Year: 1860

TRAGIC REMINISCENCE


By ELLIS AxMoNHTTR,


At tho close Of the Greek War, when the
treaty of peace threw open Georgia, Ala.
bama and Mississippi to emigrants, the tide
that set in from the other States was, con
sidering the difficulties to be overcome, and
the dangers to be encountered from still
half hostile foe, most astonishingly great.


These emigrants, like all who pioneer the
way to new States, were molly crew. Oc.
casionally there might be found man OF
good family with numerous slaves, who,
lured by the fertility of tho virgin soil,
transported his household goods to these
great wilds, but more frequently of the
farming community it was the humble pos.
SCISSORS Of one or two negroes, or the Draw.
ny athletes, who watered the fields they
titled with the sweat from their own brows,
who took the road for "Georgy, Alabamy,
or the Mississippi"


These, however, were unfortunately not
the preponderating element among the in
coming settlers. That numerous class who
come under the comprehensive head of
"adventurers" comprised the majority
Refugees from the sentence Of the law. men
banned from social intercourse, spectators
gamblers, cut-throats and villains of every
variety, were the most numerous of the
villages which sprung up wherever Land
offices and Indian agencies were established
by the government.


OF all the localities to which they throng-
ed, nowhere did they muster in larger
force than in the northern counties of the
now fourishing State of Mississippi.
As matter of course, among such an
assemblags of Ismaelites, bloody duels,
street fights and murders were of daily
occurrence, and in the tangled web of their
intercourse tragedies were frequently enact
ed more wholesale in their destruction of
human life than any ever put on histronic
boards.


was then young NJ. D., who following
wandered thus far from civilization, and
finally located in village in the fertile val
ley of the Yallabusha, then ssboundless
contiguity of shade," but now far spread,
ing series of magnificent plantations, fa-
niliar with the rush of the great metropolis
by the mystic current Of the telegraphic
wire. # -.


Here occurrences came under my obser-
vation, some so appalling, and some so
thrilling that they have never been erased
from the tablets of my memory.


After having been there suffcen length
Of time to become familiar with the general
reputation and position, both social and
political, of every one in the place, l found
that the person of most popularity was a
man by the name of Louis Percival. Strange
as it may seem at the first glance. the man
who swayed and controlled almost with
autocratic power this turbulent settlement,
was slight, pale, and physically weak, though
the fact is not without numerous precedents
in cases where tact, intelligence, unscrupu-
lous conscience, and courage that never
quailed before man or devil, has been found
combined in one person. ,r..


Why such an individual had ever made his
way to such place it was puzzling to sur
mise. Dress, manners. conversation and
style of life, all betokened him to have
moved among the elegancies and refnements
of the most polished society. A person Of
SO plausible and insinuating manners haG
never seen, though in the beginning of our
acquaintance | had for him n feeling of
distrust, which amounted almost to dislike.
This may possibly have arisen from the fact
that, floating on the wings Of humor, came
a vague story of a deserted wife, who,
broken hearted, sleeps in a sslf-sought grave
in distant State; but whether it had truth
for for it's foundation none knew. and none
would have dared hint or question him to
whom it was attached. If II retrospective
glance ever wrapt his soul in gloom, it hung
no cloud upon his brow; if remorse ever
gnawed, its ravages We're not external, for
d more Smooth and smiling face and appar-
emily more equal temper is seldom met
with.


- As matter of course, in place so small
the residents were all known to each other
and an arrival was noted as a subject of
general interest, furnishing, as it did
either new victim for the harpies to prey
on, or else an antagonist in their own
field.


After my sojourn at C. had been OF
some eighteen months duration, there ap.
peared in our midst man who called him
self Ross, and as he made a temporary stop
ping at the mlsrable tavern, it soon became
known that he was accompanied by his wife.
| Each person who by accent obtained a
glimpse of her was Immediately filed with
admiration at the extraordinary character
of her beauty, and, in accordance with the
unconventio ional habits Of the place, several,
when occasion permitted, spoke to her. with
view Of opening an acquaintance, but were
met with such freezing reserve or scornful
disdain rs made them shrink from second
effort.


This somewhat singular conduct excited
general curiosity, of which confess to have
felt my share; but when saw her the only
wonder was that the thought Of such an in
trusion should ever have suggested itself to
any one.


Such regal beauty as she possessed is sell
dom met with even in the entire space of a
lifetime. In the oriental splendor of her
lovliness she looked Zenobia, but, alas
in chains. Not saddened or downcast,
though, by misfortune, but hard, naughty
and defiant, as though she stared at fate in
the face and dared its worst.


Every movement of her stately form, every
pose of her graceful limbs, even the flow of
her dark plain garments, had an undulating
case, and yet q classic severity, that repelled
while it charmed, and to person of ordin-
ary penetration, no second glance was
needed at the fierce pressure Of the crimson
curves of her lips, and the eager flush of
the dark, lustrous, passion-lit eye, to know
that all the past that lay behind her was
filled with hideous and hatred "reminiscences.
What lay IN her future it came to me to
know, and blasted as must have been the
green boughs Of her glorious youth by some
lightning stroke of fate, it could not have
been more appalling than what succeeded
in her TRAGIC life.


Standing one day with Percival on the
steps of the tavern, idling away pleasant
hour, as | accidentally glanced at the
door. saw Mrs. Ross, bonneted and shawl
ed as if for walk, coming down the wide
| hall. r...a.r ..r


Having become familiar with PercivaPs
Sybarite tastes, felt curious to know how
he would be affected by the unexpected
sight of such remarkable beauty and fixed
my observation on him rather than the
lady. -,


lie was leaning carelessly against the
rough pillar at the top of the steps and did
not see her until she had passed at least
half the width of the gallery; then. a look
of wonder, of admiration and of respectful