The Shasta courier., 1864-10-29
" Some to Honor. and Some to Dishoner.v-
A Reminlscence.

George H. PendIeton was born in Cincin
natl in the year 1925. He inherits from his
family all the instincts and qualities of a gen.
tleman. There we pause as we read the bio
graphy of the Democratic candidate for the
Vice Presidency. Better that his mother had
yearned over her infant still born; or that
her paps had yielded poison to the sucking.
But he has lived with that noble Inheritance:
and how those instincts have expanded, and
how . his social qualities have made him pre-
eminent in point of popularity among his as
sociates, and won for him the confidence and
esteem of all who have enjoyed the honor of
his scompanionship." and how rare laurels
are waiting to enwreath his intellectual,
manly brow-aH this, the partisan biograph-
er relates. But there is living tomb, and
there is sepulchre where reposes one dis
honored-terrible witnesses against this man
of 9 noble instincts" Long years agone, one
of even angelic antecedents insinuated him.
self by winning Establishments into the con-
fidence of the head of very large family,
and all that family are to this day the worse
for it; to-day that same serpent strikes his
fang into the heel of the unsuspecting, whom
he has first allured-won by gentlemanly
instincts" social qualities" Who that
noted the events Of the late war between
member the story of Lieutenant John Ritchie,
brave and prominent young officer who was
lassoed by mounted Mexican on the Plaza
at Monterey, while bearing dispatches for
Gen. Taylor, and dragged to ravine about
half mile distant and cut up into inches i?
Well. John Ritchie was also from Cincinnati
His widowed mother and two sweet sisters
were residing there, and the latter enjoyed
the honor of Pendleton's acquaintance. Two
more lovely girls were not to be found any
where. Brought up with the strictest train
ing by Christian parents, and after the loss
OF their father, the constant companions and
sole comfort of their mother, they knew of
naught but innocence, unsuspicious of the
snares that would beset their paths. For
number of years they were without the pro
lection of either their brother. who was ca
det at West Point, where he graduated with
distinguished honor and was almost immedi-
ately transferred to the fields of Mexico, where
he met his cruel fate. The gentlemanly
instincts of the noble hearted George Ii.
Pendleton bore him along smoothly on the
current of popularity. His family prestige
gave him admission into every family, and
his remarkable winsomeness secured the heart
of Mary, the elder of the two sisters. OF
course, to her, Pendleton was sans peur ct
sans yeproche, and she was all confidence and
love. She trusted him the plighted troth,
the ante nup.ial present, the repeated VOWS
of love whispered into her car, all banished
distrust, and she fell Her ruin accomplish
ed, the serpent threw off the disguise, the Sc
ducer unmasked, and the betrayed woman
sunk under her burden of shame and sorrow,
broken-hearted into the grave. The blow
that thus blighted the first born of her daugh-
ters, fell with deadly force on the mother.
She saw her darling aliving, loathsome thing,
bearing the badge of indelible shame. She
saw the horrible stain on her family honor.
and prayed that her heroic son might but be
spared to avenge his sisters wrong. But
Heaven had ordained otherwise, for while this
first wound was still fresh and bleeding, and
while tho Nation was rejoicing over the tri.
umph of her brave soldiers in Mexico, the IT,
dlngs came of the assassination OF the son
and brother. The hearts that mourned be-
tears. no funeral drapery, no tongue could
tell Of the desolation, the woe. that bore down
and palled this stricken household The bro
ken-hearted mother saw the man of 81 gentle
manly instincts" of g permanent social --ir-
tues" basking in the sunlight of social pop
ularity, a pampered favorite of the creme de
la creme of society, ready to enact the same
game of perfdy wherever trusting innocence
might open a door. And in the bitter an
guish of her soul she said that if John had
only been spared to avenge his sister $ wrong.
she could have been resigned and fortunate
was II for Pendleton that Lieutenant Ritchie
was not permitted to return, for no Chicago
Convention would then have nominated his
mouldered bones for the second Office In the
Nation.