Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1902-04-08


D results of the war, not being able t
3 share the optimistic views entertained
at that time by Secretary Seward ant
| others. Then there was the oft recurring
conflict between his love and his patriot
| ism. The Puritan strain in his makeup
: was too strong to suffer him to feel a
| ease, while great question of duty re
| mained unsettled.
. He found his position in the commun
, ity by no means agreeable. The mem
, bers of the somewhat exclusive socia
circle in which the HarwoOds moved
treated him, out of regard to Virginia
with due civiity, though not with al
the old cordiality But outside of thai
circle he was not secure from covert and
sometimes open insult. In passing alon2
the streets of Waterloo, he often heard
himself denounced as "black-hearted
republican," and if the speaker hap
pened to be one of the unregenerate, he
was quite sure to prefix to that tlatter.
ing term, some more or less fOrcible
"swear words" Afterwards the terms,
"black republican" and "black-hearted
republican, were abbreviated to
"blackie'' and applied indiscriminately
to all who supported the cause of the
Union, whatever may have been their
previous party affiliations.
Meantime Ginnie had been quite
carried away in the general excitement
at Waterloo. Her zeal for the Confed-
eracy arose to such a height she was
eager to persuade her two brothers and
indeed all the young men of her ac-
auaintance, to enlist in its service. 1t
would be glorious thing, she assured
them, to fight for ''the independence of
the South"-a phrase used by Southern
leaders she was fond of quoting to them
in her efforts to stir up their patriotism:
10 Harwood, the younger brother and
a favorite with Ginnie whom he strongly
resembled in temperament and charac-
ter, needed no urging. He painted for
the fray like young war-horse, and as
soon as he heard that disunionists in the
adjacent counties were organizing and
drilling, he was off to their camp. Not
so with Mr.. Jim, the elder brother; he
was not athirst for glory. Perhaps he
secretly shared the poets opinion that
"The paths of glory lead but to the grave"
or at any rate, were too likely to lead
/
up in front of the enemy's guns. lie
realized probably that soldiers life
would be too strenuous for him, since the
only avocation to which he had applied
himself with any assiduity was that OF
lloafing around the stores and groceries
of Waterloo. The fact was, he had been
born tired and had never got fairly
rested As Ginnie sometimes declared
with refreshing frankness, "Jim was too
horrid lazy for any earthly use. Twas
a pity he wasn't born down South where
he could have fourteen dozen darkies to
wait on him-'twas So
Cotton made no attempt to argue or
demonstrate with the pretty enthusiast.
He was on his guard to avoid drifting
into any serious discussion of the diff
fe ences between them-it had proved
too painful for him in the past. But he
sometimes allowed himself to banter her
playfully as a sort of relief to the heart
ache that often oppressed him.
One day when Ginnie was lamentlng
with considerable disgust, her failure to
persuade Jim that it would make a man
of him to 90 and fight for the South, he
said to her laughingly-
"Why don't you ask me to enlist,
Gimme? You always pass me by when
you are drumming up recruits for the
Southern army. Positively, wifey, you
are sighting me-"
"Oh, but | don't want you to enlist"
she replied with a bright smile.
"Why don't you want me TO De a
soldier if you think it will be such fine
thing for Jim? All, understand. 1ou
Southerners think Yankees won't tight.
You're afraid perhaps that your hus-
band would disgrace himself by showing
the white feather when the bullets began
to whistle around him. But haven't you
ALWAYS heard that discretion is the better
part of valOr and
"He who fights and runs away
Will live 10 fight another day.
ooh, you know, pet, never thought
Won a coward" she exclaimed half re,
proachfully. II believe you would
make a splendid soldier, Harry-l do
indeed"
"Don't be too certain of that, my dear.
True, had an ancestor who fought ana
bled on Bunker Hill, but l may have
degenerated, you know"
SNow please quite your nonsense,
Harry. You used to argue with me so
gravely against secession, and now
can't get you to be serious on the sub
iect. l want to have bit OF sober talk
with you this morning."
She came to his side and perching her.
self on his knee, her favorite seat, began
to stroke his brow and hair in the pretty
caressing way she had. :,
"No, it's the truth, Harry" she said
thoughtfully after little silence, u
shouldn't like to see you fighting against
the North, against the state where you
were born and raised. l should feel
that YOU were fighting against your
people, your old home, and really II
wouldn't seem right to me. l could
never ask you to do that"
The theory that one ought to go with
ones state, put in practice by some dis,
tinguished Southerners who were at first
op 9osed to disunion, Ginnie had accept,
ed as a sort of gospel and made some
what fanciful application of it to her
own case and his. :,
"Now it's different with us-oh!
know what you would say" she ADDED
hastily, as Cotton lifted his eyebrows
with somewhat qulZIlcai ar ina
Missouri is still in the Union and so we
ought to take sides with her. But
don't care" she continued with toss OF
her head, ''Missouri is slave state ano
belongs with the South anyhow. Then
YOU know, we are really Virginians
horn and raised on Virginia plantation
and now Virginia has seeded and joined
the Confederacy. I'm so glad and pap;
, is having a jubilee over the news tina
his dear old mother state has provet
herself true to the South. All oul
people are there, relatives and ole
neighbors; and don't you think, Harry
it would seem like going back on them
, if we were to take sides against TIT
South" ,,o,,
Cotton was wary of controversy. ION
, 1 suppose you wouldn't be Ginnie II yol
could make up your mind to go back oil
your friends" , GO
, Eyes, Harry" she chattered on, ii
would seem so horrid to take side
against them. could never do it. Nov
i, there's that Lawyer Bell, he was her
: this morning to see papa and l hear'