A TOUCHING INCIDENT

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · May 19, 1881

A TOUCHING INCIDENT.

GOVERNOR ST. JOHN, the temperance governor of Kansas, in a speech in an Eastern city, recently related the following touching story:—

"A heart-broken woman came into his office with a babe in her arms to beg the pardon of her husband, who was under sentence of ten years' imprisonment in the penitentiary for homicide. She showed papers recommending the pardon from the judge who tried the man, the prosecuting attorney, and other prominent men. After closely examining the papers he said, 'If I were to consult my personal feelings, I should gladly let your husband go, but I am bound by my official duty, and that forbids it.' The woman fell at his feet in a paroxysm of weeping. 'Then hear me,' she cried, 'till I tell you how he came to be where he is. We were married seven years ago; we were married seven years ago; we went to a town (mentioning the place), and there in our little village we were happy. My husband was sober, industrious, and thrifty. By great exertion and self-denial we finally got our home paid for. But in an evil day the State licensed a saloon, and let it plant itself right between my husband's shop and our house. He was prospering so well that he could leave his business in other hands and lose an hour or two without feeling it. He was solicited to enter this saloon, and weakly yielded. Hour after hour he spent there, playing cards. One day he became embroiled in a drunken quarrel, and, fired by drink, struck a man and killed him. He was tried and sent to the penitentiary for ten years. I had nothing to live on. By and by the sheriff turned us out of our comfortable home into a rough shanty, neither lathed nor plastered. The cold wind came in through the walls and ceiling. My oldest boy took sick and died. Then little Tommy, my next, fell sick and died. Now this babe in my arms is sick, and I have nowhere to take it. The State licensed that saloon; the State murdered my children; and now in God's name I want you to set my husband free.' I said I would—and I did."