The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1902-03-04

Of cOurSe-Ot course IL was oH -hooic'
How came / TO say that Burns wrote that
pretty ballad beginning. And ! knew by
the smoke that so gracefully curled? l
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 a "lapsus pennae" like that? But
am glad | made the mistake for it has
brought me three letters and a postal
kindly correcting me, and proves that the
people who read the old-time 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 a Georgia reDeI
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 a cockney and drop
ped the his where he should not, and vice
versa. There is always q charm IN
broken English and to murder the KING $
English is no great Offense. "Old HOOK
knew a good deal of Tom Moore and
Burns and Hood and Campbell and it
was a treat to hear him say:
""The cart that is 'umble 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
M L. 1u,,x, -o;I GsJNbo 'op, of the
'urter is card on the i'll" 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
a hard master, a brewer, and his daily
service was to carry the jars of malt from
the cellar up a 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 $40 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 if 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 ont to sea cold HOcE' 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 a 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 a day
tut was hired and shipped to Atlanta and
from there to AllatOOna, where he did his
nrst 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
S' ~ 'ocNAS al "1odlIo hIt1I anu liz
high hills and deep ravines and mingled
with good kind-hearted men and women
he felt safe and free. Il never knew wat
freedom was before, and you Hamericans
aV no hidea wat a blessing it is. The
good woman W'erep | boarded and hel
daughter were SO kind and gentle to me
that | would 'av 'ugged them if | dared
but | thought all of the time of the cir.
l had LETT behind me and it nerved me tC
5000, Onest work and the contractor soor
raised my wages, and in six months | 'aC
q 'undred dollars in bank and got a goof
man to send it to another good man il
New York, and he found the same cap
tam came hover with and he took il
to my sweetheart, and she came bacl
with him, and while | was every dav look.
ing for a letter she took me by surprise
enc morning and brought the letter with
her, and we just fell in to beach hother's
harms Iike-like-like-major hcxcuse me
now, must go and look halter nv 'oss.'
lie had named his fine mare Emma sc
mat he could call her Hemma I reckon
but we made him finish the story after.
wards and tell how one good friend vol
ubtecfed TO so after the license. and an
othef after the preacher, and his landlad,
and her daughter baked some cake anf
pot up a hcNtra supper and thew were
married that night at her 'ouse. and al
nc omembers about what the preacher
Sald was: Whom God 'ath joined to-
SeiAef, let no man put hasunder." colo
lfock was a patriot, a good. honest an6
true man. His neighbors at his home If
Jj""@oh county all loved and honorc6
I'm, and there was not a man in his
regiment THE Eleventh Georgia. NOR
oS'''ea by the men that he fed, for he
NcS CHOSEN DriIs .cnrn r4icco wv al -
me war, and you know it is SO natura-
70 rove those who feed you well. Wher
i"lion5 were short he would travel all
Eight to secure supplies and the bow
knew that if "Oli Hook couldn't get
what they wanted nobody could. Dut IN
toHf&" Of tir1c the OLD mar got sick and
wanted to 90 home. Other officers had
got furlough5, but he had never asked
l"f Gre. lie went to bed and sent for me
and told me he was sick and if he didn,t
get a fu.lough he believed he would get