Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1894-04-12

ing of the circumSta noes attending my
farewell to my northern home. And il
must not be said that the character
of Deacon Halleck is presented here as
a type of the men of that section.
Keenly do l remember the kindness,
the patience, the neighborly good will
and good works of the people in a COM
munity where poverty was the rule
and hard toll was the common lot.
Because the deacon happened to be
connected in a curious way with the
final severance of my home ties and old
association his picture is presented
here just as he was. I suppose that
his kind is not yet extinct. This is au-
photography; it should be complete.
The bounty of our generous southern
friend enabled me to have one precious
year at the academy, some years later,
and gave my father the means to re-
plenish his poor stock and poorer farm
implements But when he told Mr..
Bostock that bad luck had followed
him, he spoke in prophecy as well as
history. My poor father! He deserved
better fate. Misfortune followed mis-
fortune; they came
Mot single spies,
But in battalions."
EIdch year GilO UI1n SOIL UndG OV0TIalQ
the rocks grew more grudging in it's
yield; a murrain carried off the cattle;
hard work and anxiety Frustrated my
mother, and death mercifully released
her. This stroke fell in my eighteenth
year. For awhile my father bore up
under his accommodating load of misfor-
tune and sorrow; but when his creditor
commenced the foreclosure of the mort
LIE l.;
He died the day after the place was
sold: and if ever man persisted of q
broken heart, it was he.
Twice, at his suggestion, at long in
tervals, had written to Mr.. Bostock
to repeat our thanks for his gift and
so to remind him of the poor New
Hampshire lad in whom he had prof
fered so warm an interest. Later de-
velopments caused me to recall the
dates Of this correspondence. eMy first
letter was written upon my sixteenth
birthday anniversary, January 1, 1858.
In the due and rather slow course of
the mails of that time an answer came,
postmarked at the address in Missis-
sippi which Mr.. Bostock had left with
us. 1 was at that time completing my
first quarter at the academy; was eager
be confessed that 1 was rather taken
aback to discover that my Correspond
ent was a very poor speller. But the
matter of the epistle l could not have
wished different. 1t was hearty, gen.
erous, sympathetic. He reiterated all
1 had heard from him as to myself,
five years before, and he babe me come
down to him as soon as my parents
| would consent. My second letter was
written in 1857, upon the death of my
father, and advised my correspondent
that both of my parents We're no more.
To this no answer was ever returned.
1 thought strangely of his silence.
1t troubled me much, although 1 at
tributed it to miscarriage of the mails.
After the lapse of a few weeks, the de-
sire and intention to write again grew
strong. 1t so happened that the diff
culties and annoyances of the situa-
ton in which I was placed after the
death of my father caused me to defer
! this design; so that, when started on
| my southern journey in the summer of
1858, the letter was still unwritten.
My father died soon after 1 became
twenty years of age. For year after
| "a memorable year!-I was domiciled
| in the family of my guardian, Deacon
| Hal1eck.
| Shall attempt pen-picture of this
man? 1t is not possible for me to do it
| justice. He was something over fifty,
long, gaunt and sallow, with high
pitched, squeaking voice that dismally
rasped through all better sounds in the
church choir. His face was thin,
peaked and bloodless, his eyes restless.
his hands were always moving about
| as if searching for more coin to add to
his store. He was reported to be worth
| twenty thousand dollars-a large for
tune for that day and place. Behind
his back people called him hard, pc
nurious man; in public he was referred
to as ''our leading citizen" va model of
piety," "a pillar of religion"
In common with this mans unhappy
family, suffered all the severity OF
patriarchal government, and all the
torments of religious fanaticism, du-
ring my sojourn in his house. At sun
set of Saturday, the Sabbath was
deemed to have begun, and disci-
pline harsher than that of the peniten-
tiary was enforced. The Scriptures
| were read and eXpounded through
Deacon Halleck's nose. Morning and
| afternoon the family was anarshaled
forth to the Westinghouse on the hill,
barren of shade, where the people
| sweltered in summer and froze in win
ter, as stoves in the latter season
would have been deemed a suggestion
of the adversary, At all times in the
week levity was frowned upon and
discouraged. The stray copies of the
Boston papers that had been my de-
light were vigorously confiscated, as
the deacon had not the time to GO
over them with the scissors and clip
out the sinful paragraphs. The few
volumes of history and poetry which
1 had accumulated by long and patient
self-denia1-my precious boolss.-were
seized and put under lock and key
until this Cerberus could look them
over and see if any of them were fiji
to escape the flames. Meantime, pend
ing this decision, 1 was recommended
to peruse the volumes of the deacon's
small but select library, of which Bax
ter's Perseverance and Rest of the
Saints the Iurid sermons of Rev.
Jonathan Edwards, and ''Fox's Book
of Martyrs" may be cited as speci
mems.
Ny existence heretofore had beer