Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1873-01-03
niscfllamu.
From the Home Journal.
.Home, Sweet Home.
REMINIscENcEs OF THE AUTHOR.

the morning, on his way down town, he
would almost invariably call between
ten and eleven A. NJ, talk while, and
then together we moved on slowly to
ward the centre of the city; he stopping
to see every curiosity in the windows as
we passed, as highly elated as a grown
boy from the country would be at every
new surprise, though at that time he had
been a traveller over most of the world,
had seen every variety of life, and was
in the meridian of his manhood.
His temper and uniform outward
mood was as smooth and gentle as a
summers lake at eve, not even, like 1t,
disturbed by the gentle zephyrs.
We had not met since 1S41, when l
was one of the managers of the Ameri-
can Institute. | CHANGED to be intro
duced to him quite accidentally at the
old City Hotel, a very handsome brick
building of that day, standing on the
right hand SIDE of Broadway going
down, Just this side of Trinity Church,
at the head of Wall street, kept by Jen-
nings g. Willard, the latter of famous
memory, long since dead, | believe. =
Were we to pass by his hotel, Willard
would probably shake hands and ex-
claim "Oh, yes | recollect you-rec-
ollect you very we'll. You were here
with Payne and your erratic brother.
You took julep about twelve o'clock,
and Payne wanted his made of plain
brandy, very weak. had just bought
half-ton of the best loaf sugar to be
found in the market" None of your
readers, who go back to those days, thir-
ty years ago, who recollect the proprie-
tors, famous the world over, of the old
City Hotel. but will pardon this digres-
sion
In the spring of '43, as / commenced
to say, John Howard Payne gave me an
account of his adventure in Georgia
among the whites, bordering on their
settlements alongside the Chocktaw and
Cherokee Indians.
Payne, like many of our hterdti of
small letters, had strong sympathy for
the red mans rights and home, and
without thought of exciting anger, ex-
pressed his kindly feelings to any and
every one.
1t was at the time when the people of
Georgia, of the Indian country, had SUI
fered by massacres and night fires and
murder, till they could endure the out
RACES no longer, and President Jackson
was favoring the removal of the tribes
to the west of the Mississippi.
Travelling alone as Payne was, with
out much baggage, so simple and out
spoken in his manner, it was not long
before he excited suspicion as an Indian
spy; and when they reached the next
stopping place it was whispered about
that he was an enemy, in sympathy
with the Indians who had SO often COM
mitted such terrible outrages upon the
white population as to exasperate every
one to bitter enmity to them and all
their friends.
Not dreaming of the cause, they took
Payne, tied his hands behind him-the
most girlish man in the woodland
marched him off between two strong,
fully armed men.
He saw his situation, and began to
tremble and beg and protest and explain
who he was, but to no effect. On they
marched for perhaps half-a-mile through
thickets and fields, passing toward an
unusually-lighted and respectable APP
pearing log cabin. 1t was quite late in
the night, still the inmates seemed to be
moving, and as the party approached
nearer they heard singing finally Payne
could distinctly recognize the music Of
Home, Sweet Home"
He protested and tried to break loose
and get to the house. They held him
back. One of the guard went to the
house, in compassion for the prisoner, to
get some water, for he had tainted
Meeting an officer from the house
which proved to be the headquarters OF
some of the United States soldiers not
long there-he said they had brought
one of the spies of the Indians, "who
claims to have written some song about
Home, which never heard tell on"
The officers curiosity was excited
who hearing the song at the same time
went Immediately with the guard to Sc,
the prisoner whom he found stretched
on the ground.
"What is your name?" asked the of
ficer.
John Howard Payne" said the pris
oner, but only little above whisper.
GOOD heavens, is it possible ?" sal
the officer. Unbind him immediatel
and bring water at once, or I'll blow th
id brains out of every one of ye"
Here Payne, take some of this
handino him q ruda cann Aask viii