Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1881-12-16

Il ketcn Glm up n carry I'm OFT ten or
/ twenty miles, till | met another train, and
some of the boys d carry him back home.
| 'Twasf't long afore there was scarce
! man on the road as didn't know Charley
/ latham baby. They'd pick i'm up wher-
ever they could find i'm, and sometimes
he'd be gone nearly all day. but somebody
| d set in down af0re night n he'd come
/ toddln' home. Somei lines I think it's
queer how the men Used to take to that
baby. There W IS felles just as rough as
| hears-brakemen, they'd get drunk and
crazy with liqnor and cut or shoot man
qlicker n lightnln';; N section men-up
in ITEM ouneains them section men were
4 mi4hty hard cases What for flghtin' and
qu4rre'in' they'd beat Sam Till. An yit
there wasn't one O. them chaps as would
speak cross word to my baby. They was
all fond of i'm, and if ANYBODY took TO M
posia' on 'ul, WY, TERED be muss
/ quicker'D the drop of yer nat
There was Bill Walker. You didn't
know Bill Walker did your No! Of
course you didn't Dead now. Left a
i
spoke after they picked i'm up. Bill, he
was crusty old bachelor-one of them
feilers wat never SEES nothin', if he can
help hisself. He didn't have no relations.
and he was so sot agip everybody this boys
used to say they didn't believe he ever had
a fail her or mother like other folks. He'd
hard lines in his life, for fact, and it
made i'm wat they call q misen---. Y IS!
that's it-a misenthorp. He seemed TO
hev particular grndge for everybody he
had seen. and a sorter general disgust for
everybody he hadn't. Bill picked up the
baby for ride one day, and when he
stopped at the next ton he was goin'
round oilin' his ingine and the little tyke
tagein' after, holdln' OF to is coat il
and getting HI self all covered with oil and
grease, jest like eg'lar engineer; and
there was one Of tn station men rs didh't
| like Bill, n0how, and he ses ses he: HUI
10, Bill is that q lef -ha der Of Aour'n?''
They say Bill just Turned ashy. He sets
! down bis n and reached for that felIer-
Jest one, square in the juggler, and he
didn't git out o. bed for ten days. One
day there came down from New York a
rocking-horsa and Mary found it at the
waJtr-t nix with a ice of paper tied to
| the bride n it said like this: ''lf Bill
Walker could ever wish for q baby Of his
own it would be little C1arl "" That
/ racking-horse had cost Bill d Whole
+; months wages
O Of the first things Charley learned
to say. wen he was beglnnin' TO talk. W S
this: Ycu see the men on the ro I'd used
t, call one anrtier "Pard '-short tn
('pardner." Charley he caught it, and he
always called me ..Pard.' l don't think
he ever called m" father or papa, like 9TH
er Children do; but 1t was alters ''Pard."
You and me is pards. isn't wp?'' he used
to lay. An that's what we alters called
one another, and he went by the name Of
Charley Latham's para" all over the
road.
I'd be goin' by the house, on the neon
train, an leanin' out of the cab watchin
for i'm, N he'd be out IN front. with q
U hite rag or something to wave at me-, aud
Id see by the motion of his lps-1 COULDN'T
hear for the noise Of the cars--that he was
sayin', You and me is pards, isn't WEEP
AS | was ttllin'. Sundays | laid OF; "a
in the mornn', after breakfast, Mary
would eli up a basket with some bread IN
butter n meat n things, and we three
would go off into the mountains and stay
all day. We used to do this every Sunday,
and so Charley got to calm it his p rd's
day. You see. he got notion that 1t was
the vest day in the week, 'cos was alters
home with him. didn't never go to
church much-it was a long ways; and
then thought Charley would get as much
rrlioion BY going around in the woods and
among the mountains. where the trees and
leaves were so beautiful and the rocks 80
grand, as any other way If they don't
tell us that the Creator who made em all
is powerful and coed, too, there amt no
preacher can 90 it.
You went mp TO the top Of Pixies Peak
the other day. I've been thare too, n "a
liEe to know if a chan can go up there,
among those awful precipices and gorgeS
and look over the country for one hundred
miles ard see the mountains aronnd, and
the Dlalns way off in front that dom seem
TO nave no end, aud then look at hiss4lf
and SAY whether he does really am aunt to
"a row of pins You see I never was any
Christian. and never give Charley no such
trainin', and sometimes think maybe
didn' do q.ite right by him. But, Lord
love you. stranger. wen he went among
the angels, I'm jest certain there WASH t
none Of em had any cleaner soul AN what
he had.
There YVES place, about three-quarters
! of a mile from our place, where we used 10
90 a good deal Sundays, ana Mary would
read the Bible to us and sing. She was q
good sinner, Marv was. We u.s. to call
the lace esDevil's Rnn.' 1t was a sort of
y creek. but didn't have no water in it.,
'crpt after y hard ram. Il came down b.
tween two high mountains, where it was
steep 40 coulA be. When a storm came IN
we known it iii 'ialf an hour to have SIX
feet of water in it. AN then it would
| bring down tir trunk Of trees and great
stones, roaring that way you could hear it
for N les.
Tt's got its name because it was such an
Internal place. Often I've been woke up
at nj hit by heavy shower. and I'd hear
Devils Run bowling as though it would
tear everything to pieces There c'uldat
be no worse place fixed for the road. il they
had hunted the whole country through,
than right there. There was a sharp curve,
and on the outside of it was y stralght-np-
and Town precipice for hundreds OF feet,
SO that il train went Off it would be