Rock Island Argus., 1906-04-11
DAILY SHORT STORY
AN uNALLoYED ROMANCE.

\
converse is true. Romance is some
thing real, though it may be put into
effective shape by story writer's just as
a landscape is reproduced by the art
! ist. There are very few romances but
! need to be added to or subtracted from
that they may impress those who hear
| them. because they are usually min
gled with the commonplace. Occasion
ally we hear of enc in which the ro-
mantle features, are so perfect, SO un-
| alloyed, that the story may be given
exactly as it occurred. Here is one re-
corded in at least two histories of the
pure romance:
| The bitterness existing between Whig
and Tory during the war for independ-
! ence was eQualed in America only by
| that between the Unionist and seces-
sionist during the civil war. In the
| Carolinas this rancor was especially
| marked. In 1779 Martin McGarry,
twenty-five years old, who owned
farm on the Catawba river, married
Betty Crawford, a niece of Andrew
jackson, afterward fhe hero of New
Orleans and president of the United
| States.NMcGarry was Wing and was
| especially hated by the Tories. After
his marriage he joined the command OF
General Sumter. In the spring of
| 17S0 the British Colonel Tarleton, with
400 of his own troops and as many
Tory mounted rifiemen, swept down
Oh the settlement where the McGarryS
lived. attacked Colonel Buford'S CONT
| nentals and militia and defeated and
masSacred them, giving no quarter.
Soon after this raid Il new light
shone in the McGarry cabin, enanatinS
from the tiny person of newborn
babe. The father, being noti6ed, deter
mined to make q flying visit to his
wife and the child that had ceme to
him in his absence. 1t was a danger
Gus thing to do for Tarlet0n's raid had
given the Wings control OF the settle
ment, and if McGarry We're caught by
them he would be murdered, probably
hanged But his love for his wife and
his desire to see and hold in his arms
the little stranger. bit of innocence
that seemed to have como to shame
those who were numbering one an
other, prevailed. and he made the trip.
OF the meeting between husband and
to his child history is silent. But
there are features of story that the
skillful story teller prefers to leave to
the readers fancy, and this romance
does not suffer by the abseHcc Of an
attempt to give what no artist can
paint except clumsily. While the Et-
tie family were together the Tones
got wind of McGarry's visit and were
organizing force to go to his cabin
and capture or kill him At the dead
of night they surrounded the place
and demanded the surrender Of the
man they wanted. The negro maEAny
who wis taking care OF the mother
who had been confined only three
weeks before and the newborn child
went to the door and assured the
Tories that her young master was not
there. She was not believed. The
house was searched from top to bot
tom, but they did not find McGarry.
An hour before he had taken his de-
parture and was well ON his way to
Sumters command. thirty miles away.
When satisfied that he was not at home
the Tories helped themselves to food
and drink and departed.
1t was no time for this woman to
have men ia her house searching for
her husband to kill him. The next
day Mrs. McGarry died from spasms
brought on by the inhuman treatment,
and her babe did not survive her TWEEN
ty-four hours.
Taking double bQrreled gun, one
barrel of which was long range rifle.
the other a smoothbore for buckshot
at close quarters, the bereaved hus-
band and father left Sumter's army
and set out ON n hunt for Tories. If
he met one alone he would give him
some chance for his life; if he met sew
eral together he waited till they had
separated, then waylaid them. AS the
war went on the number of Tories he
shot ran higher till, when peace came,
at least twenty of them had eXpiated
the crime of the indirect murder of a
woman and a newborn babe.
When the, end of the war put stop
to this punishment the bereaved man
could not go back to his desolate farm.
He sold it and, taking his negroes,
went to Tennessee, where he took up
land and cleared plantation.
Loves may endure weeks, years or
for lifetime. McGarrys was for his
whole existence. Had he married
again, though it might have been bet
ter for him to do SO. the romance of
his story would not be virgin pure.
But he did not marry. No woman, no
child, ever stood in the same relation
to him as those he left in his cabin on
that night in May, 1880, never to see
again on earth. One year a husband,
three weeks a father, he spent the
years from twenty-three to seventy
alone. Yet was he alone? There are
those who can continue bodily COM
panionship in a spiritual one, and may
not Martin McGarry during the half
century he lived alone have felt a spir-
itual communion that was not con-
veyed by the senses?
When the war of 1912 came on Nc