Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1875-08-14
REMIN ISCENCEs.
wsErrES FOR THE MAsrrssBrRs rspEPxspEST
BY A BERKELEY BOY.
My sixty-second Birthday.

My Sixty-Second Birthday.
The day on which / write this
chapter of my "reminiscences is the
sixty-second anniversary of my
birth.
Sixty-two years! l sadly Won
der how many of my early cotem-
poraries survive to read what /
write. Alas! but few, compare
lively, in all probability, remain.
May i not say,truthfully, that they
are absolutely few? Death has
been very busy during these three
score and two years, among such
of them as have remained in the
section where they were born. He,
doubtless, has been not the less
busy among those who have gone
beyond the general circulation of
the independently With the dis
position to scatter thems lives
away from their birthplace, so
characteristic of Americans, they
have gone to the great Weston
what acas "the great West,o when
they turned their faces toward the
setting sun. If still alive they are
now depending on some other "lo-
cal paper' for their news-supply
and other matter wherewith the
press so teens nowadays, and so
they will not be among my read
ers any more than those who have
gone 10 that bourne from which
no traveller returns.D But the West
has furnished graves, most likely,
for the largest part of them, and
/ shall never more greet them
amid the scenes of earth.
During one of my later visits to
Berkeley, / joined the worship
pers at the Falling Water Church,
which / assisted to build, when
the old edifice, wherein my pa
rents had worshipped, was super
coded by the new one-the inject
ing-house," as we Presbyterians
were accustomed to call it in the
earlier days-while Mount Zion,'
fittingly so called, as touching its
location on the North Mountain,
was the "church." Irreverent as
some might say it was to do SO, ]
could not restrain my anxiety to
see who of my former fellow-wor-
shippers therein were in attend
ance. Alas! in addition to the be-
loved sister, whom / had accom-
panied there, / could identify less
than a half dozen, all told.
When, after the services, ask
ed my old friend and schoOlmate,
Benjamin G. Speck, who was, in a
doubled sense, one of the Elders,
where the old folks were. in sad
ness he limited that / had looked
for them in the wrong place-that
should have searched among the
tombstones, amid which the meet
ing-house stands, and they, as to
most of the missing, would reveal
the saddening truth. / did look.
Mol only glanced, for grave
yards never were favorite resorts
with me. But the worst was by
that glance confirmed!
Ny thoughts run rapidly back.
The sadest sight to boy not lost
to that fiilal love which seems so
much on the decline of late, as in
dictated by frequent PARTICLES,
was in store for me. This was the
sudden and unexpected death of
my father, in state of utter UNI
consciousness which forbade the
importation of his blessing to his
children. He had been ailing for
some weeks. But as general
disorder of the nerves of his de-
cayed teeth, which had at length
extended to his ears, becoming
what was considered merely an
earache, there appeared to be no
ground of alarm. Our supper we
ate together, and conversed as
usual. AT nine o'clock, l was
aroused by the startling announce
ment that he was dying. Hurry
ing to his chamber, l found that
the announcement was only too
true. He was in a raving phrensy.
With distorted aud turbid
countenance, he was muttering in
coherently and tossing from side
to side, with such a superhum8n
strength, unconsciously expended
in his uncomfortable wildness,
that several sturdy colored men,
who had been brought in requisi-
ton, were together unequal to the
task of restraining him, Thus he
tossed to and fro, in utter uncon-
seriousness, until nine o'clock in
the morning, when death closed
the fearful scene which dated No
vember 30th, 1880, leaving me a
half orphan soon after l entered
upon my eighteenth year.
There were features of the dis
eased condition, which thus ended
fatally with so much suddenness,
that, by my remembrance of the