Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-04-14


died at Yorktown. He turned and looked
for Knox, who had left the group and was
standing among some members of Congress
in the emhrasure of a window. But they left
when the unexpected happened, and the
President RAPIDLY crossed half the room and
put his hand on Knox's shoulder.
"Knox, you remember this boys father.
But YOU were not with us when we lost
him. 1 never forget the last words he said
to me. He bowed-on his horse-and said,
1T shall be as you say, General, and rode
away. 1t was as [ said, but they told me he
was dead when they brought the news. Here
is his son-he seems good fellow"
Knox assured him that Harry had distin-
guished himself at college, and was highly
esteemed among young men. 'The blood is
the best in Essex county. Some of them
were Tories-but, then. 1 have been talking
with Pickering about him."
"Knox, this is the kind of fellow to en-
courage. Keep him with you afew weeks,
then send him with dispatches to Harmar.
He is volunteer. You need not put him
on any roll"
Knox laughed-as between themselves
these two men did. "Your Excellency,
will make Mrs. Knox take him home with
us. I will treat him as you treated the
Marquis"
And Washington went back to his station.
he beskoned to Curwen, and bade him talk
to General Knox. And SO all we care for,
of the reception, was over.
So youth and audacity and sentiment had
their way, as they will where prudence and
propriety and what is called reason fail.
Happily for us who live in the world, this
often happens-more often than men choose
to believe. And so it was that Harry
Curwen saw the interior of the little war
Al \ Sl. IL. L
to Philadelphia and Lancaster to see about
some pack-saddles which had been ordered,
and then inspected some cartridge boxes,
and some knapsacks which could not get
themselves painted. In all which COM
missions he proved himself not afraid to
work, and willing to ride all night and all
day If the business on hand required it. And
SO was it that at last the happy day
came, which had been put of again and
again, till he had thought he should die of
ilnpatience. In company with Count
from Austria, who was travelling, and who
was commended by Washington to the good
Offices of General st. Clair-in charge of a
party of boatbuilders and seamen who had
been enlisted for the Western service-Mr.
Harry Curwen, Acting Lieutenant, serving
as a volunteer on the staff of General Knox,
received his dispatches from General Har-
mar and Saint Clair, and was speeded on
his way.
So it happened that he struck the Monon-
gahela river about II miles higher up than
Cephas Titcomb struck it. He and his men
built their barge much more quickly than
the Newbury men built their ark. Harry
pressed every day, and on moonlight nights
would hire the carpenters to work half the
night. So eager was his hope to gain a day
or two in which he might stop at Marietta,
and show to Sarah Paris that somebody re-
spected him.
And so it happened, as in this world
some things will happen, that the day after
his barge was launched, as his jolly crew
and he sped down the river, little flag fly
ing in the fore, Sarah and the children
waved their flag as a signal on their side,
while the barge few by on the other, and
the eager young man never dreamed whom
he was passing. 1t was Gabriel and Evan
geline again.
And when, in the shortest passage yet
made, he arrived at Fort Harmar with his
barge-and when the next day he went to
inquire about the Titcomb party, it was
only to learn that no one so much as knew
they were coming.