Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1889-07-19

| making his way To his father IN Virginia.
| I Was greatly impressed by the boy's intel
! Hgence and courage, for 1t had certainly
required extraordinary determination To
| sustain a mere child amid all the pcrils of
I such trip as lac Had undertaken. /
/ thought Of the horrors that would natural
/ ly rise up before the inezper eneed mind of
child whilst wandering alone through
woods and fields that were new and strange
| thought OF the inevitable WEAKNESS of
the long journey on foot, OF the pangs of
hunger, and of all the dangers of the way,
and impulsivelv exclaimed:
why, Harry, you are a little hero.
When the conductor made his next round
through the train, l paid the little fellows
fare, and as he was evidently very tired, Ire
| pressed my own weariness and weakness,
and gave up the best part OF the seat in
order to made him as comfortable as cir
| cumstances would permit.
After a while day dawned, and we got
some breakfast Harry eating as if famish
ed | told his story to several of our tray
cling companions, and they ali seemed in
terested in him, and quite a group gather
ed around Us to hear the little fellow recite
the history of his wanderings. He told Us
that he had kept to the line of railway as
much as possible, and had Travelled at the
rate of from eight To ten miles day. He
had avoided the dwelling houses of the
planters, and had obtained food and shell
ter mainly from the negroes for the child
was shrewd enough to know that they
would not be as apt to hinder his progress
as the whites, for the latter would undoubt-
edly have stopped him and sent him back
to Charleston.
promised him that | would look up his
father on my arrival in Charleston, and
with that assurance he seemed perfectly
| content, and amused himself in the usual
fashion of boys for the rest of the journey.
BY the time we reached Charleston the
| journey had so exhausted my strength that
| left the train more dead than alive, and
when my mother clasped me to her bosom,
her JOY over my return was chilled by the
gloomy antiapations which my appearance
aroused and her very first movement was
to get me comfortably in bed, and then set
off at once for family physician. He came
at once, and Gained her fears by the as
surance that rest and good nursing would
be sure to pull me through.
"We'll have him strong enough to eat
| two more rations before long" he laugh
ingly remarked as he left the house.
But notwithstanding that the home nur
sing did greatly benefit me, was still for
some days too weak and i'll to give much
attention to my promise to little Harry.
Ny brother ascertained for me that no
such name as Sinton was registered at any
of the hospitals. He also inquired for the
family with whom Harry had been staying
before he ran away, but they could not be
found
My mother and sisters were too much
concerned about me to think much about
anything else, and it was tacitly under
stood that Harry would just remain quiet
ly with US until I had gained sufficient
strength to hunt up those to whom he be
| longed.
/ had been home perhaps ten days, per-
haps longer when the quiet of my sick
chamber was interrupted by the direful
calamity that befell the city mean the
great fire that swept from river to river,
and in few awful and never to be forgot
ten hours rendered hundreds of people
houseless, homeless and penniless.
1t is not my purpose to describe the
origin, extent and incidents of the fire. |
could not if | would, for | saw too little of
it to do so; but well remember the scar
ed, white faces of my mother and sisters as
the fire gained in extent and rapidty. |
had been in great pain all day, and had
been put under the influence of an opiate;
and although my room was lighted by the
glare until it was bright as MONDAY and
heard from time to time the frightened ex-
carnations of those who stood at the win
dows, still did not fully realize the ex-
tent of the danger.
Ny brother came in late in the night, his
eyebrows and niustachc singed off, his
clothing burned in many places.
''This is awful" said he. at looks like
the whole town is going"
"Let her CO." said l.. with drowsy in
difference.
He looked at me, shrugged his shoulders,
and went out again.
How long he was gone | do not know,
but ere his return our situation became
critical one, for the fire was making its
way rapidly in our direction. Before this
we had heard the cracking of the flames
and the falling of the houses, but now the
dense volume of the smoke poured down
upon US. The fiery showers of sparks and
cinders seemed all around about us, and
the hoarse shouts of the multitude grew
nearer to our doors.
At last, when the women folks We're al
most beside themselves with terror, my
brother burst in, and said:
"Mother, girls, | must get you away
from here. It's rough on you, old fellow"
''to take you out on such night, but it's
either that or roast"
few thing were hastily gathered to-
RcIHeT, u lllleT WAS ploHIScu luI
somehow or other we all got in the streets.
have vivid recollection of sea of faces,
pandemonium of noise and confusion,
jolting and pushing forward through the
crowd, and at last we came out into
safer and quieter portion of the town.
But the boy was gone.
How it happened none of US could tell,
but it must have been that my youngest
sister, who had been specially in charge of
him when we left the house. had released
his hand at some time or other whilst we
were making our way through the crowd
and the surging mass had swept him away
from us
The shock of it all nearly killed me, and
many weeks elapsed before | could muster
strength enough to get out of doors. IN all
this time not one word of Harry was heard,
and we gave up the hope of ever seeing
him again. Finally grew strong enough
to return to duty, and in the excitement of
war scenes and incidents little Harry Sin
ton was forgotten.
We were on the lines ut Petersburg to-
casion | had charge of a skirmish line
We held our position in young pine
thicket, but as we were about to be flank
ed and subjected to an enflading fire, /