Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1885-07-30

4
them before he was 49," Then came
tale of shame, learned how jim
Low disappeared from his early home
to all appearances unaccompanied :;
nor did he return, but girl, young
and beautiful, vino had left the peace.
full village about the same time that
he did, dragged her weary steps
1 hom3ward bearing in her arms Child
whose paternity was, even then,
stamped upon its minute features. A
true woman, she never breathed tho
name of her seducer. She hid herself
in the Iowly home of her grandmother,
where she and the babe found but q
| cold welcome. Abandoned, forsaken,
spurned, weary Of work and joyless
existance, Julia Twillis, once oeauti-
! full and admired, sought watery
grave in that river on whose banks
| the false ones VOWS had been uttered.
Picture it, think of it, dissoluts man:
| Lave in it, drink of it, then, if you can
He could, he did When her &C
cusing voice was forever silent, the
| betrayer returned to his native town
and dared to gaze upon that shining
river Did he come there to seek out
his son? No. The unhappy disowned
little creature would have been left 4
| burden upon it's already overburden-
ed grandmother had not one membe
of his wretched fathers family poss
essed the heart of woman. An cid
adopted the ''sinless child of sin"
and for very shame her brother aoled
out a miserable stipend to save his
own flesh and blood from adding one
more to the long list of recording
angels whose life on earth had been
wrecked by him. He even brought
himself to send the boy through col
lege and has, we understand, used
the very small political influence
which he possessed TO place him in
some minor political Office, where che
example of his wyetched father can
have but one effect, and society
in the future will be obliged to recog-
nizo and lament the existence OF an
evidently tied the deacon's tongue,
but the story unfolded itself all to
plainly. It is, perhaps, as well that
the public should not become too
thoroughly acquainted with the dis
gushing details of the early life of
this moral monstrositY, AS [ turned
from the door of the deacon, whose
kind eyes we're I fancied, suffusod
with tears, even the most charitable
will wonder that [ pronounced the
man who had formed the subject Of
our conversation to be Low by nature
as well as by name.
The Old man was quite crimson
with anger while perused the offend
ing document. When [ handed it
back he went on: IT guess Inever
was SO mad in my life, for of course
I saw how I had been taken in
I" There is not syllable of truth
in the whole thingr [ gasped.
"Catch me throwing mud at Jim or
that poor dead girl, as to whom ne
was as Innocent as I was. I'd like to
hear any man abuse Julia, who was
as good girl as any of them, axd
great deal prettier."
L never did see anything in Julia, ;
said my wife; but what you've done,
Jasper, is to let yourself be drawn in
by that good>looking young man
who came here fattering you week
ago.
My wife's usually pretty we'll right
| so l sat down and wrote to Jim, tells
ing him just wat had passed, and [
| then wrote to the editor Of that news
paper and told him that unless he
retracted what he'd stated I'd prose
cute him for libel. Well, @sir!" Here
my host struck the arm Of his chair a
resounding blow. well, sir, that
fellow wrote back as cool as you plea Sc
saying that his correspondent was an
honorable gentleman, and that they
couldn't be responsible for the fact
| that I'd let my tongue run away with
me-"
"Did you prosecuted" I asked.
"Well, no; nv wife said better not,
for Jim thought it something of joke
when he heard the story, and said:
let them laugh who win,' for he was
elected after all. )"
tThen there was no evil results?" [
observed.
ST won't say that" said my old
| friend, ''for Miss Low hasn't forgiven
me to this day, and we're pretty near
neighbors. When young Ray came
here last we asked them in to tea but
SuC WJuIou CVulCs LII 1CI Till CIbilcI.
He and my daughter Maria are pretty
thick, having been children together,
SO it's awkward"
Miss Low won't be able to separate
them, I'll venture to say" I said with
a laugh.
"Well, no." said the deacon, dryIy,
''the young folks mostly get their own
way; but there's worse than that be
hind. I used sometimes to have my
joke about the women talking so
much, and now If I say one word
about their long tongues, Maria, says,
Yes, father, but we don't talk to re-
porters, or her mother says, I've yet
to learn that men are more discreet
than women. I'm sure my long
tongue, as your father calls it, never
| got me into trouble"
I parted from the deacon a sadder
and a wiser man. and if my converse
ton has not been 'Yea, yea, and nay
nav - If has of least hepn liroitod