The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1896-01-15
ANDERSON S. c., WEDNESDAY MORNING. JANUARY Is 1896

| zone GuC pcsG Iucy Coulu, "A'nou'
| grumbling till the war was over. We
| will deal here with the return time,
though none can tell the sorrow Of
this little family all through the dark
period.
When this little family learned that
the war was over, their whole talk was
of the fathers return. Every morn.
ing they were up bright and early, and
the mother, with a mothers pride,
would dress and fix the children to re-
ceive their father.
All through the day these little
children would sit out on the fence
and watch up the road for the coming
of the soldien When away in the
distance they would see soldier com.
ing, they would clap their hands and
call their mother.
This generation may not know that
railroads were not in use after the war,
and that the big roads were lined with
soldiers returning to their homes afoot.
| So it was. and so this little family
waited and watched for father and
husband, till the numbers returning
began to grow less.
As the line of travellers grew thin
ner, till there was only now and then
one, weaker than the others, that
passed; the more intense grew the
watching of mother and children and
greater grew the anxiety.
So it went for day after day and
night after night, till the mother 8
last hope was gone and she spent her
time in tears.
Passers by began to pity the little
| family and all wondered, for it was
| known that Charlie had got through
| the war and had started home.
Still the mother aud children kept
up the watch. All the work stopped
| at last and every hour that anxious
| mother and the children could be seen
out looking up the road.
There was only a stray squad pass
| ing now and then for all were at home,
| when a man of the settlement was SO
imprudent as to remark in the presence
| of one of the children that Charlie,
the father, had found another home,
and another wife, and would never
return.
This man was not a bad man and
meant this remark more as joke than
| otherwise, but it was no joking matter
with the child. He returned to his
mother and told what he had heard,
and you may be sure that it was no
Joking matter with her. She burst
into screams; she broke down under
the sorrow, she took to her bed and
all that the doctors could do and all
that good neighbors could say did not
save nor cheer her. She died in few
days-died Of broken heart for the
soldier that never returned.
At the death of the mother there
was much talk and much bitter feeling
against Charlie through all our settle
ment. On the very day set for the
buriel of the mother a revelation came
that changed the whole current of
| feeling and all hearts went out in sor-
row for the stricken family.
AS have stated there was no way
for soldiers to return after the sur
render but on foot Charlie had start
ed but as he got nearer home he left
| the roads and took all the near cuts.
AS he grew nearer home so grew his
anxiety to be with his loved ones, and
this anxiety was the cause of his death,
and explained when too late, why he
never returned.
He had arrived on the banks of the
river just opposite his own house.
| He could see the light in his own cot
tage window, but the night was dark
and the storm was raging. 1t was said
to be the greatest food ever seen on
Flint river, and the wind howled at
such rate that his voice could never
reach the loved ones who we're then
waiting for him.
Anxious and impatient he under
took TO cross the river on log that
he had found, and the angry waters
got him in whirl and dashed him
against the rocks. His body was
found in some driftwood at the bend
of the river on the very day that his
wife was to be buried from broken
heart because he never returned.
They were laid in one grave, and are
there to-day to verify the truth that
war is bad thing, and that the fight
ing is not all of the sorrow that it
brings to a country and to people.
In the meantime, Brown is prepar-
ing for the worst. He is already so
used up, that people that know him
only lately, feel sorry for his terrible
infrmities.
The day that he read the presidents 8
message on the Monroe doctrine, he
added thirty years more to his age;
has twenty-three ailments that was
never heard of before, and if conscript
officers come he has twenty-odd other
ailments holding in reserve, so let
them rip, he says.
SARGE PLUNKETT.