The Trials of the Soldier's Wife: A Tale of the Second American RevolutionAbrams, Alex. St. Clair (Alexander St. Clair)
History
The Trials of the Soldier's Wife: A Tale of the Second American Revolution
Abrams, Alex. St. Clair (Alexander St. Clair)
Confederate States of America -- Fiction; United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Fiction
Any one knowing where Mrs. Eva Wentworth and her two
children reside, will be liberally rewarded, by addressing
the undersigned at this place. Mrs. Wentworth is a refugee
from New Orleans, and the wife of a gallant soldier, now a
prisoner of war.
Jackson,----1862. H. SHACKLEFORD.
It was too late. Extensively published as it was, Mrs. Wentworth never
saw it. Her hardships and trials had increased ten-fold; she was fast
drifting before the storm, with breakers before, threatening to wreck
and sink into the grave the wife and children of Alfred Wentworth.
CHAPTER SIXTEENTH.
MR. ELDER DEMANDS HIS RENT.--NOTICE TO QUIT.
The money received by Mrs. Wentworth from Mr. Swartz, proved but a
temporary relief for her children and herself. A fatal day was fast
arriving, and she knew not how to avert the impending storm. By a
great deal of labor and deprivation she had heretofore succeeded in
paying the rent of the room she occupied, although Mr. Elder had twice
advanced the price. Now there was no hope of her being able to obtain
a sufficient sum of money to meet the demand of that gentleman, who
would call on her the following day in person, did she not call at his
office and settle for at least one months rent in advance. The month
for which she had paid expired in three days, and she was apprehensive
of being turned out, unless she could collect sufficient money to pay
him. She knew not where to find the means. The room was stripped bare
of furniture to supply the calls of nature; nothing but a mattress in
one corner of the apartment, and a few cooking utensils remained. She
labored day and night, to procure work, but all her efforts were
unavailing. It appeared to her as if the Almighty had forsaken herself
and children, and had left them to perish through want.
It cannot be that God would place his image on earth, and willingly
leave them to perish from destitution. Many have been known to die of
starvation, and the tales of wretchedness and woe with which the
public ear is often filled attest the fact. Squalid forms and
threadbare garments are seen, alas! too often in this civilised world,
and the grave of the pauper is often opened to receive some unhappy
mortal, whose life had been one scene of suffering and want.
Philanthropy shudders and Christianity believes it to be a punishment,
administered by the hand of God; that the haggard cause of the starved
creature, who has thus miserably died, once contained the spirit of a
mortal undergoing the penalty of Him, who judges mankind on high, and
expiating through his heart-rending bodily agony, crimes committed in
by-gone days.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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