Waterbury evening Democrat., 1895-08-17

Tor. That northeriler was right when he hinted at my having blockade still round hero. I do run one. | know it's against the law, but the law--~as laid down by Yankees-ruined me. Conse- quently I've but small respect for it, spe- cially as now it's sized to suit all shades of color. Come, sir. You said last night you were ln no hurry to get on. Will you stay awhile and rough it with me2"
 The invitation was genuine, and the Englishman remained, and because the life was fresh and interesting to him, and because old man Swanlee was loath to let him go, he staid on till tho weeks grew to over month. There was much to occupy his time. Any one with a taste for scenery may gratify it to the full in the wooded mountains and val leys of the Alleghany country. Some- times he took his horse and rode along the rough trails far afield-over the great Smokies and looked down on Ten pessee. Sometimes he roamed through the second growth forest which had sprung up in tropical luxuriance over the once cleared land, occasionally shoot ing wild turkey, or a hawk, or n flying squirrel, or whipping in two a small rattlesnake, but for the most part find ing full enjoyment in admiring this gal lery of pictures which nature by herself had painted,
 Once indeed he visited the distillery in its weird hiding place under the wa terfall and glanced curiously over the crude appliances with which the fiery corn whisky was produced. But that md hn was seldom referred to. In the evening, when they sat together under the wooden piazza, tho Englishman and his host either rocked CT smoked in silence, look. ing into the warm southern night and listening to its myriad insect noises, or else the old man would talk and unfold pictures of past southern splendor in the halcyon days "befo' the wa" They seemed to be living then ill an atmos- phere of nearly half century before, and at times the Englishman had hard work to bring himself back to the true realities.
 But at last there came breaking up of the pastoral, and it arrived in bar barous shape. The place was raided by the revenue men.
 The visitor was away bee hunting in the woods when they arrived, but has tened back when the sound of heavy fir ing came down to him over the timber He gained tho hut, perhaps luckily, too late for interference, but the history of what had occurred was written out be- foro him in ruddy lettering" Three off cers of tho excise lay twisted and dead on the rcd soil, shot down by that ter riblc ten fro repeater, which carried its charge like a heavy ball for the short distance. Farther out was Vanrennan, doubled up over a stump like a half filled meal sack. Fitting in and about the trees, still farther down the trail, were four saddfed horses leiSurely graz ing.
 There was no sign of old man Swan lee.
 Had he run for the woods, or
 The henewcomer rushed across the clear ing and into the cabin. The Carolina planter, the Confederate colonel, the blockade distiller, the murderer, was stretched out on the floor, with blood ooZing into pools around him. The Eng hshman Shuddered and bent down for examination. An ear shredded through by one bullet, temple grazed by another; left elbow shattered by a third. None of those were mortal; none could cause this prostration. An, there was worse wound, ill the groin, that meant death!
 Under the impromptu surgery the old man woke up
 "That blasted Yankee Vanrennanl Says I shot his father at Seven Pines when I was skirmishing for Lee outside Richmond. Very likely. I know the orders were to take no prisoners. It was all ill the way of business. And then, by way of dirty vengeance, he brings the excise about my ears. No southern gentleman would have done that-none but q mongrel Dutch Yankee. How ever, he's got his gruel, and so have the revenue men, and I'm dying. Hello, who are you?"
 Old man Swanlee gripped his gun again and started up full of fight.
 'Oh, it's you. sir, is it? ask your pardon, I'm sure," he said, lowing with old fashioned courtesy, but this littlo domestic trouble must be my ex- cuSc Those fellows have pumped lead into mo till I've been trif1e thrust off my balance. Thanks If you would assist me on to tho floor again and bring the corner of that box under my head. '
 He rested minute to collect his thoughts, and then went on afresh.
 "Now, MT I've forgotten your name circumstances compel me to ask you all intense favOr. I've had good com rade$ and I've had Stanch friends, but some were shot in the war, and some have died since, and the rest are scat tered I know not where. There isn't a soul within riding distance. except Tar Hee!e:S. and I'd almost as soon trust my little girl to a nigger as one of them.
 "Your daughter is it that you re speaking about?"
 That's so. I haven't mentioned her before. don't let her have any truck with the lot down here, and didn't in- tend to until the place was ready to re- ceive her as she should be received-as my mother was received when she came upon the estate. Yes, sir, that's what I've been toiling and slaving for all these years, barely spending $l in cash except few cents an acre for taxes holding on to the land with d miser E grip, while the forest stamped the snake fences out of sight brewing a vile spirit for the mountaineers around. No, sir, I've not sold moonlight whisky because l liked it, or hugged my balance at the banks merely to put myself back on the ancestral dunghill I've done my crow ing. But, sir, when my little girl was born in Richmond, during the siege my wife made me promise before sht died that, come what might, I'd see the child mistress of the house we'd beer driven from here. My wife was a very proud woman, sir. Her family claimed descent from Pocahontas.
 But" objected the listener, II don ' see how this could be. Since slavery has been abolished"-
 "One can't get the lazy brutes of ne groes to work? Quite so But I'd {