Lincoln County leader. [volume] (Toledo, Lincoln County, Or.) 1893-1987, 1910-09-23
CHAPTER w.

OAS 4AO6hSoos
CHAPTER w.
II you have never had the pleasure
of meeting a Southern gentleman of
the patriarchal school, l despair Of
bringing you well acquainted with Ma
jor Caspar Dabney until you have
summered M wintered him. But the
Dabneys of Deer Trace figure so large
ly in Thomas Jefferson's boyhood and
youth as to be well-nigh elemental in
these retrospective glimpses.
1t was about the time when Thorn
as Jefferson was beginning to recon-
slider his ideals, with a leaning toward
b~rass-bound palaces on wheels and
dictatorial authority over uniformed
lackeys n other of his fellow crea-
lures. that fate dealt the Major its
final stab and prepared to pour wine
and oil into the wound-though of the
balm-pouring, non could guess at the
moment of wounding. 1t was not in
Caspar Dabney to be patient under A
blow, and for a time his ragin5s
threatened to shake even Nanny Ju-
lets loyalty-than which nothing more
convincing can be said.
"Mistuh Scipio," she would say, Use
JUS erbout wo'ed outi l done been
KNOWN Mawstuh CASPIAN ebber sencc
l was OF Mistis' ~tiah-'ooman, and 7
amt new seen him so fractions eZ he
been sence dat letter come tellin' him
come get dat po' iii gal-child O Nav
stub Louis's. Seems lax he JUS gwine
r'ar round twel he hut somebody"
etoainshrdlu etoian shrdlu etoain ct
Scipio, the Majors body-servant,
had grown gray in the Dabney service,
and hi was we'll used to The masters
storm periods.
"Doan' you trouble yo'se'f none err
bout dat, Mis- Juliet. Mawstuh Majuh
tekkin' hit mighty hawd cause Nav
stub Louis lone daid. But bimeby you
gwine see him climm on his hawss an
ride up yondeh to whah de big steam
boats comes in an'fotch dat lii gal
child home; an den: uck-uh-h! look
out, niggahs; dar amt gwine be nuttin'
on de top side dishyer yearth good cr-
nough for lii Missy. You watch what
l lone toll yer erbout dat, now!"
Scipio's prophecy. or as much OF II
as related to. the bringing OF the or
phaned Ardea to Deer Trace Manor
wrought itself out speedily, as a mat
ter of course. At the close of the war
} Captain Louis, the Majors only son
: had become, like many another hot
( hearted young Confederate, a self-ex-
patrioted exile. On the eve of his de-
l parture for France he had married thu
Virginia maiden who had nursed MIN
I alive after Cha~ncellorsville. Ma)o'
Caspar had given the bride away-th'
war had spared no kinsman OF hers u
I stand in this breach-and when tn'
God-speeds were said, had himsel
. turned back to the weed-grown field
of Deer Trace Manor, embittered AM
q hostile, swearing never to set foot OUT
side of his home acres again while tn
Union should stand.
For more than twenty years he. KEEP
I this VOW almost literally. A few or Tn
q older negroes, a mere Handful of tn
9 six score slaves of the old patriarcha
: DAYS. cast In their lot with their for
mer master, and with these the MaJo
i made shift thriftily, farming a little
stock raising a little, and, unlike mos
: of the war-broken plantation owners
c clinging tenaciously to every rood G
e land covered by the original DaDne
title-deeds.
In this cenobitic interval, II 20
g wanted a Dabney colt or a abr
COW. YOU went, or sent, to Deer Trac
n Manor on your own initiative, and yol
e or your deputy, never met the Major
70 YOUR business was transacted wit
lean. lantern-jawed Japheth Pettigras
n the Majors stock-and-farm foreman
: And although the Dabney stock wa
70 pedlgreed, you kept your wits abot
. YOU: else Pettigrass got much the bet
% ter of you In the trade, like the shrew'
calculating Alabama Yankee that b
was.
Ardea was born in Paris In ii
. twelfth year OF tho exile; and the VII
II g,nia mother, plning always for II
= home land, died In the fifteenth yea
70 A%fterward Captain Louis fought
N Iong-drawn, losing battle, figurin
- bravely In his %infrequent letters to h
father as a rising miniature painte
- He had his little girl back and fort
=, between his lodgings and he stud
where he painted pictures that nobod
would buy, and eking out n miserab
J. existence by giving lessons In Englis
- when he was happy enough to find
10 pupil.
or The brave letters imposed on the M
n ior. as they were meant to do; ar
"a Ardea. the loyal, happening on one
- them in her first Deer Trace summe
read IL through with childish sobs ar
neyer thereafter opened her lips on q
story of those dlstressful Paris day
r Later she understood her fathers mi
I'd tive better: how he would not be
charge on an old man rich In nothir
but ruin; and the memory OF Il
Id pinched childhood became n thing d
NJ cred -
How the Major. . second RID VI