Year: 1878

intimation of breaking the habit O


twenty years, Mrs. Mason promptly


arOse-a frail, fair woman of 40


and, taking the arm of her son


walked directly into the front hal


and thence to the dining-room, al


of old. Our surprise was great, but


no word indicating that this was


unusual escaped her or any of the


party. The spell was broken, and


she Stunned the hall no more.


From the date of the duel, even


on her deathbed, she never men


toned the name of her dead hus-


band. Her boy grew up with the
! knowledge and feeling that an un-


speakable shadow rested on the


house, concerning which however


heavily it might press upon their
| souls, he must forbear to question


even his mother. / was the first to


tell him after he had reached man


hood all he wished to know con-


corning his fathers death.


| This son, Stevens Mason, was a


true hearted young man, with but


little knowledge of the world.


With private tutor, with servants
to anticipate every wish, mother
to idolize him, he missed till too
late certain necessary lessons in life


which these could never give him.


He could not refuse to indrose a note
for friend, and his mother could


not refuse to join him in whatever


he put his name to. For one mo-
ment the shadow of his pathway
seemed to lift, but only to settle
more heavily about his way. He
married a young lady who was a
belle and a beauty. He Brought
her to Selma, where, as they fOndly
hoped, brightness and happiness
We're to reign once more. But his
mother, while outwardly fulfilling
every obligation, did not receive
her as a mother should, greeting
her with but a formal offering of the
hand instead of the expected en-
brace and kiss of welcome as she
crossed the threshold. 1t was
doubtless because her shattered life
had made her own affections to him
too selfish, and she did not wish
him to marry any one. Following
closely the first shock of disappoint-
ment to her young heart came a
fever, and in three months from
her arrival poor Stevens laid his
bride by the side of his murdered
father.


Their fine estate, with all that
pertained to it, already melting
from their hands, was soon pos
Sessed by strangers. Mrs. Mason
did not long survive the loss of
Selma. Although wife had never
loved her husband better, yet she
Eot only refused to speak his name
from the day of the duel, but re-
queSted that her remains should
not be buried at Leesburg, and that
no mark should be placed above
her head wherever it might be.
She lies in the Congressional Gene
terry at Washington with only the
earth and grass above her. Then
came the war with Mexico. Her
son for a little while had the oppor-
tunity to forget his troubles under
military excitement. He was NOR
tally wounded by q cannon shot
think it was at Monterey-and died
a captain of rifles in the arms of his |
lieutenant, one of the RhettS of
South Carolina. 1t was an impress
i've day in Loudon, when the body
of young Mason was received from |
Mexico, and laid in the shade of
the old church beside his father and
his bride. All the people assembled
and made public funeral of him.
One of the arrangements was that |
the only blood relations should pass
within certain railing close about |
the family graves, and / well re- |
member that although a goodly |
company had followed him to din |
ner when he was twenty-one, where |
the same relationship was exacted,
and although he was but twenty
seven at his death, yet only three
were there-tWo beside himself-to |
enter the narrow enclosure, So
family and fortune passed away.


But not even here ended the ef-
feet of that pistol shot at Bladens-
burg. McCarty, the other principal
in that duel, also had an only son,
very promising, in whom he took
great pride. Though living but
few miles apart, the two families
never renewed their acquaintance
or spoke to each other. There was a
'aVOidance-nOthing more.
Young McCarty was a frequent
sportsman, but in all his cunning
was never known to set his foot on
any part of the Mason estate, what
ever the luck it might promise.
One fatal day, however, in follow
ing a fight of game he mounted the
fence dividing the Mason property
from another's. Attempting to
load in this position-his attention
no doubt, by the move
ments of the birds or the dOgS-he
let slip his gun, which exploded and
sent the ramrOd through mis- head.
He fell on the Mason side, which
he had avoided all his life-upon
the ground which he was to press
only in death. And, to make the
dramaticsituatiOn complete Stevens
Mason at the moment came riding
by, and the dying youth was carried
to Raspberry Plain, the blighted
homestead Of the Masons, the birth
place of the fathers victim, and
laid dead in the hall.


This was almost a death-blOw to
the parents of young Mccarthy.
His bereaved father, the slayer of
Senator Mason, became erratic, and
for much of the time a wanderer.
He would leave his home without
a word, and be gone for years, his
own wife not knowing where, and
then would as suddenly reappear,
and haggard, with hair
long on his shoulders, and beard de-
70 l., ,sc.x scf


After all this the old Mason house
at Raspberry Plain stood shut up
and empty for years. In due time,
of course, it became "haunted" and
as might have been expected, a pis-
tol shot was sometimes heard there
at night by various passers-by. But
at length it passed into careful
though strange hands, and is now
with Selma also-Once more the
scene of prosperity and happiness.


Born i'm 1764.


o1