The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-03-02

Copyright, 1901, by The constitutional
OF course-of course IL was Tom Moore.
How came l to say that Burns wrote that
pretty ballad beginning And knew by
the smoke that so gracefully curled?"
knew better and the editor should have
corrected it, for he knew better, too.
What is an editor for if he does not cor
rect ''lapsus pennae" like that? But /
am glad l made the mistake for it has
brought me three letters and a postal
kindly correcting me, and proves that the
people who read the oldtime authors are
not all dead The last line of that verse
always reminds me of a good old man, a
comrade, Captain John Hockenhull, an
Englishman by birth, but Georgia rebel
who used to recite poetry for us around
the camp fires in 1862 and 1868. We
called him "Old Hook and everybody
loved him for he was cockney and drop
ped the his where he should not, and vice
versa There is always a charm in
broken English and to murder the kings
English is no great offense. "Old Hook
knew a good deal of Tom Moore and
Burns and Hood and Campbell and it
was treat to hear him say:
1.-THE cart that is tumble might 'ope for
it ere"
He knew that other sweet ballad of
Anne Crawford:
Kathleen Mavourneen, the gray dawn is
breaking,
The horn of the hunter is heard on the
hill" e
And he always said, 1.-THE 'orn of the.
'unter is card on the ILL.," The Exile OF
Erin" which he called the "Hexile of
Herin.' was another of his favorites He
learned these poems from his sweetheart
while he was an apprentice in London
an orphan boy bound for seven years to
hard master, a brewer, and his daily
service was to carry the jars of malt from
the cellar UP flight of stone steps to the
floor above. He never had a kind word
from his master, and one day he tripped
and fell and broke a jar and was bitterly
abused for it, and told that he had for
feited the $50 that he was to get when
his term was out. He was then Is and
had yet three years to toll at his hard,
monotonous work. That night he poured
out his heart to the girl he loved and de-
clared he would run away and go to
America on the first sail vessel that left
the port. That he would make some
money here and send it to her IL she
would promise to come to him, and then
they would marry and be SO happy-and
she promised. Within a week the opor
tunity came. He told one of the sailors
his sad story and the sailor told the mate,
and they took him aboard by night and
hid him down in the hold of the vessel
until the good ship had weighed anchor
and was far out to sea. "Old Hook told
it all to us one cold night at Manassas
and how sad and sweet was his last kiss,
his last embrace, his last good bye. He
choked up sometimes and the tears glis-
tened in his eyes, but it was a pretty
story and Dickens could have built upon
1t and made tender romance. This was
away back in the forties when our State
was building the Western and Atlantic
railroad and wanted laborers and had
sent a man to New York to hire immi-
grants as they landed at Castle Garden.
"Old Hook" did not have to wait day,
but was hired and shipped to Atlanta and
from there to- Allatoona, where he did his
first work. He said he did not feel safe
upon the ocean voyage or in New York
harbor. for he feared he might in some
way be caught as a fugitive and taken
back, but when he got to Allatoona and
saw the woods all around him and the
high hills and deep ravines and mingled
with good kind hearted men and women,
he felt safe and Free II never knew wat
freedom was before, and you Hamericans
av no hidea wat a blessing it is. The
good woman were l boarded and her
daughter were SO kind and gentle to me
that would 'av 'ugged them if dared,
but thought all of the time of the girl
had left behind me and it nerved me to
good 'onest work and the contractor soon
raised my wages, and in six months ad
a 'undred dollars in bank and got good
man to send 1t to another good man in
New York, and he found the same cap
tain came hover with and he took it
to my sweetheart and she came back
with him, and while was every day look
ing for letter she took me by surprise
one morning and brought the letter with
her, and we just fell in to beach hothers
harms Observation-Disclosures hexcuse me
now, | must go and look halter my 'oss"
lie had named his fine mare Emma, so
i
But we made him finish the story after
wards and tell how one good friend VOL
unteered to go after the license, and an
other after the preacher, and his landlady
and her daughter baked some cake and
got up hextra supper and they were
married that night at her 'ouse, and all
ne remembers about what the preacher
said was: Whom God 'ath joined to-
gether. let no man put hasunder." "Old
Hook was patriot. a good, honest and
true man. His neighbors at his home in
Dawson county all loved and honored
nm, and there was not man in his
regiment (the Eleventh Georgia) more
beloved by the men that he fed. for he
was chosen their commissary early in
the war, and you know it is SO natural
TO love those who feed you we'll. When
rations were short he would travel all
night to secure supplies and the bows
knew that if "OI Hook couldn't get
what they wanted nobody could. But in
course of time the old mar got sick and
wanted to go home. Other officers had
got Burroughs, but he had never asked
To ~ h,l, \