"
-.MrS. Nuttng. in Union Signal.