The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1880-12-02
determination to all:good Muscle-men, you

'abomlnatlon to llsgood Muscle-men, you
know.
That's an awful waste ,"-said my COM
panion, looking longingly after the chunk
which had fallen on the grass,-'.but I
reckon you re ashamed to tote it through
the street. There was enough truth in
this to make me ashamed Of myself: so
clamberlng over the fence, | recovered the
meat and ''toted' it ostentatiously through
the streets to the Lincoln depot, where we
passed the night sleeping on the ground
with a couple of brick bats for pillow.
1t needed but a few steps next morning to
show me that Natures machinery had run
down during the twelve months of close
confinement, leaving me feeble as a child
not to speak of the mental depression re-
sultlng from the sights and sounds, or lack
OF both, Cor the raln-sodden landscape was
o%esolate IN the extreme) of the country
through which we slowly made our way
going home, SO called Happily, | met
DIR. V. NJ. Palmer, of Rutherford, himself
my father. and at once took me III charge,
and gave me slch assistance as was posi-
BILE.
A PERILOUS PASSAGE-FOUR LIVES LOST.
The Charlotte and Rutherford Railway
had shared Stoneman's torch, and was ut
terly broken up. The long bridge over the
Catawba was gone and that stream, ordi,
narliy an hundred, or 50, yards In width was
now swollen by heavy rains until the bot
toms ; seemed a sea of turbid, yellow water.
The main torrent was an ugly sight of 1t
self; having that strong, swift sweep which
bespeaks the powerlessness of man as com
pared with Nature strength. Twenty or
thirty returning soldiers were collected on
the hill tops watching the stream but
fearing to attempt the passage, as there
were only a couple of small canoes, or
"Dug-outs," i. clogs hewn into boat
shape, and followed like a trough. They
were scarcely large enough for eight men to
sit in Indian file, one behind another; hence
we're very liable to over-turn In an angry
current.
The first party shot out into the stream
like an arrow and had gotten nearly over
when a sudden lurch hurled all into the
tawny flood. Fearful screams arose from
shore and stream. Three men were en-
quilted like lead! One poor fellow clutched
at the blackened pier of the railway bridge,
an instant. Ere hose on shore could rush
down towards the spot, he had vanished
forever. Two, or possibly three, managed
to save themselves many miles down the
river, | afterwards learned.
We shot down with fearful velocity but
CHANGED to have steadier heads, and grad
ually obliqued towards the opposite shore.
Our greatest peril came at the moment of
landing, as we attempted to glide in above a
tree whose pendant branches formed a slight
slack cater. Unable to manage our narrow
craft we struck the tree itself with tremen-
dous crash, and swung around like boom
Luckily DIR Palmer, and | who had been
the first to enter, were enabled to clutch the
willows, and thus hold the canoe steady un
til equilibrium was restored. As | could
not swim a stroke In even placid water it
was a close touch.
How sad to think these poor fellows after
serving their country for four years, after
escaping the deadly hail of battle, and the
no less deadly pestilences of prison, yea, and
after reaching almost the verge of HEN
own farms (tor all of them lived in Lincoln
and Cleveland counties) should perish thus
miserably, and fill unknown graves. per
chaDce within sight of the humble firesides
where anxious eyes of loved ones were
watching for their coming
To BE CONTINUED.