The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1904-11-11

pected to call his own. Allen lef
home with a determination not t.
write back until he could tell his
wife he was a rich man. He woulc
not allow himself to despair. HI
would save up money and go pros
pecting farther north. This he die
and for nine years did the vain
search continue. Not once had he
written to his wife, and he conclud.
ed that the best thing to do was to
return to the mines and earn suffi.
Gent money to get home on. An.
other year passed in this way. Fl.
nally, with all his savings, be
turned his face homeward. While
he was sad man, the privilege OF
again beholding his wife and child
cheered him on. His life was
doomed to be sadder still, but little
did he realize it then. His heart
throbbed with happiness at the
sight of the home he had left eleven
years before. Would his wife rec
ognize him? Would she be glad to
see him? Of course she would, for
she loved him. These thoughts
crowded his mind as he approached
the little gate over which he had
whispered many an impassioned
goodbye. He would surprise her
by walking in tnannounced Poor
fellow! If his thought had come
true what different life his would
have BEEN Then there never would
have been "Groundhog'' Allen,
there never would have been such a
quaint hole in the ground on the
hill overlooking Columbus. The
unfortunate man arrived home from
California on his wife's wedding
day. She had thought him dead
and had learned to love another,
whom she was preparing to marry
that very night. Instead of being
greeted with kisses and outstretch-
ed arms, Allen received frowns and
harsh words. The wife OF his
youth told him she did not love him
any more, that his long absence
had made her heart grow cold and
that she had given it to another.
Thus thwarted in her design, she
1rove the heartbroken man from
The house. He had few hundred
dollars lett from his savings in CAL
fornia, With this he came to Co
umbus and purchased the ten
lcres of land referred to above,
rom then on living the life OF re-
:luse. His first dwelling place on
his site was a two-room house. All
he cash he had was in paper. One
light the house was burned and as
lie barely had time to escape with
lis life, the money was destroyed. |
The next day he began digging the
lole which served as an abiding
lace the rest of his life. His rea-
on tor living in the ground was
hat the earth was not susceptible /
0 FIRE, he even refusing to use
blanks to shut out the damp coming
rom the bare walls. A representa-
i've of the Columbian Exposition |
t Chicago called on Allen at the
Of the great fair in that
ity and tried to persuade him to
o there and live during the season
S he was then living. An offer of
hundred dollars a month and all
failed to induce him to go.
-ccording to the old mans state
rent short while before his death
is wife and son we're then residing
4 Milwaukee. He called on his
life two or three times after their
eparatIon in the guise of tramp.
Though he was not hungry he
ould ask for aims at her back
Dor. She fed him and he always
ade the meal as long as possible
it was a pleasure to him to gaze
pom the woman whom he loved,
sspite the fact that she had driven
in from home. While his abode
the ground has been neglected It