Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1900-06-04

gone into appalling dissipation but for
the grace Of GOD.
Society today is strewn with the
wrecks of men who, under the north
east storm of domestic infelicity, have
been driven on the rocks. There are
tens of thousands of -drunkards today,
made such by their wives. That is not
poetry; that is prose. But the wrong
is generally in the opposite direction.
You would not have to go far to find a
wife whose life is q perpetual martyr
dom something heavier than a stroke
Of the fist unkind words, staggering
home at midnight and constant nal
treatment, which have left her only a
wreck of what she was on that day
when ia the midst of a brilliant assem-
blage the vows We're taken and full or
gan played the wedding march and the
carriage rolled away with the benedic-
tion of the people. What was the
burning Of Latimer and Ridley at the
stake compared with this? Those men
soon became unconscious in the fire,
but there is a 80 years martyrdom, a
30 years putting to death, yet uneOm-
planning, no bitter words when the roll
licking companions at 2 O'clock in the
morning pitch the husband dead drunk
into the front entry, no bitter words
when wiping from the swollen brow
the blood struck out in a midnight ca
rOusal, bending oyer the battered and
bruised form of him who when he took
her from her fathers home promised
love and kindness and protection, yet
nothing but sympathy and prayers and
forgiveness before they are asked for;
no bitter words when the family Bible
goes for rum and the paWnbrOker's
shop gets the last decent dress. Some
day, desiring to evoke the story Of her
sorrows, you say, "Well, how are you
getting along now?' and, ralIying her
trembling voice and quieting her quiv
ering lip, she says, "Pretty well, I
thank you; pretty we'll" She never
will tell you. In the delirium Of her
last sickness she may tell all the other
secrets of her lifetime, but she will not
tell that. Not until the books Of eter-
nifty are opened on the throne Of judg-
ment will ever be known what she has
suffered
True Charity.
Oh, We who are twisting garland
for the victor, put it on that pale brow.
w
peg linen to make her a shroud, and
she will be carried out in q plain box
with no silver plate to tell her years,
for she has lived thousand years Of
trial and anguish. The gamblers and
sWindiers who destroyed her husband
will not come to the funeral One car
riage will be enough for that funeral
one carria sc to carry the orphans and
the two Christian women who presided
over the obseQuies. But there is a
flash, and the opening of a celestial
door and a shout, Lift up your head, |
We everlasting gate, and let her come |
inr' And Christ Yill step forth and |
say: Come in! Ye suffered with me I
on earth, be glorified with me in heav-
en- What is the highest throne in
heaven? You say, "The throne Of the |
Lord God Almighty and the Lamb"
10 doubt about it. What is the next |
highest throne in heaven? While / |
speak it seems to me it will be the |
throne of the drunkard's wife, if she |
with cheerful patience endured all her I
earthly torture. Heroes and heroines!
i find also in this roll the heroes Of |
Christian charity. We all admire the /
George PeabOdys and the James Len !
OXes Of the earth, who give tens and |
hundreds of thousands of dollars to |
good objects. But 1 am speaking now
of those who, out of their pinched pow
erty, help others-of such men as those
Christian missionaries at the west, |
who proclaim Christ to the people, one
OF them, writing to the secretary in |
New York, saying: 81 thank you for
that $50. Until yesterday we have had !
10 meat iii our house for three months.
We have suffered terribly. My chill
dren have no shoes this winter" And
OF those people who have only a half !
loaf of bread, but give a piece Of it to
others who are hungrier, and of those !
who have only q scuttle of coal, but /
help others to fuel, and of those who
have only dollar in their pocket and |
give % cents to somebody else, and Of |
that father who wears a shabby coat |
and Of that mother who wears q faded
dress. that their children may be well !
appareled. You call them pauperS or
rag amuffins or emf grantS. [ call them
heroes and heroines. You and 1 may
not know where they live OF what their
name is. God knows, and they have
more angels lowering over them than
you and 1 have, and they will have
higher seat in heaven. They may have !
only a cup of cold water to give poor
traveller or may have only picked a
splinter from under the nail Of a
child's finger On have put only two
mites into the treasury, but the Lord
knows them. Considering what they
had, they did more than we have ever
done, and their faded dress will be-
come Il white robe, and the small room
will be an eternal mansion and the old
ha will Iao oxcha n God fo1, q onronat of [