Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1897-10-13

IA cSfA EE8 L were aI the cHrOu-
&SSSe8 p icling of this tale
in New York,
| whittier we had
gone as chance travelling companions
on train from the West. 1t was on
Sunday morning, and as we took it
easy in the handsome apartments he
was occupying, messenger boy
brought him telegram. The message
was from his wife, and the boy being
a bright-eyed youngster, the cheerful
colonel chatted with him pleasantly
moment and gave him quarter as he
departed.
"Doesn't that make telegraphing
come pretty. ..high?" I inquired, with
the true Yankee spirit of thrift.
'Iused to be one myself" he said
in explanation, 'and now whenever L
see a bright-eyed kid like that I warm
up to him and give him something,
though not always quarter. Being
Sunday, and the telegram being from
my wife, I do bit better than usual
and part with all of 25 cents"
"Do you really mean that you were
once messenger boy?" I asked in
great surprise, as I looked over the
elegant man of the world, every inch
gentleman born, who sat in the big
chair by the window gracefully pois-
ing q cigar on his thumb and finger.
"Really and truly" he laughed,
"and if you can stand reminiscence
this morning, I'll tell you the story of
my life. Journalists" and he bowed
over the arm of the chair, 'I believe,
are always on the lookout for interest
ing facts in history and fiction, aren't
they?"
I FASTENED to assure him that they
were, and after making me swear that
I would keep awake at whatever sacri-
fee, he began.
''When I was youngster of ten, "
he said, 81 was messenger boy earn
ing the luxurious salary of three dol
lars week, all of which I gallantly
turned over to my mother, who was a
bankers daughter, though she had
been turned o, of her fathers house
because she had not married to suit
him and her stepmother Indeed, she
had gone farther and married the man
4 who had suited her, and after that,
I4as-a4asl'Sss10 lsts- -aasFGl'ESss10ahd ana only son were
often so, and life was not quite rs rosy
a light have been. Wew were brave
PEE PIE, though, and with my three
dollars week we managed somehow
to get along. I improved after year
sor two, and incidentally picked up te-
Biography, so that when was fifteen L
got place at small country station
in Missouri and took my mother there
to live with me on my salary of forty
dollars month, my father having
died year before.
'At sixteen my mother died, leav-
ing me alone in the world, and at my
mothers funeral my grandfather re-
Tented sufficiently to propose that he
educate me, which proposal T accept
ed and agreed to take good business
education. By the time I was twen-
ty-one Lad been graduated, and my
grandfather gave me position in q
bank he owned in very pleasant in
terror town, where I showed such ap-
titude that the old gentleman entirely
forgave me for having been the son of
his disobedient daughter and told me
to go ahead and I should be partner
some day.
"The next most natural thing in the
world to do was to fall in love, and
did it for all there was in my throbbirg
heart, and on the evening of the day
I was promoted to the cashiership of
the bank I asked Kate Vernon to be
my wife. I did it advisedly, too, for
my grandfather had told me when I
married he would give me an eighth
interest in the bank. Miss Vernon
wasn't the most beautiful girl the eye
of man ever rested on, and even I was
forced to confess that there was too
much pug in her nose for classic
beauty, but she was the brightest
young woman in the county, and the
cheeriest, and was heels over head in
love with her, which made up for all
discrepancies.
During all the time of my expert
ence in the bank I had kept up my
interest in telegraphy, and after Kate
and 1 had settled upon our future
relationship, I had connected her
house with my room at the bank, and
whenever I had the chance I called
her up and talked love to her between
meals by electricity. I don't know
how much of that kind of talk we in
dulged in, but I do know that
Kate became almostan expert telegraph
operator, and could easily have made
her living at it had there been such q
necessity.
Gone of the other customs of that
charming time of love in the fore
ground was q drive that Kate and 1
took two or three times week in a
trap she owned, leaving the bank just
after closing time, o'clock, and driv-
ing for couple of hours, to end at her
house, where took supper with her.
On the days when she would telegraph
down that she was coming, would
lock up the money and valuable papers
in the inside safe and leave the outer
doors of the big vault open, so the
last man out of the bank could put the
books away and lock them up against
fire. The man who did this nearly O.
ways was an old fellow, partly deaf,
and janitor rather than a clerk. One
day, when L had shut up the inside
safe and gone out to join Kate in her
trap at the door, she sent me back to
wait until she went up town to see n
friend about n church supper they
were interested in. Old Jock, as we
called him, was not at his desk when
came back, though had said goodbye
to him as l went out, nor was there
anyone in the bank, and as 1 sat mo-
ment at my own desk [ noticed pa,
per that that had been left there by
In, ,1,f !