THE PRODIGAL DAUGHTER.

Observer, Volume 7, Issue 337, 23 May 1885, Page 8

THE PRODIGAL DAUGHTER.

The following beautiful poem, taken frohi'au old Columbia, Tennessee, paper, printed July 20th, 1837, recalls an incident some months ago, which made a deep impression, upon my mind. I happened to be accidentally present at a speech delivered by a -woman illustrating Spiritualism in one of the upper wards of Philadelphia. One part of it, referring to the prodigal son, was so original that it made a lasting impression. Tlie lady orator was speaking of the undeserved sympathy and pity and forgiveness extended to the offending man ; how, after a long career of vice and crime, of seduction, and of shame, of profligacy and forgery, he returns to his father's home, forgiven, petted, worshipped, and almost honored for his wickedness, and he is held up according to the Scriptural ideal, .as the pattern for all the future,, and for jail the people. It was this wretched criminal that the female orator made her text of denunciation and scorn, and I can never forget the effect she produced upon the great crqgrd that heard her when she exclaimed, "(Sj> men and brethren, oh;, sisters and daughter?, have you ever heard of the prodigal daughter ? How rare it is to find the poor and sinful woman forgiven and welcomed back to the hearthstone from, which she fled ! For her no father's .. breast is bared,: no> mother's tears are shed, no brother's arm is extended, no fattened calf is lolled, no wiiie and music and song employed to honor her forgiveness and bless her penitence. She is an outcast on the fape of the earth, a. vagrant of the streets, the' exile from society, the compelled companion of the; vile to the end of her days." This beautiful and thrilling incident was recalled keenly to nay memory by the following lines :