Graham's Magazine Vol XXXII. No. 3. March 1848Various
General
Graham's Magazine Vol XXXII. No. 3. March 1848
Various
Literature -- Periodicals; Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals
famine was never known, do we at this moment hear thy groans, and
listen to tales of suffering that to us seem almost incredible. In the
midst of these chilling narratives, our eyes fall on an appeal to the
English nation, that appears in what it is the fashion of some to term
the first journal of Europe(!) in behalf of thy suffering people. A
worthy appeal to the charity of England seldom fails; but it seems to
us that one sentiment of this might have been altered, if not spared.
The English are asked to be "_forgetful_ of the past," and to come
forward to the relief of their suffering fellow-subjects. We should
have written "_mindful_ of the past," in its stead. We say this in
charity, as well as in truth. We come of English blood, and if we
claim to share in all the ancient renown of that warlike and
enlightened people, we are equally bound to share in the reproaches
that original misgovernment has inflicted on thee. In this latter
sense, then, thou hast a right to our sympathies, and they are not
withheld.
As has been already said, we now advance the time eight-and-forty
hours, and again transfer the scene to that room in the hospital which
was occupied by Spike. The approaches of death, during the interval
just named, had been slow but certain. The surgeons had announced that
the wounded man could not possibly survive the coming night; and he
himself had been made sensible that his end was near. It is scarcely
necessary to add that Stephen Spike, conscious of his vigor and
strength, in command of his brig, and bent on the pursuits of worldly
gains, or of personal gratification, was a very different person from
him who now lay stretched on his pallet in the hospital of Key West, a
dying man. By the side of his bed still sat his strange nurse, less
peculiar in appearance, however, than when last seen by the reader.
Rose Budd had been ministering to the ungainly externals of Jack Tier.
She now wore a cap, thus concealing the short, gray bristles of hair,
and lending to her countenance a little of that softness which is a
requisite of female character. Some attention had also been paid to
the rest of her attire; and Jack was, altogether, less repulsive in
her exterior than when, unaided, she had attempted to resume the
proper garb of her sex. Use and association, too, had contributed a
little to revive her woman's nature, if we may so express it, and she
had begun, in particular, to feel the sort of interest in her patient
which we all come in time to entertain toward any object of our
especial care. We do not mean that Jack had absolutely ever ceased to
love her husband; strange as it may seem, such had not literally been
the case; on the contrary, her interest in him and in his welfare had
never ceased, even while she saw his vices and detested his crimes;
but all we wish to say here is, that she was getting, in addition to
the long-enduring feelings of a wife, some of the interest of a nurse.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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