The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1910-09-13

which told its own tale. At last nc
promised them chance for their
lives, 50 hanging them over the preci-
pice, he told them their lives were just
as long as they could supt;rS them.
selves by their hai1s. Thus he left
them. The old men clung to the rocky
soil above them, scrambling witt, their
feet against the rugged sides, and
yelling for help with walls of despair.
| PRAYERS rent the air with curses OF
desperation, their whole life perhaps
passing before them like panorama.
When all hope seemed to have fled
and their vitality exhausted they
asreed to let go all together and
"die,' as one of them said afterwards
in a bunch" So down they went:
But not over the precipice, but in E
mountain gully, in which .a:l mans
toes could have touched the bottom.
They looked at each in foolish beWi!d-
erment, then more wreath with more
curses. When the preached town the
Ten, women and children crowded
around them as men who had return
| ed from the dead. "How did you get
away "You look as if you had PASS
ed through hades." did Cuantrcil
, torture you," and a thousand other
questions did the excited populace
ask. One old citizen, when he re-
covered his bearing, said, "So, He
did not hurt nor torture us, bnt He'll
in the future will have less horrors
for me than in the past" When the
episode got into the papers, everybody
both North and South, laughed. all
but the six old citizens.
The echoes of Appomattox in time
reached the Far West, then came the
folding of Gen. Kirby Smiths banner
in the Trans Mississippi. The great
drama of war was over, only few
tragic scenes were yet to be enacted.
Quantrell knew he would be hunted
down as a wild beast; that there was
no safe retreat for him among civill-
zation. Calling his faithful followers
around him he stated the facts to
them. that the time had come When
each had to look out for himself, that
their only safety lay in separation, and
either 20 far South in Texas, or lar
away over the Western plains, where
the haunts of the white man had not
yet reached a foot hold. Many, no
doubt were killed or lost in the grand
round up, but what of Quantrell?
Never has there been a breath OF
him since the night he disbanded
his Guerillas. Many reports and
vague rumors of some one having
seen him, but this was all proven to
be false. His second in command.
Jessie James, and his brothers, with
the younger boys, went down in South
West Missouri, but there they were
found out, hunted down, prosecuted,
their homes burned until at last they
were driven to become outlaws in
reality. Every body knows the seque'.
There was a legend in Kentucky, years
after the war, that one night foot
sore and worn out soldier, came to
the doors of an old Southern sympa-
thizer. and whispered few words IN
his ear He was taken in, fed, cloth
ed and cared for. In Kentucky and
the Eastern border States there SEEM
ed to be a tacit understanding to let
by-gones be be-gones, and no ques-
tions asked. No questions were ever
asked es to who was this old soldier.
It was k nown in the neighborhood that
the old citizen had son in the West'
and had been until his death, a fol-
lower Of Quantrell. There being no
questions asked, no explanations were
ever given, and the old soldier lived
apart from his fel1owmen. He died
about 20 years after the close OF the
war, and in a corner Of little private
cemetery is a plain head stone, With
hut two letter cut there on, &c. Q.,
$780," Was that for Charles Guam
trell? No one perhaps will ever
know, but outside Of this surmfse
Quantrell was completely dropped
from human sight, as if the earth had
swallowed him up. sssgsssse