The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1891-09-16
PULPIT ROCK,
TRUE PASSION STORY BY MAYLoR, A
PROMINENT AUTHOR.

PROMINENT AUTHOR.
About ten miles from the quiet little
town of Oxford, Ala, there is a lofty
mountain peak, at the summit of which
there is an enormous boulder known to
the surrounding country as pulpit
Rock, The scenery there is picturesque
and grand. On one side the rock rises
perpendicularly for more than $50 feet,
and all along the side are creviees and
lodges and cayenous rooms dug far back
| into the rock.
| On the other side little mountain
stream leaps over its ragged edge and
falls through crevises and crannies, max
ing hundred rainbows, to the gorge be-
low. Pleasure parties every year visit
this spot to enjoy the Dovel privilege of
climbing one of Alabama's highest noun
tain peaks and resting amid the grandeur
and beauty and refreshing gladness that
everywhere hang around.
Lovers who sit amid the sweet stiffness
of these mountains and tell over and over
the "old, old story" and gay young peo-
pie who shout and romp and make merry
sport have never thought of the drama
that many years ago was here enacted.
1t is strange story, and yet an old one.
So long ago has it been that no one can
be found who remembers the parties or
the circumstance. 1t is a story of love
and of passion--a story of a true, noble,
confiding, but erring girl, and of an I'M
scrupulous, vile and rascally man.
Not long ago a pleasure-seeker was
climbing down along the side of this large
rock, exploring the crevices and recesses,
when he found securely pushed under an
overhanging rock little tin box. 1t con
tanned a little packet of letters, wri ten
on brown paper of fifty years ago, and so
dim that they could hardly be read. They
were written evidently by an educated
person, for the style of penmanship
showed culture, and the letters them
selves were evidence of refined taste and
good breeding
Under this packet was another letter.
1t was written by girl who was MUIR
derer-was she a murderer she
wrote it. The pencil marks had almost
faded a way, and it was only after much
study that it was read. We will let these
letters tell the story:
THF CAMPS Nav 10 1S13
Molly-He even knows I've told you
the truth do love you and would die
to keep harm from you. Come over to
our camp tonight, and we'll climb up the
big rock and watch the falls by moon
light. EUGENE.
Here is another, written, it seems, the
next day:
"CAMPs" May 10.
You have done nothing wrong, Molly.
When fall comes I'll take you with me
to rich and beautiful Savannah. Mother
will love you and you shall be my own
wife forever.
will come to Bethesda to. night-be
there. f.
Through June and July these little
missives continued to come, always VOW
ing sincerest and purest love Molly
loved her gallant lover and was happy
in the belief that when fall came she'd
marry him and leave the rough and
rugged mountains for beautiful home
in the great city of Savannah.
The last letter from Eugene is dated
August IS, 1S43, and 1t was this that
raised the demon in the young girl, and
caused the sad tragedy that ends this
story. Here it is just as it was written:
Molly: We have just been ordered to
move camps tomorrow. | can deceive
you no longer. l 10 not love you; / can
never marry you, l want to see you and
explain all. If you can, meet me at the
spring tonight, just after "bugle time"
and wei go up to the big rock where our
sweetest pleasures have been had want
TO explain there. EUGENE.
In the packet of letters there was only
one from Molly; let it finish the story:
ooh, papa, know ought not TO have
done it. couldn't help it. He deceiv-
ed me, and swore I'd kill him. Papa,
forgive my sin; heaven has. | killed Eu-
gene ana Threw MS BODY into the gorge, IN
few minutes mine will follow his. Oh,
papa, this is terrible, but cannot bear
for you to see my face again. Good bye,
dear, dear papa"
This letter was not signed nor dated,
BUTT tells the closing scene in the drama.
On the ledge where these letters were
found, unfortunate Molly slew her false
lover and threw his body into the gorge
hundreds of feet below. She scrubbed
those last pathetic words to her father
and then leaped to instant death among
the rocks. Who Eugene and who Molly
was we do not know, and no doubt some
where to-day sister or brother tells
the sad story of the disappearance Of
Eugene and Molly.
1t is safe to say that their bodies were
never found, and in the gorge they lay
until another earth fully claimed them