The Richmond palladium. (Richmond, Ind.) 1906-1907, 1906-11-20
The Hearts
Highway ~1Hi :;
MARY E..
w ILKIN
Copyright 1900. by DOUBLEDAY. PAGE q CO


all tnaC 1alr 1nEOreScence OF lie. Bui
sometimes death and destruction arc
the means 10 life and immortality
Those great fields of Major Rober,
Reverly's lay before us in the full
moonlight. overlapping with the lusty
breadth of the new leaves cleaning
with silver dew, and upon them we
| fell. We hacked and cut, we tore UP
by the roots
In trice we were bedlam loosened-
| that is, the ruder part of us. Some of us
worked with no less fury, but still with
some sense Of our own dignity as de-
stroyers over destruction. But the rab-
| BILE who had swelled our ranks were
/ all on fire with rage and wasted them
/ selves as well as the tobacco They
! filled the air with shouts and wild
screams and peals of laughter. That
fiercest joy of the world, the joy Of
destruction, was upon them, and sure
it must have been one of the chiefest
OF the joys of primitive man, for all
in a second it was as if the centuries
of civilization and Christianity had
gone for naught and the great gulf
which lies back of us to the past had
been leaped.
those old men tearing up the tobacco
plants, their mouths dribbling with
slow mutter of curses, for they had
drunk much cider, and, being aged and
none too well fed, it had more hold on
them than on some of the others, and
to see the women lost to all sense of
decency, with their petticoats girded
high on account Of the dew striding
among the plants with high filings of
stalwart legs. then slashing right and
left with an uncertainty Of fury which
threatened not only themselves but
their neighbors as well as the tobacco,
and shrieking now and then, regard
less of who might hear, Down with
the king
Often one cut finger but went on
with blood flowing. and their hair be-
gun to fly loose, and they smeared their
faces with their cut hands, and as for
the two black women. they pounced
upon those green plants with fierce
swashes of their cleaning knives and,
though they could have sensed little
about the true reason for it all, worked
with fury of savagery which needed
no motive only its first impetus of mo-
ton.
Captain Jaynes rode hither and
thither striving to keep the mob in
order and enjoining silence upon them,
and now and then lashing out with his
long riding whip. but he had set forces
in motion which he could not stop. Fire
and flood and wind and the passions
of men. whether for love or rage, are
beyond the leading of them who invoke
gods.
Sir Humphrey Hyde, who was beside |
me, slashing away at the plants. whis- |
pered, My God, Harry, how far will |
this fire which we have kindled |
spread?" but not in fear SO much as |
amazement.
And /, bringing down a great ring |
OF the green leaves. replied, and felt |
as / spoke as if some other than had
my tongue and my voice:
Maybe in the end, before 1t hath |
quite died out, to the destroying Of
tyranny and monarchy and the clear
ing of the fiel;is for a new government
of equality and freedom"
But Sir Humphrey stared at me.
Sure" he said, ut can do no more
than to force the king to see that his
colony hath grown from infancy to
manhood and hath an arm to be re-
spected, and compel him to repeal the
navigation act. What else, Harry?'
Then i, speaking again as if some
other moved my tongue, replied that
none could say what matter a little
ire kindleth, but those that came after
IS might know the result of that which
we that night begun.
But Sir Humphrey shook his head.
IF but Nat Bacon were alive.'' he
sighed. NO leader have we, Harry.
oh, Harry, if thou wet not a convict.
Captain Jaynes is sure out Of his ele-
nent in defending the rights of the OPP
pressed and should be on his own
quarter deck with his cutlass in hand
md his rapscallions around him, STAY
ng and robbing, to be in full feather.
Naught can he do here. Lord, hear
hose women shrek. Why did they let
women come hither, Harry? Sure Nick
Barry is in his cups. Not thus would
matters have been were Bacon alive
rhe women would have been at home
n their beds, and no man in liquor at
work, for trust not the militia. Would
captain Bacon We're alive. as he would
lave been had he not been foully done
o DEATH
This he said believing. as did many,
hat Bacon's death was due to treach-
ry and not fever, nor. as many of his
nemies affirmed, from overindul-
.ence in strong spirits, and must say
hat I. remembering Bacon's greatness
Il enthusiasm and fixedness of pur-
'ose was of the same belief.
AS he spoke I seemed to see that
cad hero as he would have looked in
ur midst with the moonlight shining
n the stern whiteness of his face and
hat look of high command in his eyes
which none dared gainsay. And I
again and again, as with an
impulse not my own, And maybe Ba-
on in truth leads us still. il not by his ,
wn chosen ways. to his own ends"
Truly, Harry" Sir Humphrey i
greed, had it not been for Bacon, {
oubt il we had been at this nights {
york" G
All the time we talked we advanced I