Tr
ODE
VOL. V., NO. 17.
PINEIIURST, N. C, MARCH 7, 1902.
PI J ICE THREE CENTS
OLD HOCK'S STORY.
Bill Arp, a Favorite Son of the Sunny
South, in Dialect.
A TALE OF OTHER DAYS.
Of course, of course it was Tom
Moore. How came I to say that Burns
wrote that pretty ballad beginning "And
I know by the smoke that so gracefully
curled V" 1 knew better and three letters
and a postal kindly corrected me while
the editor said lie knew better, too.
What is an editor for if lie does not cor
rect a "lapsus pennae" like that? But I
am glad I made the mistake for it has
brought me three letters and a postal
kindly correcting me, and proves that
the people who read the old-time authors
are not all dead. The last line of that
verse always reminds me of a good old
man, a comrade, Captain John Ilocken
liull, an Englishman by birth, but a
Georgia rebel who used to recite poetry
for us around the camp fire in 18G2 and
1SG3. We called him "Old Hock" and
everybody loved him for he was a cock
ney and dropped the If s where he should
not and vice versa. There is always a
thirm in broken English and to murder
the king's English is no great offence.
"Old Hock knew a good deal of Tom
Moore and Burns and Hood and Camp
bell and it was a treat to hear him say:
"The 'eart that is 'umble might 'ope
for it 'ere.''
He knew that other sweet ballad of
Anne Crawford :
"Kathleen Mavourneen, the gray dawn
is breaking,
The horn of the hunter is heard on the
hill."
And he always said "The 'orn of the
unter is 'eard on the 'ill. The "Exile
of Erin," which he called "The Hexile
of Ilerin," was another of his favorites,
lie learned these poems from his sweet
heart while he was an apprentice in Lou
don an orphan boy bound for seven
years to a hard master, a brewer, and his
daily service was to carry the jars of
malt from the cellar up a flight of stone
steps to the floor above. He never had
a kind word from his master, and one
day he tripped and fell and broke a jar
and was bitterly abused for it, and told
that he had forfeited the 20 that he was
to get when his term was out. He was
then 18 and had yet three years to toil at
his hard monotonous work. That night
he poured out his heart to the girl he
loved and declared he would run away
and go to America on the first sail vessel
that left the port. That he would make
some money here and send it to her if
she would promise to come to him, and
then they would marry and be so
h;ippy and si,e promised. Within a
week the opportunity came. He told
one of the suitors his sad story and the
sailor told the mate, and they took him
aboard by night and hid him down in
the hold of the vessel until the good
ship had weighed anchor and was far
out to sea. "Old Hock" told it all to
us one cold night at Manassas and how
sad and sweet was his last kiss, his last
embrace, his last good bye. lie
choked up sometimes and the tears glis
tened in his eyes, but it was a pretty
story and Dickens could have built upon
it and made a tender romance. This
was away back in the forties when our
state was building the Western and
Atlantic railroad and wanted laborers
and had sent a man to New York to hire
immigrants as they landed at Castle
Garden. "Old Hock" did not have to
wait a day, but was hired and shipped to
Atlanta and from there to Allatoona,
where he did his first work. He said he
did not feel safe upon the ocean voyage
or in New York harbor, for he feared lie
had named his fine mare Emma, so that
he could call herllemma, I reckon. But
we made him finish the story afterwards
and tell how one good friend volunteered
to go after the license, and another after
the preacher, and his landlady and her
daughter baked some cake and got us a
hextra supper and they were married
that night at her- 'ouse, and all lie
remembers about what the preacher said
was: "Whom God 'ath joined together,
let no man put liasunder. "Old Hock"
was a patriot, a good, honest and true
man. His neighbors at his home in
Dawson county all loved and honored
him, and there was not a man in his reg
iment (the Eleventh Georgia) more
beloved by the men that he fed, for he
was ciiosen their commissary early in
the war, and you know it is so natural to
love those who feed you well. When
rations were short he would travel all
night to secure supplies and the boys
knew that if "Old Hock" couldn't get
GOLF CLUB HOUSE.
might in some way be caught as a fugi
tive and taken back, but when he got to
Allatoona and saw the woods all around
him and the high hills and deep ravines
and mingled with good kind-hearted
men and women, he felt safe and free.
