The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1893-01-30
SOME ODD STORIES.

CA&C - oAAo -
Cloud of Doubt Turned Its Silver Lining
and Shone on Reunited Hearts.
Copyright 1888. by American Press Associa-
tion.]
mo, am not complaining against the
government because I am held here in
prison, and you know, old boy, that I am
neither chicken hearted nor coward; but,
as my soul liysth and l hope for mercy
when | die, Would let my right arm be
cut off up at the shoulder and then be
ready to return to this Internal prison in
Charleston, and to die here with my COM
rades, if need be, if I could just see one
person and talk to her for ten minutes"
The scene was in the jailyard at Charles
ton, where in the summer of 1854 600 I'm
ion officers were placed under the fire of
our own guns, then bombarding the doomed
city from Morris island.
The speaker was Captain Walters. That
was not his true name, but it will answer
my purpose. He was captain of cavalry
from Ohio and had been captain at Camp
BY HIS COT FOUND A BEAUTIFUL WOMAN.
BELLS station, east Tennessee, some eight
months before. At the time he was-about
twenty-eight years of age, with yellow hair,
blue eyes and tawny beard, and although
of only medium height he was as handsome
and soldierly looking trooper as one could
see in a review of the worlds finest army,
which, in my boyish enthusiasm, believed
our own army in blue to be at that time
Though not a reserved man, Captain
Walters was usually very quiet, and al
though there was good reason to growl
over our sutferings, as many did, he bore
himself with a manly patience which, If
not unusual in that horrible place, was GER
tainly very commendable
He and had served together before our
capture, though beyond knowing his merits
as a troop leader and splendid horseman
our acquaintance could not be called in
innate before we met in prison.
The passionate speech with which I be-
gan this narrative was uttered as we sat on
the hot ground in the Charleston jailyard
within the shadow of the old fashioned
gallows on which so many men had been
hanged before and since the war
The prospect of our being exchanged was
as blue as to seem black, and 1t looked all
the blacker to my friend, who had just been
foiled in a desperate attempt to escape.
why are you so despondent?" asked
with an oath that did not seem like pro-
family. Captain Walters replied:
ut is because of late she has been coming
to me in my dreams"
In those terrible war prisons it was not
unusual for men to lose their minds and
never regain them, which was no doubt for
tunate till they were carried out coffinless
to prison grave. I feared that my friends
mind was gone or going, but q second look
into the blue eyes and haggard, pale face
assured me that he was as yet free from the
worst calamity that could befall man.
"Who is she?" asked after painful
pause.
my wife," he said with groan.
''Why, 1 did not know you were married,
captain"
Z mo, but that is not to be wondered at.
Men usually keep their intense loves and
griefs to themselves. You are the first man
I have spoken to about her, and would not
have done it now, but hunger, sickness and
disappointment, and, above all, the load on
my heart, make me feel weak, and you are
SO strong and light hearted at all times that
it is q comfort to come near you, said the
captain.
I took his hand to show that appre-
ciated his compliment and was eager to de-
serve his confidence, and then in vague sort
of way which meant to be consoling told
him that much of ones trouble was mag
mary, and that it was better to look upon
the bright side of things. I am aware now
that this advice must have had in it ring
Of mockery, for it is difficult to imagine a
situation with less of the bright side than
ours. But there was something besides
the prison life that was breaking down the
captain and curiosity and interest induced
me to ask him what it was
If not the exact language, the following
is, am very sure, the substance Of what
Captain Walters said:
Like nine out of ten of the single young
men who entered the army in 1861, was in
love. / have no use for the man who has
not been desperately in love before his
twenty-ffth birthday.
1.-THE girl to whom ] was attached was
the daughter of neighbor. / had known
her since she was an infant and boy in
knickerbockers, and cannot recall a time
when I did not love her, and she was worthy
of it from first to last, though there was
period when did not think SO, and it is
the injustice done her then that is wearing
out my life, and not the sufferings of this
prison.
'sWe were married last August, just three
months before I was captured and while
was nome on Il WOunGSu IuflOuSn. fOr one
month was the happiest man in the world,
and that happiness should have continued
had been worthy of her love. False toher?
No, sir; was not capable of that, mean
though I was, but was not incapable of
believing that she might be false to me-
From the day of our marriage had been
receiving anonymous letters charging my
wife with love for another man. I burned
The letters, nor ever mentioned the matter
to her. But noticed there were times
when she persisted ingoing over the Ohio
river to Newport alone to see a sick friend,
she always told me. My anonymous CORE
spondent, it would seem, kept track of her,
and one day a letter came saying that if I
would follow my wife the next day she
crossed over the river to Kentucky would
have proof Of her infdelity.
1.-THE devil moved me to follow this adj
vice disanised myself and followed her
carriage on horseback Now and then /
caught a glimpse of the pure, beautiful
face, and it filled me with such a sense Of
my own nleanness that more than once
wheeled my horse to go back but would
be changed from this nOh1er pIlrDose hy