South Branch intelligencer. [volume] (Romney, Va. [W. Va.]) 1830-1896, 1888-03-16

FRIDAY. MARCH l6, 1883.
TOO LATE.
A TRUE sToEY-lTs PERsUAL SHOULD
MAKE ue MORE CHARITABLE.

A TRUE sToEY-lTs PERsUAL SHOULD
MAKE u. MORE CHARITABLE.
Mamma, Mammal walled a ii
ny. feeble voice, STUN take baby.
Ii was lonely tenement room,
utterly bare Of any thing like cosy
homo comfort. A d:lapidated bed
stead and furnishings stood in one
corner, q rusty stove. basket with
q few lonesome Jumps of fuel III it
u ricke'y old chair with one broken
rocker were the principal iurni-
ture.
In this chair little girl, whose
white face sbo~ed plainly the eff
ects OF close air and semi-starva.
ton, eat in it rocking IA far as the
broken rocker would allow, and
grooming dismal little ditty in
time to her fast falling tears.
A baby lay back In her arms, q
golden haired little creature with
great blue eyes, which under hap
pier circumstances-tresh air,
warmth ANA proper food-wculd
have been beautiful, but now its
pincbed face, staring eyes and wan
deathly look were enough to melt
a heart of stone TO pity
The child mOaned on its pitiful
wall for, mamma, mamma and
the little girl sang on amid her
tears, while the otherwise deathly
quiet OF the room was broken by
an occasional footstep stumbling
up or down the long stail case with
out, varied by sounds of quarreling
children in the other rooms,
sounds of blows and screams of
pain, for the illsmel!ing tenement
house was swarming with ocu-
pants of all ages and all degrees
CT misery.
Once a drunken man stumbled
along the narrow passage swear
ing and curs:ng. and weeping lit.
tic Jane clasped the wailing baby
closer to her beating heart, but
she had taken the precaution to
turn the key IN the rusty lock. and
alter trying the door and giving 1t
a kick shufiled on to his own
wretohed room.
; Meantime the mother rubbed
away on a washing she was doing
in IL wealthy home on Beacon
street. with heart as heavy as
! lead while tie tears stole down her
cheeks and mingled with the foam
Of the sud-.
She had stayed at her home for
two whole days already, days that
meant little short Of starvation
for the little family; but the babe
was SO sick she could not resist its
: pitiful pleadings for her care
To>day, However her work was
in place she we'll knew her fall
ure 10 appear would cause the GER
tain loss Of future work and she
tore herself away from the baby
though it strained her very heart
strings to do so.
Mrs. Chauncey had 10 inteutions
of being hard woman, and would
have been surprised had anyone
ventured to tell her she vas 90,
but she was certainly nnsympathet
ic. The sorrows of the poor were
nothing TO ber, and in her employ.
ment OF them. if one failed in any
particular, she discharged them
and filled the vacant place with
an other as uncoucerned.y as she
would supply IA missing cog in any
Of her kitchen machinery.
There was sad history preced-
ing this chapter in the wasIerwo.
mans experience
She had once been happy bride
giving her heart aud hand with
the blind devotion with which wo-
man bestows upon the man Of her
choice; long vista of happy years
stretched out before her il, anticl-
patton, III which husband, home,
and little children were the central
fgures.
True she knew that her husband
occasionally accepted treat from
bis friends, Just one glass snce in
a while, but she thought nothing.
Compared with many others he
was a model of temperance and
good principles. She did not
know of the inherited taste which
lay lurking in mis- nature, waiting
for supply OF liquid fire to warm
it into never dying flame bet she
found il out afterward, when the
husband no longer waited for "a
treat but stepped into the ever
ready saloon ADD supplied the era
wing which was beginning to dom
mate him
IL was when little Jane was born
that he came home DRUNK Tor the
first time in consequence of the
absurd custom OF celebrating such
events by unlimited treating, and
the wife suffered keener anguish
than that OF the birth II roes, when
he stumbled into her presence in
! his maudlin condition.