The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1891-07-09

the spacious hearth who understood no
other language. Mr.. Amy (Ommee)
Lohner narrated to the company the
story Of "Old Settler" the gunsmish.
In dismay sat up in my trundle-oed
and listened at the frightful recital,
which in after years formed the basis OF
story I wrote, entitled, "Eberhart
Koselhanz, The Wizard Gunsmith:"
"a story which, hope. is to appear
hereafter, corrected and enlarged by
facts recently reaching me. I here en-
deavor to give the last version that l
have received. AS I tell it, now, [
make some unimportant changes to
adapt it to the squeamishness of exist
ing elegance. I can almost hear my
friend who last told me the story
(only short time ago)-almost
hear my friend say, "Why didn't
you tell it as I told it to y!ou?"
I know, that is going to be the ques-
ton he will ask me, as soon as [ shall
see him again; and my answer is going
to be: ''You told me the naked truth;
and don't you know that the naked
truth, at the present day, is not per-
mitted to appear in refined society, un-
less she has at least q cloak thrown
over her ?" He certainly is going to
reply: "Why, you don't say so! Now,
you can recollect back as far almost as
I can,-you being about seventy-four
and I eighty-four-and you know that
when we were boys together, and as
far back beyond that time as I don't
know, the truth used to walk through
the Dutch Fork, night and day, as
naked as newborn child, a. its very
first cry. You know that" "Yes, in
deed," is to be my answer, "as naked
as Adam and Eve were before they
lost their good consciences, and took to
stitching fig-leaves together with long
pine-needles for thread, to hide their
nakedness." "Well, WE'LL" he will
probably continue, II am of the opin-
ion that wherever people are ashamed
to look at the naked truth, they are
bold enough to think about what's
worse At this point I am going
to clap my hand over my friends
mouth and cry out, "hush'' Now for
the stoly.
Away back in the days when every
house in the Dutch Fork had its little
jingling bag of coin (mostly silver,
varying in amount from twenty to o
hundred dollars, deposited deep under
layers of woolen coverlets, linen sheets,
and various kinds of garments, there
lived, not very far from what is now
Hughey's Ferry, but then was Shirer's
(in Tarleto2's time)-there lived kind
hearted old man "given to hospitality
and, luckily for all who might be dis
posed to injure him, slow in resent
ment. He possessed the awful magic
power to produce sudden arrest of no.
ton in human beings, without in
slant cessation of life. fthis had been
known, he without doubt would have
become the object of dread and avoid
ance; but his uniform benevolence to-
wards all his neighbors and his strict
seclusion at home prevented provoca-
ton for the infiiction of such punish
ment. Thus, no one knew that there
existed in the neighborhood witchery
so nearly approximating the Black
Art. II am not mistaken it could
not be exercised except in self-defence,
either in regard to ones person or ones
honor.
The home of this gun-smith was
bright with contentment. His wife
scarcely beginning to bend under the
invisible weight that none can avoid,
nevertheless had lost none of her brisk
ness and went about her daily work
with the regularity and cheerfulness
of twenty years before. Two daugh-
ters, one of sixteen and the other of
eighteen years thriving in parental
love, gave aid to their mother in the
domestic work,-takfng time, now and
then, to laugh at the pranks of the
clownish blue jay or listen to the mock
ing-bird's borrowed songs. Notwith-
the awful secret that lowered
over that home, there was happiness
there, because pure love would have
its rights.
So it went on from day to day in mu-
tual love and freedom from fear; while
there was raging in the distance war,
the reverberations Of which reached
this quiet home like distant thunder,
too far away to see the lightning or
feel the earth shudder. It happens now
and then, however, while a cloud is
along the horizon and it is
clear over head, that an electric explo-
sion startles the people, and turns the
sickened thoughts toward God. So
came a rumor from beyond Broad
River, at Shirer's Ferry, in the begin
ming of the year 1850; and fear was
casting out love from many dwelling
and giving full possession to despair,
because the distant war had come so
near to the Dutch Fork as to cross over
the river and sprinkle blood here and
there. The rumor, though, brought
no dread 70 the inmates of the gun
smiths home. The two girls knew
wat dadty could do"; and the old wo-
man saw in her old mans eye an ex-
preston which she had not seen but |
once before, when an aggressor had
been seized with a terror that did not |
cave him to the last hour of his ex-