The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1901-06-18
Then you don't leave here said the

Then you don't leave here said the
| other coolly
''You have no right to demand money
from me over your superior officers or
ders. Just show me your authority, SIR"
''It is the rule here for all refugees to
pay" said the man calmly, "and you
must"
''The rule? Who gave you any right to
make rule? I'll bet you can't show me
any proof of your authority for SO do
ing"
81 don't bet," said the righteous thief,
with an indescribable drawl. Il have
conscientious scruples about it."
you" cried the old man, now badger
ed into a fury. "You have conscientious
scruplesI You'll God bless my soul!
You" He dropped back in his chair
speechless with anger.
Having thus spiked his enemy's guns.
the blackmailer. after again calmly as
surfing him that he should not leave
without pay, took himself off.
Young G. soon after appeared and
stated that he had paid the tax, as they
could not stay over in Atlanta and camp
by the railroad track, and it was not
worth while resisting when resistance
was useless.
They soon after started on their jour
ney over the toughest road on earth, for
it had been torn mp many times by the
contending armies, and legend was in
circulation that when the iron rails had
been so twisted as to be unit for use sap
lings had been improvised into rails and
nailed to the cross ties SO as to take a
train over the gaps. The road was so
rough that the story did not seem incredi-
ble
Marietta, their next stopping place,
seemed deserted. The only people they
saw were a lot of men busy with a ma
chine Strengthening railroad rails. so as to
use them again. And they had certainly
been twisted into the most wonderful
shapes in the world.
The travellers route lay now through a
dreary country and endless scenes of des-
olation. They failed to recognize it 1t
was the 'Shermanized district" and only
chimneys and heaps of ruins marked the
sites of what had been smiling villages.
At last they reached Resaca and then
home. 1t had been, in army parlance,
sacked and Quilted" Every window was
gone. soldier, it was said, had tried his
prowess with pickax to see If he could
destroy a window at a single blow. He
succeeded, the gaping holes causing the
house to look like blind thing.
But the roof was there to shelter them,
and it belonged to them, and that was
great thing. So they set to work to make
themselves comfortable.
Before a great while they had in can
vas window glass, which. if 1t kept out
most of the light, also kept out most OF
the wind.
Reminders of the battle were scattered
about The lock of the front door hav-
ing been broken, it was kept closed by the
aid of a weight made out of half a tor
pedo with which General Wheelerhad
blown up the railroad track near their
house. Old Parrott shells were used to
prop open the windows, and the fire was
stirred with bayonet, and empty car
fridge boxes were used as troughs to feed
the cows in, so that there was warlike
flavor about things.
But in years time the returned refu-
gees had got so to rights that there was
little to tell that the house had been In
the center of the battlefield and been a
hotly contested spot-only the grave of a
Confederate soldier, who slept peacefully
in the flower garden, where the roses
waved above his head and scattered their
perfumed petals over his grave.-Atlanta
Constitution.