The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-06-22
PEACE FOR ONE HERO;
 MISERY FOR ANOTHER
GLORY AND DISTRESS
SAD STORY OF A SCARED
 CONFEDERATE.
Accident Brings Aged Thomas Booth and His Aged Wife to Helplessness and
 Want.


 Thomas w. Booth, with the honorable scars of five wounds sustained in the service of his State in the army of the l Confederacy, has been lying maimed and | helpless. with both legs broken and in
 want, for three months at his modest
 home. 1925 South McDonough Street | MT. Booth was on the 18th of last March | the victim of a serious accident. While | working upon the high trestle of the
 street car line near the boiler works he
 was either pushed off by passing car or fell to the ground, distance of twenty | feet. Both legs were broken and the bones
 in both feet were crushed. and as he is
 an old man the results of the accident | were more than serious to him.
 He was carried to his home on South | McDonough Street and he has since lair 1 in bed, with his needs and those of his | aged wife becoming more pressing with | every passing day. He Is carpenter, and I his labor. when he was in health, sup piled the simple wants of him and his wife, but mo surplus accumulated as a | barrier against misfortune. Three months have elapsed since he has been able to work and as he had absolutely no re- sources, other than his labor, the plight of him and his wife Is now pressing. Mir. Booth lives in a neat white cottage | on South McDonough Street near the top ] of Bellinger Heights. He lives with his wife in this house, which is kept scrubbed and scrupulousiy clean. The home is com | fortably furnished, the fruit of MT. Booths labor in better days before the
 coming of misfortune. and the baroness | and bleakness of extreme poverty is therefore not shown in the home. The dire need Is for food and medicine. l Provisions are wanted and wanted at | once. Kind friends and neighbors have | helped them in his present illness, but | the worthiness of MT. Booths plea for
 help is known but to few He and his
 wife have suffered in silence with want I and hunger drawing steadily nearer and nearer. They preferred facing their un- l fortunate condition without an appeal to l the charitably disposed.
 | There was no provisions in the house
 and they have no money for the purchase | of medicine. Charity in Montgomery has l had but few, if any, worthier calls 1 than that which comes from the McDon- 1 ough Street home.
 l An Advertiser representative called last | night to see MT. Booth. He has suffered l greatly with his injuries in the recent | heat but he is cheerful under all his mis- | fortunes. His right leg is broken near the
 knee. His left leg is broken in two places
 above the knee, one being compound | fracture. It is a coincidence that both | legs were wounded little below the knee | in the battle of Seven Pines nearly forty years ago. The terrible scars made by the | bullet that inflicted both wounds are but | a few inches from the new injuries in l both legs, sustained in the fall from the | trestle last March, are plainly discernable
 ~"I have been compelled to ask my | fr;erds for help" sad Mir. Booth to Tine
 Adv ertiser representative. 1T have lair
 upon my back In this bed since tho | 18th of March. I have had in my life | nothing but that which I worked for, anC | in my misfortune I have come to want l hG ve lived in Montgomery for fortS l years, and in all that time 1 have mad, | a support by work as a carpenter, untl | my accident. l can only hope now tna | fricIds who have known me- will hell
 me in this time of need. The doctcr tells
 me that I will not be able to leave tho
 bed for two months. What we are to dc
 in that time I can not tell.'
 MT. Booth was soldier, whose ser vice in the army of the Confectionery wa'
 marked with distinction! He was not
 only wounded at the Battle of Sever | Pines, but he was shot down at York | town and while he lay upon the ground
 wounded in the head with the fragment | of a shell, he was bayonetted In 2 | charge by the enemy The bayonet was
 run through his side into his arm at the
 elbow. From this wound his left arm
 has since that time been almost useless
 His five wounds are on the head in the
 side, and in both legs.
 He was Il member of the Montgomery Greys the famous organization of Mont | gomery that saw much desperate fight
 ings in the Virginia campaign. He went | out under Captain Sam Hardaway ir | the 9th Alabama regiment, and his com | rades in the old Greys vouch for his
 services
 If anything was needed to strengthen
 his claim upon the gratitude of his State the recollection of the fact that two ot his brothers sacrificed their lives for the | Confederacy would supply it. There | were three of the Booth brothers who
 as young men. went to the front and two | of them occupy nameless graves, where
 they fell in sanguinary battles. The | third has grown old and misfortune is | his part He came back to Alabama tc l take up his life anew, with his body
 maimed with bullets and with the de-
 pressing memory of the two brothers who had sacrificed their lives for the | State.
 | Although sorely wounded when he re | turned to Montgomery, IoTIy years dBo l the old man was able to make his way | without aid of charity and he draws at
 tention to this fact with pride Praise
 and honor is justly awarded the two deat | brothers and halo Is thrown about theil
 memory. by the grateful people of tho South who honor the bravery and devo tion of all Confederate soldiers and whC pay heartfelt tribute to those who of
 fered up their lives.
 1 The living brother was no less bravt
 than the dead brothers. and his devotion
 to the Confectionery and his State was nC
 less marked. He was only in smaller degree more fortunate than they. They | fell and he came from the great conflc
 sorely wounded to struggle against pow
 erty for full forty years. to be finally | overwhelmed with misfortune.
 | If he has in the whole world, man | woman or child who is of his blood. the old man does not know it. He has seer
 his family-there were only a few mem-
 bers of it-die one by one. and two ot them wore Confederate grey when deatf | summoned tbEm.
 Wanting the actual necessities of life | the old veteran, with the old honorable | scars almost covered with fresheI
 wounds suffers and mutely faces what l seems q hopeless future.
 l Hr,,icar 11anvar Launched