Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1876-08-11

&C., &C., &c.
Longfellow says that into every life
s.some rain must fall" but it is rarely we
see a life into which such torrent of devas-
tation has been poured as that of an old lady
plain looking cottage just back of the Bap-
fist church and the woman we were seek
ing was busy at the wash tub in the back
room. A good looking young girl asked
if it was "Mrs. Radford'' we were looking
for and summoned her into the scantily
furnished parlor. She was grey haired
women Of sixty, with trim wiry figure
and face, evidently hardened. by suffer
ing. but yet one that if the beholder let his
imagination run back many years might
have been youthful beauty. Sitting there
on lounge against the wall with the
sleeves of her calico dress rolled up from
her thin, work worn arms with her gray
eyes fixed steadily on the questioner, she
looked like one for whom the world had
done its worst and who seemed to know it.
ssI wasn't born here" she said, but I've
been living here for forty years. Gooch-
land is where I was born and my maiden
name was Mary Maddox.
"You were married in Virginia?"
NO." said the old lady speaking slowly
as one who ponders mysterious problem.
81 wasn't. [ was married in North Caro-
lima and [ run off to get married. [ al
ways thought, may be, or it might be, that
God sent me all this bad luck because
was disobedient and ran away" and then
she spoke more briskly with an air of be-
ing relieved from solving a question about
luck that was so entirely bad that it made
little difference now how it came about,
81 had seven children, four boys and three
girls, but they are all dead but two. We
lived most Of the time in Rockbridge and
around Lexington. Jasper Radford was
my husband, and he died twenty-five years
ago last February. He was laborer.
DROWNED
The next one Of the family that went
was our son Fleming Radford. He was a
a fine boy twenty-five years of age. Its
ten years since one morning we got the
news that he was dead. He was drowned
in Fluvanna county. Weheard that he was
drowned fording the river. They called
to him from the shore that the water was
too deep there and he tried to turn the
horse, but he fell off and was drowned.
KILLED BY LIGHTNING.
The next bad news we got was about our
daughter Sarah. She had married a man
named Brown and moved to Rockingham
near Port Republic. She was living there
very happily with her husband. One day
she was sitting by the window when light
ming struck her dead. When her husband
came into the room he found her dead.
She lefta child. They wrote to us she had
been killed. I don't suppose anybody ev-
er was killed so quick as she was killed. 1t
was two years ago the twentieth OF this
month. She was twenty-seven years old.
KILLED BY PITCHFORK.
1t has been only few weeks since my
son VIM. Jasper Radford was killed. He
was harvesting near here and was stand
ing.on pile of straw resting on pitchfork
when it slipped and the prongs went into
his heart. When they got to HIM he had
pulled out the prongs of the fork and in
few minutes was dead. He was buried at
Hebron church.
MORE TROUBLE.
Ny daughter, Amanda Wheeler, came
home not long ago from North Carolina.
These are her two children, you see here.
Herhusband and her wanted to come home
to Virginia, but they are poor, and didn't
have the money to come, so he took what
little money they had, and paid her way on
the cars, and he started on foot. That was in
March, and we have never heard from him
since. He was good man, and didn It drink
or have single bad habit. He went to
church, and all those places Christi ans 60
to. We can't think what has become Of
him. He has never written and nobody has
sent word about him. A few weeks ago
she had twins, but they died, and she is out
now, doing washing by the day. l am
washing at home.
FORTY YEARS SERVING GOD.
ssAre you a Christian?" we asked, as
the old lady was concluding her story.
s'Yes," she replied, her eyes fiji ling with
tears, II have served God in the Metho-
dist Church for forty years. The people
of that church have been very kind to me-"
The conversation was listened to by her
two grand-children-one wasted looking
little boy Of four, and the other bright
little girl Of six. The boy had chills and
fever.
Bidding the old lady adieu, we left. Few
women have had violent death rained into
the family circle in such a pitiless storm,
but she seemed never to have lost faith in
Him who sendeth the rain on the just and
the unjust alike, Speaking to her of the
terrific thunder of Sunday, we asked if she
was not frightened, in view of one death
\ already from that cause in her family.
\"Oh, no." she replied, 81 was sitting by
the window reading a Sunday School pa
per. My daughter was frightened, though
This trusting old woman who in forty
years Of serving God had lost one son by
drowning, a daughter by lightning, and
last son by accident, and is now suffering
from the direst poverty, attended by dis
ease, still felt quite safe in the hands Of
Him who had chastised her sol What q
sermon it is Doctrines have changed since
this woman commenced her forty years tut
ton; men have been born and become pre-
Iates and died full Of honors since thi
humble scholar entered the school of thu
Great Teacher; women have entered il
and left the irksome tasks and gone back
into the world, and some have remained
and are ripening for the harvest, and yet
this grey haired scholar, at the foot of bel
class in all that this world can give, still
remains faithful to the end. Sh e cannot
understand swhy the Master has been 81