Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1894-05-30

Father Grimes reputation was that
he was "allus good to that gal O.
his'n. He was never known ON any
occasion to use a petulant expression to
any person or thing. The popularity
more often remarked in him than any
other was that he did not swear. 1t was
a wonder he did not for nobody doubt
ed that he had a hard life Of it With
regard to Grimes, the half has not been
told. We have seen men who had sur
vived some great disaster, some horrible
mangling, and went crawling through
life thereafter lame, Scared deformed,
the hideou3 semblance of human
creature Such was this poor, rich old
man. His limbs were drawn awry.
His shapeless hands almost refused to
grasp his staff, and every line Of
his face denoted an experience of pain,
happily past for the time, but ever
leaving q grim promise to return and
wiring the distorted limbs anew until
tho hour of his relief Yet Grimes
had not been the victim of any sudden
accident or great calamity. Fire, nor
falling walls, nor the rebellion of mans
gigantic servant against his master in
rushing steam and falling fragments
had been incidents in his hard life
And yet his fate had been little better.
His days had been days of pain, and his
nights had been spent in torture and in
waiting and praying for daylight or
death. 1t is common enough, but Ariel,
bright spirit Of enchanted air, suffered
and groaned no more in the cloven pine
than strong man may beneath rheu
matte torture
Thus it was that the old mans gen.
tleness was a marvel to those who re-
viled him daily. Worn and deformed
with his battle of years with his enemy,
he sat at his cabin door in the sun and
placidly nodded at those who passed by
and whispered to himself and smiled.
Sometimes he had been asked if it had
not hurt him while in slow torment his
limbs had been twisted and drawn
thus. "Oh, yesp' he said, sit did
hurt But he smiled as he thus answer
ed question which would have been
both superfuous and cruel if the old
lutlu Ileltl 1lOU SCChlCl W PNSSCoo oOliO
panacea which enabled him to almost
defy pain.
This distorted figure, this pain writ
ten face and these strange ways Father
Grimes possessed alone. They were
strange in the land, for sturdy, bearded
manhood, reckless ways, loud words
and blood curdling blasphemy We're
the rule with his associates and near
neighbors While they knew that he
had within him something which they
neither possessed nor understood, they
only said ''cur'us creetur" and passed
on. Whatever it was, they had no res
pect for it. They thought him little
crazy. He had done strange things that
they knew OF Had he not once tried to
interfere with very promising horse
race ON Sunday? Did he not come
down to the traders store one night last
fall and lift up his quavering voice in a
Methodist hymn and try to get up a
prayer meeting right there among the
boys, "and a hundred dollars in the
pot, and me with three queens i'll my
hand?" 1t was Charles Hanks, Esq,
who described this scene and added:
'He's an old fool, with stavin purity
gal. Twas just that which saved his
meat-a-interferin that-a-way.'
1t was not strange that with these
queer ways Father Grimes was alone
in such place, with only his heart to
keep him company. There was chap
lain at the post, but he seemed as yet to
have discovered no affinity for this &C.
centric old man. He preferred soldiers
Of the cross Of more robust tendencies
and in line If being Christian was
what was the matter with Grimes
dazed head, he had an entire monopoly
Of the complaint. On bright Sunday
mornings there was a formal service on
the parade ground, and plumed heads
bowed slightly in the etiquette of mill
tary devotion But Father Grimes was
as much out of place there as he was at
the suffers and stood afar off, failing
to understand perhaps what all this had
in common with a camp meeting in far
western Virginia OR with such piety
and worship as would have been accept
able to his fellow believers of the Unit
ed Brethren in Christ.
Of course he had little control of the
hoydenish Sary. That young woman
shared somewhat in the current be-
lief regarding her fathers mental con-
dition. Living in the same house, they
had no companionship, and while she
cared for his common wants and daily
meals that was the extent, to all ap-
pearance, of her interest in him. He
perhaps constituted the sober side of her
life. She would have been ready to do
battle for him with ready tongue, but
she also claimed the privilege of pri-
vately regarding him with as much care
lessness and half contempt as was pos
sible with her knowledge of the fact
that he really was her father and she
could not help it.
The incident which placed Father
Grimes prominently before the public in
a new ight-an incident all the more
remarkable because it was the last in his
career-came about in this wise: There
wandered into Concho long haired and
ambrosial man, who claimed to have
been one of those hard riders from the
Lone Star State who figured so extern
sively in the cavalry force of the late
Confederate army. He was broad shoul-
dered, tall, staggering, of a military
carriage and claimed to be 'still rebel
and a fighting man, sir. :" Now, Hanks
was not just Yankee, but he and this
child Of chivalry soon found means of
disagreement upon another matter. The
Confederate used often to say that he
did not care profane eXpletive for Miss
Grimes, but he made it point to allow
no man to stand before him in the graces
of hvin woman, sir - So in q few
weeks Hanks aud he looked askance at
each other, and finally refused to play
poker at the same table and avoided
q mutually in bibulous exercises by
common consent The wicked Sary,
gifted with peculiar insight into such
matters, fiattered the new beau and
smiled upon him with beams particular
ly bright, albeit she divided her favors
and gave Hanks enough to keep him
alive to the stature and strength of his
rival, and the dangers arising from de-
lay and absence. These things did not
pass unnoticed by the others, and keen
lookout was maintained for the hour
when the difficulty should culminate.