The free press. (Poplarville, Miss.) 1890-19??, 1902-03-06
BILL ARP'S LETTER
Barlow Man Pays Loving Tribute
to Army Comrade "oId Hook"
ALOYAL AND PATRIOTIC ENGLISHMAN
An Unintentionai Error Corrected
William Suggests Wholesome
Books Suitable For Young
People to Read.

OF course-of course it was Tom
Moore. How came l to say Burns
wrote that pretty ballad beginning,
And l know 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 IL he does not correct a "lapsus
pennae" like that? But | am glad 1
made the mistake, for it has brought
me three letters and 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 good old
man. a comrade, Captain John Hook
enhull, an Englishman by birth, but a
Georgia rebel who used to recite peo-
try for us around the camp tAes IN
1862 and 1863 We called him "Old
Hook" and everybody loved him for
he was a cockney and dropped the his
where he should not, and vice versa
There is always a charm in broken
English and to murder the kings Eng
lish is no great offense. cold Hook
knew a good deal of Tom Moore and
Burns and Hood and Campbell and it
was treat to hear him say:
THE cart that is tumble might 'ope
for it ere"
He knew that other sweet ballad OF
Annie Crawford:
Kathleen Mavourneen, the gray dawn
is breaking,
The horn of the hunter is heard on
the hill"
And he always said "The 'orn of the
'unter is card on the ill" The Eek
lie of Erin" which he called the Hex
lie of Herin," was another of his IA
vorites. He learned these poems from
his sweetheart while he was an ap-
prentice in London-an orphan boy
bound for seven years to hard mas
ter, a brewer, and his daily service
was to carry the jars of malt from the
cellar up a fight of stone steps to the
floor above He never had a kind
word from his master, and one day
he tripped and broke a jar and was
bitterly abused for it, and told that
he had forfeited the 20 pounds 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 declared 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 prom
Used. Within 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 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 upsometimes
and the tears glistened in his eyes,
but it was pretty story, and Dickens
could have built upon it and made
tender romance. This was away back
in the forties when our state was
building the Western and Atlantic rail-
road and wanted laborers and had sent
a man to New York to hire immi-
grants as they landed at Castle Gar
den. "Old Hook" did not have to wait
a day. but was hired and shipped to
Atlanta and from there to AlIatoona,
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 wo-
men, he felt safe and free. Il never
knew W.T. freedom was before and you
Hamericans 'ay no idea wat a bless
ing it is. The good woman were l
boarded and her daughter were so kind
and gentle to me that l would 'av
'ugged them if l dared, but l 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 'undred dollars in bank and got
a good man to send it to another good
man in New York, and he found the
same captain l came hover with and
he took it to my sweetheart, and while
| was every day looking for a letter,
she took me by surprise one morning
and brought the letter with her, and
we just fell in to beach hother's harms
like-like- like-major, hexcuse me now,
must go and look halter my 'oss."
He had named his fine mare Emma,