The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1902-03-14
Barlow Man Pays Loving Tribute
to Army Oomrado "0ld Hook"
ALOYAL AND PATRIOTIC ENGLISHMAN
An onlntentIonai Error Corrected.
william suggests Wholesome
Books Suitable For Young
People to Read.

wrote that pretty ballad beginning.
and / know by the smoke that so
gracefully curled?" knew better and
the editor should have corrected II. for
ne knew better, too. What Is an editor
Tor II he does not correct "lapsus
pennae" like that? But am glad |
made the mistake. for Il has brought
me three letters and a postal kindly
correcting me. and proves that the
people who read the old-tlme authors
are not all dead. The last line of that
verse always reminds me of a good old
man, comrade, Captain John Hook.
enhull, an Englishman by birth. but
Georgia rebel who used to reclte PEG.
try for US around the camp ndes 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. "Old Hook"
knew a good deal of Tom Moore and
Burns and Hood and Campbell and it
was q treat to hear him say:
The cart that is umbIe 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
vorltes. 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 fight of stone steps to the
dOor above. He never had kind
word from his MASTER, and one day
he tripped and broke jar and was
Utterly 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 1t to her if she would promise to
come to him, and then they would
marry and be so happy-and she prom.
Used. 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 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 1t and made a
tender romance. This was away bacF
In the forties when our state was
building the Western and Atlantic rail
road and wanted 1aborers 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 dav. but was hired and shipped to
Atlanta and from there to AIlatoona,
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 aud 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
Lnew W.T. freedom was before and you
Hamericans aY ne idea wat bless
ing It is. The good woman were
boarded and her daughter were so kind
and gentle to me that would 'aV
,ueged 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 Ia bank and got
! good man to sand 1t to another good
man in New York, and he found the
same captain I came hover with anc
- tnok II 10 my sweetheart. and while