The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1917-08-04
THE LAST REBEL.

Simon Buckner, souLnerner, re-
manned a defender of the Lost Cause
even in Yankee land Change of resi-
dence from the south to the north
had brought no change of heart; he
never transferred his allegiance from
the Stars and Bars to the Stars and
Stripes. He was the last of the lire
concilables. The Fates, those weird
sisters three, with that perverse will
fulness which characterizes these
spinsters, had long ago decreed that
Sally should marry a northerner, and
SO tangled the threads which con-
trolled the destinies of Simon and his
only daughter, Sally, and a young
Yankee. When the weird sisters we're
through, the three threads of life
were so woven together that only the
sharp shears of death could separate
them.
Old Simon awoke one day to the
fact that Sally, whom he loved-well,
the sequel will show how he loved
Sally-had lost her heart to an ath-
letic young Yankee from Salem, Mass,
| who had come to her native Green
boro, S. c., to buy cotton for his
| fathers mill UP there in Yankee land
| somewhere The Fates had tangled
| the threads well before the victims
| knew it. In vain old Simon strove to
disentang1e them. Sally's tears un-
neryed his strength, and he surren-
| dered 1t was hard for him to give
his consent to the marriage, though
the Yankee was a decent chap for a
| Yankee, as even Simon admitted; the
| young people were set on having their
own way, and in the end they con
| quered So Sally and her Yankee were
married and went to Salem, Mass, to
live.
| Old Simon went, too. At first he
/ was obstinate, but few judicious and
really sincere tears on the part OF
1 Sally, as well as the importunate
/ pleas Of the lucky northerner who had
won Sally's heart and hand-he was
a very determined and wilful young
/ man-won the old man over, and VI
/ to Salem went Simon Buckner, who
i had fought under Stonewall Jackson
'sthe flower of the Cenfederacy, Sir
i though Lee was a greater general
i So it was that the sisters three had
/ tangled the threads of three lives
and brought to the very heart of Yam
kee land the old Confederate veteran
4 who still kept warm in his heart his
/ devotion to the Lost Cause and the
Stars and Bars.
Tt was very lonely at first for the
Confederate in the Yankee town. Oh
course, there was Sally, adoring ano
adored, and her husband who die
i everything in his power to make the
i old man happy. But what did these
Il young people know about the war
j Old Simon lived in the past, and wha
he chiefly missed in Yankee land was
i the association of his old comrades o
| the Confederate Post Of Greenboro
i men of his own age, who, like him
4 lived in the past and fought their bat
i ties over again in the peaceful smoke
/ Of their corncobs Nearly every da.
II he had been accustomed to stroll int
! the post and smoke a sociable pip
i with his old cronies, and chat abou
the old days that would come again
4 no more, with the men who knew ant
i had fought. They were all like Simon
/ devoted to the Lost Cause, but Their
was no bitterness in their hearts ever
i as they saw the Stars and Stripes fly
ing from their own post. They ha'
long since come to recognize that tn
north and south are tied up by DIES
tiny, and that although the cause Q
the south had been righteous one
/ after all, it, was better to have on
great republic than two small ones
Their affection for the Lost Cause an
l the Stars and Bars was purely sent
mental. and beneath it all there wer
7 no more loyal Americans than tn
: Confederate veterans of Greenbort
sIS. q. How old Simon missed them i
II Yankee land! Is
q Many time he had walked throug
. the streets Of Salem, passing the {
a. r. post, and had looked with env
IL the Veterans sittmg In the windoY
: H. d