The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-11-21
4 Curious War Relic In Care of an Ala
 bama Woman.

Hattie Mae Martin,
 Director Pro. Tenn. 4 Curious War Relic In Care of an Ala
 bama Woman.
 On July IA. 1903, there appeared ip The Kansas City Journal an article of long lost book and It's partial his tory. The story in brief was this:
 Bible was found In 2 trunk, left in payment of a board bill at the Bar mum Hotel, in Kansas City. The pro prietress, Mrs. Barnum, afterwards became Mrs. Hilliker. After her death, the little book was given tc Mrs. Malotte, Recording Secretary, U b. c. Chapter, Kansas City, Mo, with the expressed hope that 1t might through her. find it's owner.
 On the first blank leaf of the Bible this is written; This Bible was taken from a fine old mansion belonging tc a widow lady in Orangeburg District South Carolina, on Monday. February 1S, 1865, the time General Sherman marched through that district. A It, tie girl begged me, with tears in heI eyes, not to take 1t, as 1t was the last family relic of a deceased aunt of hers who had died insane in the asylum al Columbia, the capital of South Caro- lima" (Signed.) Jas. L. Brown, Com pany D. 18th Ohio Volunteer Infantry SeCOHu btlSauSs SecOno OlNASlOLiS ' II teenth Army Corps"
 On the second blank leaf is a severe criticism of a soldier so hardened as tC commit this heartless act and then pa rade 1t for the public eye. This is signed, "A Man" Then follows this unsigned curse:
 You inhuman wretch! If you dc not seek to restore thIs Book to its proper owner, the grass should withei under your feet; the woods deny you shelter, the sun it's light and Heaven its God! It should prove a serpent in your bosom, a hell from which you could never be separated !"
 The only clue that the book contain ed as to the family from whom 1t was stolen, was on a blank page In the back, where was written in a feminine hand, fast fading, Ann M. Rumph's book"
 The South Carolina papers copied 1t and attracted the attention of the Hon. Wm. c. Wolfe, a prominent citizen and lawyer of Orangeburg, whose mother was cousin to Ann, owner of the book. He took immediate steps to recover the volume and Mrs. Malotte forwarded it to him on August 12, one month after the notice appeared in The Journal
 Mrs. Malotte and all concerned felt thar the Bible had, in Mir. Wolfe. reached its proper owner. and on a blank leaf she expresses the hope that the curse will be plotted out of the Lambs Book of Life," and that the res toratiOn may be a symbol to the fair Southland that God would right her wrongs.
 In November of the same year your director attended the U. D. c. con- ventfop. which was held in Charleston. After adjournment she went to Or angeburg in the Interest of Revolu- tionary matters, accidently or proVi- dentially met these unknown relatives. They told her of the restoration of the Bible. She informed that the Il year old child from whom Brown took the Bible was Carrie Rumph, now Mrs. b. A. J. Blue; that they were sisters in- law and residents of the same town Perote, Ala.
 MT. Wolfe gladly entrusted the pre- cious relic to my care and on Novem- ber 30, 1903. after a separation of near ly forty years. 1t was restored to the proper owner.
 On the last leaf of the volume Mrs Blue writes this quotation: If ye from your heart forgive not" etc. She corroborates~ Browns statements and trusts that God has plotted out the curse. Mrs. A. l.. Rumph, Chairman of the Children of the Con.
 federacy. Alabama Division U.
 D. c,