The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1892-04-29
A CASE OF APHASIA.

of war and Joined Georgia regiment he
made more sacrifices than most OF men,
but he made more preparations, also.
keen. conservative insight, inherited
from canny Scotch ancestry, enabled
him to pierce the cheerful optimism of
the times, and beneath it he fOresaw dis
aster and defeat. A phrase that was
afterward ON everybodys lips was on his
own from the beginning. They have
too many men," he said, land too much
money"
So, while alive to the voice of duty, he
prepared for what he believed to be the
inevitable. At no little sacrifice he
turned the bulk of what he possessed
into cash-into gold. Lands, houses,
stock and slaves all went There were
many Southern planters who did this
thing, but none on nearly so large
scale, When the transformation was
effected, he locked the great mass of
coin in an iron chest, studded with round
bolts, of pattern known as the 'sala-
mandeT'' in those days, and beat the key
to fragments on an anvil. The chest it
self he hid secretly behind the caeing of
the great hall chimnev-piece, and then
marched off to war and his home Place
never saw him again, for bullet at Mis-
sionary Ridge found its billet in his
heart.
The dead soldier had been glad in the
midst of his troubled that his family was
small. There were only two children,
boy and girl-little things when he went
away, but they grew sturdily in the tu-
multuous years that followed his de-
parture. The girl was called Anna, the
boy Will. To them the war was one long
stretch of keen excitement. Their
father, dead to the eternal fame of
things, lived wildly enough in their rec
election. They recalled each little
thing, his strange accoutrements, the
tremor in his voice, how his stiff beard
brushed their lips when he kissed them
goodbye, and Will chafed bitterly that
he was not old enough to shoulder
musket and go, too. The homestead
had been left in the sacrifice. with
enough of the farm to support the little
family, and through the long, agonizing
years that came and went, Mrs. Alden
was spared at least one thought that tor
tured many another soldiers wife,
With indispensable thankfulness she
realized how wise her husband hal been
in providing against the future, and
come what might, she knew that i'll the
secret store behind the chimney-piece
there was enough and more than enough
for all. Often when she and the chill
dren were sure they were quite alone,
they spoke of this, and as the war drew
near its close, began to form vague plans
for the future.
Then came the never-to- be-forgo item
time when the great living scythe of
Sherman's army moved its swath
through Georgia to the sea. The path
way of the destroying legions lay near
the Alden farm, and day by day,
Al. nrr'i fhof into
vened, they saw the onward sweep of
vast battaiions, horse and foot, cannon
and tumbrel, and heard on every breeze
the rattle of the drums, the scream of
flies, and wild, wide echoes of the sol
diers' songs. The little settlement was
seized with panic, for rumors of plumber
and rapine had reached folks ears. Nor
were these fears without foundation, for
it was past denial that in that great mass
of men there were many who took up
arms for loot and not for war. Such
crimes, when known, were mercilessly
punished by the officers in command, but
too often they were undetected, and
many foul deed was done that never
saw the light, and these things, magni-
fed by common report, filled the whole
section with terror and apprehension.
On the evening of the fourth day,
when a session in the line of march had
left the place in comparative quiet, the
household were grouped upon the porch
peering anXiously toward the road. 1t
was growing dark, but suddenly, among
the pines, they distinguished straggl-
ing body of men pushing toward them.
Something sinister in their appearance,
something wild and laweless in their adj
vance, quite different from the orderly
movements of the troops, told them that
the dread marauders were at hand. At
the right of the mansion lay field of
growing corn, and toward this the little
group fled precipitately. There, with a
few negroes who had remained faithful,
they crouched among the stalks and
heard the yells of the plunderess as they
took possession of the house. They
heard the clash of violently opened
doors, the slam of shutters and the eager
pounding of feet upon the stairs; lights
flashed from window to window, and
presently, above the other tumult, a
fulidade of musketry doomed duly
through the air.
How long they lay in the cornfield
they never knew. 1t seemed to them
hours, but at last darkness and silence
assured them that the unwelcome visit
ors had departed, and they crept back.
Az JllC JIlltbllOlNt VI JllG lldll MIS-. AlueIl
stopped with an irrepressible groan, for
there by the fireplace the wainscoating
had been wrenched apart, the treasure
cache gaped open, and the box was gone.
This shock fairly benumbed her senses,
and she walked through the ravaged
house like one in dream, At the rear
there were the visible marks of strug-
Uie. The trampled bushes, fence torn
down anu benches overturned, all bore
witness that conflict of some kind had
taken place on the spot. She stepped
aside, and her feet struck against a
t,odv in the
s.1SS. ,
''Sesus, marster" screamed one of
the negro girls, cts Abe!'
So it wds-an old and faithful servant
of the house, who in the excitement they
had not missed before, He lay stretch
ed on his side, musket clutched in his
hand and bullet wound in his fore
head. In whatever it was that had hap
pened there, he had surely played part,
He was not dead, although it would havt
been merciful, perhaps, had it been so.
The glancing ball had done its worst.
He lived, and yet he did not live. The
springs of life had sustained some sub
tie shock and left him helpless, a para
lytic, with, save in his right arm, all
power of volition dead. Whether his
brain was injured it was impossible to
say, but he had been a man of unusual