Harper's New Monthly Magazine, No. XXIII.—April, 1852.—Vol. IV.: NoneVarious
General
Harper's New Monthly Magazine, No. XXIII.—April, 1852.—Vol. IV.: None
Various
American literature -- Periodicals; Civilization -- Periodicals; Culture -- Periodicals
Of the second class I call to mind, with especial pleasure, one little
household. It was a mother and her son. Her means of support, a mangle,
stood in the little room in which she had lived since she had raised
herself up again. It was dinner-time. A table, neatly covered for two
persons, stood in the room, and upon the iron stand before the fire was
placed a dish of mashed potatoes, nicely browned, ready to be set on the
table. The mother was waiting for her son, and the dinner was waiting
for him. He was the organ-blower in the church during divine service,
and he returned while I was still there. He was well dressed, but was a
little, weakly man, and squinted; the mother's eyes, however, regarded
him with love. This son was her only one, and her all. And he, to whom
mother Nature had acted as a step-mother, had a noble mother's heart to
warm himself with, which prepared for him an excellent home, a
well-covered table, and a comfortable bed. That poor little home was not
without its wealth.
As belonging to the third and highest class, I must mention two
families, both of them shoe-makers, and both of them inhabiting cellars.
The one family consisted of old, the other of young people. The old
shoemaker had to maintain his wife, who was lame and sick, from a fall
in the street, and a daughter. The young one had a young wife, and five
little children to provide for; but work was scanty and the mouths many.
At this house, also, it was dinner-time, and I saw upon the table
nothing but potatoes. The children were clean, and had remarkably
agreeable faces; but--they were pale; so was also the father of the
family. The young and pretty, but very pale mother said, "Since I have
come into this room I have never been well, and this I know--I shall not
live long?" Her eyes filled with tears; and it was plain enough to see
that this really delicate constitution could not long sustain the
effects of the cold damp room, into which no sunbeam entered. These two
families, of the same trade, and alike poor, had become friends in need.
When one of the fathers of the family wanted work, and was informed by
the Home-missionary who visited them that the other had it, the
intelligence seemed a consolation to him. Gladdening sight of human
sympathy, which keeps the head erect and the heart sound under the
depressing struggle against competition! But little gladdening to me
would have been the sight of these families in their cellar-homes, had I
not at the same time been aware of the increase of those "Model
Lodging-houses," which may be met with in many parts of England, and
which will remove these inhabitants of cellars, they who sit in
darkness, into the blessing of the light of life--which will provide
worthy dwellings for worthy people.
BEE-HIVES.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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