Wichita eagle., 1888-03-03

INTO georgia sOM6WuefU ~ 49,
kin. She took the train at Yves. Ioln1
and went up to Atlanta, and lnal she eooA
the train to 60 to Barnesvlle. IL vas
long train loaded with soldiers, eha sne
was the only woman on the whoie ,raih
and that little babe was the only Daoe on
the train She was sitting right on eF
seat by the stove that they keep on trans,
though thar warn't no fire, because u was
summer. and the little babe was slttlnS
right down on the floor playing, and
everything was running erloDg smoothly,
when ell Of er sudden thar was Ell tram
come meeting US and everything was tore
all to pieces. Everybody in that pox was
badly hurt or killed, and Lens Vile was
killed, and she had nothing erbout her 10
tell who she was or whar she was from.
The Yankee prisoners that ~ere ABOARD
the train on their way to AndersonVllie
dug into the dead and the wounded, and
thar was the mother, the only woman on
the train, dead, and the little babe sittln'
there playing with piece OF the shat-
| tered stove, saying, Ma, ma, ma; pa, pa,
pa as it would laugh and hit the hoor
with piece of the stove and pat ITS little
hands in puddle Of its mother blood.
| Them war bad times.
| '.Now, want to tell you erbout that
| little babe and why it was that the cap
tain of that conscript gang that killed
Lens little girls escaped, while all the
rest war killed and Lens X mark put OPP
posite their names yonder on that tree,
and how it was came to know al eroout
| it."
! Here old man Plunket moved Oil few
steps to the spring-for we had long since
alighted from the wagon and had eaten
lunch under one of the oaks. After the
old man had drank and lit his pipe, he sat
down and continued:
lone of the big Yankee prisoners took
the little babe in his arms and went and
washed the blood often it with some water
that run from the mashed up tender, and
he didn't know what to do with the little
thing 50 he seed old man Williams er
sittin' off err piece, not much hurt, and he
took the little babe and put it in his arms
and told him to take care OF it. Old man
| Williams never had no children, and he
didn't know how to manage the little
thing, brt he done the best he could, and
thar warn't nobody else that wanted the
babe, so the old man had to keep it, and
he growed to love 1t the same as If it was
his own little babe, and when he took i,
fairly danced, and they kept it and raised
it, and it was always called Lena Will
Jams. and it never did know, and don'1
know till this day any difference betwix'
these two old people and shure enough
father and mother.
well" continued Plunket, 'T.eni
erowed up to be as pretty er young lad!
as thar was anywhere in Pike county, ant
| 1x-hi 10 m
Williams willed her everything he had
and so she was rich and happy, and is Il
this day, hope.
1.-The war was over, and Len Clinton
started out to travel the world over, L
find his wife and little one and to fulfil
the VOW that he had made kneeling besid
his dead children, to kill every man tina
came to his house on that sad night.
''He wrote to every one in Georgia tina
he knew for intelligence of his wife an
little one. He could hear nothing II
then wrote to other states, and waite
and watched for their coming. Year
passed. his hair grew gray, he roved tn
. woods, looking into every nook and corne
to see if he might not find the bones of hi
, loved ones, murdered and hid away. II
got to be called Crazy Len, people wer
!
and then he come back to Alabama, an
then he went over to Georgia, and he wa
GROUND in my settlement and l seed hiI
and he told me erbout all his trouble:
and l told him erbout the collision s
GAINESVILLE and erbout the lone woman
| the little babe and he would hardly wa
+ for me to get through fore he was of
! and that's how I come to know so muc
erbout him.
'Well." continued Plunket Glen wei
? to GAINESVILLE, and he seed the gray
marked unknown and then he wei
, over the other side of Zebulon to old ms
Williams settlement, and he got to Il
r store close by where Lena and her hu
o bend lived, and set down to rest a mini
leaning his gun, which he always CARRIE
p up by the side of the house, and while
= was talking they all found out who
|, was, and some of 'em run and told Lei
/ and her old man erbout him, and he
: they come down to the store, and as The
o turned GROUND the corner of the sto
within ten feet of where Len was settiI
n Len raised his head, recognized the hu
band grabbed his gun and threw it to h
n shoulder, when Lena sprang in front
# her husband, and as her eyes met h
h fathers he slowly lowered his gun al
s said:
!, "T won't make the other X turn
# and walked off, and he's never been SCI
II in Pike since, and they just call hi
d crazy. He may be erlooking right at
s now Folks say he's always somewhe
, GROUND here, and you couldn't get n
d body what knows him to touch thing
q this place or to disturb erthing about tn
old house. Sarge in Atlanta Constit
n ton.