The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1906-09-27

ADDRESS, ne CQOuSQL as MS CfuSly morse
carefully picked his way among the
rocks and down the sleeps. II hadn't
thought of Cairo before as even pos
sible destination. I know nobody there.
I know absolutely nothing about the
town or the opportunities it may Offer"
of thought.
"I've food enough now" he reflected,
ito last me scantily for a few days.
During that time must make my way
as far as can toward the Ohio river at
Pittsburg or Wheeling or Parkersburg.
When I reach the river I must have
money enough to pay steamboat fare
to Cairo. There is no money in these
parts, but West Virginia is practically
a northern state, and there are green
backs there. I'll sell my remaining pis-
tolls there. A little later I'll sell my
horse, my saddle and my bride. The
horse is a good one, and so is the sad
die. Surely ought to get enough for
them to pay my way to Cairo"
Then came another and questioning
thought:
"And when get to Cairo-what
then? I've a good university educa-
ton, but doubt that there is ready
market for education in any bustling
Missouri river town just now. I'm
graduate in law, but heaven knows I
know very little about the profession
aside from the broad underlying prin-
ciples. Besides, shall have no money
with which to open an Office, and who
is going to employ wandering and
utterly destitute stranger to take
charge of his legal business?'
For the moment Encouragement
dominated the young mans mind, but
presently there came to him reflection
that gave new birth to his courage.
''I'm six feet high" he thought, "and
broad in proportion. I'm in perfect
physical health. I have muscles that
nothing has ever yet tired. Between
the Wilderness and Appomattox have
had an extensive experience in shovel
ing earth and other hard work. I'm in
exceedingly good training, trife I'M
derfed, perhaps, but at any rate carry
not one ounce of superfuous fat on my
person. am perfectly equipped for
the hardest kind of physical work, and
in busy western town there is sure to
be work enough Of that kind for
strong and willing man to do. can at
the very least earn enough as laborer
to feed me better than I've been fed for
the four years Of war"
Curiously enough, this prospect of
work as day laborer greatly cheered
the young man. Instead Of depressing
his spirits it for the first time lifted
from his soul that incubus of melan-
choly with which every Confederate
soldier of his class was at first op-
pressed. Ever since Grant had refused
In the Wilderness a year before to re-
tire beyond the river after receiving
Lees tremendous blows Guilford Dun
can and all Confederates of like intel
l1gence had foreseen the end and had
recognized it's coming as inevitable.
Nevertheless when it came in fact,
when the Army of Northern Virginia
surrendered and when the Confederacy
ceased to be, the event was scarcely
less shocking and depressing to their
minds than if it had been an unfore-
seen and unexpected one.
The melancholy that instantly took
possession of such minds amounted to
scarcely less than insanity, and for a
prolonged period it paralyzed energy
and made worse the ruin that war had
wrought in the south.
Fortunately Guilford Duncan, thrown
at once and absolutely upon his own
resources, thus quickly escaped from
the overshadowing cloud
And yet his case seemed worse than
that of most Of his comrades. They at
least had homes Of some sort to 90 to:
he had none. There was for them, debt
burdened as their plantations were, at
least hope that some way out might
ultimately be found. For him there
was 10 inch Of ground upon which he
might rest even hope.
Born Of an old family, he had been
bred and educated as one to whom
abundance was to come by Inheritance,
a man destined from birth to become
in time the master of great patrimo-
NAL estate.
But that estate was honeycombed
with hereditary debt, the result Of gen
erations Of lavish living, wasteful
methods Of agriculture and oyergener-
Gus hospitality. About the time when
war came there came also a crisis in
the affairs Of Guilford Duncan's father.
Long before the war ended the elder
man had surrendered everything he
had in the world to his creditors. He
had then enlisted in the army, though
he was more than sixty years old. He
had been killed in the trenches before
Petersburg, leaving his only son, Gull
fore, not only without patrimony and
without home, but also without any
family connection closer than some
distant half theoretical cousinships.
The young mans mother had gently
passed from earth SO long ago that he
only dimly remembered, the sweet no.
bility of her character, and he had
never had either brother ar sister