The Lexington dispatch. [volume] (Lexington, South Carolina) 1870-1917, 1909-07-14
TOOK s5 so YEARS AGO
PAYsIT WITE INTEREST.
Mrs. J. W. Payne, of Atlanta. Receives
S33.34 as Her Share Of Money
Returned by CoHscienc Strick.
en- Man,

hSAui hSh w SohSS'Sito Sh' W"
en- Man.
Fifty years ago small, barefooted
boy walked into the drug store Of DR..
R. Harwell at Thomaston, Ga. On the
floor by the counter he spied IS bill.
The boy picked up the bill, put it in
his pocket and walked out.
A few days ago Mrs. J. ". Payne,
of 2e9 Whitehall St., Atlanta, received
a check for S33.34. her share of 500,
repaying to herself and sisters, with
interest, the SIS bill picked up half
century before in her fathers store
at Thomaston.
II is a story Of conscience money
and Mrs. Payne, chief matron at the
T=minal station, is now in possession
Of all the facts except the present ad-
dress of the man whose sensitive con-
science had led him Sc amply to repay
the "find" of mis- boyhood.
II am going to write to him." said
Mrs. Payne, las soon I get his address
from Mr.. A. w. White.
1T was through Mr.. White that the
money cam >" she went on. "He is
distantly related by marriage to Us
three sisters, and has long been resi-
don't of Thonoaston
"While in Nashville recently Mr..
White met this gentleman whom he
recalled as having lived in Thomas
ton away back before the Civil war.
He asked Mr.. White if he knew any
thing of DR.. Harwell, and on learning
he and his wife were both dead, he
asked if DR.. Harweil left any children.
Mr.. White told him of me and my
two sisters, Mrs. G. B. Andrews, Of
Covington, and Mrs. I. H. Castlen, of
Culloden, Ga.
"Then he told Mr.. White the story
and commissioned him to see that the
500, representing the original S. and
the accumulated interest, was divided
among US.
cat first, when Mr.. White told NE
about it, didn't want to accept the
money. T told him I had no reme1n-
brance of the matter; that it had oc-
Cured before I was born; that it was
quite possible that the original sum
did not belong to my father, and that
it was quite possible the original sun:
did not belong to my father, and that
I was by no means sure it was right
for US to accept the payment.
"But Mr.. White assured me that the
gentleman was well off; that he hid
felt the matter to be burden on him
all his life, and that it would give him
the greatest relief to repay the money
to the heirs of the man in whose store
he had found the bill"
The little barefoot boy walked out
of DR.. Harwell's drug store with the
S. bill tucked securely ir his trousers
pocket. Findings keeping" said
he, addressing a conscience that was
already baking bit.
During the unquiet days Of the Civil
war the boy left Thomaston. His peo-
pie went to Texns, and he went with
them. The s. bill had long been
spent, but the unruly conscience re.
manned.
The boy went to school. Later he
went toscollese, medical college.
He became a physician. His prac-
tice flourished. He became wealthy.
To him came the usual ups and downs
Of tortune-marria:. e, births, Deaths
a the years slid by. But always,
away back in tie boyhood corner of
his memocy, there was a small tWinge
Of discomf IT, tWinse that had to DO
with q drug stIre in ThOmaston,
where, o,ie morning: lie had picked up
S. bill aid sal! nothing TO the pro-
prietor.
The years passed by. The physi-
Clan !emov"Q C Tennessee. Some
things ile .c.l iii =, Nas, tut the ois-
comforting htt!~ tWinge liz the corlcr