MADAME LOTTIE WILMOT.

Feilding Star, Volume VI, Issue 5, 21 June 1884, Page 3

MADAME LOTTIE WILMOT.

(ADV_.BTId3ME.JT.) OuMay Bth Madame 1 ut'.ie Wilinot, well-known in uio.->t paves ot com colony a** an i.-. fid-el lecturer, died vt tho Hutt, after a long* and pai il'ul illncs. Madame Wil mot came to the Hutt about nine m--nth« aj;o, with health broken down, an empty purse, :md, it would appear, quite fri-jn.dle.--s.-.^hc at first took up her quarters at one of tu-j hoteL ; after a short stay, she was ejected in a very unceremonious w*y, as payment was very improbable." The lecturer a^ain found herself homeless on the public roads, and was kindly titk-n i» f-r a few day*by a stranger. The few i!ay* ha*/i-io; jexpired, an entrauce to another hotel was secured. Here a»-ain ttie treat meat was much complained of by Madiime, presumably because u-.-r purse was err pry. Turned adrili again, a drunken cobbler took compassion upon this broken-down, " fashionable worami. How crushing for one of such a proud disposition. : and who h:id generally taken up her ' quarters at the ijest hot «_•!;> in our lar^e ' cities, to Lnvr to accept think'u.h Hueh accmnjodutiou. .St this time . pu 1 li* appeal v.as made throußu the .Weilin_to--. Pp-.-^ on her behalf. ' tier destitute position was clearly sutwd, " ana' if --hp .had any friends in' ihe *.*ld tbat was the' time t-p befrren-i her." The respo.isio this pubiic appeal was such auiinvinced the dying woman most oonclmuvejy that, as far as prootK-a-sympathy was concerned, the FreetiiijoJcar^ to wbow-abo bad pa-*der«d . in her public lectures, had not a spark of tiue benevolence in tbem. ln time of need they are '• found warning ;" such was the experience of this poor woman. It wa* uot until this puoiic appeal wa» made that many inhabitants of the Hutt knew that MUdarue had located herself in their mid_-v This led th* Wesleyan minister of the | Hutt to seek this castaway. He wan accorded a welcome to the sick chamber, and up to the time of b«* • loath she was visited by bim, the l'reabyteriaa minister, and other friends. . A more comfortable home was offered by a lady of the Hutt and Madame availed herself of this, up to within a month of her .death. It was very evident fco all who visited her at this time that her end was at hand, and the general opinion was that the hospital was her proper place. She however, was unwilling to go, so a two-room cottage wa.* secured by her daughter (a younj> ; woman of 17), who bad come up from Port Chalmers to nurse her. It was evidently a great trial for Madame to leave her poor child witkout a relative in the world. Her last injunction to her was — ***- Have 1 nothing to do with Freethinkers. 1 V u 'ee," continued the dying woman. 1 ho-v they treated me iv the hour 1 of n «ed, and their friendship can d» ■ vi>u no good when I am gone." : "'> nee or twice she assured the Rev. j .J. Garlick that she ha i presented • her prayers to God through Jesu.> j Christ as His Son. As we looked upon her from time f to time, we thought that we had never seen such a striking comment on the pagsage. " The way of trans- ' . ressors is hard." Her natural and 1 acquired gifts were prostituted by 1 ridiculing Goq j b Word in her public ' addresses. In her life the gloriou--1 moral principles of that Word were ? ignored. The reaping time came all I too soon. Frtendlesanftss, destitution. and a pauper's burial, at tha age of 37 !