The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1898-11-23


At the usual hour .,.cy had dinner
ready and lie bl,w IT," horn for John
Whilr watnr !pr lcr husband APP
pchranrr ia. wDit into her glass.
brushed icr hair rrn,pcl 4 little and
eainc out. milirs, - meet him when
he rait' but ala-, he never came.
Sic BE" th' horn again, This time
long and luu,i, and th,n She waitci
anG watrh'l ln. ncvcr John came
n:eh. Arain She blew and aeai, She
waited, but John had never ne
Size was frightened now and tllonght
spnc tree or Limb in Tie ncw ground
had fallen on John, aud quicker than
co ii write it, She had :.cootcd Ike
deer and wa. standing on a big
stump III thc new ground calling
John, OH, John! Where are you,
Jchn?'
Then she searched every nook and
cornrr i'll that new ground, but no
John wa> there Faint and exhaust
cd She threw herself upon the leaves
in the corner Of the fence, sobbiue
mournful!y:
"Oh, John, john; where have you
! gonc?'
Poor I.ncy She lay in the corner
of that fence III! John and the rowdics
did CONF and find her. and .Join, for
the first time in his life, was blind,
staggering drunk, and for the first
timc in his life he "as nnkiml 20
Lucy, and told her, in drunken pas
sion, thao her old father made his
riches By selling whiskcy and making
peach brandy.
Those rowdics never had much
trouble after that in getting John off
to the still, and it was no great while
till he spent the most of his time
there, and with rowdics worse than
these first ever thought of being.
Lucy lost the bloom in her checks
and the sparkle Of her eve passed
away, till folks who knew nothing of
her troubles said she was dyspcptic
and that she didn't make her homo
happy.
So matters were moving till one
cold December nigh., when a few
neighbor women had gathered in to
sec Lucy die. John was off at the
still and had been off for week, and
only got home in time TO hear the last
words OF his wife as she reached out
her hands in scnselcss manner and
muttcred:
"Tell the folks around old Hebron
that this isSLucy-tho little, blue
eyed girl THAT they so loved to pet.
Lucy that.was baptized by the spring
at the Fold. Church and who lived in
the big [whitc shousc in the forks.
Tell them how Lucy
She stopped for moment and a
shadow seemed to tit across her face.
when she resumed:
"Lncy;gpocr, poor Lucy-my father
made his riches by selling whiskey
and running STILL and thus the lit
tie girl he loved so we'll must pass
away.
She was dead, and Brown and I
knew the story, and as we looked upon
the tombstone, Erected BY her hus-
band. We said and still say: "What
mockcry, what moekery." This was
no new'madc grave. Lucy has been
dead long, long time, and think
that hcrogoing was not so hard, for
she was Elaid beside her only little
babe that seemed so lonesome here
alone, but the tombstone was fresh
and implies consideration that she
should have found while here. We
may feel too hard on John in this; I
think we do, for he is an old man now
and often thinks of the blooming girl
and of how she dropped till her poor
thin hands were too weak to work and
her spirits too law to ever raise ::
smile. SO is l;fc. We often save
till after death the kindly acts that
should come here
Brown and | are both suspicious
that the present Georgia Legislature
will make an effort to cut down the
pensions of Confederate soldiers and
widows. If they do, every monument
that has been raised to the Confeder-
ate cause will point down to these
and say:
What mockery! What mockery!