The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1869-10-06
An Enoch Arden,

a gentleman whoJwitnessed the play
OF Enochi Arden atfDeBar's Opera House
relates o circumstance very similar in it's
details to the sad story of the cast-away
sailor. sWelgive the statement in his own
Words:Gs ~! ~ seo7: ~ s'ri
'sThat play recalls to my mind cir
cumssance that happened in my own ex-
perience. "A sergeant in my regiment
was wounded at Ohickamauga, and was
reported dead. BE was seen to fall in
the heat of the. engagement, and our
lines being pushed back, the body was
not recovered until next day. When the
poor fellow was found, he was so mutt
lated BY being trampled on by the caval-
~ that his face could not be recognized.
A comrade, however, found in his breast
pocket miniature of his wife, and sent it
to her, with an account of his death. It
turned out that the body was not that of
Tom G, but q sergeant of another
company. Tom, desperately wounded,
fell into the hands OF the enemy, and
was sent to Andersonville, where the
rebel surgeon cut off one of his arms and
one OF his legs; and, in spite of bad fare,
he recovered in due time. never knew
why they kept Tom SO long in prison,
except it was for the purpose of exchang-
ing him for o sound man.
s'When poor Tom returned to his
home in Pennsylvania, he was mere
wreck of his former self, and nobody in
the village knew him. His wife had re-
moved to Illinois with her parents, more
than year previously. Without MAX
ing himself known to any of his old ac-
quaintances in the village, Tom started
for Illinois, to hunt for his wife. When
he arrived in the neighborhood where
she was living, he learned that she was
married to an old friend of his, who had
followed her from Pennsylvania. His
first impulse was to make himself known
to her, and claim her as his own; but
when he saw the snug cabin in which
she was living, and heard how kindly
she was treated by her husband, he
changed his mind. Suppose I 90 and
claim her, he said to himself, 'how can
support her.. with, only one arm and
one leg, and bodyweakened by months
OF suffering at Audersonville? No; she
is happy and contented, and thinks me
dead, and I will not destroy happiness,
and become q burden to her.
Tom acted upon this resolution, and
worked his way to New York, where he
set up small business as a ourb-stone
merchant, selling nuts. and cakes. and
soda water, and getting salong prosper
buy him an artificial leg, and after O
while he got patent arm made, and to
see him walking, along the street, you
would not suppose that lie was but little
more than half man. He was Il good
business man, and in the course of year
enlarged his stock in trade, and opened
regular retail grocery. He made money
fast, and became a prosperous merchant,
respected by all who knew him.
.'In his prosperity, he never forgot his
wife, and always cherished hope that
she would be restored to him. He was
q regular Subscriber to the village paper
published, at the town near which his
wife lived, and read it with great inte-
rest. One day he saw in this paper the
announcement of the death of the man
who had married. his wife. He lost no
time in starting for Illinois. He found
his wife in deep jnourning for her late
husbapd. and she had added another in
fantile link to thefamily circle Tom
made himself known to her, and was re-
joiced toNfind that she still loved him as
fondly as ever, 1T was come time before
he could convince her that he was not q
ghost returned from the other world. In
order 70 mako 'ttat.ssHHss tt.sHHtsss isuss, the parson
was called III, ,land Tom md This wife were
married over again. They went to New
York, where they are still living, as
happy a .,,, couple as you will, find in
Gotham. hTHey live in a brown stone
front, and the family, when I saw them,
were preparing to add another little link
to, its circle. OF course, they do not tell
everybody about their family matters.
strictly true. The ending is rather bet
ter than that of Enoch Arden, and
think Adams wonld do a good thing if he
would depart from the version of Ten
nyson, and in the last act get Philip Roy
ground up in his own accidentally,
of cotrse-make poor Enoch step in and
enjoy the wife and the fortune left be-
hind" ~
"What about the picture of Toms
wife, found in the pocket OF the dead
soldier?" s ~ 1o
"Oh, I forgot about that. Tom says
when he was wounded and left upon the