Year: 1869

Done on the shortest notice, and in manner


that WILDE satisfactory to all.


but only Omnipotence can, whisper
thunder


And so,. too, when strolling
through the city in the hush of
midnight, one comes upon some
abode of poverty, and hears, coming
he knows not whence, moan as
one in agony, and cannot tell wheth-
er it be the signing Of the wind or
an infants wall, and follows it up
until his anxious ear detects the
throb Of human anguish in the
sound-just there, in that still mid
night hour, that desolate moan cuts
to his heart more keenly than would
the destruction Involved in some
accident whose roar might vie with
the cataract's thunder.


remember a case in point;
One dark cold nigh, when passing
along Cherry street, we heard q
faint wall, which seemed to come
down from the sky. We paused
and listened. Family the sound
foated out upon the air, far above
our head ;but oh, how in that desc
late hour it cut us to the heart for,
feebly as the moan filtered down to
us through the murky air, it was
sufficient to give warning of pain
and helplessness, and perhaps of
Fastening death. ~,


We were in front of many-sto-
ried tenant house; and we felt Ger
tain that somewhere in its upper
regions scene of bitter misery was
awaiting discovery and relief.
Entering the hall, we began to as
cend the stairs, and then the sound
was lost. But we knew we should
find it again AS we were ascend
ing the second fight of stairs man
rushed past on his way down. Up,
and up, and up we went, until at
last we caught the wall again, and
knew it must come from lungs newly
arrived in this world.


On reaching the fifth story Tor
f1oor) of the house we heard the
wall issuing from room, the door
of which was open, and in which q
candle, stuck in the nose of a bottle
which stood on the floor, was burn
ing. -aa.


On entering the room we by the
dim light saw a woman lying on the
floor, covered with an old quilt. On
examination we found that she was
insensible, and that by her side was
lying wailing babe but few hours
old; and it was it's voice that we had
heard floating out upon the air
through the open window.


We may as well tell this story to
the end, right here:


Taking up the candle, and holding
it so as to throw the light into
different parts of the room, we dis
covered two girls, one about twelve
and the other about six years old
huddling undera piece of old carpet
in one corner.


On asking them what they were
doing there, the eldest said they
had got under the carpet on hearing
somebody coming, because they
had no clothes.


They were in fact both naked
their father, as we learned, having
but few minutes before our arrival
stripped their clothes off their bod
les and gone out to sell or pawr
them for rum and he was probably
the man that we had met rushing
down the stairs. We also Learned
that their mother had expostulatee
with their father for thus strippin.
them of their clothes, whereupol
he had kicked her on the head a
she lay helpless On the floor, ant
then had gone off, leaving her in
sensible.


Assistance was obtained for th,
woman from the Howard Mission
and clothes were brought from
thence for the children; after which
they were taken to the Mission fol
protection; because, if they ha6
been left where their father could
have got at them, he would have
again stripped them naked, and agair
sold their clothes to get the means
to buy rum.


The youngest of those two girl
had to be carried to the Mission, a
she was so weakened by starvation
that she could not even walk dowi
one flight of stairs.


AS soon as the mother got wei
enough to crawl around, she insist
ed on having the children bacl
again at home; and one day, lock
ing the emaciated little six-year-o oil
girl in the room with the baby
while she went out on a drunken
spree, the child's clothes caugh
fire, and she was burned to death
and the babe was also so badly
burned that happily it, too, died il
a few days.


The miserable parents held on te
the other daughter, to raise her Rll
for sale in the shambles oflicentiouS
ness; and they all finally disappear
ed from the observation of thos,
who took an interest in the child
welfare; being, alone. with count
less others, first. swept over tn
cataract of metropolitan vice, ant
then swallowed; up in the grea
malstrom of obstruction, which
everlastingly stretches its swirlins
gorge for victims conveniently be
low. "The cataract ofmetropolital
vice" is not too strong an expires
sion to indicate the actual condition
and goings- on of New York as tt
its dark or shady side-its vice an,
crime, and poverty, and woe: it