"I never knew w'at freedom was before,
and you Hamericans 'av no hidea w'at a
blessing it is. The good woman w'ere I
boarded and her daughter were so kind
and gentle to me that I would 'av 'ugged
them if I dared, but 1 thought all of the
time of the girl 1 had left behind me and
it nerved me to good, 'onest vork and
the contractor soon raised my wages,
and in six mouths 1 'ad a 'undred dollars
in bank and got a good man to send it to
another good man in New York, and lie
found the same captain I came hover
with and he took it to my sweetheart,
and she came back with him, and while I
was every day looking for a letter she
took me by surprise one morning and
brought the letter with her, and we just
fell into lieach bother's harms like
like like major hexcuse me now, 1
must go and look hafter my 'oss." lie
what they wanted nobody could. But
in course of time the old man got sick
and wanted to go home. Other officers
had got furloughs, but he had never
asked for one. He went to bed and sent
for me, and told nie he was sick and if
he didn't get a furlough he believed he
would get sicker and perhaps die away
from 'ome. I suspected that he was
homesick, but he looked sick and I sent
up his application. The army had been
for some days sweltering in the hot sum
mer's sun not far from Richmond. The
application was referred to headquarters
at Richmond, and I took it in to the
proper official, who glanced at it and
said: "Important movements are daily
expected, and all furloughs to go home
are strictly prohibited. The best I can
do is to send the captain to Farmville for
thirty days." There was an army hos
pital at Farmville, which was only 30
miles south of Richmond, where sick
officers were sent to rest and be treated
for their ailments. And so he endorsed
upou it Farmville, and in the next blank
said thirty days. Suddenly a thought
came over me that I could not resist. I
knew that "Old Hock's" postoflice in
Georgia was named Farmville. I
stepped into the hotel and took a pen
and quickly added "Ga." to the word.
I knew that it was risky and rascall',
but I did it, and took it to "Old Hock"
and told him to get ready to leave next
morning. How quickly lie brightened
up and how thankful lie was to me. He
went home on the pass and came back in
due time,renewed aud recovered. He said
the conductor looked 'aid at him and at
the pass, but let him go by the hospital and
then he felt safe. I knew if 1 had told
him what I had done he couldn't face
the music and tell a lie. After the war
his people sent him to the legislature
and my people sent me there, too, and
we rejoiced to get together again every
night and rehearse the soul-stirring
times that we had in old Virginia.
From time to time I receive good,
earnest letters from the young folks
girls and boys asking what books to
read and where to get them. One came
today from a young miss who is teach
ing a country school. She says she can
not go to college, for she is too poor, but
manages to save a little money and
wants to know what books to buy to
improve her mind. Well, if I was too
poor to buy some good encyclopedia, I
would buy a Shakespeare, Macaulay,
Goldsmith, Tom Moore, Burns, Pope,
Gray, Cowper, Campbell, Tom Hood,
Caldridge, Wordsworth and some of
Scott's novels such as "Ivanhoe," "Ken
il worth" and "Anne of Guernstein."
Buy some of Dickens' works, as "Dom
bey and Son" and "David Copperfield."
Then there is "John Halifax," by Mrs.
Muloch, and "Ten Thousand a Year,"
by Warren. Buy "The Vicar of Wake
field" for the sake of the hermit. Of
course our own authors should not be
neglected, such as some of Jrvings'
works and Hawthorne and Longfellow
and Bryant. Buy Halleck for hi3
"Marco Bozaris" if nothing else. There
are two text books by Miss Rutherford,
of Athens, Ga., the cultured principal of
Lucy Cubb institute, that should be in
every respectable household. One is
English authors and the other is Ameri
can authors. Both together make a
good library and are always ready for
reference. I had rather give up any two
other books than those. "The Fisher
man's Prayer," by Jean Ingelow, in the
first named, is worth twice the cost of
the book.- Now most of these books can
be bought nicely bound at prices from
50 cents to $1. But there are hundreds
of good books by such authors as Mrs.
Austin and Charlotte Bronte and Mrs.
Hemans, Mrs. Sigourney and others. I
name only a few to fit the slender purse
of our young people. You can now buy
the plays of Shakespeare separately for
a small cost, and so I would get "Ham
let," "Macbeth," "Romeo and Juliet"
and "Merchant of Venice." When you
are able by all means get a Cyclopedia of
biography, so that you can turn to the
interesting sketches of any great man or
woman, such as Gallileo, Mozart, Han
del, Raphael, Beethoven, Audubon,
Linnaeus and hundreds of others. But
don't crowd your youthful mind with
modern novels. They are made to sell
that's all. Bill Arp in Atlanta Constitution.