St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-02-28
THE WAGES OF SIN,

The wages OF SIN Is 0eatn. NO more
impressive sermon was ever preached in
illustration Of the truthfnlness of this text
than the horrible tragedy at the Astoria
hotel last night. 1t was the tragic ending
of TWO miserable lives made miserable by
the failure of both to fulfill the sacred
duties of the marriage relation. The wife
died by the hand that ought to have been
support to her and the wretched husband
suddenly passed into eternity with his own
blood and that Of his wife Oh his soul.
And yet both of them were in position
to have had a home together which
might have been the resort of love and joy,
of peace and plenty. but without hearts
there is no home-nOthing but shadows and
loneliness gloom that too often brings
with its darkening the horrors which fell
upon two miserable souls last night When
woman shuts out from her heart the love
of the man with whom she has joined her
destiny she may not realize the great sin
she commits or the fearful consequences
which follow, until, as it occurred with
FANNY RICH last night, she reaps the har-
vest of her own sowing. 1.-The wages of
sin are death"
Through all the ages of revolving time
domestic happiness has been the supremest
bliss that man could know. There can be
no spot on earth so dear to him as his
warm but simple home, where he enjoys
sweet communion with her who shares his
pleasures and his heart. How heavily the
shadow must fall then upon that home
when she who ought to be the light of it
oh nd nrf int fba III
to lead life of sin and shame. No wonder
that ''THEo is nearly crazy" as LIZZIE
writes to the fugitive wife. And the reason
for it is to be found in the succeeding
paragraph. ''He may have been hasty at
times, still you were the only woman in the
world to him." These few words tell so
pathetically the causes which led to last
nights horrible tragedy. 1t is all over now
and the curtain has fallen on the bloody
drama. THEo and FANNY are again re-
united. Together their bodies lie in the
morgue, and their souls are in the presence
of the judge who alone can bring the hidden
things of earth to light. 1.-The wages of
sin is DEATH" They have been earned, and
are now paid.
But what must be the feelings of the
poor, miserable wretch who is chiefly re-
sponsible for this tragedy, but who sur
wives to suffer the penalties of his crime in
agOnizing torture ten-fold more narrowing
than the pains Of death. Death would be
light punishment for one who has planted
poison in the cup of human life which did
not cease to rankle until suicides grave
gave it release. There can be no mitigation
offered for the crime of the monster
VINO invades the sanctuary Of home,
breaks the charm and halo of
virtue, and defiles the altar of
of domestic life. He is an enemy of the
human race. And though there may be no
scatfolds or prisons for him, his crime is a
thouSand-fold blacker than murder His
Offense is beyond the reach of pardon. and
is so rank with crime that it invites the
lash Of chastisement from every virtuous
quarter. The outraged husband did not
take the seducer's life because it would
have been no compensation for the wrong
he had suffered at his hands. 1t was more
fitting that he should be left to
the stings of conscience-that remorse
Which must come sooner or later. As his
mind goes back to the days when there was
asweet, bright home at Coblesville, where
wife smiled in happy and untainted
domestic circle, and the husband looked
forth upon the enticing career of manhood
with proud, high heart and unblemished
name, and when his brow had not been
bent before the gaze of men because the
seducer had covered it with the mildew of
shame, and then as he recalls the scene
which was presented to his sight
last night when he looked upon the two
bloody cOrpses on the floor of bed cham
Der in the Astoria hotel, and then remem-
bers that these two lives like flowers
(which flushed when blighting was near
est" were plucked by his own ruthless hand
from the garden of honor, and in SO little
awhile flung away, withered and dead,
then it is that remorse, more just and lib
eral compensation than death, is given to
the survivor of the tragedy as the wages of
his sin.