Waterbury Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury [Connecticut]) 1900-1903, 1903-02-26

| brought about grauual abolition OF
slavery upon equitable grounds which
| would have been acceptable to the
whole nation.
| The moral consciousness of the south,
| generally speaking, was entirely at
rest on the question, however. The
! sIaveholding statesmen were as sincere
and as thoroughly convinced that they
| were right as the most violent ab0li-
| ZIONIST was to the contrary, and to
convince them otherwise would require
time, tact and patience, forces which
| have often before moved a world.
| Such an Industrial system as slavery
could not be uprooted suddenly with.
out so seriously disturbing existing
economic conditions as to produce revo-
| luton. The efforts of the southern
abolitionists who would naturally re-
| sent the term were in the present ex-
| element fruitless. They found them
selves hopelessly outclassed, and were
compelled to sink the question of
slavery in choice between their state
and the United States. Their choice
| in most instances was inevitable
Attacked, therefore, by family,
friends and sweetheart, Peyton actual
| ~ gradually persuaded himself that It
was not his duty to remain In the
| United States service. He had been
| born in Alabama. All his family, his
| friends, the woman he hoped to make
his wife lived there. All his affec-
| lions, his dreams, his hopes, were CEN
tered there. II war eame-and he was
at last convinced against his will that
/ ND ma
came In the end because he was one
of the few southern men who knew
the quality of the north, which most
OF his countrymen, publicly. at least,
derided he would be compelled to
| fight against those he loved and who
loved him. Living in seaboard town,
/ 1t was quite possible that he might
some day be compelled to turn the
guns of a warshfp upon this very city,
upon his own people, upon his own
| home. An awful thought that, terri
BILE argument.
But there was another powerful in
centive. The very moment that he an
nounced his determination to continue
I'm the United States service and his
refusal to resign he would be man
marked for hatred and contempt.
Should he follow in the footsteps of
his fathers, honor and preferment
awaited him. His military and naval
training would be of great value to
the south. TO the north he would be
only one of number Of enterprising
young officers
In short, nearly everything urged
him to decision in conformity with
the wishes Of his people, and the argu-
ments that were brought to bear upon
him were SO powerful that they nearly
decided him nearly, but not quite.
Again and again it was on his lips to
announce that decision, yet something
held him back.
He grew haggard and pale under the
stress and strain OF the outward and in
ward debate with men, conscience and
the woman He had time for no day
dreams now Under the iron pressure
In the terrible struggle which tore the
very depths of his being he began to
lose some of the Indifference, the hest
tation, the timidity which had charac-
terizede him in the presence Of the
world. He began to stiffen and to
strengthen.
Watching him painfully were those
who loved him, his father, his mother,
his brother and sister, aye, his sweet
heart, Mary AMMAN, for she too began
to come within the category. Although
she neither knew 1t nor admitted 1t, it
needed but a touch apparently to reveal
to her and tor him the depths of affec-
ton which she was beginning to enter
tain for him. That mighty struggle
going on within his breast, which she
dimly realized from the outward mani
festations Of it in the change of his
character, brought them nearer togeth-
err She watched him with perhaps the
same feeling Of awe with which wo-
men of old, otherwise dainty and re-
fined and not devoid of the gentle SYM
patty we love because we lack it,
watched the gladiators in the Roman
arena.
TO do or not to do, and which was
the duty to be done, which to be left
| undone-for he began to see that, as in
every great crisis or question, there
were duty calls on both sides of it,
that was his problem. Sometimes in
her presence he sat in perfect silence
| for long moments. These periods were
not filed with the dreams of old, and
when she timidly broke them by ask
ing the subject of his thoughts he
| would reveal the mighty turmoil by
some brief, incisive comment which
| taught her as nothing else could the
| fierceness OF the struggle. She prayed,
as thousands of others in both north
and south did in those trying days,
that the decision might be for her and
hers. and awaited 1t with hope which
grew stronger every day.
| Bob barrow, too, grew more unhap-
| py. He made little progress in his love
affairs, although as far as he could see
neither did Peyton. Mary Amman was
kind to him, too kind. She distributed
her favors between the two men i'm
| partially. By a tacit agreement they
had avoided clashing and dispute
| about her. Each contriyed as he could
| to see her alone, but when chance
| brought them together there was no