Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1896-03-18
OLD AUNT PATSY,
A STORY IN HEREDITY.

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sold Aunt Patsy Whitehorn" wa
struck by locomotive on the Soutber
Railway, in the eastern part of town, o
Saturday last, and instantly killed. Sh
was so unique character that som
years ago one who loved her and kney
her well drew, with few necessary dis
guises, pen picture Of her, which al
VIII recognize as faithful portraiture.
once known, never to be forgotten
woman was "Old Aunt Patsy.p Her rea
name had given her no definite standing
but as Old Aunt Patsy she was figur,
whose distinctiveness was as marked a
any in local history.
OF course her life here must bave bar
beginning. AS matter Of fact it,
long, rough stretch reached back almos
to the dividing line between this ant
the last century; but l have crossed tn,
meredian of my days, entered into the
youth of my old age" and yet it seems
even to me whose steps are so far from
the Eastern Gate that there never was
time when she wasn't Old Aunt Patsy.
There was no trace of Relationship be.
tween US and the weight of years had
neither broken nor bent her, but it was
a name we children had given hel
which, to any one familiar with the flexi
BILE and often entirely opposite mean.
ings which children sometimes attach to
descriptive words, was curiously indica.
tive of the mingled and undiyidable
sense of disfavor and veneration with
which we regarded her.
Our undimmed childish visions saw
the aureola, but there were generations of
Quaker grandmothers back of us and we
couldn't blind our eyes to the dirt and
the rags. How she came into life accor-
dant toso much that was highest and best
in IT has always been to me a mystery
how she kept herself SO, a greater one.
There was nothing behind her in the
way of hrains, Of high moral principles,
OF strong affections or even violent pas
sions. Born in poverty and ignorance,
born to poverty and ignorance and fail
ure, the more than three score years and
ten brought her only what the savage
gets-iust enough to keep life. You
could never think Of her as having been
even a loved and petted baby. She
wasn't She was only an accident of
marriage, accepted as sickness or death,
one OF nine to be in some way fed and
clothed until she got big enough to
shlit Tor herself. No sense of obligation
for the child's mental or spiritual well
fare rested upon her parents, None had
been shown for theirs, and helpful
words and gentle tones and the oaresses
OF affection found no place in that part
OF her life which for happier children
finds ant descriptions in the tender
mountain idiom Of "bringing up" She
had literally come up. And vet. what
was it in this wild slip of 1 girl unnour.
ished, unframed, that made her resolve
when her mother died to "keep the
young ones together if she had to work
her finger ends off," And she kent her
purpose, though costlier sacrifices were
made than her poor, stubby fingers
ends. Did you ever take ten and divide
1t by three? There may he a special
Significance in the used figures, appar-
ent to those who believe that a higher
and subtler power belongs to numbers
than that of mere demonstration, but |
use them now only to get my fractions
lO1T3-aa3a
a whole number, then the tenths, the
hundredths, the thousandths, apprecia-
pie enough; and then the long line Of
declmals stretching away into infinite
littleness and apparent uselessness.
have never understood how Aunt
Patsy came to be whole number. By
all known laws she ought to have been
one of those fractional parts which we
can not, in our sum of life, entirely ig-
more, but for all practical purposes cut
off, making whole periods of them
change, at the most, figure in the
humble thousandths.
After awhile she married one of the
Overwhelming Many whose bare, aim
less, negative lives nature seems to use
only as back ground for her distinctive
characters, and settled down to the
ccolorless life OF her class. She bore
ten children, breathed and moved, il
Is true, but hardly had a being; the pain.
the want, the lack of a chance,
the utter unrecognition by him, because
ne couldn't of what was noble in her and
the necessarily consequent, but uncon-
scious self depreciation which such re-
lationship brought doing much to en-
crust what was fine and strong within
her. l think we gave her hardly Justice
in those days and if he (the genius of
our language ought to have provided
more fully for n neuter pronoun capa-
BILE OF distinctively personal applica-
tlon) had lived, she might have gone on
IN the old, dull way, showing no signs
a . hot ,t,, l.
durance. But fever burnt out what
there was of his life, and therefrom that
time and on | saw only the aureole.
Saint Patsy she became to me hence
forth
How bravely she stood by her child
rem; how every nerve and muscle and
fiber OF her being were brought into mo-
ton to keep them together, to provide
for them and give them the advantages
which she had missed; how she was out
or ped and at her work before the stars
had faded from the sky; how the gather
ing darkness found her still at it.; how
she went barefooted and tattered, and did |
without her coffee-that one seeming es-
sential of mountain woman's life how |
she worked for old clothes ana scraps Of |
meat and cold victuals-never asking |
charity, the whole town knows. To |
work like like Old Aunt Patsy" became
a proverb.
No family feared her entrance. She |
never wasted speech and she despised a |
tattler. OF the meanness Of envy be- !
lieve she was absolutely incapable. Con- !
scious that she was worthy Of the fami- !
liarity with which she was treated she |
never presumed upon it. She was too |
proud to be obtrusive or in the way. Her |
very presence was a tonic, for never |
knew her to whine or saw her "down in |
the mouth" and more than even her |
ability and readiness to relieve us from |
the rough, distasteful work, her genuine |
and homely sympathies made her doublv |
welcome in times of sickness and trou- |
bly,
1t came to be belief of hers, partly |
growing out of and wholly justified to |
her by her own experiences, that for /
most of the unhenlLhfulnnss the nainS |