Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1886-01-19

ShOcklCy-An tnteralhb SholCn'
OBserrsr IN Aeto ,yk World.
A New Years storyl which old Bob
Toombs, sturdiest ofCOnfederates and
stanchest of friends, 1.-The central figure
delighted me the otheaay. A Southern
er. still a partisan ofle old school, still
filed with the rehgioof state rights and
secession was its naator He was an
old man, this story teer, and he waNed
earnest even to elOuence as be pald
tribute on tribute to e manhood and he
roism of the greatGeorgia hre-eater
whose memory he seemed almost to wor-
ship.
about dozen yars ago'-thus my
entertainer began-tnere d'lited down
to Bob ToOmbs' neigbOrhood an Old man
apparently without atriend in the world.
He was penniless anC he was worn out;
he would do nothing or himeii, ana vet
he was too proud to beg. Starvation stared
him squarely in the face, and the poor
outcast was fairly dying WIN, by the YER
lest sort of an accident, Bob loomos
stumbled on him. Then he vas rescued.
that big-hearted fellow, WITH al MS In
victive and all his Outspoka bitterness,
never saw one human beinguher SIN
Gle minute that be was moi anxious to
make some sacrifice to give relief. But
in the case Of this old man tire was even
extraordinary activity, All tne Few
neighbOTs who discovered Tombs' atten-
lions to the stranger were al convinced
that he had come across som special rea-
son TO provoke bis interest What that
reason was none of us ever rightly sur
missed till a long while aiteWard, When,
urged by the very force OF circumstances,
Bob ToOmbs himself toll his closest
friends something OF the @se, Whlle we
had in another way the canoe 10 learn
much else than he diyuled. 1t was to
his own credit all that W found out, and
that il was largely the Tas0n he chose 10
be mysterious, for theTeleVer IN all the
world was a man who nDre detested per-
sonaI praise than ne. knew FARMER
sonce whom he Detriendd, aud the farmer
presumed to profess p0fuse thanks III
bubble w1aneYer and Wherever be chanced
to meet his benetactOr IoOmDs couldn't
Bandit. He asked tn farmer to stop 1t,
Dut the farmer lookedup0u this request
only as a sort OF masRd Endorsement, and
on ne streamed withns superlatlFe adj
5ectives on every pOsibleoccaslon. Then
ToOmbs brought mir TO order IN double
quick after fashIQ very much his own
he dropped in at Tie country store where
a
ers bill against th.t person, and without
the slightest ado aed the offender for 1t
and made him pa bill Of costs. 1t was
8 sure cure.
''It doesn't natter much how Bob
TOOmbs came bknOw this feeble old man,
went on my story-telleT, coming back
from the adulatOry farmer to the mystic
rlOus stranger whose untold sorrows so
Suddenly awakened sympathy. "He
didn't want for anything after Bob
TCOmbs discovered him; the best wasn't
tee good fC him; everything that money
could buy or INN he got; Bob TOombs'
own dOctolstaid by him, Bob T0Ombs'
Own home Implied him with sick-rOom
MXuTies, BIB TOOmbs' own time was
giVen up TO i'm. Had that man, a stran-
Ger and paper, been Bob T0Ombs' own
Z Nc ~. or Be- Foombs' own father, not a
bit better cOld he have Jared. II WAS no
wonder that 70 Wi looked on were curl
ous-minded ad made wild guesses over
the affair tina landed US always further
and further finn the truth. 1t was the
general belieithat the old man was some
old friend, pehaps one who had been de-
voted in COnfderacy days. He wasn't.
Instead OF beng an old friend be was an
old enemy Instead of having stood with
the South in he war he had been with the
among the lat who would have been pick
ed out by ANYBODY as likely TO receive
consideration, much less kindness, from
bur very higl priest Of secession.
''LeViu Shwkley-that was the stran-
gers name-tOfn of a Southern father
aHd mother On the Delaware Mary land
peninsula, sh,uld have been with the
South in the war, but, for tue reason that
deprived US ola good many others, he
threw his lot with New York and Penn
sylvGnia. He vas a Methodist parson,
and what he believed was his conscience
put him againstour side. He was over
90 years old whm the war broke out, and
had charge somewhere in Virginia. In
those days he-euld talk with whirl-
wind power all through his own confer
ence and even il remote parts of the South
he was famed or his elOquence. Rich
churches in Soltsern cities besOught him
to come to them but that conscience was
always standing In the way. He could
do good, he SAID among the Virginia far
mefs, while peI1aps his most earnest eff
fort might in another field prove but the
vanity of Thinking cymbals. So long as
he could get the necesearies of lie he
should heed nOtemptations in the way OF
big salaries. From bis early manhood he
had been a distelieYer in tho institution
y
er be MAINTAINED the strictest silence on
that issue till just about the time Bob
1oombs made us last famous secession
speech in the Senate and gave notice of
bis withdrawal. Then Levin Shockley
was Of a sudden q changed man. On his
way home from Washington Toombs stop-
ped over Sunday with an old family friend
IN Sh0ckiey's Virginia town, and rode
with the family to ShOckley's church, lit
tie dreaming OF the scene that he was to
witness ere the morning passed. There
was almost a scOwl on tne preachers face
as be strobe into the little cabin of a
church and made his way up the main
aisle 10 the pulpit. He clutched news.
paper in his hand, and so tightly did he
clinch 1t that not once during the opening
hymn. nor through the scriptural read
ing, nor yet while he prayed, did he re-
lInquish II. Had it been the prize OF a
lifetime not more closely would il have
been held. How be prayed! How the
congTegatiOn hall rose startled at his Pc
titiOnsl How the hero OF Georgia looked
askance and showed signs OF astOnish.
nent AT the earnest pleading that ensued
like the cry Of parent for a loved one
lost! How full Of patriotism was every
word bneathed! II was--eO said TOombs
30 me himseli-it was an awful PRAYER.
But this was but the hint Of what was to
come. Levin SbOekley never before preach
Cd as he preached that day. Ills text /
have forgotten; it matters little what
kcriptural passage he chose. for that pa-
Der, tight clAtched IN his hand, was the
fCal teXt-and that paper contained ne.