Broadside entitled 'Female Prostitute'

Transcription

Female Prostitute.

A Melancholy account of a Female Prostitute, who died in a de-
plorable condition on the South Bridge Edinburgh, on the 18th
of this present month, April, 1824; also, an account of her life
and transactions for the last 21 years: this unfortunatevictim
of dissipation was born of respectable parents in Edinburgh, and
received an education sitted to adorn the sex.
WICKED COMPANIONS...

Before you receive this, my final state will be determined by the
Judge of all the earth, In a few drys at most, perhaps in a few
hours, the inevitable sentence will be passed, that shall raise me
to the heights of happiness or sink me to the depths of misery.
While you read these lines, I shall he either groaning under the
agonies of absolute despair, or triumphing in fullness of joy.

It is imposible for me to express the present disposition of my
soul?the vast uncertainty I am struggling with ! No words can
paint the force and vivacity of my apprehensions. Every doubt
wears the face of horror, and would perfectly overwhelm me, but
for some faint beams of hope which dart across the tiemendous
gloom! what tongue can utter the anguish of a. soul suspended
between the extremes of infinite joy and eternal misery? I am
throwing my last stake for eternity, and tremble and sudder for
the important event.

Good God! how have I employed myself! what enchantment hath
held mo? in. what delirium & iniquity has my life been past? what
have I been doing, while the sun in its race, and the stars in.
their course, have lent their beams, perhaps, only to light me to
perdition!

I never awaked until now, I have just commenced the dignity of
a rational being. Till this instant I had a wrong apprehension of
every thing in nature I have pursued shadows & entertained my-
self with dreams. I have been treasuring up dust and sporting
myself with the wind. 1 look back, on my past life, and but for
some memorials of infamy and guilt it is all a blank a perfect
vacancy I might have grazed with the beasts of the field, or sung
with the winged inhabitants in the woods to much better purpose
than any for which I have lived, and on. but for some saint hope;
a thousand limes more ; blessed had I been to have slept with the
lods of the valley, and never heard the Almighty fiat, nor waked
into life at his Command. I never had a just apprehension of the
solemuity of the part I am to act till now. Ye haunts of dissipa-
tion, how do you now stare me in the face! ye companions with
whom I have spent the bloom of youth in every wicked indul-
gence, were you here, you would learn the lesson, that one hour of
a death bed reflection will completely condemn a whole life spent
in the wirth and abominable practices of which you have been
guilty. It is not givmg np my breath; it is not being fer ever insen-
sible, is the thought at which 1 shrink; it is the terrible he reaster.
the something beyond the grave, at which you and I must recoil,

My awakened conscience feels something of that eternal ven-
geance I have often defied. To what heights of madness is it
possible to human nature to reach ? what extravagance is it to
jest with death : to laugh at damnation : to sport, with keternal
chains, and recreate a jovial fanecy with the scenes of eternal
misery. Every thing on earth seems to reproach this levity in
human creatures. A condemned wretch may, with as good a
grace, go dancing to the scaffold, as some of those with whom I

have associated, go with such thoughtless gaiety to their graves.

Wicked Companions, with what horror do I recall those house.
or vanity I have lost! return ye wasted moments! how should I
prize you above the eastern treasures; let me dwell with hermits;
let me rest on the cold earth, let me converse in cottages, could I
but once more stand a candidate for an immortal crown, and
have my probation for celestial happiness. Which of you my
wicked companions, will answer my summons at the high Tribunal,
which of you will bail me from the stroke of death who of you
will descend into the caverns of the grave for me. Here y who
leave me to carry on your former carrer; but remember, you [ ]
deceive and are deceived, that the horrors of a death bed [ ]
terrible to you as it has been to me. Tho' I have not rev,[ ]
ed the tenth part of what I know,
and you must shortly fee leave you ro your own choice, either to forsake your former ways
and gain eternal happiness, or persevere in your mad career,ang
reap eternal misery Adieu ! my proflicate companions, a long
adieu.                                                                                 S. G.

This woman died in a house which, from delicacy, we do not
mention, and was at one time, well bred and educated, and of an
excellent character.

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