Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1906-08-24

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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, land
broad in proportion. Pm in perfect
physical health. 1 have muscles that
nothing has ever yet tired. Between
the WIG .rness and Appomattox have
had an extensive experience in shovel
ing earth ana 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 q busy western town there Is sure to
be work enough Of that kind for a
strong and willing man to do. l can at
the very least earn enough as a 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 OPP
pressed. Ever since Grant had refused
an 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
ligence had forescen the end and had
recognized its 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 1t 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
prolonged period it paralyzed energy
and made worse the ruin that war had
wrought in the south.
Fortunately GuilfOrd Duncan, thrown
Mt 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 go TO-,
he had none. There was for them, debt
burdened as their plantations were, at
least Il hope that some way out might
ultimately be found. For him there
was no 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,
man destined from birth to become
in time the master Of great patrimo-
NAL estate.
But that estate was hOneycombed
with hereditary debt, tho result OF gen
erations Of lavish living, wasteful
methods Of agriculture and Ove!gener-
GUS hospitality. About the time when
war came there came also q crisis IN
the affairs of GuilfOrd Duncans 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 mora than sixty years old. he
had been killed in the trenches before
Petersburg, leaving his only son, Gull
ford. not only without patrimony and
without q 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
bi,ity of her character. and he had
never had either brother or sister.
He was thus absolutely alone In the
world, and he was penniless, too. as he
rode down the mountdin sleeps. Bus
the impulse Of work had come to him,
and he joyfully welcomed it as some.
thing vastly better and wOrthier Of his
strong young manhood than any brood.
ing over misfortune could be or any
leading Of the old aristocratic, half idle
planter life, if that had been possible.
In connection with this thought came
another. He had recently read Owen
Merediths "Lncile," and as lie jour.
neyed he recalled the case there de-
scribed of the French nObleman who
TOR a time wasted his life and neglect.
ed his splendid opportunities In brood
ing over the downfall Of the Bourbon
dynasty and in an obstinate refusal to
reconcile himself to the new order OF
things. Duncan remembered how, aft
ter awhile, when the new France be-
came involved In the Crimean war, the
Frenchman saw a clearer light; how he
learned to feel that, under one regime
or another, it was still France that he
loved and to France that his best serv-
ice was due.
"That," thought GuilfOrd Duncan,
twas new birth Of patriotism. Why
should not similar new birth come
to those Of us who have fought In the
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