The state rights democrat. [volume] (Albany, Linn County, Oregon) 1865-1900, 1872-02-09
MISSOURI ENOCM ARDEN.

The Cincinnati Enquirer publishes
the following:
A one-armed horseman recently
travelling through Missouri, stopped
at blacksmith shop to have his
horse shod. The smith noticed the
empty sleeve, and asked him if be
lost his arm III the war. He replied
with sigh, that he did, and even
more, going on TO relate how he had
left home to enlist in the Southern
army, and that on the close of the
war, on going back. be found that
his wife, who thought him dead, had
moved away, and he had since been
unable to find any trace of her.
What is your Lame?' asked the
blacksmith.
When the answer was, "S. NJ.
Waldrnp," be suddenly released the
hough over which he had been bend
ing, 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,
Waldrup mechanically obeyed the
unexpected bidding. and before he
could pause to think, was in the
presence of comely matron, abou.
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 who
the blacksmith had brought in, she
caught a sight of the strangers face,
one wild shrek proclaimed the in
stantaneous recognition, and 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 could now only
confess her dread mistake and call
alternately on her husband and her
God for pardon.
After the first agitation of the sin
gular reunion had partially subsided,
the two men returned to the smithy
and talked the matter over as sensi-
bly, and coolly as their respective
feelings permitted. Devoutly as he
loved the woman, the blacksmith ad-
mitteI the others stronger right to
her and generously consented that
she herself should decide between
them. After long passion of tears
and self-reproach, she selected to go
| with him whom she first loved, bnt
declared with bitter lamentations
that she could not leave her children.
The smith raised his head from his
breast, on which it had dropped in
the first dependency of her great
affiiction, eyed his wistfuily for a mo-
ment, aid 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 chill
dren. The boats bell rang for the
starting, and the dread separation
was at hand. The crew, the passen-
gers-all who witnessed it-were
afflicted with tears by the touching
scene.
With great drops rolling down his
tawny cheeks, the smith kissed the
children one after another, and in a
choking voice babe their mother an
eternal goodbye. The two men
gazed wistfully in each others faces,
shook hands earnestly, and then the
blacksmith, by a strong effort of iron
will, released the hand of Waldrup,
and walked quietly to the shore. He
never turned his face again towards
the boat. which soon passed out OF
sight around a merciful bend in the
river, but strobe on, with head bowed
down, to the home whittier the voice
of his wife and children should well
| come him no more.