The Tupelo journal., 1905-08-18

must bid thee farewell, but be
fore | do so wilt thou answer m,
these questions? Where now arr
the fair maidens and noble yount
men who flashed across thy TIRES
hold like meteors in the Ions
ago? Where are the heads 0.
families who inhabited thy pre-
cincts and the country imme
diately surrounding thee in 1885,
and 1856? How many still re
main? In thy desolatian ant
ruin thou canst not answer. Their
| must say that of all Of those
whom | knew in 1856 and 1885,
who were heads of families, none
remain. ]. M. Armstrong an(
Mrs. Mark S%chumpert are the las
of the older set whom | have
heard of being called away
Richmond the pleasant and hap
ply days | have spent among thy
haunts and with thy noble young
men and lovely maidens, thy ma.
irons and men of old age, shall
linger with me as a benedlctior
while my head shall be above the
wave. | now bid thee a long
adieu, and must look to other
scenes and other men and wo-
men. In the fall Of 1856
thought | had trespassed upon
the good nature and kindness of
my friends as long as | ought to,
or as in conscience | could. So |
left school at Richmond, and, my
uncle from Alabama being on a
visit to my father, | returned
with him to his home in Jeffer-
son county, not with the expect
alton, at that time, however, Of
remaining long. But after get
ting to my uncle's home, he
thought he could work me up a
school out there, and did assist
me in making upa fine subscrip-
ton school, and which | taught
for nine months, making money
enough to support me that year
and to pay up all my expenses at
old Richmond for the time went
to school there. When | had
up my school in Alabama
and stood my examination, |
had one month at my disposal
before my school began, winch
was January, LIST, 1857, thus Civ
ing me the month of December,
1856 for work or play. | had no
money, and so decided to work,
if any body would give me any
employment. | found a cousin
who had a new ground to clear,
and prepare it for cultivation,
and | worked the month of De-
cember in taat new ground with
Inn for eleven dollars, which was
all the money | had in 1857 until
| collected up my school money
in September. A little incident
occurred while Uncle and | were
on our way to his home in 1856
which | will mention. The trip
was made on horseback, and on
the third day as we were riding
along, a gentleman overlook us
who lived in the neighborhood
where We were then travelling,
and introduced himself to us and
rode with us some hours. He
was a great talker and Uncle and
/ generally kept silent and let
him do the talking. He spoke of
his requirements in literature
and learning, and especially
spoke of the difficulty of becom-
ing a critical g%rammarian, but
indicated to us very distinctly
that he had accomplished that
feat, to his satisfaction at least,
but remarked in passing, that
the most difficult thing he en-
in English Grammar
was to learn how to properly use
the little words, these" and
those" But" says he, Il
have no trouble with them now at
all, and can tell you so you will
never be troubled with them. ]
can illustrate it to you,' he went
on, 80 you can understand it
better in that way than if | were
to give you the rules by which to
be governedin the use of these
words. For instance, if there
were a number of men out yondel
at a distance, and | wished to
speak of them, if there were
three or more of them | woulo
say those men, but if only two
| would say these menu
Ny uncle was no grammarian,
having never studied it, but his
good judgement and common
sense told him how much the gen.
tleman had missed the mark, ane
it was so ridiculous that we coule
not keep back the big ha! ha
The gentleman gave me a very
hearty and cordial invitation t.
spend the night with him at hi
fathers home as | returned
Taking advantage Of his invita-
ton, as | returnedli in the fall o.
1857, Ispent the night with him
Next morning we went out tt
the lot, looking after the horses
and he haoan TELLING me- of th,