St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1885-12-26


have been driven on the rocks. There are
tens Of thousands of drunkards in this
country to-day made such by their wives.
That is not poetry; that is prose.
But the wrong is generally in the oppo-
site direction. You would not have to go
far to find wife who is perpetual mar
tyr. Something heavier than the stroke
of the fist, unkind words; staggering home
at midnight and constant maltreatment,
which have left her only q wreck of what
she was ON that day when, in the midst
of brilliant assemblage, the vows were
taken and full organ played the wedding
march, and the carriage rolled away with
the benediction of the people. What was
the burning of Latimer and Ridley at the
stake compared with this? Those men
soon became unconscious in the fire, but
here is a fifty years. martyrdom, fifty
years. putting to- death, yet uncom-
planning. No bitter words when the roll
licking companions, at two O'Clock in the
morning, pitch the husband dead drunk
into the front entry. No bitter words when
swiping from the swollen brow the blood
struck out in midnight carousal; bend
ing over the battered and bruised
form of him who, when he took
her from her fathers home, promised
love and kindness and protection, yet
nothing but sympathy and prayers and
forgiveness, before they are asked for. No
bitter words when the family Bible goes
for rum, and the pawnbroker's shop gets
the last decent dress. Some day. desiring to
evoke the story of her sorrows, you say:
swell, how are you getting along now:"
And, rallying her trembling voice and
quieting her quivering lip, she says;
"Pretty well, ! thank you, pretty we'll"
She.never will tell you In the delirium of
her last sickness she may tell all the Sc
crets Of her lifetime, but she win nos do
that. Not until the books Of eternity are
opened ON the throne of judgment will
ever be known what she has suffered.
On We who are twisting garland for the
victor, put it on that pale browi When she
is dead the ncighbors will beg linen to
make her a shroud, and she win be carried
out in plain box, with no silver plate to
tell her years, for she has lived thousand
years Of trials and anguish. The gam
blers, the swindlers who destroyed her
husband, will not come to the funeral.
One carriage win be enough for that
funeral, one carriage to carry the Or
phans and the two Christian swoInon VINO
presided over the obsequies; but there is
fash, and the opening of a celestial door,
and a shout: cliff up your heads, We ever
lasting gates, and let her come in:"
and Christ viii step forth and say, "Come
in; We suffered with me on earth, be glori-
fed with me in Heaven What is the
highest throne in Heaven? The throne OF
the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb. No
doubt about it. What is the next highest
throne in Heaven? While speak it seems
to me that it will be throne of the drunk
ards wife, if she with cheerful patience
endure all her earthly torture. Heroes and
heroines!
I find also in this roll the heroes Of Chris
tian charity. We all admire the George
Peabodys and the James Lenoxes of the
earth, who gave tens and hundreds and
thousands of dollars to good objects. But
/ am speaking this morning of those who
out of their pinched poverty help others
of such men as those Christian missionar-
les at the West, who are living on $3.50
year that they may proclaim Christ to the
people. One of them writing to the Secre-
tary, in New York, says: II thank you
for that $50 Until yesterday we have had
no meat in our house for three months.
We have suffered terribly. My children
have no shoes this winter" l am speak
ing of those people who have only a half
loaf of bread, but give piece of it to
others who are hungry; and Of those who
have only scuttle of coal, but help others
to fuel; and of those who have only a dol
lar in their pocket and give twenty five
cents to somebody else: and of that
father who wears a shabby
coat, and of that mother who wears fad
ed dress, that their children may be well
appmeled. You call them paupers, or
ragamuffins, or immigrants. Z call them
heroes and heroines. You and may not
know where they live or what their name
is; God knows, and they have more angels
lowering over them than you and have,
and they will have higher seat in
Heaven.
They have had only cup of cold water
to give poor traveller, or may have only,
picked q splinter from under the nail of a
,child's finger, or put only two mites into
the treasury, but the Lord knows them.
Considering what they had, they did
more than we havefever done, and their
faded dress will become white robe, and
the small room win De an eternal mansion,
and the old hat will be coronet of VIC
tory, and all the applause of Earth, and
all the shouting of Heaven, will be
drowned out when God rises up to give his
reward to those humble workers in his
kingdom, and TO say to them: 'sWell done,
good and faithful servants 70 You have
all seen or heard of the ruin of Melrose
Abbey. suppose in some respects the
most exquisite ruin on Earth, and yet,
looking on it was not so impressed-you
may set it down to bad taste, but I. was
not SO deeply stirred-as / was at