The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1882-02-24
she said in tremulous voice. ..Do


have we met %
"My name is Smith," said she a
was with my poor boy three DAYS, off
and on, jim the courtroom in Oshkosh.
when he was tried for-for-for robbin0
somebody, and you are the same man
that sent him to prison for ten years.
and he died there last june
All faces were now sobered, and the
passengers began to gather around and
stand up, all over the car. to listen and
see what was going on. She did not
give the Judge time to answer her, but,
becoming more and more excited, she
went on '' He was good boy, if you
! did send him to jail. He helped us
| clear the farm, and when father was
took sick and died he done all the work,
and we was getting along right smart.
~ he took 10 going to town and got TO
playing keards and drinking, and then,
somehow, he didn't like to work after
that, but used to stay out often till
mornin', and he'd sleep so late, and
couldn't wake him when / knowed he'd
been out SO late the night afore. And
then the farm kinder run down, and
then we lost the team: one of them
got killed when he'd bin to town
one awful cold night. He stayed late,
and I suppose they had got cold standin'
out, and got skeered and broke loose,
and run most home, but run agin the
fence and stake run into one of 'em,
and when we found it the next morpin'
1t was dead. and the other was standin'
under the shed. An so after awhile he
coaxed me to let him sell the farm and
buy house and lot in the village, and
he'd work at carpenter work. And so /
did, as We couldn't do nothin' on the
/ farm. But he grew worse than ever,
and after awhile he couldn't get any
work. and wouldn't do anything but
| gamble and drink all the time. / used
! to do every thing l could to get him to
| quit and be a good, industrious boy
/ again, but he used to get mad after
/ awhile, and once he struck me, and then
in the morning found that he had ta-
ken what little money there was left of
the farm, and had run off. After that
got along as well as l could, cleanln'
house for folks, and washin'. but l
didn't hear nothing of him for four or
five years; but when he got arrested and
was took up to Oshkosh for trial, he
writ to me.
BY this time there was not a dry eye
In the car, and the cards had disap-
peared. The old lady herself was weep
I ing silently and speaking in snatches.
But, recovering herself, she went on
"But what could I do? 1 sold the
4 house and lot to get money to hire
lawyer, and believe be is here some
where" looking around. ''Oh, yes,
there he is, Mr.. - pointing to Law
yer -, who had not taken part in the
play 'And this is the man, am sure,
who argued agin him, pointing to Mr..
-, the District Attorney. ''And you
Judge -, sent him to prison for ten
years s'pose it was right, for the poor
boz told me that he really did rob the
4. .l.s.i.lS, but he naast have been drunk, for
they had all been playing keards most
all night and drinking. But, oh dear,
it seems to be kinder as though If he
hadn't got to playing keards he might
been alive yet. But when l used
to tell him it was wrong and bad
to play, he used to say, "Why,
mother, everybody plays now. 1 never
bet onlysfor the candy, or the cigars,
cor something like that. And when we
heard that the young folks played
keards down to Mr.. Culver's donation
party, and Squire Ring was goin' to get
a billiard table for his young folks to
play on at home, 1 couldn't do nothing
at all with him. We used to think it
l y
but it jist seems to me as. If everybody
nowadays was goin' wrong into some
thing or other. But maybe it isn't right
for me TO talk TO you, Judge, in this
way, but it jist seemed to me as if the
very sight of those keards would kill
me, Judge thought if you only knew
how l felt, you would not play on so (;
and then to think, right here before all
these young folks ! Maybe, Judge, you
don't know how younger folks, especially
boys, look up to such as you and then
/ can't help thinking that, maybe that if
3 them that ought to know better than to
do so, and them as are higher larnt, and
all that wouldn't set sich examples, my
poor Tom would be alive and caring for
his poor old mother; but now there
amt any of my family left but me and
my poor little gran'chile. my dead
darter's little girl, and we are going to
stop with my brother In uhnoy.
Tongue fman or angel never preached
more eloquent sermon than that
gray, withered old lady, trembling with
old age, excitement and fear that she
was doing wrong / can't, recall hall
she said, as she, poor, lone, beggared
widow, stood before those noble-looking
men, and pleaded the cause of the rising
BeuefdtlOn-
The look they bore as she poured
forth her sorrowful tale was indeseriba
BILE To say that they looked like crimi
nails at the bar, would be a faint descrip
ton. can imagine how they felt
The old lady tottered to her seat, and
taking her little grand.chiid in her lap
hid her face on her neck. The little on,
stroked her gray hair with one hand ant
said /: "Don't cry, gamma, don't cry
graDma." Eyes unused to weeping
were red for many mile ON that jour
ney. And 1 can hardly believe that on
who witnessed that scene ever touches
card again. 1t is but just to say tha
when the passengers came to themselve
| they generously responded to the Judge
who, hat in hand, silently passe
through her little audience. Pres6g
. terian Banner.