The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1869-12-17
MisGGll NMeullS.
OF the OIden Time,
First Series---No. ].

SOUTHWESTERN VA, Jan. 10, 1869.
To lie Editors IF The 112gis d htclgcnccr:
GENTLEMEN will you permit an ole
man, native of your county, but who lef
it forty years ago, to congratulate you upor
the handsome appearance Of your paper
and the evidences Of prosperity and useful
ness it presents, in its advertising patron
age, the spirit fits editorials, and the taste
and chastity Of it's selections? Your pa
per, among numbers of others, reaches mt
in my far-off mountain home every Sunday
morning; and although not, | hope, uu-
mindful of the duties and obligations of
the sacred day in most respects, cannot re-
sist the temptation to open the IEgis, scan
its columns, and wander back in imagna-
ton to those earlier and happier days, when
| was wild and hayward boy in the UNI
paved and quiet streets of your ancient and
beloved village. | never lay it aside until
| have devourcd its contents, advertise
ments and all, some of them over and over
as one familiar name after another wakens
up old memories, and re-kindles affections
and friendships that had been slumbering
from the lapse of years.
Sometimes, in reading over the names of
the men now upon the stage, my thoughts
take gloomy turn, when see so few that
are familiar often wonder if the men
who figured in my day, and moulded and
fashioned public sentiment and action, still
survive the casualties of life, and are still
this side of the dark river. Some Of them,
l know, have gone over. but others, | find,
still linger on the nearer shore-a glori.
Gus link, uniting the present and the past.
In looking over your issue of the list in
slant, l noticed the obituary of Mrs. Sue
Winchester "daughter of the late Ohio
Scott" This was my first intimation of
the death of the father, although | knew,
if still living, he had attained many be-
You'd the promised allotment of thrce-score
and ten years. | knew him in lis younger
days, long before his marriage, and never
had Hartford, in my poor opinion, produced
his intellectual superior. | remember
once to have heard the most sarcastic
burst of eloquence from his lips that ever
fell upon my ear, before or since. He was
candidate for Office. His competitor had
raked up some old scandal that had been
long buried with the individual to whom
it had attached, when Mr.. Scott, with that
dancing eye of his blazing with unusual
brilliancy, exclaimed, in slow and measur-
ed words: "7He craze By others is held sa-
cred-6y you, its silent inhabitants are mcok-
ed to gice point and poison to your shGttS."-
These were his exact words, and such was
their impression upon my youthful mind,
that they are as vivid this moment as when
uttered more than forty years ago.
At the time of which l write, there was
a noble bar at Bel Air. Col. I. d. Maulsby
was then in the zenith of his power and
manhood. He was my beau ideal of a COM
handing presence, with his fine form, fair
top boots, ruliled shirt, and his cherished
queue, swinging free and gracefully from
shoulder to shoulder.
James Wallace, at that time rather past
llfe's meridian, was man Of fine acquire
ments, and provcrbial for his honesty and
simplicity ofcharacter, but above all, for his
great attention to a few acres about mile
from town, which he never cultivated, but
upon which old Molly Mackey lived
through two generations. He received an
appointment from General jackson soon
after his Inauguration, repaired to Wash
ington, and | never saw him afterwards.
About the same time, William II. and
Richard N. Allen stood out prominently
among the most talented men of the place
and time. The former was appointed Pro-
visional Governor by General Jackson, in
East Florida, then a territory, and the lat
ter practiced law and physic alternately,
and excelled in both. The last time | saw
the latter, was many years ago, on board
steamer in Hampton Roads, with II Spanish
game-cock under his arm, which he was
conveying from Florida to some ofhis Har-
ford friends. lie still retained the beauty
of his youth.