Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1880-08-05
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A STORY OF THE WAR.

A STORY OF THE WAR.
A singular story, as one Of the thousand
strange events of the war, comes from ru
raj town in East Tennessee. 1t seems thai
in the early part of the war, man in the
town alluded to, having in his possession
eight hundred dollars in specie, and fearing
the consequences of keeping it by him, or al
least making this the pretext for his conduct
approached an honest, we'll meaning woman
in the town, the wife of small shop
keeper, and desired her to take the money
and keep'it for him. His reasons for max
ing the request were that in war times it was
not prudent for man who might reasonably
be suspected of owning specie to keep &c
large an amount in his possession, while she,
in whose honesty he had every confidence
could take it, secrete it in careful place
and never be suspected by any one OF having
it. 1t was also imposed by him that she
should never, by any possibility, let any one
even her own husband-into the secret.
After some hesitation the woman consented
to take the money, and entered faithfully
upon the discharge Of her undertaking. The
treasure was carefully concealed, and the
secret so sacredly guarded on her part, that
not even her husband was aware of the re-
sponsibility she had assumed.
A few months rolled by, the woman giving
herself no further concern about the money
than occasionally to satisfy herself that it
was safe in the place of concealment, until
one day mana neighbor-presented him
self to the honest woman and told her that
he was an an officer of the Confederate Gov
ernment fully authorized and empowered to
claim and seize, in behalf of the Government,
all the specie in the land. To make his pre-
tensions more plausible, he represented that
the Government was in pressing need of gun
boats, which could be obtained only with
gold, and that every dollar in the Confeder'
acy must be surrendered. The quasi off,
cial hinted to the woman that from the
known frugality of herself and husband
they alone constituting the family, and be-
sides living within the bounds of rigorous
economy, boarding every penny, as is the
wont of all shop-keepers Of their class, the
husband being thrifty German-it was
strongly suspected that they had large sum
of specie laid away. The good woman trem-
bed violently at the prospect of thus having
to surrender the scanty savings of many years
of deprivation, toll and anxiety, not to say
the trial of calamitous misfortune which at
one time had befallen them before settling in
the town, and while wringing her hands in
despair her mind was happily relieved by
the pretended officer himself
The secret which she had so sacredly
guarded, and the Importance of which was
so seriously impressed upon her by the only
man interested in the preservation of his own
money, ,oas kno,on by this dread officer Of the
Government He quietly told her that he
knew she had in her possession this money.
AS an officer of the Government it was his
duty to demand it, and if she would quietly
hand it over without delay, he would give
her no molestation as to any coin she and
her husband owned in their own right. He
admitted that they had met with misfortune,
were now advancing in years, and he felt
that he might in their peculiar case forego
the imperative duties Of his office but the
money she held in trust-the gold belonging
to man of wealth, whose duty it was to aid
with every means in his power the Govern
ment to which he owed allegiance-this was
altogether different matter. He did not
wish to use force. He hoped not to have to
resort to the disagreeable necessity of calling
upon the military arm to send file of SOL
diers to search her premises, who might find
more than the object sought; while such
proceeding would also divulge for the
first time to her husband the fact that
she had the money in her possession. The
tortured woman now began to realize the
nature of her position. While ordinarily she
made no concealments from her husband,
and the couple lived harmoniously and ami.
cably together, both laboring in their respec'
tive spheres to secure competency OF this
worlds goods, yet she had pledged her word
to man to whom she was under no special
obligation, to keep the secret even from her
husband. She had successfully done so up
to this time; and the pretended Govern.
ment agent subtly advised that there was
no necessity to mention the matter to her
husband then. All trouble could be remov.
ed simply by her quiet obedience to the be-
hest of the Government. He therefore ad.
vised ready compliance, suggesting that her
husband be kept in ignorance Of the matter
The poor woman, unused to the ways OF
the world, and whose fear of losing the scan.
ty savings of life time had been wrought
to the highest tension by the interview, in the
faint CLEAN of hope to save her own carefully.
boarded treasure, lost sight of what might
be the next false step of guarding from her
husband secret involving business trans
action, to her at least, Of such import, and
which might seriously embarrass them both
the remainder Of their lives.
With trembling hand, and, it must be ad
mitted, many misgivings as to her duty, not
only in the matter of yet breaking the secret
to her husband, but also her obligation tc
the man whose trustee she innocently became
and glad to relieve herself of an unwelcome
visitor, she produced the bags Of glittering
glittering in double sense, rejecting
not only their precious value in those days o.
scarcity and want, but, like the eyes of the
deadly basilisk, cleaning danger and destruc
ton.
Many minutes elapsed after the departure
of the ''impressing master" before the woman
could collect her wits, nor was it until neal
night.fall that she began to realize that she
had acted improperly, not from bad motives
except, perhaps, secret hope that in surren
dering this money her own would be safe
from impressment; but it dawned upon her
when too late, that her proper course would
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