People's party paper. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1891-1898, 1897-11-12

pale and i'll, dying, upon bed of
straw, unattended by friend or physi-
cian-a yourg mother and deserted
wife. In her arms she presses to her
sunken bosoms tiny being, her child
and his. The pain of the forsaken
wife gives place for one short moment
to the joy of motherhood, when she
folds her little darling once more in a
holding it toward the multitude who
have learned, alas! too late, of the
tragedy being enacted in their midst,
she cries:
legacy to the world-my child. Oh,
would that it could go with me to yon
Heaven-land, whose gates even now
open for me But nay, let it remain
Earth needs it, Heaven can spare it
Take it, good people, care for and
nurture it, and mayhap in it's life may
come to pass the rosy dreams of its
mothers short youth Cherish it, and
in the years to come tell it of it's father,
of his treachery, of his desertion when
fortune smiled upon him of the wife
who chung to him in adversely and led
him to the pathway to riches, honor
and glory; who by her charms won
back for him DESERVING friends and
feeting power. Warn it-oh though
1 forgive-warn my child, and protect
| it from the dishonor all heir who fall
victims to his perfdy. Love it-for my
| sake-and at yonder throne a mother
shall spend-eternity pleading for
you"
As the years and seasons came and
went, the little orphan grew and
thrived but poorly. Kind friends and
neighbors gave it their devotion and
care, but there was lacking the tender
ness of parental love. The aid of the
father was sought, but he denied his
parentage, vowed it was not his child
and repudiated the marriage vow. He
cried from the housetops that the dead
mother had been no wife; that the
offspring was illegitimate that it was
child of sin, low and degraded by
heredity; that it inherited from it's
mother the faint of every evil instinct,
and the walls of the prison yearned for
it's mature development He disowned
| it, spurned it with his feet when laid
there by kind people who sought for it
his compassion.
But time passed, as time will, and the
baby thrived, as babies sometimes do.
With the passing years its growth be-
came even phenomenal, it's beauty and
attractiveness irresistible, its charms
more and more apparent Its friends
increased, and ere the dawn of 1896 it
had grown to be the idol of the hour.
Then the father, seeing thesa things,
sought pardon for his wrongs. But,
true to the dying mothers Injunction,
the child bad been told of it's mothers
fate and of its fathers brutal reception
of the wait, and the guile that ruined
the mother had no effect upon the
child. Failing in this appeal to the
daughter to return to his fatal embrace,
the unnatural father devised plot by
which he thought to yet win to his
service in his struggle for fame aud
power the charms and Influences OF his
popular child. Selecting from the
company of courtiers who did service
in the comupt offices of his court some
of the handsomest, who were of the
least prominT nee in service to him, and
suynmonlng to his aid all the vast
wealth of his friends, he prepared a
grand fete at which these chosen court
iers should appear, arrayed in silvery
eaz.i ard 5;~se,N:-eel me-, 81 bc>c7 ~,s-
aud gallant Knights Of Virtue, and to
which his offspring, with the assistance
of traitors among those who were once
her friends should be enticed Twas
there another wedding was to be ar
ranged, but in the event his child
should suspect the treachery and with
stand the wiles of his gDded courtiers,
she was to be forciblv abducted, and
torn from the arms of her friends.
The plans were cunningly laid and
everything made ready for the great
event Only those loval to her IA
ther's cause were invited, but among
the people were many yet true, who
remembered the dying mothers plea
aud who resolved to attend their fair
charge, lest treachery bring disaster to
her brilliant career. Notable among
these was band Of 1903 brave men and
true, whose Spsrtan-like courage in
the trying time that followed won for
them never cying renown.
on memorable midsummer day of
1896 the event TRANSFERRED In a bril-
liantly lighted hall. surrounded by the
gilded gallantry of her fathers courts,
the fairest DAUGHTER of the Nineteenth
cen fury surveyed the mighty throng at
her feet and smiled in innocent joy
over her seeming triumph. Yet the
sinister CLEAN of the foe lurked in
smiling eY es, and when the handsomest
and most brilliant of the disguised
nights proposed in tones trem bling
with assumed tenderness that the
grand event could come to no fitting
end without q marriage feast, with
herself aa bride, she turned to her
friends for counsel. There were many
who bid her hasten the wedding. and
it seemed for time thst the tragedy
of twenty years past would be repeat
ed, when out of the multitude OF hypo-
critics and traitors there arose that
brave 1903 and in thunder tones they
denounced the promoters of the 1niquit-
GUS deception, and threw their prose-
cution about the innocent victim of it
all A great trmult ensued. The
lights were turned out and in the
darkness traps were sprung and the
last card of the infamous game was
Decentralization Standing oyally |
by their charge, that Spartan band ed