The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1893-01-28
w. g..
Sad 4

IHe uaily ana WeeklJ a
kaleidoscope of everyday life, as tran.
spiringaround us. How grotesquely pathetic
events are blended in its columns? The late
hanging of the four negroes at Chestertown
cally described by the reporters was
scene which will linger long in the mind Of
every thoughtful person. Whatsoever We
SOW the same shall We reap is not more
true of individuals than of nations. What
were these poor, ragged, shiveriug wretches.
dangling from the ropes end on that bitter
January morning. but the legitimate
results of cruelty, ignorance and neglect?
During the long years of slavery, ignorance
and brutality were cultivated in the slave,
while his mental and spiritual nature was
trodden down by its iron heell Yet these
men were only representatives of a class!
Descendants of a race of canuiblls, so the
reporters said, as if that were their fault
instead OF misfortune. Among these the
rum traffic is doing it's work, putting the
finishing touches upon natures already
bebased, until the image of the Creator is
almost lost. Why then give so largely in
support of foreign missions, when such a
wide field remains at home uucultivated?
Only last year the writer of this article was
visiting in southern town near which
stands noted Theological seminary. 1t
seemed that by far the largest part of the
students were preparing for missionary
work! To be sent by the board to China as
missionaries, seemed to them, the most
desirable thing which could happen 10
| them in this life. Yet from the lofty
towers of the seminary they could look
down upon poverty most dire, ignorance
most dense, wickedness most appalling, in
the town below, yet it seemed to me they
saw it not, the specialized gaze of each
young mystic was fixed upon the wavy
| blue line in The E ist, which told where the
waves of the Atlantic. wera breaking upon
the shore, and far far beyond lay the land
of their labors and their dreams. Scarcely
has this dreadful picture ceased to haunt
our waking thoughts and even to intrude
upon our dreams, when another is flashed
upon the canvas by the lightning power of
the press! Tis that of an humble home.
where father comes each eve from homely
healthy toll, to mingle few brief hours
with wife and children, then away in the
gray dawn, to work again, that all of that
little circle may be sheltered, clothed and
fed. There is a girl bride and loyal young
husband of two weeks, he too goes daily to
his appointed task with all the hope and
gaiety of youth and love, all this in the
morning, at night-the father a bleed ing
corpse, tho mother lying shot and moaning
her life out in the hospital, and near her
the daughter, also shot, wounded and suf-
fering terrible fortunes, and by her side sits
young husband half crazed with grief
Aud this terrible change from happiness to
gloom and misery, has been wrought by
the hand of a demon in human form.
A finished graduate from the government
training schools, established and main tanned
under government protection in every
town, city and hamlet of the Union, with
few exceptions. The eldest son, idle and
dissipated, denied money with which to
crafty his appetite for rum, reproached for
his idleness and worthlessness, resolves
upon revenge, and this is the result.
Then fellows another picture, more
| touching and pathetic than either of the
preceding.
y dwelling in garnet. it could scarcely
be called home, yet here lived and strug,
gled and dreamed a brave young spirit.
Here he came each Saturday night with his
weeks wages, cheerfully giving the toll of
| his young life to help support his mother, a
young half brother. and ofttmes a worth
less stepfather. Sleeping on bed of rags
in corner, partaking of scanty fare, he
son of gallant officer in the late war,
m ember of a literary society, and better yet
more full of promise-a leading mem Der
of Total Abstinence Society.
But the mother was beer drinker, thus
| this poverty and privation which their
united efforts might have otherwise over
| come. One evening after hard days toll
at the wash tub, feeling weary and de-
| pressed, she went into a neighbours and
spent an hour over the social beer mug,
then went home with an unsteady step and
clouded brain to prepare her boys supper.
1t was not ready when he came and this
vexed him. No doubt her condition ex.
planned to him why his supper was not
ready, and this may have vexed him more.
He upbraided her tor neglecting to care for
him while he toiled so willingly and un
ceasingly for her. In her drunken rage she
flew at him and stabbed him to the heart,
with the knife she held in her hand.
Yet there are people who consider them
selves highly moral and deeply spiritual,
who will look you coldly in the eye and tell
| you that they never felt the necessity of
joining temperance society. DON'T see
| any use use in making fuss about
nothing, &c.