Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1886-10-30
CHAPTER I.
MYSELF.

" TO support buc
and kept her in rack Of anxiety sntil
was twenty-one, since sho saw me growing
up without trade or profession, and idling
away my time with no apparent anxiety 10
BE- anything but boy.
In some respects this was true. did wish
that boyhood and youth could remain for
ever, since all the manhood, or rather una
turity, about me seemed humdrum affair,
full Of care and vexation, and the older people
grew the less fun thSy had In the world.
I:wished, and even for a time thought, that
things would always remain as they were,
that the ''old men" Of my youth would al
ways remain about 50 old and no older, and
when heard that William Lopez, the first
playmate of my infancy, was engaged to DO
married to Fannie Lugar, it seemed to mo a
piece Of audacity as well as u serious innova-
ton on the established order Of thinga
Gradually it dawned upon me that must
cut loose from tops, marbles, kites and quail
traps, march out into the world and do sonie-
thing for living. ] did 50 grudgingly. In
deed, / held on TO my boyish ways and sports
years after my companions had laid them
aside forever, donned frock coats, high stand
ing collars, gaudy neckties, tight boots, and
deemed themselves proper little men--as they
were.
I commenced "doing for myself with a
series OF resolves to be something great, II
not good. / was one week a general, the
next an actor, the third an orator, finally a
sea captain Iawoke from these dreams to
find myself stu in status quo, eating the
bread Of idleness, parent and sundry rela-
hves meantime broadly limiting that it was
high time should do something
1applied to certain solid men of the village
as to the choice of profession. thought it
might raise me in their estimation 80 to con-
suit them. They might see that l was III
earnest to set seriously to work about hfe's
business. knew that my reputation already
was none of the best because l was one OF q
set, perhaps the leader, whose pranks at night
had gained with the staid villagers an un-
favorable notoriety We rang door bells,
changed store signs, impounded stray horses
in impromptu stables, built in the middle OF
the street at night Of empty dry goods boxes,
raised false alarms of fire, and did many
other things lin cases amounting to outrages
on property which boys at a certain period
consider it remarkably clever to do, and
which may be the only means of venting their
surplus energy.
In so applying to the influential men Of the
village / had also a fond hope they might
help me to q situation. My father had been
their peer In business. was not a stranger
My family and theirs had long dwelt in the
same town. The hope was natural
But there was no proffer of the help
craved. They talked well and wisely, gave
me much good advice in general way,
and seemed to think that any occupation or
calling might adopt would be well for me
II "stuck to it,
! had then such profound respect for the
Judgment of these men that deemed they
had, in telling me nothing, told me some
thing in consulting them. But, practically,
found myself exactly where / was before
my interviews, to wit; nowhere.
In the midst of my fluctuations as to the
choice of q profession, the California gold
fever of 1910 broke out. The problem was
solved. / would go to California and be-
come gold digger. There was something
fascinating in the idea Of digging for gold,
much more so than digging potatoes,
though the difference between the two Is not
worth mentioning.
The fever seized most Of the village youth
of my own age. A ship was fitted out, a
former whaling vessel 1t was not so much
of an undertaking for our people to make
the long, dreary voyage around Cape Horn
to California. Two-thirds Of the crew and
passengers of the Ann Mary Ann had made
the trip before.
Seventy all told, were to sail In that ship
Matured men, young men and boys, taker
all together constituting the flower Of the
village. N
The Sunday before sailing the pastor %
the Presbyterian church preached us fare
well sermon The church was crowded. TIL,
seventy about to sail felt, themselves the at
fractions of the hour, as they were! IL.
The younger men and boys came in a bod,
and occupied pews by themselves. We wen
full of excitement and anticipation. w
were the novelties of the hour. We coul,
give but moments fitting thought TO tn
sadness of the grieving mothers we were +
leave behind We neither realized nor az
preciated their many little daily cares for us
We hustled about with all the Importance O
fiedglings, proud OF our pin feathers, and II
garding them quite as good as matured plum
age. 1t was an impressive occasion-not s
much TO me then, but as l see it now--sadly
solemnly impressive, since 1t was for so man
the final departure, not merely from homes
relatives, friends and associations, but ais
In so many cases from our interest in theI
and their interest in us-a hard saying, bu
true Gone week, and memory is fires
with those who leave and those who are lef
month, and the raw, bleeding wounds {
separation and tearing asunder barely con
mence to heal; six months, and new event
situations, associations, circumstances con
mence the process of deadening grief; a yea
and we wonder where is the heart hunger
a twelvemonth past; two years, and o,
friend is a memory; five years, drear
with possibly half a dozen new personaliti
standing between us and her or him.
Boys sat in those pews who were TO retul
gray headed, battered and worn from
rough encounter with the world Of &
.artlest west-who at their next attendan
in that church would look in vain for q
deacons or prominent church members nc
standing erect during prayer time, after {
fashion which still fingered in the rr
PRESBYTERIAN churches of that day. 9th
bovs Of that gathering, and of these t
majority. were never to return. Their /
tays home. at first yoluminous, were TO /
sso IN size while the lapses of time betwe
each would increase Searching for ii,
ever receding further in the distance, tn
were 10. -,ader and become entirely lost
scr,a auI frierds ia the refnoter regions
mon ~. -, l,.osraa 1lunaffied I