The comet. (Johnson City, Tenn.) 1884-1916, 1891-10-01
ANOTHER ENOCH ARDEN
An Der True Tale of the
Fratricidal Strife.
1t Comes Authenticated by the Most
Reliable Testimony.
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Brutal Treatment by Twin Brother
Brutal Treatment by Twin Brother
and the Horrible Sequel.

A quarter of a century has been
buried in the sepulchre of the ages
since the last reveille was sounded,
since the last gun was fired and the
last charge was made in the South's
fearful and heroic struggle for Inde-'
pendence and Nationality. The
wounds of the forest, torn, mangled
and shredded by shot and shell, have
healed, bearing not the slightest YES
tige OF the cannon's havoc, and the
arched solitudes aie as solemn and
peaceful as if they had never been
stirred and startled by the deafening
roar of battle. Trees, shrubs and rank
weeds, or ripening haryests ARE grow
ing over the vanishing memorials of
the famous fields of carnage, that were
gashed by rifle pits and banked by
embattled walls, where valor dared,
fought, bled and perished. The whte
head and foot boards which mark the
sleeping dust of the slain in Confed-
crate and Federal cemeteries have
been replaced twice at least by the un-
helped hand OF Southern affection, and
by the generosity Of grateful govern
ment. The remorseless spirit of the
hour glass and scythe has decimated
the ranks of those who passed with
their lives through this deluge of blood
this upturned hell of infuriated pas
sion. OF those who still linger on this
side of the River, a comparative few
have come to the decrepitudes OF three
score years and ten, whilst age is fur
rowing the brows and cheeks of the
rest and sitting down its SHOWS upon
their temples.
Many OF the thrilling episodes OF
those dark and bloody days away back
in hateful past have been lost in OBJ
livion or live at best in unauthentic
song and story. Now and then their
sadder, bitterer memories come to the
surface of the present through the
medium of the public print. There
never were wrongs and deceptions
fouler, treachery baser, crime blacker
and grief deeper than we are about to
record. A happy marriage, an en-
forced separation, flight full of hard
ships, hard army service amid con-
stant danger, capture imprisonment,
demented by starvation and twin
brothers lies, csc 10 from prison,
wrecked in heal.h, reduced to want
living in poor houses, after aimless
wanderings finding wretched, ruined
and dishonored wife in a distant home
the Heaven-suffused joys and antieipa
tons that crowned the bridal hour
turned to the Dead Sea fruit of bitter
est disappointment, ruthlessly robbed
of the hopes, ambitions and delight o.
that sacred companionship which
alone irradiates and makes endurable
the passage through this vale of cares
and tears, turning helpessly and hope
lessly away from the ghastly wreck o
a family-altar he had erected in the
halcyon days of youths exuberance
casting himself, crazed and miserabl,
waif, on life's turbulent sea, dragging
along the iron links of despair's chain
or at last finding peace and rest in thu
quiet and solitude OF an unknown
grave-these are the successive chap
: ters in this narrowing tragedy of sui
fering and woe. The combined un
happiness of thousands, over whicl
human sympathy weeps and walls
can scarcely parallel this iliad of mis-
cry and misfortune that comes to ou
knowledge, authenticated by the mos
eliahle testimony.
The spring of 'Go found the twi
brothers, Jordan and Lindsay Croker
aged twenty-one, living in retire,
portion of an adjacent county. The
were orphans, the survivors of a famil
of nine, the rest having been carrie
off by fatal fever the previous winte
within the space of month-tw
brothers, three sisters and the fathc
and mother The family were poo
having an humble home and fe
acres of land attached. The father wa