The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1904-04-26
WHERE SLEEPS THE DEAD
Above Their Bones the ''Mossy Marbles Resl.--The Grass
Springs Fresh Above Their Wondering Dust.

stranger standing by his grave in thel
following on his craven ton
Attention. reader. Let my mouldingI
clay,
waken reflections while it is stillI
called day.
I'm gone, thou art going, and thyl
head |
Will soon lie low with the SILENT
dead.
Art thou prepared? Where viii thyl
spirit be
When time is cast in eternity?"
! Only a few steps away, from a time
worn memorial slab on an u~p-raise,il
tomb of brick. posterity learns, in al
| delicious quaint form Of expresSiOnl
that there lies Lewis Barge, who de-
| parted this life after a lingering in-I
| disposition" just 90 years agO He was
a Philadelphia, n Of the earliest
and most energetic settlers OF Cross
| Creek, now Fayetteville, a ffourishins
village, grouped around busy mills,
where now are Capt. j. D.. Mcneil 81
/ extensive merchant mills.
Close by the sidt of Lewis lies his
son Edward Barge, born in 1119, died
three years after the close of the CIV
II war, having passed by a decade the
| extreme limit set for man by the
Psalmist. by reason OF strength
He lived in the northern part Of town,
at the head of what to this day is
known as "Barge's Lane in plain
but comfortable style for he was a.
man of substance, and he was knownl
to the whole community as Uncle
Neddy." He was a Presbyterian but
not a Puritan, and John CalvinS sat
urnine face would nave clouded into "a
thunderstorm OF frowns, and his bile
would have risen, at Uncle Neddy'S'
S1rnnu DrpS aria niSm He U-aa a
little nut-brown man, with CHEEKY
twinkling eyes, a a scanned with
a thousand wrinkles. and a puckered
mouth. l am trying to reveal some
characteristics in Dickens Of which he
was the counterpart. He had too mucn
sense to resemble the Churyble broth
ers in Nicholas Nickleby,' and Nico-
demus Boffin in Our Mutual Friend, :"
was too elephantine and numbering for
a comparison suffice it to say that I'm
Gle Neddy whole life showed that his
name might be written with that of
Abou Ben Adham as "One who loved
his fellow men,"
AS / halted to arrange my notebook
and stopped down to tie my shoe, l
leaned against what 1 first took to be the
cornerstone of a burial square but close
examination of it's bliStered, broken and
scanned surface proved it to be the
tablet in tribute to Donald Mcqueen,
who passed away in 179S-"beloved,'
says his epitaph, for his social vir-
tues, respected for his liberal, manly
sentiments. and admin ed for his Splen-
did talents" Renowned be his grave
and may the worthy thus with honor
and regret be mourned. o tradi7
ton, but reliable tradition, rests his
fame-that Donald Mcqueen was one
of the most brilliant lawyers that ever
adorned the bar of Fayetteville, or
indeed of North ~ carolina &c a1nrJant
as James C. Dobbin the as
able a polemic and as complete a mas
ter of sarcasm as Duncan K. MacRae;
as learned and laborious as Trainer OF
his briefs as Judge Jesse G Shepherd
as powerful an advocate before a jury
as Judge Thomas C. Fuller.
II 1t was high noon by the time I CO.
pied the above inscription, and stood
for a moment recalling what 1 had
heard from the oldest inhabitants OF
the achievements of this DUN ScOtci
Titan in the arena OF the law. But
the morning s promise of a lovely day
had come to naught. Heavy lader
clouds drifted westward, a cold VIM
came UP from the east, and drops o.
rain blistered with tears the alike the
new shining marble shaft and the moss
covered slab almost PROSTATE or the
earth. But for a better faith warm.
ing my heart despite the gloom of ma.
ture, 1 might have moralized with Ka-
ramson'S Jeremiad, THE Graveyard
How frightful the grave, now de.
serted and weary,
: With the bowls of the storm and the
: creak of the bier,
5 And the white bones all gathering to.
gether!
The pilgrim who reaches this val
, ley of tears
l Would fain hurry by. and, with trem.
: bling and fears,
? He is launched on the wreck-cover
: ed river"
= Not from my hand, I see full well, il
l to come a complete directory of tn:
L silent City for mosS-grown grave,
> still be at my feet, and distant tab
. lets still catch my eye. Bryant in hi:
t matches ~"Thanatopsis," bids us:
5 Take the wings of the morning,
5 And the Barcan desert Piece,
Or lose thyself in the c%ontinuou
woods
Where rolls the Oregon and bear
no sound
Save it's own dashings-
Yet the dead are there.
, Content thee. then, reader with thes
pages from "Old Mortality" and Sex
: tons bark We:
! Touch not the ancient elns, tina
lend their shade
I Over their graves; beneath the
o boughS
: There is a solemn darkness. even a
noon
& Suited to such as visit at thes
Shrines.
Let the green elmS and these gra-
stone be all
To tell us when they lived, n wher
thev lie"
Fayetteville, April 10. J. H. NJ.
d Japanese Column Destroyed.