Newark post., 1915-02-10

ties undisturbed by the activities of
the great world, still survived at
Newark. Squire McKeowan was a
sterling man with a comic face and
more comic figure. He was well
under five feet tall, and Of ample
girth, with big bald head, and an
intelligent countenance lit with a
pair Of humorous blue eyes. On
rainy days, with his trousers tuck
ed in his bootlegs, he looked like an
umbrella and a pair Of boots, and
nothing more. One such day
neighbor in a Germantown wagon
offered to give the Squire lift on
his homeward walk Of two miles.
He handed in his squat little din
ner kettle, somewhat suggestive OF
his own figure, and then attempted
to get in himself, but his legs were
too short. There was no horse
block, and the dignity Of justice
forbade that he should be boosted
so he sorrowfully took back his ket-
tie and manfully set out to trudge
homeward. Some genius with an
observant eye and a gift Of humor
forever nicknamed those two re-
spectacle James Armstrong;, who
lived at opposite ends of the town.
Each had an eccentricity of gait,
and James Of down town was called
Pacing Jimmy" while James of
uptown received the sobriquet
"Racking Jimmy" Boys never
spoke of them in any other way,
and I fear we sometimes directly
addressed them in that fashion.
California Miller was a character
Of that time whom l never fathom-
ed. He was reputed to have got
rich on the Pacific Coast. Why he
came to Newark l never knew, or
why he stayed here. Perhaps he
was not so mysterious as l thought
him, but I'd hate to think il. In
the end, to the astonishment OF
everybody, he married a very at
tractive woman. More mysterious
even than California Miller was
James Adams, a quiet, dark man,
who had gone into the Confeder-
acy with $1,000 in gold, and who
returned to Newark at the end of
the war. He did nothing except
loaf in the stores and blacksmith
shops, and when the town was ex-
cited over rumor of a plot to rob
the bank, he suddenly disappeared
never to return.
Professor Porter was the busiest
man in town. He not only ran the
academy, a farm, and sorghum
mill, but he gave himself to all
sorts of local causes, and incident
ally he did probably more than
anybody else to promote the build
ing Of the new Presbyterian church
now nearly so years ago. With the
staid business folk Of the town his
name was the synonym for a dan
gerous visionary, and, partly
through his own fault, he was more
gossiped about than any other per-
son in the community. In middle
life, however, he did the rather re-
markable thing Of leaving this
quiet community for the Missis'
sippi region, where, first in Mime,
sofa, and later in Missouri, he
made an important place for him.
self in the educational world.
think I've never known quite such
an instance Of a mans making
good" after years Of unsuccessful
struggle.
The local postmaster Of the Civi
War period was Jonathan Dren
men, a tall slender, severe old man
part of whose self-imposed duty
was to guard the blackened anc
windowless wall of the burned
Methodist church from intrudins
boys. He kept the post office where
Barton s store now stands, and tn,
site was convenient for the guard
ian of the church. The sobrique
"Peter Bird" chung to him from
some period that goes back beyont
my recollection, and he particular.
resented a nickname. He was ;
good man, but he had a low opinion
of boys; he believed there were n,
good boys. When the mail cam
in the postmaster and his deput.
withdrew themselves from public
view, and worked behind an ampl
green curtain, while the townsfoll
stood about gossiping until the mai
should be ready for distribution
Then, when the green curtain
rolled up as signal that the TIM
fer distribution had come, the mem
bers of the waiting throng tiptoet
up or stopped down to look in a
the little window set amid the mai
boxes. and one or another re