The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1880-03-31
His FIRST and Last Diggg;iinlggs'' ii S

,5, & What is isthis5dilapidated cid book p
An heirloom?" asked my friend, who
for the last half hour had been looking
SOh. no." replied, "that is no heir
loom, but, something which l. prize as
highly asif Icopif prove that IT. came,
over IN the Mayfower. If you would
like, will explainit to you. DrawIup
your chair, . IL said, taking the book,
......and if, in. my. OWL interest, -Iget tire
some, stop me, I beg Of you
2 a'I have always called this my Col
slegeN Register In my sophomore year
sIconceived the idea Of keeping in my
room this book, in which asked every
body coming to see me for the first time
to write their name, with the date. My
friends were not bored but once, and, if
the troubley Off writing their names
caused them a little annoyance at the.
time, ] am sure that it they knew the.
amount 1 pleasure the, possession OF
their autographs has given me since,
they would feel amply repaid. A good
deal of fun was made of me at the time.
but that has, all passed. and the book
remains the most powerful reminder OF
my college days. When l look at the
names of the good fellows written here.
it sometimes seems as if I was again a
student, with no care but that of fprepar.
ing nv recitations for the next day.
But enough of that; let, us get to the in
side. Openit anywhere-familiar names
are on every page. '...
"George H. >gAdams, January Is,
lS46.l i Ne was q fine fellow. son of a
widow living in the town. He worked
his-way through college, and had q hard
time of it. but he succeeded, and is now
a,saccessfal .businessylnan in the south
? ern par .of the -StatesssA. ~
"'Louis NJ. Huntington, March 8,
ls47.' aLpeyerknew,him very well, for
he -canie to my room but once. He was
8 handsome, fascinating fellow; always
a favorite n Society because Of his easy,
graceful manners end his fine voice. !
have often wondered what has become
of him, but ] have never been able to
find him outsasI lost sight of him very
soon after we graduated. '''.' .'''''
Leonard Meredith. February 26,
1851 That namesdeseryes more than n
Epassing notice; his lie and mine !haye
been mott strongly linked together.
I g"h ttie same building With myself,
in fact directly over my head, there
roomed young man whom / had seen
in the recitations and in the halls ofour
building: 1Heswas, called Meredith by
the instructors, ,and that was all I knew
of him. However, ! liked his looks,
and determined to know more Of him.
So, one evening I went to his room, un-
der the preteTt. Of borrowing some
thing; he received me ina most cordial
manner !nnd readilyo ol6aRed ne what /
asked. We easily dropped into conyer-
sation, and he was so entertaining that
ever l spoke. 4 noticed that he kept his
eyes fixed upon my sfae ee-larges deep
brown ey@,k With an fearnest, Aeager
look in them. Indeed, his whole face
expressed an earnestnessapd determine
ton which won ME e0mpletely. told
him that 1Arooned fight Under him,
and asked hin to steplin any time when
.'Afssr eWsisjng forBhim G month, I
determined to~try' again. II was re-
ceived in the, same CORDIAL manner as
before, and when asked him Why he
had not been to see me; he frankly con-
fessed that he was afraid of meeting
CROWD of fellows there. which he al
ways avoided, if possible. Talked
with myEether classmates aboqtahim,
. andthey' al said that they had hai an
eNpsrienc ncexery siniilar tomme.A
- had also noticed that Meredith,
although quite talkative when I was
with him alone, became suddenly very
quiet mFanother person joined us. /
attributed this pecu iiarity to dif6dence,
but soon found that I was most COM
pletely mistaken, for Leonard was al
waysfat hiseases and although by no
9if49Ssnf Gfs9s ffarNas1 be 'e9pla net be called
The more knew and saw Of Leon
ard Meredith the more liked him, and
finally, on February &c, 1896 he came
to my room and wrote his name there
in my register From that time we be-
came better acquainted, and he used to
come to my room often when he knew
cnat I WAS alone. On one of the even
ings when he was with me he told me
the reason why he Stunned general So
ciety. i had never suspected it, nor
would you, had you known him. he
told me that be was almost totally deaf.
could hardly believe him. His voice
was as perfectly modulated az yours or
mine, and then l had been talking with
him more or less for whole year, and
had never once suspected his fnfirmity
Lip-readirg was not so commo then as
it is now, AndY soaIwas the more COM
plete}y Fast onished when He teldAme that
he,could understand what 3 person said
by watching the movements Of their
lips. If there wer. Two or three in the
company, he was unable,to look quickly
enough from one person to another in
order tp see what he said. This ex'
planned his ratllerpeculiar conduct.
After Leonard had told me Of his in.
trinity our, friendship grew, stronger
and wegradually became almost insep.
erable. Z Our walks were always taken
together. and during one of them, on 8
beautiful spring afternoon, he entrusted
to ME another secret.
knew that he was in the'habit o
visiting one family in the town, and i
WAS the only place outside of colleg'
where had ever heard Of his going, bu