Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1884-10-09
Au Original Storg*
Written for the Yorkville Enquirer.
PATSY ANN SILVERSKlN q;
OR,
THE VICTIM.
A COLUMBIA STORY.
A COLUMBIA ST0RI J
By MRS. VI. w. STRATTON.

were not valuable as works of art, being al
most the first attempts OF William barclay,
a young Columbian, and had been intended
as likenesses of his father, good old William
Barclay, and his uncle, Mr.. Robert Bryce
but as far as resemblance is concerned, they
might as we'll have been anybody else.
How they came into Silverskin's posses
sion, if he knew their origin, or anything
at all about them, he never "let on" He
was no Judge of pictures, and only hung
them on the wall because he didn't know
where else to put them, and only kept them
there because his wife so often declared she
"co,Hd not stand hem." She once said that
she did believe that if she had never 'let
on'' about them, Silverskin would have
pictures in our childhood, and can yet re-
member the glaring colors that delighted us,
and the exceeding ugliness of the faces that
repelIed us; and yet we would like to look
on them to-day and give few moments OF
sad thought to the handsome black eyed boy,
whose early marriage ruined him financial
ly, and whose early death deprived Colum-
bia Of an artist. Mrs. S. got rid of one of
them, through her habit of giving orders
she did not mean, and the Willingness OF
Jefferson Madison Jackson to obey such.
One day the boy had Il pop-gun, and was
annoying his mother by taking aim at things
around her, his chinaberry bullets doing
little mischief, but being scattered on the
floor.
"Quit that right away, sir" she said angri-
ly. "YOu'd better take one of them old pic
lures out and shoot it all to pieces, II you
want to shoot so bad"
AS she left the room the obedient boy
sprang upon chair, unlocked the picture,
and in moment had borne it to remote
part of the garden, and summoning his
brother, Washington Lafayette DeKalb, to
assist him, they soon riddled the canvas, and
made it as unrecogniZable as painting, as
it had before been as likeness.
When Mrs. S. found it out, she was little
uneasy; but advising the boys to bury the
fragments, and herself removing the other
would forget them. He never seemed to
notice the absence of those bones of conten-
tion. Having so many others, he could
spare them.
Mrs. S. would, now and then, regale her
husband with catalogue of her sutferings,
and would conclude with, "But it won't be
always" and she would roll her eyes up
toward heaven, as though she would inti-
mate that a reward awaited her there,
which she would soon agonize her unfeeling
listener by claiming. Now it always did
seem to us most absurd thing for an in
iured or angry wife to talk to bad husband
about her dying, when it is the very thing
he wants her to do. An oft-quoted poet says
that the only way
''To bring repentance to lover
And wiring his bosom, is to die"
But in our humble opinion, it would be
more satisfactory to wiring his neck and lie.
Another time Mrs. S. got a lesson that
ought to have cured her, had cure been pos
sible. There were two little girls of five
and seven years who were famous for their
love of mischief, quickness in hunting it
up, and the determination with which they
executed it. They were children of a friend,
and often visited Mrs. S. by themselves.
Ida, the youngest, was the most intelligent,
and she used to victimiZe Alice, exactly as
Patsy AIMS brothers vctimiZed her. She
would put mischief in Alice's head, do the
most of it herself, then slip out of the cOnSe
quences Mrs. Silverskin had pet hen who
had Matched out seven chickens. They were
of rare Breed and she priced them highly.
One evening she was feeding them, and
those children were playing around. Alice
had a switch with which she suddenly cut
one of the little chicks, hurting it badly.
"What are you doing, you bad child p"
cried the angry lady. "You've broken that
chickens leg. You'd better get knife and
cut them all off at once" and catching up
the little thing, she ran on to the house to
examine, and, if possible, save it. While
she had done, Ida darted into the house,
seized a pair Of sharp scissors, and return
ed in triumph to the yard.
"Here, Alice" she said, 'she told us to
cut off all the feet. I'll hold them, and you
cut them," and they actually succeeded in
catching the poor little things and cutting
off the feet Of four. Never was there more
enraged and distressed woman than was
Mrs. S. The cruelty hurt her worse than
the loss.
Among the most prominent of the things
that Mrs. Silverskin could not sta,ld was her
next door neighbor, Mrs. Norton, because
her espionage and interference aggravated
all the rest. The home of Mrs. Norton was
separated from that of Mrs. Silverskin by
fence neither high or close, and this fence
was a. constant subject of complaint with
Mrs. S., and many times did she assure her
husband that it would be ''the death of her."
for not word could she say or thing could
she do, without that abOminable woman
seeing and hearing it.
He would invariably reply with the ut
most GOODNESS, "My dear, you should never
say or do anything that you would not be
willing for the whole world to see and
hear.H
"Now this was a very pretty sentence,
and rolled glibly off the tongue of the speak
er, who every day of his life said and did
things that he knew would lower him in
the opinion Ofany one, even his wife, though
of course he didn't mind her. Ought not
she to hear, see, "suffer and be still?" But
would have been remedied, the fence par
ticularly; the prying eyes of Mrs. Norton
being as great an annoyance to Mr.. S. as to
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