Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-03-04

GSt:4S@ y bay window were three
!: !: !: !: !: !" : !"
N%NNS@ OF them old ac9uain-
M~S&E tances, although meet
MtWMNNz ing that day in the
FESNO southern city by acci-
'wsSS dent Pond was on his
way to Palatka to Join
his coast survey party;
Georgeson had been
down at Key West on q collecting trip for the
National Museum, and was now on his way
back to Washington; Middlebrook, a college
friend of Ponds. was visiting in Savannah with
Judge Borden. who had introduced the trio at
the club and was now. after u perfect little din
ner, entertaining them with story after story OF
southern life before and during the war.
The Judge was an elderly man, famous as .
raconteur, and. young in heart himself, WAS
fond Of younger men, and never enjoyed him.
self SO well as on occasions Of this kind; but he
finally stopped short after a yarn about the
occupation of Savannah by Shermans army.
Don't ask me for any more, boys. Those we're
great days, and you may we'll regret that you
were born SO late. 1 would hardly exchange
my experience for all your youth and ambition.
Let me see You're the oldest Of the three. Mr..
Pond, and yet I'll warrant you remember
nothing Of the war;"
Pond, tall dark fellow Of thirty odd, well
known in scientific circles in Washington,
smiled broadly:
Il was thinking. judge" he said. while you
were telling that experience Of your wife's at
Nashville OF an experience another little
woman had at the north about the same time,
and while, you suppose remember moth
ing Of the war myself. have vivid personal
interest in this event."
Let us hear it," said the Judge. ITS only
fair that the other side should be given a
chance" And calling for cigars and fresh
bottle Of moselle the judge settled back in his
easy chair in a comfortable red-faced way, as
good a istenener he was talker.
The little woman in my mind, said Pond.
"wasl living in Baltimore in 1862. She was only
twenty. but had beea married two years and
girl baby OF nearly year occupied her time
day and night Six months before her hus-
band had been sent to North Carolina and was
acting as naval storekeeper at an important
station of the North Atlantic squadron. and
she had been left in a boarding house with a
widowed aunt.
at was awfully hard on the poor little thing
to live away from her husband, but of course
it was no place for her down there; so she had
to make the best of it on his infrequent etters.
She actually used to put the baby up in her
high chair and make believe that she was jim
just back from the south. and she'd tell her
how much she loved him and how lonesome
she d been while he was gone and what good
baby she had been and low glad he would be
personal pronouns and broke down and cried
over her own poor little game.
I'm fact, 1t only took about seven months to
make her desperate. In spite of Jm's descrip-
| ton OF the desolation of the place, and in fact
partly because of it, she made up her mind
to join him. Three-quarters of JIm's salary
had been coming to her every month from the
paymaster generals Office in Philadelphia,
and SO she wrote to that official and told him
plainly that she must get transportation to Will
m nUfO hat aha
something OF the sort. If she didn't In a few
days a reply came, on official paper, signed j.
Z. Smith assistant, stating that it was practi-
cally impossible to comply with her request.
but that an opportunity might come by some
possibility at some future day, and asking fur
Their particulars as to her reasons whether her
husband was sick and whether she was strong
enough to stand such rough journey.
1.-The little woman replied in full. and think
ing j. C. Smith to be person of great inn
portance made as strong an appeal to him as
possible. His reply, which came promptly,
| strengthened her idea of his importance, for
he stated that he had been touched by her ap-
peal and that 1t was fortunate that her original
letter had come to him, for he would be able
to do more for her than any one in Philadelphia.
And then more questions were asked and the
correspondence was continued, on her part
with the single idea that the good Mr.. Smith
was doing his best to secure her passage to
| Wilmington, while on his part il was a .frta-
1
something further In view, for the scoundrel
was only clerk in the Office and of bad repu-
tation, as was afterward found.
AT last u letter came. written usual on
official paper stating that the chance had come
| that the coal schooner Sarah Jane would sail
| for the station from pier s. Richmond lust
outside of Philadelphia ON the following We'd
| nesday and that the little woman should come
to Philadelphia on the train arriving at 8
O'Clock Tuesday evening and should go to
krugers Hotel on Blank street, where MIR JC.
Smith would meet her and see that she was
made comfortable and put on the vessel in the
best shape imaginable.
Then she was happy! She told her aunt
that she and the baby were going to join Jim
and in spite Of the strongest protestations pro-
ceeded to pack her trunk.
She had never travelled. except from the
native farm down on the eastern shore to Bal
timore, and the old lady insisted that in her
inexperience and with young baby she would
meet with all sorts of trouble and would prob
ably not get there alive Smith had stated in
his letter that there was only room in the Sarah
Jane for one passenger and SO the aunt could
not have gone too.
"In spite OF everything, however. the trunk
was packed and with the bsbys crib and the
pet rocking chair was put on board the train
late Tuesday afternoon and the little woman
and the baby had whole seat to themselves
and ratified over to Philadelphia in the bump
ety-bump fashion of the sixties. Holding the
baby on one arm the little mother pulled out
Smiths letter and read it over two or three
times and every time she read it her mind
misgave her more. The most innocent un-
suspecting person in the world herself, some
good angel must have put suspicion into her
mind, If not suspicion, ut least the idea that
1t would be safest to 60 straight to the
schooner, for might it not sail without her il
she went to the hotel?
'And SO, when the train drew into Philadel-
phia and the passengers were discharged into
the mob OF bowling hackmen her woman's
intuition picked out the only honest one in the
lot, young 1rishman, and she asked him how
much he would charge to take her to pier 8,
Richmond.
"'Howly motherv he said, 'Oi cuddent do il
fur clint under swim dollars. It I'D take four
hours
Then she told him that she was going to
join her husband in tho south, and that she
hadn't but ten dollars with her. and she would
need most Of it for other things, and 30 he
dropped to three, for he was list back from the
ARMY himself, and wudden; rob soldiers
wife, and the trunk and crib and rocking chair
were piled on the old trap, and the mother and
baby climbed into the musty interior and the
jolly, gloomy, interminable ride began
"Richmond and pier were reached at last
and the freshman and the little woman both
loaded with baggage, went, As directed, out to
the END or the pier and across four vessels in
all stages OF lading. until the Sarah Jane was
reached. The captain was on shore and
the mate was 30 taken by surprise that trunk