Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1889-06-19
POOR FANNY.
or
A STORY OF HUM BILE HEARTS.

1t was an unlaoky day everybody sal
when Fanny, the upstairs girl at MIR!
Bray's, met Tom Mason and fell in lov
with him. Tom was good workman; tha
is, sometimes; but he had one serious fai
ing, and that was fondness for glass one
IN while with friend.
SO, in spite of all the warnings she receiv
ed from here and there, Fanny would mai
ry Tom. and went away with him in
china-silk dress and bonnet covered wit
roses, looking as pretty as a wild fowe
and in!a delirious state of excitement.
Fanny was very happy, and looked pIet
tier than ever, and all went on well for 1
while. But the man who does not stol
drinking to please the girl he loves will
never stop for his wife. One night Ton
came home very tipsy indeed, and all night
Fanny sat by the fire and cried, and in the
morning they had their first quarrel.
| Tom swore no woman should rule him
and to prove it went on what he called q
spree. He drank for days, spent his weeks
wages, neglected his work, and it being a
time when it was easier to lose place than
to get one, lost his.
He blamed himself, but that did no good
he tried for work in vain, His own money
was always spent from week to week, and
now Fanny drew on her savings. They
went also.
Tom was desperate and drank to make
himself more hopeful. at last, however,
grown too strong for him. He spent his
long ladder afterward, grew dizzy and
fell to the ground and broke his arm.
Groaning and suffering he was taken
home, and bit by bit all the furniture was
sold or pawned. Fanny, now too delicate
to work very hard, took in washing, but
finally the landlord could wait no longer for
his rent and they were turned out of doors,
Poor Tom was taken to hospital, and
Fanny, who was sheltered by a poor friend,
soon found herself the mother of little
baby. When she was we'll enough to 60 to
see Tom, she found that he had lost his
arm-there was no more work for him in
this world. So Fanny went to serVice-a
pale, altered woman. Her wages were all
needed to pay her baby's board and keep
Tom.
She could no longer dress tidily, and her
heart was SO full that she was CROSS and tes-
ty. Then ladies did not like to have their
kitchen haunted by dissipated man, who
came only for money, and who reproached
his wife because she could not earn more.
Poor Fanny left one place for another,
staying long in none. Her baby was often
sick, and she grieved that she could not
have it with her. No one would have
known her for the lively, trim Fanny of the
old times.
One day, however, her husband came
with some news that seemed good. He
had obtained a situation as night watchman,
and he proposed that Fanny should hire a
room and take in laundry work. Then they
could be together-father, mother and little
one. Fanny was glad-oh, so glad! It
seemed beginning of better times, though
the room was but shabby one, in miser-
able tenement house, furnished with old
things from a secondhand store.
The child was brought home. Work was
found, and as she hung the wet clothes on
the long pulley lines Fanny sang the gay
little one.
She gave her husband comfortable meals,
kept the poor place clean, and never gadded
or gossipped when she had work to do, and
for G long while Tom kept sober. He knew
that he must lose bis place if he did not,
and he could do SO little now, he had resolv-
ed to turn q new leaf. But the resolutions
of drunkaTd are of no avail.
When the Christmas Eve came, and
Fanny, proud of the nice pair Of chickens
and the mince pie she had bought for the
Christmas dinner, opened the door to light
him upstsirs as usual, she knew by the un-
even football that he had been drinking
And indeed he had. In all her life she had
never seen him 80 drunk before.
He was simply madman, and when,
unable to restrain her feelings, she re-
preached him, he struck her heavy blow.
This much, neighbor listening on the
stairs, had to tell next morning. After
that there were strange noises and silence.
At dawn police officer, patrolling his
beat, found lying upon the sidewalk, under
the windows of the tenement house in
which Fanny lived, the mangled body of
an infant. 1t WAS plain that it must have
been thrown from an upper room. He
called assistance, and entered the house,
Women locked upon the landings. They
knew the baby for Fanny Wilson's, and
pointed to her door. No one answering
the order to open, it was broken in, and
horrible sight presented itself. On the
floor lay Fanny and her husband with
their throats cut. There was no one to
tell the tale; but there could be no doubt
that Tom Wilson, mad with drink, had
killed both wife and child and then COM
mIated suicide.
So eaded poor Fanny's life. Another
warning to all poor girls who trust to the
promises of drunkard, and hope to re-
form dissipated man by marrying him.
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