The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1894-06-12
A LONELY CHRISTIAN

IIA LONELY CHRISTIAN.
| Grimes was his name--"Old Grimes
he was called by the irreverent world,
which knew him well, and which doubt
less he knew too well, as a man knows
something that has not been pleasant to
him, and the pain and wiclzedness and
hollowness Of which have been forced
upon him by grim experience.
Grimes name was the only thing
about him that offered any poetic sug
gestion and was not lightly passed or for
gotten by those who saw him every day.
The legend of that old man whose dirge
has been sung these 60 years-whose
coat was old and gray and buttoned down
before in every version of that irrever-
ent elegy-is the common inheritance
of all the English speaking race wher-
ever they wander The ragged urchin
twanged it endlessly in his ears from
behind the corners of shanties whenever
his bent figure came in sight Even the
grownup Texans who lounged, gambled
and traded horses at the suffers store
repeated it to him as a standing joke
that could not be worn out But he
paid no attention or diverted the topic
when he could and hobbled away slow
ly, ever muttering to himself something
that nobody heard or needed.
The residence of this song tormented
old person was a rough and canvas COW
cred shanty situated by rambling path
in the midst of congregation of such,
some better, some worse. The place was
known by the denizens of the neighbor
ing post as Shutdown. The open and
unfinished quadrangle and the square
stone houses that had all home
less and dreary look were some
half mile away. Fort Concho was
oonfessedly a hard place, all of it.
Shutdown was its foster child, flied
with stranded emigrants, cattle herders,
gamblers and men who had no occupa-
ton Out toward the bleak northwest
Llano Estacado stretched its endless
leagues of rock and cactus-the widest
land beneath the flag, governed and
owned by the Comanche and utterly
useless and tenantless for all time, save
for that Saxon savage almost as wild as
he.
But Shutdown, struggling up from
the little rivers side, sat with its shan
ties under the lee of the post fully con-
fiding in its military neighbor. Her
were privileged to come and remain
through the windy Texas winter all
men, with due proportion of women,
whose tastes or whose occupations led
them to the far verge of civilization.
Thither came the cattleman and watch
cd his wild herds ON the neighboring
hills until returning greenness warned
him off upon the California trail
Thither returned the man who had ac-
complished the wonderful journey, laden
with fortunate gold Bearded, broad
brimmed and belted, here lounged a
small army of guides and trailers, play
ing shrewd games at cards, drinking
San Antonio whiskey and at intervals
shooting at each other. The gaunt and
long footed Texas girl, chalky, yellow
haired and awkward, minced from cabin
TO cabin with neighborly gossip and did
her calico and green ribbon shopping at
the pine counters of the traders stores.
There were urchins many, coatless and
shoeless from January to December, who
were as the calves of this corral of hu
manity Here, too, was that pink of the
border, the dashing stage driver, who
for $40 per month every day ran the
Of T,,1i
haunted desolation, and who at the end
of his "trick" rewarded himself with
two days of dalliance with the bellies of
Shutdown, to whom indeed he was as
the apple of their pale eyes.
And among these people lived Father
Grimes, and these were they who sang
the ancient ditty to him as he passed
by. What his occupation was nobody
precisely knew or cared, but they
lowed he was well heeled" and
''had a little tucked away somewhere. =
In the particular condition of society
or rather want of all society-that en-
vironed him the inquiry into Grimes
business would hardly have gone so far
as that had it not been that his daugh
ter occupied conspicuous position as
the prettiest girl at Concho and was
famous alike for the brilliancy of her
cheeks and her dresses. She and Father
Grimes lived alone, and it was scarcely
Thought of that at some former period
a mother had been necessary in the
usual course of nature. cold Grimes
and his gall filled all the Grimes hori-
zon.
1t would be entirely in accordance
with good taste if it were possible now
to describe dutiful daughter, entirely
devoted to her aged father and resenting
the verbal indignities daily heaped upon
him. But the facts, as somewhat dimly
remembered, altogether forbid. OF all
the mans troubles his daughter was
probably the greatest. She was not
gaunt and angular, like the other ladies
of Shutdown, as rule. Her cheeks We're
like peonies, and her round figure had
perceptible jellyish shaking as she
walked She disturbed her fathers
slumbers with hoydenish laughter while
the hours struck small in the night
watches, and while her many admirers
staid and would not go She was a
coquette besides and refused to comfort
the paternal heart by assuming the hard
duties of Texans wife. Sary Grimes
was a wild girl, possibly not bad crea-
ture, but, as it might have been ex-
pressed in an eastern village, ''hable to
be talked about''-one of the social pun
ishments not much dreaded, however,
In the region of Fort Concho. There
was, fear, consciousness in her face
whenever she passed man in the road,
and it is equally to be feared that her
prudent chastity had but little sugges-
ton of snow or crystal in it, but as belle
of Shutdown she reigned supreme and OF
course the greater part Of her female
friends cast aspersions upon her. She
kept all her admirers in state of mind
which had in it much torment, with oc-
casional glimpses of beatitudo. Charles
Hanks, Esq, stage driver, started ont
upon his trip with large fortune Of
happy thoughts and discussed the OBJ
ject nearest his heart with the box pas
senger for 30 miles at once But when
he returned Sary would no more speak TO
him than it, as he complained, he had
been yaller dog. " But Mr.. Hanks had
no special cause Of complaint, for he
Jared as all his rivals did
Father Grimes reputation was that
he was "allus good to that gal o
his'n." He was never known ON any
occasion to use 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
cd that he had 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,