The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1876-04-20
MY MOTHER-1N.LAw.

me, when I told him that pretty Susie
Hoyt had consented to be my wife
"take my advice and get as far away
from your nlother-in-law as possible. 1
speak from experience. Taking it up
and down, I've had fair share Of matri-
monial happiness, but the majority of
the differences of opinion between your
aunt and myself, I attribute entirely to
the influence and interference of my
mother-in-law. BY the way, whoi is Mrs.
Hoyt? I don't remember hearing you
speak of her"
"She ceased to be Mrs. Hoyt when
Susie was FIVE years old, and became Mrs.
Gardiner. Hoyt, as far as I can learn,
left her nothing but Susie. Gardiner
left her law suit" S
ooh! widow again?"
"Yes, and uncle Israel, she is not one
bit like the traditional mothers-in-law.
She is Little model of blue-eyed wo-
man, as gentle and sweet as Susie her
self"
"They all are. Butter would scarcely
melt in the mouth of Mrs. Bond before I
married her daughter Julia, and-weli,
you have heard her discourse"
/ had. Cold chiils of apprehension
crept over me as I imagined Mrs. Gardi-
ner assailing me in like fashion. Upon
the strength of uncle's mother-in-law, I
went at once and secured o house at the
very extremity of the city suburbs-a
gem of cottage, with whole city be-
tween its white gate and my mother-in-
law elects residence.
I saw her lips quiyer when I told her
where We were to live, and there was q
pitiful tone in her low voice when she
said, "It is very far from here;" but she
made no other remonstrance, and har-
dened my heart and furnished it. Di-
rectly opposite was a handsome residence,
with wide grounds, a lovely country man
sion within easy distance of my business,
for which / longed, but waited for for
tunes wheel to give turn in my favor
to purchase it.
After We were married and settled in
our coy little cottage, Susie and / would
sit upon the porch and talk about the
happiness of living in the house I cove
ted, and which was for sale, though rem
ted and occupied. Sometimes Mrs. Gar
diner would come over to spend hesday,
and Susie would tell her of her castles in
the air, when my cotton speculations
made us rich.
I. was doing small business at that
time In wholesale leather store, being
Junior partner; but / had invested every
spare, dollar could demand in joining a
company to buy some thousand acres in
cotton in Louisiana, growing. We felt
certain of realizing an immense fortune
when our cotton was ready to pick and
put into the market, and every letter
from our agents in the South gave US
new hope. So we furnished the new
house, in imagination, and looked for
ward to owning it one day. S
But in all this time could not truly
find any reason to regret my connection
with my mother-in-law. It Is true she
often advised me, hurting my married
dignity somewhat by taking the ground
that she who had been my Susie's con-
slant companion for nineteen years,
understood her disposition and peculiari-
ties better than I; who "'worshipped the
ground upon which she trod," etc. But
honestly I could never say her advice
was not good, and Susie was quite will
ing to admit understood her perfectly.
So nearly year glided by, and my
blue-eyed mother-in-law was just as Iowa
Bile and gentle as before the marriage.
My heart smote me sometimes when she
spoke OF the loneliness of her home
without Susie, but I thought of uncle
Israel and was firm. It was in the fall
of 1857 when appalling news reached
the company of cotton spectators, and
we looked each other blankly in the face.
Instead of the bales of cotton we had
expected coming to be coined into gold,
we received news that our agents had
employed inexperienced hands, hadirr
tated the seedmen, who would have been
glad to get the work, and so mismanaged
the whole affair TINT our cotton was
worthless. There was no one to 90 but
myself, and my home affairs held me.
Susie was not well, and did not wish to
leave her, yet there might be something
saved If competent agent went to Lou
isiana.
While / hesitated and lamented, Mrs.
Gardiner came to the rescue.
"You might co." she said, "and leave
Susie in my care. I will stay here with
her, and you can return as quickly as
possible. Hannah will come, too."
Hannah was family servant who had
been Susie,s child nurse. I engaged q
nurse recommended by Mrs. Gardner,
and with heavy heart set my face
Southwark. It is not necessary to enter
into my business worries. For month
I was detained, trying to get some return
of the money we had invested, and fail
ing utterly. Then, heart-sick, I started
for home. In the great cities the yellow
fever ragged, and 1 avoided them in my
route; but on my way from New Orleans
to Memphis, at 8, little place called
Vaughen Station, I was taker i'll.
Put off the train, bag and baggage, I
was driven to wretched little tavern,
and left to die or recover as I saw fit. I
have distinct memory of a doctor feel
ing my pulse, of dreary certainty of
filth and discomfort all around me, and
of burning thirst. Then followed agoniz-
ing dreams of delirium, with pain in
every limb, racking headache, Loneliness,
madness. was fever racked, with hor-
rible fancies-now being sawed apart by
medical students, now beset by wild
beasts rending me limb from limb, now
in sea of fire, now in desert, craving
water could hear tingling from near
fountain and could not reach it,
Then in my delirium came some angel
: who cooled my lips, put water to my
head, let air in upon my sitting agonies.
! could not make my tongue utter the
words in my mind; it would babble Of
everything else, but chiefly of Susie, and
the fear Susie would come to take the
horrible fever.
And in my house there was enacting a
scene I have heard described so often I
can put it here as if I had seen and heard
all. Susie lay white and weak in her
own room, with our first born in her
arms not two days old, when telegram
came to her. The doctor at Vaughen