Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1892-09-29
COLUMN.
EDITED BY JONESBORO w. C. 7. U.
MRS. KATE B. SIMPSON, Superintendent
of Press Work.
A SCENE.

A TOUCHING SCENE.
81 was sitting at my breakfast table
one Sabbath morning, when | was call
ed to my door by the ring of the bell.
There stood a boy about IA years of
age, poorly clad but tidied up as best
he could. He wasleaning upon crutches,
one leg off at the knee. In a voice
trembling with emotion and tears cours-
ing down his manly cheeks, he said,
Mr.. Hoagland, | am Freddy Brown. |
have come to see if you will 60 to the
Jail and talk and pray with my father;
he is to be hung tomorrow for the mur
der of my mother. My father was a
good man but whisky did it. l have
three little sisters, younger than myself;
we are very, very poor and have no
friends; we live in a back alley in a
dark and dingy Don do the best
can to support my sisters by selling
papers, blacking boots and odd jobs,
but, Mr.. Hoaglad, we are awfully poor;
will you come and be with us when
fathers body is brought homer The
Governor says we may have his body
after he is hung was deeply moved
to pity, l promised and made haste to
the Jail where | found this father.
He acknowledged that he must have
murdered his wife, for the circumstances
pointed that way, but he had not the
slightest remembrance of the deed; he
said he was craZed with drink, or he
never would have committed the crime:
he said, my wife was q good woman
and a faithful mother to my little chill
dren; never did | dream that my hand
could be guilty of such a crime The
man could face the penalty of the law
bravely for his deed, but he broke down
and cried as if his heart would break
when he thought of leaving his children
in a destitute and friendless condition.
l read and prayed with him and left
him to his fate.
The next morning | made my way to
the miserable quarters of these children.
l found three little girls upon a bed of
straw in one corner of the room; they
were clad in rags; they were beautiful
girls, had they had the proper care.
They were expecting the body of their
dead father, and between their cries
and their sobs they would say, Papa
was good but whisky did it. In a little
time two strong officers came bearing
the body of the dead father in a rude
pine box; they sat it down on two
rickety old stools. The cries of the
children were SO heartrending that they
could not endure it and made haste out
of the room leaving me alone with this
terrible scene.
In a moment the manly boy nerved
himself and said, Come sisters, kiss
papa's face before it is cold" They
gathered about his face smotnered il
down with kisses and between their sobs
they cried out, Papa was good but
whisky did it, Papa was good but
whisky did it, raised my heart to
God and said, % God, did l fight to save
a country that would derive a revenue
from a traffic that would make one
scene like this possible! In my heart
said, in the whole history of this ac-
cursed traffic there has not been enough
revenue derived to pay for one such
scene as this. The wife and mother
murdered, the father hung, the children
outraged, a home destroyed Extract
from a speech by Mrs. Cougar.