Fort Mill times. [volume] (Fort Mill, S.C.) 1892-current, 1902-02-26
OLD HOCK'S STORY.
Bill Arp Writes About The Good Old
Englishman.
HOW HE SAILED TO AMERICA
Left His Sweetheart and Shipped AS
Stowaway-GlrIF Found Him Soon
Afterwards.

or course-of course it was Tom
moore. How came to say that Burns
wrote that pretty ballad beginning
And l know by the smoke that So
grecfully curled?" | knew better and
three letters and a postal kindly cor
ne knew better, too. What is an editor
TOT II he does not correct a "lapsus
pennae" like that? But I am glad T
made the mistake for it has brought me
three letters and a postol kindly cor
recting me, and proves that the people
who read the old-time authors are not
all dead. The last line Of that verse al
ways reminds me of good old man.
comrade, Captain John Hockenhull. an
Englishman by birth. but Georia reb-
el who used to recite poetry for us
around the camp fire in 1862 and 1868.
We called him "Old Hook" and every
body loved him for he was cocknev
and dropped the his where he should
not, and vice versa. There is always
charm In broken English ard to mur-
der the kings English is no great Of
tense. "Old Hook" knew a good deal
of Tom Moore and Burns and Hood and
Campbell and 1t was a treat to hear
him say:
"The cart that is 'umble might 'ope
for 1t 'eIt,n
He knew; that other sweet ballad of
Anne Crawford:
Kathleen Mavourneen. me gray dawn
is breaking,
The horn OF the hriier is heard on the
hill"
And he always said "The 'orn OF the
'unteF is 'asrd on the ILL.," The Exile
of Erin, which he called the "Hexile
OF Herin." was another of his favor
ties. He learned these poems from his
sweetheart while he was an apprentice
In London an orphan boy bound for
seven years to hard masters, brewer.
and his daily service was to carry the
jars OF malt from the cellar up a flight
= or stone steps to the door above. He
never had kind word from his master.
and one day he tripped and fell and
broke Jar and was bitterly abused for
1T, and told that he had forfeited the
32O that he was to get when his term
was out. He was then Is and had yet
three years to toll at his hard mo-
notonouS work. That night he poured
out his heart to the girl he loved and
declared he would run away and go to
America on the first sail vessel that
left the port. That he would make
some moeny here and send 1t to her il
she would promise to come to him, and
then they would marry and be so hap
py-and she promised. Within a week
the opportunity 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 II 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
glistened in his eyes. but 1t was pret-
ty 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 la
borers and had sent man to New
York to hire immigrants 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 he
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 'I never
knew wat freedom was before, and
you Hamericans 'av no hidea wat a
blessing it is. The good woman Were
| boarded and her daughter were so
kind and gentle to me that would 'av
'ugged them II / 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 I
'ad 'undred dollars in bank and rot
good man to send 1t to another good
man in New York, and he found the
same CAPTAIN I came hover with and
he took 1t to my sweetheart and she
came back with him. and while 7 was
every day looking for letter she took
me by surprise one morning and
brought the letter with her. and we
just fell in to beach hothers harms
like-iike-major hexcuse me
now. I must go and look halter my
'oss." He had named his fine mare.
Emma. so that he could call her Hem
ma, | reckon. But we made him finish
the story afterwards and tell how one
good friend voluteered to go after the
license, and another after the preacher.
and his landlady and her daughter
baked some cake and got us a hextra
supper and they were married that
night at her 'ouse. and all he remem-
bers about what the preacher said was:
Whom God 'ath Joined together, let no