The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-07-19

pray Cod my soul to keep; die fore /
wake, pray God my soul 90 keep"
lie mixes the pretty little prayer. but
Uncle Peter has faith.
Like ule average man. white and black.
or ye oiden time he loves 10 chew to-
Naccu- and never refuses a drink OF any
sort of sumulant. He has a great appe-
tlicr and can get away with more meat
ana bread than any three men IN the town.
At nothing else is prOcurable, he dotes on
q glass OF sweetened water and loaf OF
bread He VIII plant sweet potato patch
u ne only has SIX feet Of earth 10 cultivate.
Ills londness for the farm and garden
Shows itself In a thousand ways and with
am his faults ,the sin of laZluess Is not
one Of them. Ii he cannot nina anything
else TO do, he VIII wheel wood from the
beach which has drlfted up in storms
and give IL 10 some poor family. He
goes down 10 the beach, cuts the wood,
piles 10 up and when ready throws 1t
lew teet ahead of him. This he keeps up
un,u ne is on the shell road, when he loads
up the WheclbarrOw.
The only thing he is sensitive about is
MS age. which he declares is Is years. A
couple of years ago he would spend hours
picking the gray beard from his face
TO carry out the idea that he was young.
As ne sat on a wheelbarrOw with an
old looking-glass i'm his hand, admirins
himself and pulling gray hairs, IL was
enough TO make a cynic laugh.
IN spite OF his eccentriCtties and lis
great age, he is not entirely unlike the
his photo made, he was as proud a
peacock, and, Notwithstanding he has
been bent double for more than twenty
hve years, he laid himself back and tried
his best TO stand erect. He primped Up
his large mouth and smiled out of his
little cunning eyes while the photographer
was getting him In shape for the picture.
When through he was so proud that he
went about telling the neghbOrs that he
mad has picture made, and it was goin'
IN the paper, all about him. and the peo-
pie in harrington, New York and New
Orleans would read it,
When does vanity die in the human
heartE' Here is man away past 1OU,
who is more delighted with the idea or
his history going into the newspaper than
ne would be with a new suit of clothes,
hat and shoes.
He has had letters written to some or
his people, who have perhaps been dead
forty or fifty years, and at one time was
a frequent caller at the postOtiice look
ing for letters from his wife, whom he
left in North Carolina more than sixty
years ago. Often he pretends that he Is
expecting letters and packages from New
Ork. He does that in order to keep up
the pretense that he really lived in that
section.
His life has been one of outdoor exer-
else and exposure, and if he had been hous-
ed and cared for he might have died many
years ago. To see him pretend to read
a newspaper upside down, with "all the
best word" as he terms it, is quite anus
ing, and to know he is noticed in the at
tempt hatters his vanity and causes those
present TO listen to the chestnut of Give
me a nickel, please"
The death of Uncle Ben Lynch, a for
mer associate and rival in business, who
died a good many years ago, and who, like
Peter, was a notable character, had a
most depressing effect upon him, and in
the still hours of the night he says he
often wakens and thinks that he will soon
| follow Uncle Ben.
The old uncles and aunties are fast de-
parting, and soon nothing of them will be
left except tender and pleasant memories
of good acts and kindly deeds toward the
white children, who loved them since they
could walk and prattle.
Uncle Dudley is one of the old uncles
that will be missed by every child at the
Bay and by just as many of the grown
folks. He has been identified with every
! important event at the Bay for the last
thirty years. has witnessed the epidemics,
storms, deaths, marriages, and other
| eventful occasions, but the day will soon
come when his voice will be hushed and
the bent figure leaning on the old stick
will disappear from sight forever.