Affecting Evidence of German Losses.

Cromwell Argus, Volume III, Issue 117, 6 February 1872, Page 6

Affecting Evidence of German Losses.

The following letter, giving an example of family bereavements through the German wars, is taken from an English paper : A few days ago 1 had occasion to call upon a gentleman residing in the immediate vicinity of Barmen. He was temporarily absent when I called, and I was received by a young lady in deep mourning, whose thin, halftransparent face bore the unmistakeable mark of threatening early death. I had called for some special information on the subject of the relief of the poor in Elberfield and Earmen. As the young lady was unable to give me the papers referring to the matter, T was shown into a room, there to await the return of the master of the house. There my eyes fell on a large family Bible that lay on a side-table ; T could not resist the temptation to read. I found that the gentleman whose arrival I was awaiting there had had a family of eight children—four sons and four daughters ; and that bis wife had died some twenty years ago, and all the daughters had died in their childhood. Of the sons, the eldest had fallen at Dnppel, in the Danish war of ISO 4. Following the entry of his death, his fathers hand had traced the words—"Woe is unto me ! —the pride of my house is laid low, and the prop of my old age bath been taken away !" In 18(><5, two sons, the one an officer and the other a soldier, in the Prussian army, had met their death for King and

Fatherland, one at Gitshin, the oth( Jr. B Koniginhof. Here, again, the joint aff of the father's bereavement was followe ■ a few words of intensest grief, but also: resignation :—" Lord, thy hand is ]fjj upon me. My misery is more than ] bear ; yet, Thy will be done—Thou k&'-V best." Then came the entry of the mar ji w n of the youngest son, on Sunday, 17th w fnte 1870, with the broken young rose wh< „!-.«+ liad seen : there could be no doubt as she told me her father would soon hel'Mti And then came the final entry : —" My( —the youngest, the last, the best-belov, all my sons ! —died on the 21st of wounds received in the accursed Mars-la-Tour. The Lord hath givenLord hath taken away: Praised be the i„^ ftft . of the Lord." But the entry was blurred 2Eqxl scarcely legible, bearing witness that hov, g| n willing and stout the spirit had been to 191 | the flesh had given way. Sy| I closed the book with a feeling of ly sadness, and rapidly regained my chair, „„ jj the bereaved old man should come sudd in, and read in my troubled face some te] |Ej| indication of the indiscretion which I -J committed in reading his family records had, however, fortunately ample time ti iL v 0 cover my composure before the unfortui S O J gentleman made his appearance at last. +u:g was a tall man, but woefully bowed do n clearly less with age than by sorrow aEjj suffering. He received me with great u e < banity, and kindly placed at my disposal ;„ . the information it was in his power to x on the subject of my visit to him. WhiS* g left him I pondered deeply on the nieisEl choly results of the mad ambition of prin and the wretched love of glory of natii u Q Here was a whole once happy family laid ' in the brief space of a few years. u-i