The Hartford herald. [volume] (Hartford, Ky.) 1875-1926, 1922-12-06
And Yet
a Fool
exchanges that come to a
country newspaper like ours be-
WILLIAM ALLEN WHITE
Observation-Disclosures
1879, by the Mscmil an Co.

wears pass. One who reads these pa
pers regularly comes to know them
even in their wrappers, though 10 an
unpracticed eye the wrappers seem
cpucn alike. But when he has been
Doktng his thumb through the paper
husks in certain pile every morning
70, a score of years, he knows by some
sy4 of prescience when "A new paper
aypsears; and, when the pile looks odd
1e him. he goes hunting Tor the strali
xer and Is not happy until he mas
found it.
One morning this spring the strange
stuck its head from the botton ~ re
exchange pile and when we glanced NJ
uhe handwriting uf the address ana ut
Ehe OGe-ccnt stamp on the cover we
KNEW it had been mailed To US by aoiiie-
u!r besides the publisher. 10. t'c
newspaper "hand" is as dlGa.:2 a. .C..l
OF writing Us the legal hand ~ TIE
DOCTORS. Tie paper proved tH y" !
Arizona newspaper full OF saloon adj
Scrtising, restaurant cards, church ana
school meeting notices, local iteil'H
, about the SaWInill and the wOniai .
club, land notices and paid it2iAs ,:o.I
wool dealers. On the local page In ~
midst of a circle OF red ink was tie
announcement of the death Of !!o~acc
T. Sampson. Every month we get no.
tees like this, of the deaths of ola
settlers who have gone TO the ends of
the earth, but this notice was pccul.ai
in that it said:
lone year ago our lamcnted towns
man deposited with the firm of Cross
& kurtZ, the popular undcrtakers ana
dealers In Indian goods and general
merchandise, 500 to cover his funeral
expenses, and another hundred to pro
vide that a huge boulder be rolled over
his grave on which he desired IL" fO!-
lowing unusual inscription: Horace
T.. Sampson, Born Dec. 6. 1870, and
died -. And is not this II rare
fellow. my lord? He's good at any
aling and yet fool
We handed the paper to Alphabet
chi Morrison, who happened to be in
the Office at the time, paving through
the discarded exchanges in the waste
basket. looking for his New York Sun,
and after Colonel Morrison had read
the item, he began drumming with his
.H-crnalls on the chair seat between
Ills knees. His eyes were full OF
dreams and no one disturbed him az
he looked off into space. Finally he
sighed:
"And yet fool-a motley fool
Poor old Samlp-kept it up to the end
take 1t from the guarded way the pa
per refers to his faults, as who OF us
have not that he died Of the tremens
or something like that" The colonel
paused and smiled Just percaptlbl,',
and went on: yet | see that he was
a good fellow to the end notice that
che Shriners md the Elks and the
Eagles and the Hoo-hoOs buried him
Nary an insurance order in his. Poor
old Samp; he certainly went all the
EaitS"
We suggested that Colonel Morrison
write something about the deceased
for the paper, but though the colOne
admitted that he knew Sampson "like
"A book" there was no persuadlng Nor
rlsOn to write the obituary.
"After some urging and by way of
compromise" he said. I'm perfectly
willing to give you fellows the facts
and let you fix up what you please"
Because the reporters were both
busy we called the stenographer, and
had the coloners story taken down as
ell e., Into
obituary later. And II Is what he said
and not what we printed about Samp
son that Is worth putting down here
The colonel took the big leather chair
locked his hands behind his head, and
Began:
he says, December G, 1910, in WlscOn
ain. and came out to Kansas right af
ter the war closed. He was going Il
college up there, and at the second cal
Cor troops he led the whole senior class
INTO forming company, and enlisted
before graduation and fought from
shat time On till the close of the war
We was captain, ! think. but YOU
never heard him called that When he
came here he'd been admitted 10 the
bar and was good lawyer--a might,
good lawyer for that time-and haC
more business n bird pup with 4
xdm-shoe. He was just a boy then
and, like all boys, he enjoyed a goot
time He drank more or less In tn,
army-they all did s far as that goes
out he kept Il mp in a desultory, wa!
after he came here, az a sort of nc
sessOry TO his main business of life
which was being good fellow.
~And he was "A good fellow-an aw
rul good fellow. We were all ysuni
shen; there wasn't an old man on tn
Gown site rs remember IL. We usea
10 load up the whole bunch and <,
Auntlng--closing Up the stores an'
saking the girls along-and did no
show up till midnight. Samp woul,
always have little something to taxi
T..