The Dawson journal. (Dawson, Ga.) 1878-18??, 1886-01-28
ROMANCE OF T00MBS.
HOW ROBERT TOUMFS MADE ONE
HAPPY NEW YEAR.
The 0utcast that Deifted to the Home
of the Great Statesman and tn
Treatment He Received
The Story Of Levin
ShOckley.
New York World.

The Story Of Levin
Sh0ckley.
New York World.
A New Years story in which
old Bob ombs, sturdiest of Con
feder9e and staunchest of
friends, IS the central figure de
ligh&hme the other day A
1:ssSautH tsstill partisan of the
old school, still filled with the re-
ligion of the State rights and Sc
cession was It's narrator. He was
an old man, this story teller, and
he waxed earnest even to elo-
quence as he paid tribute to the
manhood and heroism of the great
GeoI gia fire eater, whose memory
he seemed almost to worship.
"About a dozen years ago thus
my entertainer began there
drifted down to Bob Toombs
neighborhood an old man appa-
rently without friend in the
world He was penniless and he
was worn out; he would do Moth
ing for himself, and yet he was
too proud to beg. Starvation
stared him in the face, and .he
poor outcast was fairly dying
when, by the veriest sort Of an ac-
cident, Bob Toombs stumbled on
him. Then he was rescued, that
big hearted fellow, with all his in
vectiye and all hi, outspoken bit
terness, never saw one human be-
ing suffer single minute that he
was not anxious to make some
sacrifice to give relief. But in
the case Of this old man there was
even extraordinary activity, and
the few neighbors who discovered
Toombs' attention to the stranger
wore all convinced that he had
come across some special reason
to prove his interest. What that
reason was none of us. ever rightly
surmised TILL Il long time after
ward, when, urged by the very
force Of circumstances. Bob
Toombs himself told his closest
friends something Of the case,
while we had in another way the
chance to learn much else than he
divulged. 1t was to his own cred
it all that We found out, and that
it was largely tho reason he chose
to be mysterious, for there never
in all the world was a man who
more detested personal praise than
he. | knew a farmer once whom
he befriend, and the farmer pre-
sumed to profess profuse thanks
in public whenever and wherever
he CHANGED to meet his benefact0r.
Toombs couldn't stand it. lie
asked the farmer to stop it, but
the farmer looked upon the re-
quest as only a sort of masked i'll
dorsement, and on he streamed
with his superlative adjectiyes on
every occasion. Tlan Toomb5
brought him to order in double
quick after a fashion very much
his own. He dropped in at the
country store where that farmer
dealt, bought the storakeeper's
bill against that person, and with
out the slightest ado sued the Of
fender for it and made him pay a
bill of costs. 1t was a sure cure.
ut doesn't matter how much
Bob Toombs came to know this
feeble old man, went on my story
teller, coming back from the adu-
latory farmer to the mysterious
stranger whose untold sorrows
suddenly awakened sympathy, che
didn't want for anything after Bob
Toombs found him; the best was
not too good for him; everything
that money could buy he got; Bob
Toombs' own doctor staid by him;
Bob Toomba' own home supplied
him with sicb-r1om Injuries; Bob
Toombs' own time was given up
to him. Had thatman, stranger
and pauper, been Bob Toombs'
own brother or his own father,
not bit better could he have
Jared. 1t was no wonder that we
who looked on were curious-mind-
ed and made wild euesses over
the affair that landed US always
further and further from the
truth. 1t was the general belief