Daily Richmond Whig

For the WHIG.

What's the intention of the fair,
Which the next month will grace our city:
For which, contriving beauties rare,
Has long engaged the gay and witty?

The old, the young, the grave and gay,
Have added to this rich display,
And articles of lovelier hue,
Were ne'er presented to our view.

But what is the intention? some will ask—
Let woman answer, 'tis her noble task:
'Tis to protect the orphan whom hard fate
Has left in this bleak world quite lone and desolate;
To guard from penury some infant child.
Who, a fond parent's heart has oft beguiled of woe,
When brooding o'er the ills which from adversity do flow.

But the fond parent from the child has parted,
Perhaps from poverty died broken hearted;
And on his dying pillow thought, what friend
Will my poor child from evil now defend?

Oh! had it been my lot to have been near
His bed, to whisper in his dying ear,
A woman, though a stranger to thy child and thee,
Will shield it from disgrace, from shame, and infamy
Will find the means to rear its tender mind,
In virtue's path, and make its hopes refined;
Will place it in a happy earthly home,
And fit it for a better world to come.

Perhaps some Father will attend this fair,
Who now, of worldly wealth has ample share;
But ah! how soon adversity may blight
His prospects, though they now look clear and bright
Then let him who possesses means attend,
And prove himself the poor, lone, orphan's friend
And let this cheering thought inspire his mind,
That he has helped to calm the troubled mind,
To know that he has power to dispense
The means for guarding Youth and Innocence