Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1869-10-30
ENocH ARDEN IN NEW YORK.
They Got Married Afterward and Live
In n Brown stone Front.

Tley lIOL NLuTEICu nttCENHtu - tN
In n Brown stone Front.
From the st. Louis Democrat
A sergeant in my regiment was
wounded at Chickamauga, and was
reported dead. He was seen to fall in
the heat of the engagement, and u
lines being pushed back, the body was
not recovered until next day. When
the poor fellow was found he was so
mutilated by being tramplsd on by the
cavalry that his face could not be recog-
nized. A comrnde, however, found in
his breast pocket n miniature Of his
wife, and sent il to her with an account
of his death. 1t turned out that the
body was not that Of Tom C., but n
sergeant of another company. Tom,
desperately wounded, fell into the hands
of the enemy, and was sent to Ander-
sonville, where the rebel surgeon cut off
one of his arms and ono of his legs,
and, in spite Of his bad fare, he recov-
cred In due time. l never knew why
they kept Tom in prison so long, except
it was for the purpose Of exchanging
him for a sound man.
When poor Tom returned to his home
in Pennsylvania he was q mere wreck
of his former self, and nobody in the
village know him. His wife had re-
moved to Illinois with her parents moro
than a year previously. Without making
himself known to any of his old &C.
quaintancss in tue 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 mako himrelf
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 | SO
and claim her," he said to himself,
"How can I support her? What can |
do for her, with only one arm and one
leg, and a body weakened by months Of
suffering at Andersonville? No; she is
happy and coutented, and thinks me
dead, audI will not destroy her happi.
ness and become a burden to her."
Tom acted upon this resolution, and
worked his way to New York, where he
set up a small business rs q curbstone
merchant, selling nuts, and cakes, and
soda water, and getting along prosper
ously. He soon made money enough to
buy him an artificial leg, and after n
while he got a patent arm made, and to
see him walking along the street you
would suppose that he was but little
more than half a man. He was a good
business man, and in the course of a
year enlarged his stock in trade aud
opened a regular retail grocery. He
made money fast, and became q pros
porous merchant, respected by all who
knew him.
In his prosperity he never forgot his
wife, and always cherished q hopo that
she would be restored to him. He was
a regular subscriber to the village paper
published at the town near which his
wife lived, and read i. with great inter.
est. 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 mourning for her late
husband, and she had another infantile
link to the family circle. Tom made
himself known to her, and was r~ejoiced
to find that she still loved him as fondly
as ever. It was some time before be
could convince her that he was not n
ghost returned from the other world.
In order to make things sure the pnrson
was called 10, and Tom and his wife
were married yer again. They went
to New York, where they are still living,
as happy a couple as you find in Go.
than. They live in a brown.stone
front, and the family, when saw them,
were preparing to add another link to
their circle. or course they do not tell
everybody about their family matters,
but you can rely upon this story as
strictly true. The ending is rather bet
ter than that of Enoch Arden, and
I think Adams would do a good thing If
be would depart from the version Of
Tennyson, and in the last act get Philip
Ray ground up in his OWE mill-acci-
dentally, Of course-make poor Enoch
step IN anu enjoy tue "iio auo VIC ioF
tune left behind.
What about the picture Of Toms
wife, found in the pocket Of the dead
soldier?"
o, forgot about that. Tom says
when he was wounded aud left upon the
field a straggler came along, and he
stopped him. Surprising he would bleed
to death, be gave the picture to the
s,raggler, with a message for his wife.
The rebel cavalry made a charge soon
after, and killed the straggler, with the
of Toms wife in his bosom, and
Tom off to Andersonville. That
accounts for the picture being found,
and causing everybody to believe that
Tom was killed.