The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1910-07-07
ONLY. A DREAM.
.sOld Timer" Tells a Story Of the
Long Ago.

Wanderers Rest, June 27.-The
old men shall see visions, and so they
do, for a certain old man saw one
in his dreams last week. A most
beautiful one came to him with teeth
of pearls, a lovely face, and sweetest
smiles; with laughing eyes of azure
blue and dark hair that hung in
beautiful waves and was clad in a
rich gown of spotless white, not be-
frilled but hung in graceful folds
over a form of perfect shape. IN
fact the beauty of the vision woke
him and on awakening the clock
struck two, and in an oak not far
from his window a mocking bird was
sending forth his happiest strains in
the moonlight so bright and soft,
which brought back Hawthorne's S
song
loft in the Silly night,
When all is calm around me,
Fo1d memory brings the light
OF other days around me-"
And as he listened at the song
of the mocking bird, and thought OF
the vision, then visions of the far
away Southwest came back again,
and one day that a party of seven
jolly young men took trip over the
plains with Pedro, a Mexican boy,
as driver, and as the sun went down
behind the coast range mountains
with the sunbeams clustering on the
peaks, with the Twin Brother
mountains standing silent but grand
sentinels to the North and old
Baldy North of East with the sun
light still glistning on the snow that
was fourteen thousand feet above sea
level we drove up to large Mexl-
can house built of adobe, with palms
and vines, lemons, oranges, in fact
nestled among the beauties of sub
tropical verdure. Was asked
nights lodging which in true Western
hospitality was granted and all made
to feel welcome, and the kind host
proved to be an Arizona cattle king
who had bought this little Eden
from a wealthy Mexican to spend in
peace and comfort his declining
years in view of the broad Pacific,
while his sons looked after his 1ocks
and herds as they grazed over the
Arizona plains.
Soon supper was announced and
while seated there he gave a slight
history of his life, and was from
Louisiana. Then wanted to know
where each one was from. Four
hailed from Texas, one from Illinois,
one from Iowa and one from South
Carolina. When the last named was
called a tall spare built man with
blue eyes and long grey locks who
had been the silent one sprang up
and said: Give me your hand; l
am from the old North State and we
are cousins, and I am truly glad to
see one from the home States, and
my name is Charles Smith," and this
is the man that came as the full
moon shone and the mocking bird
was singing, and of him this story
hangs.
Come said he as soon as sup
per was over, Il want to have a talk
with you all alone, and we will go
on the piazza facing the ocean where
you can see the light from the light
house and the lights of the ships as
they plow through the waters Of the
mighty Pacific twenty miles away,
also a fine view of the electric lights
from the city, Los Angeles, eighteen
miles away" and he was right for
with the soft Southern breeze blow
ing and the crescent moon hanging
in the west mountains looming in
the distance all made a scene never
to be forgotten.
After being seated he cut piece
of tobacco put it in his mouth and
was silent for a few moments, then
he said: "Yes, I am from old North
Carolina, came here in 40; yes
am a forty-niner, took the gold
craze and came to make a fortune,
but it never came my way and now
I have been with Bill and his family
for years and they are true friends
and I'm content. left the old home
way back East, father and mother
and a pretty little mountain girl that
was to marry me when got back
with my fortune and we would be
happy forever, but the last word
my mother said to me was be honest,
Charlie, if we never meet again. and
her words have rung in my ears each