The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1913-05-13

his hands in the blood of his fellow
man. 1t matters not if it be involun-
tary, in self defense, under stress
of great provocation, tho mark OF
Cain is upon him, and the ID stains
will follow to plague him to his grave.
1t may be but a glow in the violet and
primrose of life, but when the sun
flower bends its head to the setting
sun of ones career, it no longer is a
fitting phantom but dread reality
The subject Of this sketch tried to
shake himself loose from this unseen
incubus by entering again into the
battles of the busy world. The war
coming on, he entered the army in the
hopes of washing out the stain Of
blood of his comrsnion, by drenching
himself in the blood of the South. His
great mind and fearless spirit pushed
him to the front, he rose rapidly in
fame and rank.
To drown the voice of a torturing
conscience he thirsted for the din of
battle At Gettysburg, leading the
Third Corps of Mead's army, just as
his commander-in-chief had rode to
him advising a change in his lines,
Kershaw's South Carolinians and
Barksdale's Mississippians crossed ov-
er the brow of hill and with wild
mad rush, shattered his lines and
drove them from the field. The COM
mander of the Third Corps left his
leg in this deadly assault Of the South
erners.
The war over, the white wings of
peace overshadowed the land, but to
the subject of this sketch had no
peace. He entered into the stirring
times of reconstruction with deadly
hatred to the South, and by the strange
irony of fate, he was appointed mill
tary governor over those same South
Carolinians who had so numerically
assailed and shattered his ranks, rob-
bing him of leg. He rode in great
state through the streets of our cities,
in coach and four tandem, much to
the JOY and delight of our enemies OF
the North, while the spirits of the Pal
mettoes were vibrant with merrfment,
and jocular ridicule. When these times
ceased he returned again to the shades
of private life, his government retiring
him on full pay, $500 or 1000 per
month.
But the phantom of blood followed
him. 1t had followed him in palaces
and upon the tented field. Only on tbs
storm swept field of battle was he
free from its presence His wife had
died IN tie meantime, of mental an
guish, this adding nothing to the quiet
tude of his soul. He sought lJreign
fields. He wished the ocean to roll
between him and the scenes of his
greatness and his fsN He was made
ambassador to Spain, and in that proud
capital, he joined into gaities and fri
volities of that pleasure loving people,
with mad abandon, scattering his gold
as easily as it had come.
He wooed and won lady of dis
tinction, member Of one of the oldest
families in Spain, princess in wealth
and beauty. She bore him son and
instead of being blessing to him on
whom he could lavish the love of his
old age, he became veritable ghoul
in his fathers sight and revived the
poison in his oul. The torments OF
hell were upon him. He fed the coun-
try of his adoption, the wife of his
bosom, and the child Of his old age.
He O1Q LQ6m remain. 1401 PAOo0 WV
tillion blood was up. She would not
ask the return of her money he had
souandered, neither would she weep
over her abandonment. "The women
of old Spain weep over no man who
is unworthy of their love-"
Back to his old haunts he returns
and shut himself up in the gloomy
old house. There for years, and to-
day, sits, alone, an outcast, apart from
his kind. AS the fire fiickers and
burns low in the CRATE, he watches IN
this disordered mind, the goblins, the
misshapen elfs, and phantom mon
strosities from the Internal region, as
they engage in some wanton shadow
dance of hell. They climb along the
walls, climb upon his couch, stare IN
to his face with ghoulish eyes, shaking
hi