The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1909-08-19
ROMANCE AND TRAGEDY.
An Interesting and Intensely Pathetic
Story From Real Life, the Scenes
Of Which Are Laid In Raleigh.
uapdaraoD Gold Ioaf

|
The following intensely interesting
and pathetic story which was pre-
sumably written by former Raleigh
newspaper man, now on the editorial
staff of the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot,
and recently published In that paper.
will be read with interest by many
| who are familiar with the circum-
stances detailed:
In Oakwood Cemetery, at Raleigh,
N. c., stands monument around
which fingers romance that links
together Pennsylvania and North
Carolina, Philadelphia and Raleigh,
Anglo-Saxon and Cherokee Indian.
Some years ago William Sloan, an
architect from Philadelphia, went to
Raleigh to design various public
buildings, and with him went as a
young man, Albert B. Bauer, one of
his draughtsmen. At the same time
| there was at the Oxford Orphanage
a Cherokee Indian girl, little Rachel
| whose Cherokee name was "Unka,"
| which means the White Bear. She
had lost her mother at very early
age, and her father, who was promi-
nent in his section as a Mason, died
| while she was quite young. She was
taken under the protecting wing Of
the Masons and sent to their Orphan
age, where she was carefully trained
and later went to Raleigh, as private
secretary to one of the leading Ma
sons Of the State. When she and
Bauer met, they fell in love, and
neither being aware that the State
law forbids the intermarriage Of
| Cherokees and whites, they were
married.
Immediately they went to Phila-
delphia on their honeymoon and re-
manned there for some time. They
were On the point of returning to
the State when they discovered that
they had unwittingly violated the
law and they decided to remain in
Philadelphia until some sort of an
arrangements was effected. The nu-
merous friends took immediate steps
to secure the passage of special act
legalizing their marriage. This was
done unanimously and soon after
they returned to Raleigh and made
their home.
They prospered and surely no peo-
pie were ever happier, but in few
years maternity came, with fatal re-
suits, and then the sorrowing hus-
band laid mother and babe in their
last sleep on one of the slopes of the
| cemetery, in a most picturesque spot
with stately oaks and graceful mag
nolia standing near. Over the grave
of the woman he had idolized he
raised a monument of his own de-
sign. It is of brownstone, inlaid
with marble, and hearts, crosses and
inverted torches are emblems on the
various sides. 1t Is surrounded by
an exquisite marble duplicate of the
worldfamous temple of Diana at
Ephesus. This was at once the work
and the gift of a Philadelphia friend
of Bauer, himself an artist of much
ability. Within the pillared portico
Of this stately structure, in the door
way, there is the photograph on por-
celian of Bauer's lost love, the Cher
okee bride.
In letters of gold in a white mar
BILE tablet in the brownstone is the
following inscriptions:
''RACHEL BLYTH,
Wife of A. G. Bauer,
Died January 9th, 1897,
Aged 26 Years."
"True Worth is Being, Not Seeming
At the foot of the grave, also IL
golden letters, deeply cut in white
marble, are these words:
1.-THE only amaranthine flower OF
earth is virtue; the only lasting treas
ure TRUTH
Upon a golden plate beneath thu
photograph of Mrs. Bauer, which il
set in the snowy marble and as dis
tinct as If it were made yesterday, Il
tablet of gold on which is engraved
in graceful script these lines from
the once so popular song, Jaunita:
I'm thy dark eyes splendor,
, Where the warm light used t.
dwell,
Weary looks, yet tender,
Speak their last farewell
After this Bauer prospered and b,
was in request far and near, but on,
Sunday morning, not responding t.
knock on his bedroom door, it wa
, forced, and there in his well-ordere,
, room, lying in bed undressed, in hi
left hand portrait of his dead brid
and in his right revolver, he lay i
his last sleep. Death had come man
hours before, in the earlier watche
of the night. There was merely
? line to say that he wished no longe
to live and that death had no terror
for him, but only charm.
Loving hands bore the body t
Oakwood and grave was made i
a place he had specifically reserve
C and there beside his lost love he wa
buried away until the Great AwaE
ening." On each anniversary of th
birthday of the Indian bride tende
. hands lay upon her grave and hi
q the flowers she so loved-hyacinth
Monument at Kings Mountain.
Il The Kings Mountain monumeI