Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1897-02-16
lcopyrlght 1894. BY J. B. Llppincott company.l

kee contributions welcome in the
church. Business had brought Col.
Sweet to Summers' Office, and in the
course of frequent visits cordial rela-
tions were established, and Floyd Wal
ton could hardly treat with disdain a
soldier and gentleman whom his
patrons welcomed, even had he long
retained the disposition to do so.
The command had not been gone
week before men We're unaccountably
wishing it back, and when it reap
peared, with certoin additions, it was
actually welcomed by people who would
have secuted the possibility of such Il
thing the year before. This time Col.
Sweet announced to the rector that his
wife and daughter would speedily fol-
low, and were even then in New Orleans,
awaiting his instructions to come. Tha
hotel was no place for ladies in those
rough days; the rector went to Mrs.
Tower, and Mrs. Tower no longer re-
sisted the inevitable. Floyd Walton,
going to tea one lot June evening, was
astonished to find himself in the pres
ence of two ladies, one of them pretty
girl of perhaps is, and to be presented
10 Mrs. and Miss Sweet. Within IL
week the young fellow was spending his
evenings at the Towers, and within the
month was hopelessly in love. Then.
came trouble. He hadn't cent in the
world. She was n soldiers daughter,
and presumably poor. Whether she
was poor or not, he, at least, had Moth
ing to offer, and, having nothing, held
his tongue, though he could not hold
his peace. That was gone.
That was a wretched summer and
autumn. The fire ragged along the gulf,
and cholera swooped upon the garrison.
Sweet got his wife and child away to
the mountains. They left suddenly,
wniie rIoyd was on brief visit to his
mother and sisters. 1t was December
when they came back. Meantime Judge
Summers had abandoned practice and
gone to live ut his old home at Sand.
brook. Mr.. Todd could offer young
Walton no help; there was no money
in law business just then. Matters
at Tugaloo were going from bad 10
worse. and Walton found himself abso.
lutely without money to pay his board
That made no difference to Mrs. Tower
She told him his mothers boy was as
welcome as her own, and made him well
come where fascination all too strong
already held him. Something in Jen.
ME Sweets gentle manner had changed
She was nervous, i'll at ease, and sought
to avoid him. Something in her
mothers manner, too, was very differ
ent. And one day the truth came out
The frequency with which letters be.
gan chasing one another from the north
explained the whole thing. Jenny had
met her fate that fatal summer among
the Virginia mountains, and was en-
gagged to be married. Mrs. Sweet re
ferred to the happy man as ga wealthy
gentleman from Philadelphia, few
years older than Genevieve, but most
charming person." Genevieve herself
said little or nothing. but looked none
too radiant. Col Sweet said less, but
looked much at her.
Then Floyd Walton found anothe,
boarding place, and one where the in
fluences were worse. He threw up his
position in the law Office and took UT
humble clcrkship at store. 1t paid
him enough to board and lodge him
and here, from serving his customers
with drink, he got to serving himself
and to associating with regular set
some young townsmen, some soldiers
There We're stories of gambling ant
quarrel even before Col Sweet found
that Jenny, the apple of his eye, was
| dropping in that southern climate, ant
sent her. with her mother, north "fol
| good" The next thing heard of Floyt
Walton was that he had gone to New
Orleans with discharged soldier; and
even while grieving over her boys in
frequent letters and evident hopeless
ness and depression, Mrs. Walton re
ceived missive one day that left hel
PROSTATE. She went alone to Quitmar
as soon as able to move. and came bacl
within 4S hours looking years older
and both the girls soon knew that sh,
bad parted with the diamond earring'
that were their fathers last gift to he
in the happy, prosperous days that pre-
coded the war. Floyd had written that
starving, drunk or drugged, and DIES
| perate, he had been led by his associat,
| before recruiting officer, had beer
sent with others as reckless as himself
| to sober up at the quarters of a cavalry
command near the city, and that, tn.
next thing he knew, he with a squad O
seven recruits was on his way to join ,
troop stationed within q few miles O
his home, instead, as he had been as
sured would be the case, of being sen
to the Fourth cavalry on frontier duty
against the Indians in Texas. "The,
broke their contract" he said, "and
broke nine" lie had deserted, and, i
captured, would be sent to hard labo
at Baton Rouge penitentiary or to TIN
Dry Tortugas.
Such stories leak out despite ever,
effort to conceal them, but not unit
just before Lnmbert's coming to joil
Company q did Mrs. Walton dream
that Esther knew of her brother
peril. A sudden outcry in her gardel
one day brought her in haste to tn
spot. and there were drunken soldie
md her quadroon maid Elinor-he de
manding liquor and she the return o
a pitcher which he had evidentl,
snatchcd from her hand. Madam Wal
tons stately presence and her imperiou
order that he leave the premises at ono
only partially sobered him. He CAV
her to understand that if she reporte,
him he could bring shame upon he
head-he knew more about her affair
than she dreamed. His insolence trie,
her temper. but could not alter her tom
and bearing. 1t was not until he wa