Year: 1876

who, at her request, wOhld come on to
Chester for Mary, and come back with
her to Fort Towson; also, that she would
send money to get her good wardrobe,
and to pay her expenses to her new home
A short time afterward, Mr.. Clarke
arrived, presented his letters, and handed
Mary sixty dollars in gold 10 purchase her
outfit for the journey. Mary's Chester
friends did not like the looks OF AIr
Clarke; but, as he was accredited by her
sister, they could make no objections to
her leaving with him. But they were
careful to advise her specifically and fully
in regard to her long journey of some 500
miles among entire strangers, In less
than a week she was ready, and, with a
kind letter from her pastor-she had
joined the Presbyterian Church-and the
blessings and the prayers Of those with
whom she had lived virtually from child
hood, she bade them good-by, who, like
those to whom Paul preached, expected
g to see her face no more"


What follows is gathered from the
letters Mary wrote back to the lady who
had SO kindly matlonized her from the
time she first came to Orange County till
she left for her distant home in the West


Mary found Mr.. Clarke's friends in
Pennsylvania very fine, excellent people,
in good circumstances. They treated her
very kindly for two or three weeks, when
she left with Mr.. c. for Pittsburgh, where
they took New Orleans steamer for the
mouth of the Arkansas. For several
days Mary's escort treated her with great
Difference and respect, as, in fact, he had
always done. But his attentions became
more marked, and by the time the steamer
had reached the Mississippi, he was per-
tinaciously urging Mary to marry him.
This she respectfully, but firmly, refused
to do; and at length his conduct became
so outrageous that Mary was obliged to
appeal to the Captain for protection.
This he promptly afforded, and she was
safe from further molestation. Clarke
kept himself STEPPED in liquor, and his
conduct at last became so bad that some





ashore-not, however, till he had made
him give up the money he had in his pos
session to pay Mary's expenses to Fort
Towson And now here was this lone
Irish girl, thousand miles from her
friends in Orange County, and nearly as
far by the rivers and stage she had to
travel before reaching her new home,
with no protection except that which a
brave, noble and cultivated woman can
command from the roughest and even
from the basest, of men. They were
ample in her case, for she was treated by
the Captain and his officers, and by her
fellow passengers, with every attention
and the greatest courtesy.


The Captain of the Mississippi steamer
introduced Mary to the officers of the boat
that was to take her up the Arkansas to
Van Buren, on the west line of the State,
where she was to take the stage for some
100 miles or more to Fort TOwson. Trav-
cling on the frontiers and on Western
river steamers thirty years ago was very
different thing from what it is now. Yet,
in all that tedious, weary journey, Mary
was happy, and by her cheerful conversa-
ton, and those delicate attentions which a
woman knows so well how to show, she
was ever ready to contribute to the happi-
ness of others. But at last the stage stops
at the door of the hotel, and the lonely
traveller is at Fort TowsOn.


Visions of her slster-her own dear sis
ter-rushing to embrace her, and of the
children dancing around Aunt Mary, had
cheered her for many lonely hour. She
was now at home; and all her joyous ma
ture overtlowed with the brightest hopes.
Alas! what language can paint the gloom
that shrouded her soul when she found
that her sister was hundreds of miles
away; that she was alone, way out in
the Indian Territory, among perfect
strangers. The re giment with which her
brother-in-law was associated had been
ordered to Texas, and her sister was at
Baton Rouge, La. In few hours she
sought out her sisters friends, who knew
all about her coming. They received her
most kindly and cordially, and did all
they could to cheer and comfort her. Her
pride would not permit her to be depend
ent. She soon found that her services
were in great request as dressmaker
and her letters to her Orange County
friends were full of expressions showing
how happy and prospeIou she was in her
new home. 1t could not be otherwise.
Her culture and her superior accomplish
ments would lead all to concede to her a
leading position in society. So it proved );
for, in few months, she became the hap
py wife of Mr.. Henry B. Hadden, a lead
ing citizen in Fort Towson, and, as she
proudly expressed it in letter to the mat
ron under whose care she developed into
the splendid woman she was, "a Presby-
terian Elder" In another year letter
told that she had the dearest little baby in
the world, and, of course, her happiness
was complete.


Domestic cares made the letters from
Mary fewer, and, since the War, nothing
has been heard from her.


The temptation to moralize on facts like
the above is almost irresistible. But the
story carries its moral all along with it.
1t shows that duty, faithfully performed
each day as it passes along, is sure to reap
its reward. Mary's history, from the time
she left her sister in Brooklyn to accept
service among strangers, amid the lonely
wilds of Sullivan County, might be
woven into most beautiful romance; but
the facts, just as they occurred, are to her
friends more interesting than they could
be were they embellished by the most Wv
id colors in which any writer, however
gifted, could narrate them. Her adher-
ence to duty, and her active, virtuous life
can be initiated by all; but few will ever
be able to furnish q brighter example, or
one more worthy to be emulated.


Keep cheese in cool dry place. and
after ii is cut, wrap it in linen cloth,
and keep it in tight tin box,