San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1892-03-09


or to hinder members Of it from acquir-
ing knowledge or property. On the con-
trary, there existed between the two
great amity and friendliness, and in
some instances, where the tie was of
long standing between employer and
employed, sort Of feudal feeling which
led the one to yield protection and cor
dial liking. and the other an admiring
respect and loyal, if lazy, service.
1t is no uncommon thing even yet in
the south to hear one man say of an
other: I've knowed him all my life.
My father was his fathers overseer way
back in slavery times. They are right
down clever people, his folks are; we
allus liked EN- mighty WELL" The liking
was generally mutual; and that the
"overseer" class of the south remained
so long, and remain still in a great
measure. in lower position is due partly
to their own willingness, partly to the
habit of subordination.
Across the ravine from the Beverley
mansion, beyond little stretch of
woods, stood settlement of cabins
which had formerly been occupied by
slaves belonging to the estate. Some of
the houses had fallen into partial or to-
tai ruin. but few were still inhabited,
as was shown by the curling smoke as
cending from their chimneys. Above
them, nearer the crest of the hill, stood
the oyerseer's house-a neat building of
hewn logs with rough porch in front.
and still in good state of preservation.
1t had been occupied by a family of
white tenants at the time when this por-
ton Of the Beverley plantation passed
into other hands; but the lawyer, in
obedience to instructions received from
the new proprietor, had moved them
cut and had the house done up little.
Not that Ned Anthony cherished any
sentiment connected with the house in
which he had been born: on the con-
trary. he considered it emphatically "a
dog hole;" but he was practical fellow
and we'll used to roughing it, and
thought that the "old shanty" would do
well enough to live in for month or SO
while he should run up a decent house;
that is, if he should decide to make any
sojourn in Virginia.
Anthony stood in one of the rooms,
whistling softly and looking about him
one morning about week after the
night on which he had renewed his &C
quaintance (as he thought with his old
playfellow through the parlor window.
The next day he had gone down to Rich
mond to order some things he needed for
his temporary establishment and to talk
to a contractor about putting up house
for him in case he should decide to ''stop
on the ranch" for year or so. He was
not a man that ever let the grass grow
under his feet.
Standing in the middle of the old
room, the past got hold of him some
how and pushed its way through the
hard crust of the outer man to the sane
tuary which even the toughest of us
keep somewhere about our anatomy for
the refuge of few tender associations
our youth, our homes and mothers, the
girl, perhaps, whose eyes gave us our first
heartache.
Old Mrs. Anthony had not been in any
way show figure. She was tall and
spare of limb, and slow of speech and
gait; her eyes were sad, and her thin,
sallow face had rather mournful ex
preston. She wore rough clothes and
kerchief folded cornerwise over her
grizzled hair, and smoked a corncob pipe
in the intervals of her labors; but she
was good woman, a faithful, dutiful
wife and a devoted and self sacrificing
mother, kind and gentle and patient
and indulgent to her offspring, as women
of her class usually are. Her son-her
youngest born-had loved her, and it
was of her alone no was thinking as he
stood by the hearthstone and looked at
the corner where her spinning wheel
and her old split bottomed rocking chair
used to stand. Poor old mother! if she
could see him now, standing there.
wealthy, educated, well dressed, ho.l-
ored among men and owner of the old
plantation on which they had lived as
servants!
OF the saturnine, long haired father, |
and the five lank, slab-sided brothers, |
the problem of whose useless existence |
it had taken civil war to solve, he |
thought little. He had not cared for
them greatly, and it was no distress to
him to know that they were dead. But
his mother was different. She had been
the one human creature he had loved I'M
little Mary Beverley,
He was thinking of her, of his grief at
her death, his Indignation when within
the year his father had brought home
another in her place, his hatred of his
which had resulted in his
running away from home to seek his
Al Ai,r,n r,nnttnrn |