Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-08-10
THE SAVANNAH MORNING NEWS SUNDAY, AUGUST 10, 1884,
THE STORY OF SAM BARTON.

THE STORY OF SAM BARTON.
A Real EnOch Arden Returns TO ocean
pOrt-He Comes Home to Die Al Ter Zen
Years Absence and Finds his "Ae
Welded to His Former Rival.
A few scattered houses, painted sober
brown, rest upon the sands two miles
north of Long Branch, New Jersey, says
the New York Sun, and constitute the
village of Oceanport. The little houses
are tenanted by people whose hardy
lives and simple manners contrast
strongly with the luxury and gayety of
Long Branch. 1t is only once in a while
that fashionable visitors find their way to
Oceanport, and then they go for the ex-
press purpose OF eating freshly caught
fish and CLAIMS.
A pathetic story, closely resembling the
story OF EnOch Arden and Annie Lee, has
recently been disclosed upon a deathbed
In this quiet and primitive village. The
narrative, however, has agitated the sim
ple-minded folk but little, and the tongue
of gossip has scarcely touched upon it,
The history had to be gathered by bits.
The work was not an easy one, since those
who knew it best manifested disposition
to talk the least. But here is the story:
A pretty girl lived near Manasquan 80
years ago. Her name was Matilda Dulci-
mer Squires. Those who knew her then
say that her eyes were wonderfully soft
and blue, her figure was trim and grace
full, and her brown hair long and lustrous.
Besides these gifts of beauty she had the
qualities requisite for good housewife.
She was the daughter of a fisherman, a
thrifty, staid and practical man. Two
young men paid her court-Hiram Olive,
whose father had recently died and left
him farm near the quaint old village of
Branchburg, and Samuel Barton, who
like her father was a toiler of the sea.
Hard luck had come to Barton and he
had little to offer his lady-loye beyond his
heart and hand. Old man Squires, with
his eye always to the main chance, was
an advocate of the suit of Olive, and
curtlY limited to Barton that he need
not hope to become the husband of the
pretty Matilda. The pretty Matilda and
Barton, however, had notions of their
own on that subject. Barton had already
declared his love, and Matilda had told
him that she was "fOnd'' of him, Her
fathers opposition but increased the in
tensity of her attachment. They met by
stealth, and in the end were married in
secret. The truth could not be hidden
always, and when in the course of time
old. Squires discovered it he was furious.
He was hardly the man to forgive and
bless. AS his child had chosen, he said,
so be 1T unto her. He sent her away from |
his house, and declared that as she had |
disObeyed him, she had despised him, and |
must no more think of him as father.
The ill-luck that attended Samuel Bar |
ton as lover followed him as husband. |
Nothing seemed to prosper with him. |
Three children came. They, like their |
mother, were bright and pretty. But |
they were not gold or silver. 1t was nat !
I1ro fbaf N afi1Hotc
circumstances, should sometimes revert |
to the old days with something of regret |
for what might have been. Hiram Olive |
was still in fortunes favor. But he never |
thought of marriage any more, and there |
was no girl at Manasquan who could |
truthfully say that his attentions to her |
meant more than polite form. After Ma |
tilda Squires' marriage he lost much Of |
the buoYancy that had characterized him 1
before. His relations with Matilda and |
Samuel Barton, however, still remained |
kindly. 1t is related of him that on one /
occasion, when Matilda's oldest child was |
suddenly taken violently ill, he rode six !
miles through snow storm to bring a
physician.
Matilda was disconnected, and she
vented her feelings upon her husband, !
reprOaching him for having, as she put it, |
seduced her into eSpousing his fortunes |
and chided him with his poverty. Her |
husband one day informed her that he |
had received an offer through a friend to |
go as mate on vessel bound from New
York to China, and had accepted the |
offer. The voyage, he said, would take
about year. He received half his pay
in advance and gave it to her for the sup |
port of herself and the little ones. He sold |
his fishing boat and gave her that money |
too. When they parted, he to go on his |
long journey, she to patiently walt his |
return in the little fishers cottage, she |
fell into his arms weeping as if she never |
would see him again.
He lifted her up and cOldly said: 81 |
thought that you had got tired o. me, Ma
Tidy. I've brought you no good-nO. no |
good-but maybe this will be a change IN |
my.fortune."
Ten months after that Matilda received !
intelligence that the vessel on which her |
husband sailed was wrecked in southern |
seas. The months and years went by and |
she heard not word from the ocean. /
Just 10 years after her husband had |
sailed away she married again. The |
groom was Hiram Olive. Her father |
lived long enough to witness the cere- |
mony and to take his daughter back to |
his heart. Hiram Olive sold his farm and |
bought one near Oceanport, and took his /
bride and the children of his old rival |
with him and lived there.
Three weeks ago Weather-beaten old |
man in shabby clothes appeared in Ocean !
port. His cheeks above his gray, grizzled |
beard were pale and sunken. He said |
that hehad come down from New York. |
He got a lodging in the house of the |
Widow Josephson, kindly old soul some !
tines called Grandmother joe" The |
second morning after his arrival he was |
unable to rise from his bed. II never |
shall get up again." he said to anxious !
Grandmother Joe. t'Pve got consump-
ton bad, have dragged myself here to
die, but don't fear when ! am gone. You
will find money enough in belt round
my waist to pay you for all your trouble. !
/ hung on to that though everything else |
left me. AS / came down here l heard
the name of a certain woman. 1t was
Matilda Dulcimer Olive. She once was
the wife of fisherman who lived on the
coast near here named Sam Barton. She
was the daughter of old man Squires. Do
you know her%
sYes."
''Well, go tell her to come here to see
me. Tell her she must come; only once
that will be all. Go right now"
"Who are youw
''She will know"
The widow, full of surprise and curl |
ositv, hurried away, leaving the sick man
in charge of her red-haired maid of all |
work, Susie. When she returned Ma |
tilda was with her. The two women en-
tered the sick room together. The stran-
ger was lying with his shining eyes fixed |
Tpon tho doorway Matildasc evac mot |