The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1895-05-29
A Han without a Memory.

"a Man without Memory is
remarkable tale. 1t relates with un-
usual strength and delicacy Of treat
ment the return to his Southern home
of Tom Johnson, who had foughtin the
Confederate army and who had been
wounded in the head. The story opens
when Tom is driving along the dusty
road toward Sharpsburg, vainly en-
deavoring to catch up with his regi-
ment. The country is familiar, and
yet certain features have strange ap-
pearance.
The scenes of the terrible battle are
vivid, and Tom johnson wonders where
he has slept since then. He recalls
with shudder the appealing eyes Of
the wounded boy lying close to the
edge of the smoking grass, at whose
body the rushing line had parted and
closed again. Through the rails OF the
low fence he saw shattered gun linn
ber with one mangled horse leaning
against the pole, his mates and masters
heaped on the ground about him, the
whole group cut sharply against the
sky.
BE remembered the first intimation
Of the attack Of the infantry, coming in
the form of thin skirmish fire puff
ing from the crest In front-the balls
pattering on the fences-then the dark
line rising above the ridge, with flags
and glittering bayonets-and then how
he and his comrades reserved their fire
until the enemy were close upon them
and how the line withered and broke
under that smoking volley, leaving the
wounded scattered on the hill, and
how they came again and again, only
to be called back, covering the hill
thicker and thicker with the dead.
And then amoment Of horror
"a glaring burst Of Aame-a deafening
roar, benumbing conclusion which
for an instant made his head ill all
space, and along with it sickening
sensation of drowning in the air, and
then darkness. In the next instant,
as it had seemed to Tom johnson, his
eyes opened dimly on a great field
hospital. And now, the following day
as he could count, he was driving back
toward Sharpsburg to kiss his little
Tom, who would be held in his moth
er's arms-and then he would push on
to rejoin his regiment.
Presently he came creaking and
ianplinp into a village street, and
stopped in front Of a long tavern.
Then he knew he was in Sharpsburg.
Seizing his rife he leaped from the
wagon and demanded Of the tavern
loungers: -,
"When did Gen. Lee leave here ?"
They thought he was crazy, but
humored him, until finally lie was told
that generation had passed since the
noble commander had left. For thirty
years poor old Tom johnson had been
as one dead, but at last surgeon had
performed upon him the operation OF
trephining, and his mind took up it's Is
line of progression, just where shell
had cut it off back in the days OF the
war.
This phenomenon is by no means a
novel one in fiction, but seldom has it
been used with better effect than in
"a Man without Memory" The
interest of the story does not cease
with Tom Johnson's discovery that
thirty years had passed over him as
would single night spent in slumber.
The story continues, mingled with
exquisite tenderness, to tell Of the
changes the veteran found in his home
and in his friends. This is one Of the
few short stories worth preserving in
the library of intelligent readers.