Plymouth church and its pastor,: or, Henry Ward Beecher and his accusers .../ Compiled by J. E. Doyle.

HER FIRST CHILlD.
Squandering, his money like a prodigal, he suddenly put his
wife illto the hiInlmblest quarters, where, left mostly to lierself, she
dwelt in bitterness of spirit, aggravated from time to time by
learning of his ordering bh skets of cham)tpagne, and drinkiln
lhimself drunk in the company of * * * * * *
Sometimes, withi uncommion courage, tlroigll rain and sleet,
half clad and shivering, she wotild ti'rck llim to his dens, and
by the energy of her sp)irit compel himii to return. At other
times, all night long slhe would watch at the window, waitillng for
his footsteps, until she heard then languidly shluffling aloiing the
pavement withi the staggering reel of a drunken man, ili the
,shameless hours of the morning.
During all this tinie, she passionately prayed Ileaven to give
her the heart of her husband, but He;aveni, decreeing otherwise,
withheld it from her, and for her good.
In fifteen months after lher mnaririage, while living in a little
low frame house in Chicago, in tlhe dead of Winter, with icicles
clinging to her bedpost, and attended only by her half drunken
husband, she brought forlth in almost mortal atgony ]her first
born child. Ini her ensuing, helplessness, she became an object
of pity to a next door neigllb,,)r whlo, with a kitndness wlicli tihe
suLfferer's unliomelike homte (lid not afford, brought her daLy by
day somie nourishingl dish. This same ministerilig, hand would
then wrap the br;be in a blanket, and take it to a happier
mother in the near neighborhood, who was at the same time
nuirsing a nevw bori sonI. Iii thiis way Victoria ad hler cllildtllemtselves both childrteii-were cared for with minigled gentleness and neglect. -
At the end of six days the little invalid attempted to rise and
put her sick room in order, when she was t"ken with delirium,
during which her mother visited her just in time to save her
life.
On her recovery, and after a visit to her father's house, she
returned to her own, to be horror struck at discovering that
her bed had been occupied the nii,ht befobre by her husband in
company with a wanton of the streets, ald that the room was
littered with the remains of their drunken feast.
"The biographer describes the desertion of the chlild-wife by
the husband for an entire month, her visit to a fiashionable
boarding house, vlwhere r. W. was living with a female ill tlhe
relation of husband and wife, her exposure of him, and the expulsion of the Dr. and his mistress from the house in disgrace.
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