The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1899-03-01
AN INCIDENT OF VICTORY.
ByHarrydelle Hallmark.
Auqusta Herald.

ing bird was turning every other blra s
talent into significance. The little
colored girl brought her morning
paper and laid it dowa on her lap and
sat down at her feet to sort the stock
ings in her work basket. Mrs. Rivers
read the editorials and then turned to
the war news. The headlines looked
quiet and down the column were the
names Of two more identified dead
bodies; only regulars. J. P. Rivers,
private, was one Of the names, follow
ed by the company and regiment num-
bers. It was her only son.
She laid the paper down in her lap
and sat looking out over the straggly
grass in the yard, over which the
great bulky magnolia trees threw great
shadows.
The mocking bird was now singing
luxurious ecntralto solo, having I'm
ished initiating amateurs; the little
adarkey at her feet was thrusting her
fingers into the stockings and hum
ming tune. From the kitchen WIN
dow Aoated out a folk song, which the
cook was singing.
Mrs. Rivers caught herself thinking
Of this tune and remembered that she
had read somewhere that persons often
pay the greatest attention to tribes
around them when mental blow has
struck them like club.
She remembered thinking how i'm
possible negro's beautiful tones are
to initiate; how it was claimed that
the reason for Melba's great Magnet
ism came from her being the only sing
er who could strike the exact shade
Of sound that negro csuld-then she
wondered where she had read that.
How wonI erful the cook was sing
ing. From who did she Inherit that
hypnotic middle Of the note. 1t was
especially noticeable when she sang
tiat minor refrain, "Chariot Of TIE
Lord rolling on" Her mind then
took up the thread Of her boys S child
hood and she realized how her heart
had ached through all those early
misdemeanors of ais; Of that first
awful fear-awakening that probably
her boy was not morally responsible;
that what she had forced herself to
accept as childish indiscretions were
growing into settled immoralities.
She had prayed to God with clenched
hands night after night that such
would not be the case-that the boy
would prove himself as much Q man
as the father.
The father had never seen this
child. It was born while he was in
the Army of the Potomac just as he
was going INFO battle, and all he could
do was to write the prayer that should
death come to him while he wore the
grey the boy might grow up to be son,
protector and guide to his mother.
Death touched the father with honor.
Men cheered him as he fell and wept
when they dragged his riddled body
off the battlefield. Dying, he carved
his name high among the State s
heroes, where men said he would have
placed Z even had he lived and never
fought with musket.
She thought Of that first serious
trouble the boy had brought home and
how she had spent her savings that
the town people might not hear OF it;
how she had schemed and planned to
bear her grief over him, alone, so she
would have no pity shown her. She
was too proud for pity. She grew to
shrink from the newspapers, fearing
she might see his name in great letters
staring at her from the headlines,
doing-she dared not think what.
She wondered how the other mothers
stood the:s children's immoralities
with such equanimity, going about
their friends as if all were we'll. A
loud ring at the door always made her
nerves thrill until they ached. And
now he was dead!
For the first time she saw his name
in print, but the letters were small
and the people on the staff of the
paper didn't seem to know that this
was "Jack" Rivers Of their own town.
She was right in that surmise. The
people on the paper didn't know.
They hardly knew that there was a
Mrs. Rivers in t'.at town. They we're
Of a newer generation and even the
older town people never knew why
this woman had grown SO old and
bowed and silent at fifty. Few yisi-
tors came to the little old rambling