Pomeroy weekly telegraph. [volume] (Pomeroy, Meigs County, Ohio) 1860-1866, 1860-07-17
Hugh Hamilton's departure.

goIng-he had gone. s+ 1- p
Just five years after, Hugh Hamilton
turned the key in the rusty lock of his
office door, and went in amid the dust
and accumulated cobwebs, turned over
the leather cushion in his great office
chair, drew up one of the blinds at the
window, and sat dewn. 1t were need
less to say that he felt desolate indeed,
for it was long past office hours, and the
long halls that echoed with busy feet
and buster tongues, all the long day,
were silent and deserted now; so Hugh
Hamilton sat down alone and looked
back over his life. -s. s...t..,...
Once more he lived in the little brown
house nestled among the green hills of
New England, and memory showed him
two graves over which his manhood had
erected monument, Whereon was simply
written, Gather" "Mother" Hugh
Hamilton eyes were moist as he thought
of those he loved, lying coldin the grave,
and his proud heart yearned now, in its
loneliness, for some one to love and to
love him, -, ..r -.....>..,-... ,s,,,s-a....f
His parents had died poor, and Hugh,
their only child, was adopted by neig IL
boring farmer, and for several years he
lived a cold, morose, uncomplaining
child. On the night of his tenth birth
day, Hugh Hamilton tied up little
package containing all his earthly
possessions, and turned his back upon
the home of his childhood "
Ten years afterward, he stood beside
the green graves in the little church
yard, and superintended the erection of
a monument over those he loved. 1t
was not until he had gone away again,
that the villagers knew that little Hugh
Hamilton had been among them; and
many an old woman would go, in the
long summer evenings, and gaze wonder
ingly at the white shaft that grew up so
mysteriously in their little unostenta-
tious burial place, and say to themselves,
"1 knew it; | Arrays said Hughie Ham
.ilton would be a gentleman yet, even if
he did run away from old farmer Blake
ley; it's a pity he's not alive to sees this
day. s@ra asz ,t1 H'5E.< -
Hugh Hamilton's memory dwelt
lightly on all the years of poverty that
he had known; indeed, he scarcely
owned to himself how many struggles
he had passed through to obtain his
education, or how many sleepless nights
he had spent poring over the ponderous
trea tises Of law, when he was only a
copying clerk in the employ of Barret
4 Brace. No, proud heart! he dropped
all those dark passages out from his
book of life, and dwelt lingeringly,
lovingly upon that brightest morning of
his existence, when the members of this
firm offered him the Junior partnership
in their office, because of his extreme
faithfulness since he had ben in their
employ. ..a. =. ..
From that hour, Hugh Hamilton s
star had been in the ascendant Two
years after, old Mr. Brace retired from
business on account Of i'll health, and
several months after died, and was buried
beneath the blue waves of the Medi-
terranean, whittier he was cruising in
hopes of regaining his health He was
d widower, and childfess, SO to Hugh
Hamilton he bequeathed fifteen thousand
dollars, and his immense law library,
which, to an ambitious young beginner
in life, was fortune in itself.
Again Hugh Hamilton turned away
from the scenes of his early struggles in
life, and, at the age of thirty, finds him.
self firmly established in a large and
fourishing Western city, man looked
up to by all classes of society, lawyer
whose reputation had gone far and wide
so he brushes back the dark cluster
ing hair from his fine forehead, lights
his second cigar, tips back his chair
and elevates his feet upon the green
baize covered table, and says, with just
the slightest curve of his black NOUS
tache, 'I's all right now, Hugh, my boy,
ere ahead. y a
1t was on this night that Hugh Ham
ilton made up his mind to go to Europe
He knew himself to be the bright, par
ticular STAR of the society in which he
moved, the great "catch' that many a
'mama" had maneuvered to ensnare for
the last five years. He had escaped
heart-whole, however, season after sea-
son, although the battery of bright eyes,
through which he passed, was enough
to have completely riddled any heart
just shade less adamantine than Hugh
Hamiltons.
No wonder he was voted an ''iceberg," :"
''hard- hearted, "unlovable" man; yet
even while the red lip uttered the male
diction, the owners would have given
full half of the shining ringlets that they
shook so defantly, if Hugh Hamilton
had only been a little more come-at-able
But he never showed any preferences
this "unlovable' man, as he danced and
laughed, night after night, with all the
manageable bellies of his acquaintance
and. if one CHANGED to lean rather hcav-
lily upon his arm in the conservatory, ol
look mutterable things in some lighted
corner, while she playfully tapped hin
with her fan and called him s'naughty
creature" he straightway opened his
great black eyes to their utmost extent
and Immediately conveyed the fair fat
terer back to her mama with an air tina
seemed to say, "You have forgotten
yourself, my dear child-excuse me-"
At last came.Anna Danforth, naughty
piquant Anna Danforth, prouder thar
ten Hugh Hamiltons put together; ant
then the world said, "He's caught at last.
1t was true he admired the prouc
beauty, and, sometimes in the lionel,
solitude of his bachelor abode, he drew
shining little pictures of beautiful
home where Anna Danforth reigneo
queen, and he her most loyal subject.
But it was only passing fancy; ant
so the months flew by, and the fair bell
saw herself no nearer the "innermost'' il
Hugh Hamilton's heart, than she wa
the first day she flashed her bright blacl
, eyes up to him, and vowed to conque
him in spite ot his Dride.