Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1871-08-19

AN ENOCH ARDEN CASE WITH NEW SH.
QUEL.

A one-armed horseman recently travel
ling through Missouri. stopped at a black
smiths shop to have his horse shod. The
smith noticed the empty sleeve, and asked
him if he lost his arm in the war He re-
piled with sigh, that he had. and even
more; going on to relate how he had loft
home to enlist in the southern army, and
at the close of the war. in going back, he
found that his wife, who thought him dead,
had moved away. and he had since been
unable to obtain trace of her. What
is your namew said the blacksmith. When
the answer was u. NJ. Waldrup, he sud-
denly released the hoof over which he had
been bending, and without looking at the
ex-soldier, cried, Follow me into the
house !" and hurriedly led the way.
Amazed as he was at such conduct, Wal
drup Immediately obeyed his bidding, and
before he could pause to think, was in the
presence OF comely matron, about
whose sewing chair three happy children
were playing. . She was the blacksmith's
wife, the mother Of his little ones; yet as
she rose to see whom the smith had
brought in, and caught sight of the stran-
gers face, one wild shrek proclaimed the
instantaneous recognition, and she tainted.
In the belief that Waldrup was dead. she
had married the blacksmith of Cedar City,
in the very year of the soldiers parole,
and now could only confess her dread
mistake, and call alternately on either
husband and her God for pardon After
the first agitation of the singular reunion
had partially subsidized, the two men re-
turned to the smithy and talked the matter
over as coolly and sensibly rs their re-
spective feelings permitted. Devotedly
as he loved the woman, the honest black
smith admitted the others stronger right
to her, and generously consented that she
herself should decide between them. After
a long passion of tears and self-reproach,
she elected to 60 with him whom she had
loved first; but declared, with bitter la
mentation, that she could not leave her
children. The smith, raising his head
from his breast, on which it had dropped
in the first dependency of his great AZ
fiction, eyed her wistfully for moment.
and then said, "you shall take them, my
dear!" When the steamboat st. Luke
stopped at the landing. some hours later,
Waldrup went on board with his still
weeping and thickly veiled wife, and the
blacksmith followed with the children.
The beats bell rang for the starting. and
the dread separation was at hand. The
crew, the passengers, the captain--all
who witnessed it-were affected to tears
by the touching scene. With great drops
rolling down his tawny cheeks. the smith
kissed his children one after another, and
in choking voice bade their mother an
eternal goodbye. The two men gazed
wistfully into each others faces, shook
hands long and earnestly, and then the
blacksmith, by a strong effort OF iron will,
released the hand of Waldrup and walked
quickly to the shore. He never turned
his face again toward the boat, whichsoon
passed out of sight around merciful bend
of the river. but strobe on. with head
bowed down, to the home whittier the
voices of wife and children would well
come him no more 1e