The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1903-11-20

ing IrOm aIdr anu
flying over houses, yards and gardens,
might have realized something curious
in the look of things.
The square surrounding the court
house and lined with shops was utterly
deserted. The shop shutters were gen.
orally up, and the courthouse, which
had no shutters, showed the need of
them in many shattered pane Of
glass, which gave it an air of degraded
desolation. Both in the square and be-
yond, grass and weeds overgrew in a
disorderly, squalid way many an un-
accustomed spot. The ample gardens
behind the houses were oftenest a tan
gle of luxuriant unframed growths.
The asparagus beds flung out their
feathery foliage in great spreading
masses, and against them the ironweed
and ragweed and jamestown weed
grew tall and lusty, and among these
climbed wild morning glories. At one
side perhaps would be little patch Of
cultivated ground where few sweet
potatoes and little corn took up most
of the room.
Not man was to be seen anywhere,
but now and again sunbonneted wo--
man or several sunbonneted women to-
gether would pass from one house to
another.
Inside the houses or on their shaded
galleries groups, still altogether femi-
nine, were gathered, talking with an
air curiously uniting listlessness and
restlessness, apathy and anxiety.
The truth was they had special i'm
mediate cause for fear, but they had
suffered so long and so much in similar
ways that in many the capacity for
keen feeling was blunted. Yet they
would have told you they suffered none
the less because they suffered DULY.
1t was in 1868. The Federal forces
under General Paine were in possession
of this part of Tennessee, and he had
his headquarters at Tullahoma, not
fifteen miles away.
Strathboro had been well stripped of
men for many a day. Even the four
teen and fifteen year old boys were
away fighting. But until this morning
a few male persons were to be seen
about, and, though usually they were
old or sick or deformed, the sight was
a comfort to the weary eyes of the wo-
mankind. Rightly or wrongly, they
now involuntarily felt as never before
the superiority of the dominating sex.
1t was they who were fighting out this
war, and even the least awe inspiring
man represented the power that car
ried fate in it's hand. And now today
here they were, left without q mana
white man. that is-in Strathboro No;
not literally. without one. Uncle Billy
Caldwell, aged eighty-two still sat at
home in his big chair, quivering and
bewildered, and Blossier, the French
man, was also left behind.
This peculiar state of things was
brought about by General Paine In his
efforts to stop sudden Confederate
raids upon his bridges, railroads and
telegraph wires. These attacks were
always made and the offenders gone
before punishment could reach them.
and under fresh provocation General
Paine had conceived the idea of hold
ing the few remaining and helpless
male citizens of Strathboro responsible
for the doings of the soldiers he could
not catch So this morning an armed
squad had descended upon the dis
neartened little town and had marched
off to Tullahoma the lame, the halt
and the blind. Falstaff's army was
robust body compared to this handful
of mutinous spirits.
Uncle Billy Caldwell was not only
eighty-two, but he weighed nearly 300
pounds. If taken, he was obviously
sure to die on the way. and that would
inevitably cause some delay and in
convenience, so it was plainly discreet
that he be left behind. But, as to the
Frenchman, there was no logical rea-
son for the leniency shown him. 1t
was simply that the Anglo-Saxon con-
querors had, in common with the
Anglo-Saxon conquered. SO deep feel
ing of his foreignness that he seemed
outside of humankind. The question
Of taking him to Tullahoma was dis