The Pascagoula democrat-star. (Pascagoula, Miss.) 1878-1920, 1878-07-19
partake of the fruits that are to

partake OF the fruits that are t.
come.
= Bat to history, calm and impair
; tial history, when the smoke of the
, field has vanished and the flower.
Il have been sprinkled upon the dead
. and the anthem OF peace girdles til,
earth, aud every man is at his owl
fireside-to history is given the in
alienable right to weave the cIlaplet
for the heroic. That time has not
yet come.
As these contending hosts faced
each other in the forest, victory
seemed almost merciful to defeat
the "uearer, closer, deadlier
tramp of the invading host broke
on the faithful and taithless IL
Richmond alike--tor both were
there. In any other hour the petty
contention of the strife would have
been received, perhaps, with sotnt
excuse. But in this hour it was 4
curse to the man who bickered, and
a shame on the cause for which the
tatered aud defeated lines in gray
were struggling with the grand old
Lee at the head. Mr. Davis might
have known, or ought to have
known, that in such an hour the
country cared not so much tor his
successor, not so much for paper
legislation, as it cared for the unfit.
cation of every contending element,
tor bread, for mercies of the hos
pital, and for IA little more untram.
melting of his steady hand on the
field which at the inception of the
war had shaken it's gauntlet in the
tace OF Washington and made it
tremble.
At this moment the shout of the
victors startled the despairing ones
behind the beleagued gates. Among
that number was Que of the ema-
ciated craftsmen OF the sinkiug ship
of state; Il man who was dying,
whose life had dwin,lled away like
the fortunes of the unhappy and
unsuccessful contention. This man
was Col. Lud. Peyton, a Confede-
rate senator trum the State of Mis-.
rsOuri.
When Gen. Price and Claybosne
f. jackson assembled the army and
such portions of Jackson's legisla
ture as chose to follow him from
Jefferson City, Mo-, to an unheard-
of village in the sand hills of the
State, and there assembled the lat
ter guarded by the former, they
;oted the State of Missouri ont OF
the Union, and sent greeting to
jeff. Davis that Mr.. Lincoln would
not get single man from the State
to carry on an unholy crusade
against the South. TO this end all
of the formaities OF legislation
were enacted, and senators were
elected to represent Missouri in the
| upper halls at Richmond.
ONE OF THESE WAS PEYTON.
A more singularly gifted genius
it would have been difficult to find.
And had not that clond OF war
came upon the land, under anything
like favorable circumstances the
fame of this man would have ex-
tended across the continent. Tall
as an Indian warrior; supple as the
bounding greyhound; complexion
as swarthy as a Spaniard; a heart
AS brave as great heart must
always be; sometimes cratic as the
ribbon of lightning that threads the
course across storm cloud quicker
than thought, and.with Il voice that
rang like trumpet or was gentle
as II tnaiden's prayer, as the occa-
sion called-PeytOn was the son OF
as bright a promise as ever gave
birth to genius. He had come out
from village that nestled among
the prairie flowers of the frontier,
where he had been Il pedag0gue, "A
lawyer, dancing master at times
in the backwoods, from sheer eccen.
tlicity; reckoned "the best fiddler
that ever handled bow !" q man
who was "a courtier ereu in those
long-ago days, when tile belle of
Kentucky, who had "gone West"
entertained her bean at the loom
instead of the piano; quasi plysi-
clan, with no pretenSiOns except
that of common sense, in which he
had such an abiding faith, and
which made n hero of him once
when the cholera spread havoc in
this country, aud he mounted his
horse and rode from farmhouse to
farmhouse: Il guest at every hearth
stone everybody's counsel in court |
and upon tue old playground of "a
school house that is still standing
under stately oak, this son of
genius went at the noon recess, and
rolling upon the grass "capered
and with the glee of boy,
for the amusement of the bevy cf
children that signaled his coming
with sutli Shouts and peals of
genuine laughter as children only
know. He WAS a combination pc
culiar TO the West, and of such as
gave the lamented Lincoln so much
personal popularity and magnetism.
With all, he had the ugliest face
upon which human eyes ever stared.
He cast his fortunes with his
State when it went out of the Union,