The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1876-08-14
IRON the stanton ylndie.tor. !

t Z 49, !, 49,
IFrom the staunton vlndieator.I 3s
Longfellow says that into every life
s.some rain must fall" but il Is rarely we
see life into which such torrent Of de-
vastation has been poured as that of an old
lady we called upon on Monday. It was In
plain-looking cottage Just back OF the
Baptist church, and the woman we were
seeking was busy at the wash-tub in the
back room. A good-Iooking young girl asked
II it was = Mrs. Radfordo we We're looking
for, and summoned her into the scantily-
furnished parlor. She was q gray-haired
woman Of sixty, with trim wiery figure,
and q face, evidently hardened by suffering,
but yet one that IL 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,
worll-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., -.
sI wasn't born here, "-she said, stbut Pve
been living here for forty years. Goochland
lis where was born, and my maiden name
was Mary Maddox" Prs ,.9- ..s.f-<..s.
"You were married in Virginia?"
"No," said the old lady, speaking slowly,
as one who ponders a mysterious problem.
&" I wasn't. I was married in North Caro-
lima, and run off to get married. Ialways
thought, may be-, or it might be, that God
sent me all this bad luck because was dis
obelicnt and ran away" and then she spoke
more briskly with an air OF being relieved
from solving question about luck that was
so entirely bad that it made little difference
now how it came about, "I 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 Radiord 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 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. We heard 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 of
and was drowned.
KILLED BY LIGHTNING.
The next bad news we got was about our
daughter Sarah. She had married q 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 left child. They wrote to Us she had
been killed. don't suppose anybody ever
was killed so quick as she was killed. 1t
was two years ago the Goth OF this month.
She was twenty-seven years old. 3. 3:
--..- KILLED BY A PITCHFORK.
It has been only few weeks since my
son William Jasper Radford was killed.
He was harvesting near here and was stand
ing on pile or 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 4
few minutes was dead. He.was buried at
Hebron church. tt
MORE TROUBLE.
NV daughter. Amanda Wheeler, came
home not long ago from North Carolina
These are her two children you see here.
Her husband 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 INN
since. He was Il good man, and didn't drink
or have q single bad habit. He went to
church and all those places Christians go
to. We can't think what has become OF
him. He has never written, and nobody has
sent word about him. 4 few weeks ago
she had twins, but the died. All she is out
now doing washing b. the day. am
washing at home, - .- :''
FORTY YEARS SERVING GOD,
care you Christian ?" we asked, as the
old LADY was concluding her story.
Eyes" she replied, her eyes filling with
tears. ~ have served God in the Methodist
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 lit
tie girl OF six. The boy had chills and fe-
yer. -~.-.-~~~-- -. =. -
Bidding the old lady adieu, we left. Few
women have had violent death ralned into
the family circle in such pitiless storm,
but she seemed never to have lost 1alth IN
Him who sendcth the rain on the Just ana
the unjust alike. Speaking to her OF the
terrific thunder OF Sunday, we asked II sne
was not frightened, in view OF one death
already from that cause in her iamly.
" On, no, SUc lCplCu, ""9 sA0sAS -
the window reading Sunday-schooi paper.
NV daughter was frightened, though"
| This trusting old woman, who in forty
| wears OF serving God had lost one son by
! drowning, daughter by lightning, and q
last son by accident, and is now suffering
from the direst poverty, attended by dis
case, still felt quite safe in the hands OF
Him who had chastised her so! What 4
| sermon il is! Doctrines have changed since
this woman commenced her forty years tut
I5tion; men have been born and become pre-
latos and died full OF honors since this
humble scholar entered the school OF the
Great Teacher; women have entered 1t
and left the irksome tasks and gone back
into the world, and some have remained,
and are ripening for the harvest, and yet
this cray-haired scholar, at the foot OF her
class in all that this world can give, still re-
mains faithful to the end. She cannot I'M
derstand why the Master has been so hard
with her. She does not complain Of it; she
can see no way out Of it; but her failing
ewes still see in her copy-book what the
| Master has set for her: ""Be thou faithful
unto the end, and will give thee crown OF
life" ~
There are some of the scholars who are
NOT old. nor Door, nor sick. Isn't it part OF
their lesson to see about this aged one 2
MISERABLE DEATH OF AN ECCENTRIC CHAR
| ACTER.-Jack Scott, q notable person, was
found dead in the creek below iEmerys
mill on the 25th ultimo, with his musket
| near him. The circumstances attending his
death would lead to the impression that ne
had been dealt with foully, as ne was IN