The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1884-01-12
Temperance ItenQIng.
TIE DRINKING HOUSE OTEB
THE, WAY
AN INCIDENT DE THE CRUSADE.

| AN INCIDENT OF THE CRUSADE.
| The room was so cold, so cheerless and bare,
| With its rickety table, and one broken char,
And its curtainiess window with hardly
pane
To keep out the snow, the wind and the raiE.
4 cradle stood empty, pushed up to the wall
| And 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 and cold. ..t
| Shall tell you her storv-the story she told?
mo ma'am, I'm no better, my cough is SO
It's wearing me out, though, and that makes
| me glad,
For it's wearlsome living when ones all
| alone,
And Heaven they tell me is just like home
Yes, maam, I've husband, he's some
hoped he'd come in fore the fire went out;
But guess he has gone where he's likely to
stay,
I mean to the drinking-house over the way.
at was not so always; hope you won't
| think
Too hard of him, lady. it's only the drink.
know he's kind-healted, for oh, how he
| cried
For our poor little baby the morning it diedl
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 in the
| night,
| And was SO tired, and sick with the fright
| VI StaVIn9 long with hanY alone
And it cutting my heart with its pitiful moan.
" He was cross with the drink, poor fellow,
1t was that, not his baby, that bothered him
| so;
But he swore at.the child, as painting it lay,
! And went back to the clearinghouse over
| the way.
It heard the gate slam and my heart seemed
Like ice in my bosom, and there on my knees
| by the side of the cradle, all shivering, l
| stayed;
1 wanted my mother, 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,
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
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,
| think,
He often stayed that way to wear off the
| drink,
And | know he was sorry for what he had
| done,
For he set great store by our first little SON.
And straight did he come to the cradle-bed
| where
Our baby lay dead, so pretty and fair;
wondered that could have wished him to
When there was drlnkinghous over the
way.
:" 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
leaf,
And said: Twas the drinking had made all
the grief
1.-THE neighbors were kind, and the minister
| came,
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 I thought when my baby was put in the
ground,
And the man with the spade was shaping the
mound,
# somebody only would help me to save
| My husband, who stood by my side at the
| grave.
Z" 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.
| " I've been sick ever since, it can not be long;
| Be pitiful, lady, to him when IN 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 loved him so
| And where | am going, want he should go.
Our baby and will both want him there;
| Don't you think the dear Jesus will hear to
| my prayer?
And please, when I'm gone. ask some one to
pray
For him, at the clearinghouse over the way"
| -M1S. Nttt(flg. in Union Sfquul.