The Lexington dispatch. [volume] (Lexington, South Carolina) 1870-1917, 1899-01-11
he Got Him Out of the Changing
The Unfortunate Man Had
Few Friends.

Lew GIlSuQS-
Pat Banks is just a common man
typical OF a large class that form the
laboring yeomanry Of this mountain
country. He is a combination man
half horse and half alligator-half
Ifish and half Anglo Saxon-and
works when he is obliged to-, and
frolics when he can. Pat does not
drink nor gamble, but is very social
in his nature, and dearly loves to
stand around and talk with the boys.
He is an unskilled laborer, and jobs
it around, but does not like solitary
confinement, and hence does not like
to pick cotton for q living, but works
well in a brick yard or at anything
where he can talk to the boys. The
Irish predominates in his nature,
for he is quick to resent and enjoys
fight when he thinks he is imposed
on.
Last June Pat had been working
faithfully for John Hilburn in q
brick yard, and made a good hand,
but one Saturday there vas to be a
baseball game in the suburbs of u
town, and Pat told Hilburn he wasn't
feeling very well, and would like to
take q day of. Hilburn wasent
crowded with work, and as be liked
Pat, he gave him the day and Pat
went to see the jubilee. He wasent
one of the nine, but it seems that
there was a missing man, and Pat
was invited to take his place. A
strange man by the name of Weaver,
from Atlanta. was the pitcher, and
while Pat was at the bat Weaver
pitched a foul and Pat complained OF
it, and they had words and used
language very disrespectful, and
finally got together. Pat hit him a
murderous blow with the bat and
knocked him to his knees, and Weav-
er was taken from the field "hors de
combat" or words to that effect.
Now, it appears that Weaver. who
was a bull dosing youth from the
great city, had some kin folks around
here who felt aggrieved, and they
had Pat arrested and bound over t
court for assault and battery. But
Weaver wasent as much hnrt as he
thought he was, and was up and
about the next day. At the July
term of our court Pat was arranged
and tired and found guilty. The
witnesses were stocked on Pat, and
his lawyer dident know it. Even
the judge was surprised, and told
Pat he wouldent punish himself him
if he would join the army and go to
Cuba and do his fighting on the
Spaniards. Pat dident have much
time to reflect, and accepted the con-
dition. The recruiting officer took
him down to Griffin and Pat was
duly enrolled. A few days after he
got there a train came along with
sick and wounded soldiers from
Cuba They were an awful hard lot,
and as Pat looked at them he became
Mortified, and that night he departed
those coasts and walked all the way
back to CartersVille-over a hundred
miles. He said he was willing to
fight anybody who imposed on him,
but he had nothin' agin the Span
iards and he dident think that couu-
try was healthy.
And so Viewers friends got the
sheriff after him again and brought
him up before his honor and he was
sentenced to the. changing for
twelve months-not so much for the
fight, but because OF his desertion
from the army, Poor Pat had no
friends and was forced to acquiesce
in the hardships of the law. For
FIVE months he worked in the county
changing and then was sold out to
Atlanta to work in their chaingang.
But there is a pitiful sequel to this
story.
Pat has a wife and three children
two boys, aged five and seven, and
an infant child at it's mother breast.
He has an aged father who was q
soldier in the regular army before
the civil war, and a mother who is
bed-ridden and has not walked a
step in seven years. All these con-
stitute Pats family, and it is hard
work TO keep the wolf from the door,
and since Pats imprisonment they
have suffered-sufered from hunger
and cold. They have shelter in
John Hilburn's little house, but John
is poor himself and has, they say,
twelve or thirteen children nearly sll
of a size, and all he can co for Pats
family is to let them stay in his
house and pay no rent. The two