Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1896-03-18

IN that she was ever on the defensive fo
them. But formed as she was kno,
that she must have felt in its intensit
az the sad truthfulness of what Georg
Eliot says about "Nature, the grea
tragic dramatist, binding us together b,
bone and muscle and sinew, and diyid
ing us by the subtle web Of brain: O
blending yearning and repulsion and ty
ing us by our heartstrings to the being
who jar us with their every movement,
III you think there was any thing prett,
or even picturesque in her appearance
you are mistaken. Rough work, poo
rare, scant clothing, exposure to the ele
ments are none of them beautifyinl
agents, All her life these callousinl
ana soaring forces had done their WORK
upon her, and this, with utter indif
ference to dress, made her anything but
pleasing to the eye.
can see her now-the poor, scanned
sunburnt face; the stiff, white locks
that he kept short, Ito keep from comb
ing, the mischevious boys said; y the
rough, blunt fingers with the nails worn
To the quick; the hard, chapped hands
grlmei like those of worker at the
forge; the tall, spare figure, clad in the
cheap not over clean calico dress; the
old apron of coffee sacks, busy at the
wash tub, scrubbing floors, making soap
rendering lard, pulling weeds or any
menial work that no one else wanted ia
do. But her nobility was recognized,
for among the rahhle Aunt Patsy,s an.
pearance-and it was always ludicrous
enough-was never "a thing for laughte
houts and jeers,"
When in middle life, she Joined the
Baptist Church and honestly endeavored
to live up to its rules and regulations, |
think though that memories Of the
clear, rushing river in her mountain
home had more TO- do with her church
ahiliations than dootrinal preferences
or felt need of human aids to higher
ne, somehow she couldn't separate
that river, baptism by immersion and
"the estream clear as crystal that proceed.
eth out OF the throne of God and of the
Lamb"
Twenty five years, the first of her life,
spent in tho heart of the Unakas, left an
lnetfaoable impress upon her. More
than fifty years in the valleys failed to
change or modify her speech, her man.
ner or her form of dress. Her dialect
was the real dialect of the mountains
such linguistic perfection OF imperfec-
tions that 1T had all the value of a pure
simple, and was standard to which no
written imitation that have ever seen
IN any way approached,
PhenQmonal as she was in most OF her
makeup, two things had come to her by
direct nheritance-unthrift and sloyen-
illness, Strict truth compels me to saw
that this heritage was large enough to
have been the accumulation of whole
1t was, at least, the accu-
surplus. OF course they ALWAYS
against her, erred in the
bone," she could never rid herself Of
themi hut her complete consciousness of
the unloveliness of her possessions; her
earnest endeavors and ludicrous failures
to quit her of them and her half humor-
GUS acceptance of them as her thorns in
the flesh, did much to break their force.
There Is tradition to the effect that
before she Joined the church and even
after, under sore provocation, she would
find vent for her oyercharged feelings in
a verbal infringement of the Decalogue.
Perhaps she would; | don't justify her,
though she belonged to the class who
can not relieve themselves by tears
anyway, her oaths must have been like
mine uncle Toby's, over which the re-
cording angel always dropped blotting
tear.
1t belonged to her code to resent and
return an insult, but in the matter of
injuries she believed and acted upon the
belief that vengeance belongeth unto
The Lord, She was superstitiously (shall
we say SOP afraid to take it in her own
hands,
Tolerant of, or at least charitable to
most of the infirmities and many of the
sins of others, there was one thing for
which she had fine scorn-a whimp-
'ring, whining, complaining woman. No
aggregation of troubles, however real,
'ould have made allowable, with her,
such conduct, and her clear, wide opened
'yes had early found out that it is the
burden makers and not the burden bear
'rs who make such constant, unnecessary
md exhaustive drafts on the world for
and support. In this one
hing she confined her spoken indigna-
ion to her own sex, and never inquired
whether her silence about the men
meant that she deemed them, except in
are, anomalous cases, above and inca
'able of such weakness or only regarded
as their normal and not to be helped
II noticed state. | had the feeling that a
lalt conscious, unexplainable, unde- |
erved but yet to be respected loyalty on |
Ter part to him gave her the right to be |
racular here.
Revival meetings though they were |
ids to the church of her choice, found no |
avor with her. She believed in keeping |
mes soul clean all the time, not in hay- |
ng set seasons to have it swept and gar |
ished. In vain l would remind her that |
hough | took reasonable daily care of |
ny house, yet every spring and autumn |
he had to help me with a general clean |
ngup, or that every spring found her |
With her fresh supply of barks for bit
ers Uhe vernacular for the tonics,) she |
efused to see any analogy between ones
ouse or body and their soul. Maybe |
he knew more of the Mysterious Es-
ence than we, anyway, the Pentecostal |
light with its tongues of fire was less
0 her than the still small voice to which |
he tried to give daily heed.
TO strangers her unmurmuring accep-
ance of the hard things of life seemed
Ike indifference, incapacity for enjoy
lent or at best suggested the fatalism
I the Orient. But we who know how
he hungered for the rich wines and
ascious fruits of life when only its dry
read and bitter herbs were pressed to
er lips, were made to feel that to her
he Grace of God must have been a very
cal and very strong sustaining force.
One passion dominated her in her old
ge-love for the mountains.
This love was voiceless. She had no
lords with which to describe the de-
handing heart hunger when away from
hem, or the blessed, dumb contentment
Ihen in their presence. Perhaps she
idn't understand the feeling. Their
their ruggedness, their
Olemn grandeur, their beneficence, their
fitness, their barren, rocky heights,
heir blackened, fire swept wastes were
ach and all akin to something in her.
Year after year they comforted and
ested and nourished her, until last fall
hen she went to them in the fair, short
ming September days, they claimed
heir own.
Taken in Time