The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1886-06-18

whole breadth and depth of his distin-
guished friends misfortune and need.
He walked up and down the streets,
thinking, weeping, praying, inventing,
hoping. Eight o'clock rang from the
city steeples. The mass-meeting
would assemble in an hour. Maurice's
resolution was taken. He made his
way rapidly to Mr.. Severance's house
and rang at the door. The servant
said that no person had been admitted
since he (Maurice) had gone out that
morning. But Maurice was not to be
baked. A little eloquent Irish per-
suasion, and pleading a very important
errand, gained him an entrance. With
tluttering heart, Maurice mounted the
winding stairs of the silent house.
Upon the second floor he met a lady's
maid who recognized him. From her
he learned that Mr.. Severance was sit
ting entirely secluded in his own cham
Der, and that he had given the strict
est orders that no one should disturb
him.
Maurice passed on as if he had not
| heard. The maid stared. The lad,
confident and resolute, knocked at the
door of the chamber. No answer. He
/ Knocked twice. He was hidden to en-
| ter by voice so hoarse and deep that
/ it seemed to issue from a tomb. Re-
membering the unhappy gentleman 5
mood, and his orders to be left undis-
| turbed, we naturally expect a stern re-
! buke for his abrupt visitor and a sum-
mary dismissal. But it was not so.
Long in that shut and ioyless room
| sounded young voice in low and pas
sionate pleading. A noble and gifted
/ boy was plying all his powers to tender
appeal and exhausting the rhetoric of
real affection to rouse and save q
stricken man. That his simple elo-
quenee had gained a hearing it is
scarcely necessary to say.
AN what if the sthOry is thrue-Or
the worst of it, as We say? Didn't We
suffer yer pinalty, an isn't it thrue that
you lived a good man for forty years,
an made livery body love We like a
| feyther? o yer Honor, go down to
'em, beg, an face livery mothers son
of 'em there that's turned agin We, an
that dares to spake light of We now!
Go down to the City Hall, where
they re barkin' like hounds an confiss
that when you was a boy you thripped,
and then ak 'em to tell you if you've
ever thripped in their servicei AK 'em
| if it bent sweeter to forget than to de-
sthroy! Ak 'em if they would pull We
down in the dust for a thrick you did
before their city had three houses in it!
| Tell 'em that you want nothing from
| their hands, but every thing from their
hearts-ten 'em, yer Honor, that you re
| CROWN Guild, and that love an RESPECT
! is sweet to We, and ak if they would
take it from We nOw-hould the Bible
up in their faces an say to 'em how
the good Lord bids us to take the hand
of the penitent an to keep it like a
! brothers. o yer Honor, ye can ex-
! plain every thing-ye can spake bet
| ter n any body can make words for We!
Go down to 'em an'-teH them aIL-and
! they'll raise the roof wild their cheers.
/ They re aching ter see We, but if We
/ hide away, like man of shame, they'll
take We at yer word! o yer Honor,
listen to one who'd give his life to help
yer'
BY the time he had finished, a great
/ change had overspread the grand face
| of his patron. Bruce was encouraged
! by the efforts of a spider; Hawk-Eye
| was deferred from taking vengeance
/ by the smile of an infant in its sleep;
! POmpey's Pillar was saved from de-
/ structIOn by the utterance of one word
''Aqua!' WashingtOn's doubling gen
erals saved the army because they
! found him praying in the woods, and
| it gave them courage to believe that he
| depended upon God. The warm ap-
peal from the supplemented boy re-
| freshed the great spirit that was cast
upon the earth, and it arose again.
One of the most impressive things in
the world is the silence of a great hui
! man thrOng. Such a scene-such a
! silence-was witnessed in the city hall
! e II > I
that night. Every head was uncov-
cred. Upon the high platform sat the
! chairman of the meeting and several
assistants. Beside him, at a small
/ table, stood the tall, broad, dignified
! figure of the man who at the hands of a
| political rival had received the cruel
! blow that so nearly broke his heart.
| He had come in, nerved by the earnest
words of Maurice O'NeiI to shake off
the weakness of his first anguish, and
the multitude, held as under a spell
between their desire to welcome him
and their eager wonder as to what he
could say to clear himself, waited al
most breathless as he came forward on
the platform. His face was pale, but
there was a mingled pride and gentle
ness in his look that gave him even
more than characteristic dignity.
For a moment Mr.. Severance could
not command his voice, but when he
! finally spoke his tones were strong and
steady.
''Mr. Chairman and fellOw-citizens,
the charge that have been an inmate
/ of a State prison for the crime of
! forgery when a young man of twenty
one, and the particulars that / have
seen in print in regard to the crime are
substantially true. No one knows how
/ l have suffered in mind for that error
of my youth, but years ago / found
| pardon of God, and l have tried so to
live for forty years as to receive the
| pardon of men,"
He came to pause. There was a
dead-an awful silence. 1t lasted fully
| quarter of a minute.
Then a powerful, hearty, Western
voice cried:
"Raytfrer guess you've wiped that
out with us, sir!''
That homely response broke the
| spell. The multitude recovered from
4 their establishment, and in an instant
4 the pent-up feeling of all exploded in
4 an exultant shout. The raw Hoosier
/ had struck the keynote of their real
sentiment. Eager to forgive, quick tc
understand, full of rough, strong
! SNAoC Va iuSAAOCs tAACg AldAACNl JuIS QUICK
method of taking back to their hearts
| their honOred representative, with
/ Joy that knew no bounds. There was
no need of another word-of the
slightest allusiOn to the pure record
that they all knew by heart Their
generous spirits flashed into flame of
enthusiasm, and before he could hard
/ " understand the sudden revulsion,
the reinstated favorite found himself
surrounded, and his hands eagerly
clasped by unnumbered friends.
They led him, speeches. with ag1ta-
tiOn to carriacrn aud amid q trm11lt