Americus times-recorder. (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, April 26, 1891, Image 6

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6 THE AMERICAS DAILY TIMES-RECORDER: SUNDAY, APRIL 26, l«9l. for Infants and Children. “CMtorial: io well adapted to children that I recommend It as superior to any prescription known to me.** II. A. Archer, M. D.,' Ill Bo. Oxford St, Brooklyn, N. Y. “The use of ‘Castoria* Is so universal and Its merits so well known that it seems a work of supererogation to endorse it Few are the intelligent families who do not keep Castoria within easy reach.** __ Carlos Marty*, D. D., New York City. Late Pastor Bloomlngdalo Reformed Church. Castoria cures Colic, Constipation, Sour Stomach, Diarrhoea. Eructation, Kills Worms, gives sleep, and promotes oi- Without injurious medication. ** For several years I have recommended S our * Castoria,»and shall always continue to o so as It has invariably produced beneficial results.” Edwin F. Pardeb, H. D., “The WInthrop,” 128th Street and 7th Avo., New York City. S. H. HAWKINS 't. H. C- BAGLEY. Vice Pree't W. t. VRPhEY. Cashier. 'RGANIZED 1870. -»8The Ba.ik of Americus. Designated l*epos‘lory Stile of Georgia. 8tockhold* , »a in»livi<li^L|ly liable. Capital, - • - 8150,000 HurpluN, - - • 8100,00o - : ln tcEC.,0 I®:— H. C. Bagiev, Pres. Americus Investment Co. P. C. Clegg, Pres. Ocmulgee Brick Co. Jas. Dodson, of .ias. Dodson & Sen, Attorneys. (i. W. Glover, Pres’t Americus Grocery Co. 8. H. Hawkins, Pres’t 8. A. & M. Railroad. 8. Montgomery. Pres’t Peoples National Bank. J W. Shertield.of Hbeflleld & Co., Hardware. T. Wheatley, wholesale dry goods. W. E. Murphey, Cashier. Capital 8t.*ck ----- $100,000. Paid up Capital ----- 50,000. Tub Centaur Company, 77 Murray Street, Nbw Yore. FOR RENT. THE BANK OF SUMTER T. X. IXAWKES, O. A. COLEMAN, President. Vice-President. W. C. FURLOVV, Cashier. IJIRECTORS- O. A. Coleman, C. C. Hankins. It. II. Jossey, T. X. Hawkes, W. C. Furlow, W. II. C. Wheatley, R. S. Oliver, H. M. Brown, W. M. Hawkes, Ur. E. T. Mathis, Arthur Rylander. Liberal to its customers, accommoda ting to the public and prudent in its management, this bank solicits deposits and other business in its line. Two dwellings, one of them suitable for boarders. FOR SALE. ( sentenced to death. EVER mind what my business or how I was be trayed and how I was gathered in. 1Enough that they Ibagged me 180 'miles inside the enemy’s lines and hustled me off to prison at Fort Mc Henry, in Baltimore harbor, where I was confronted with the charge of being a spy. No matter that 1 had on when captured my full uniform as a captain. No matter that at my conrt-martial trial their own officer who captured me testi fied that he did not take me us a spy, that there was no work for a spy where be captured me. No matter: 1 was found guilty, and the sentence was read to me, “To be hanged as a spy on the parade ground of Fort McHenyjr between the honrs of 13 m. and 8 o’clock p, m„ Nor. 3, 1863.” In answer to my request that, if they most kill me. for the sake of honor to gire me the death of a soldier, they graciously changed the paper to read, “To be ahot to death with musketry, on the parade ground," etc. 8omehow, 1 auppoee I did not folly comprehend or adequately appreciate my situation, for 1 did not feel then, any more than I do now, that death was to be my next deal. Nor hod 1 at all contemplated that result all through the trial Only the last day before that sen tence was read to me I had been creating merriment by asking puzzling or irrele vant questions of the judge advocate, telling jokes during the recesses of the court, in divers manners creating fun to draw mirth for myself out of that barren rock, “military justice." Only the day before, the president of the court mar tial, the colonel of the regiment, twelve of whose officers composed my adjudi cators, asked to talk a little with me. “Of course." “Captain," said he, "I greatly fear you do not appreciate yonr situation." “Well, colonel, I know of no man more favorably situated to realize it Why do yon say so?" “Because, dr, yonr life is at stake in this trial’’ “Well?” “Well, you’ll be found guilty, moat aaauredly, of the charge.” “Well?" “You'll be sentenced to die.” “WellT “And you’ll bo hanged or shot! And here yon have been spending the leisure hours of the coart trying yon for life in frivolous jesting and mirth. As a fel low man, it grieves me to see yon so care lessly playing at ao terrible a brink as yon stand on." “Colonel," was the reply, “I thank yon for yonr interest If we are national enemies, yon speak os a man and os a soldier. Bat let me say this” (now I can not explain what induced me to mako the following foolish, braggart speech, bat it bubbled npand was spoken), “col onel, yon or I may die before night; we do not know; bnt in ao far as the result of yonr court’s finding is concerned, 1 will be alive when yon and your twelve officers are dead and forgotten!" He left me in disgust—and t don't blame him. Bat snch was my foeling. 1 did not “feel it in my bones," as the slang goes, that death was ao near. That colonel, and the entire twelve composing the court died before I was exchanged—“shot to death" in ono charge at Cold Harbor. I Uve to write the occurrence twenty-fire years after the oooYflmtioo. It may or may not be true that when the grim monster singles ont his victiih he sends him, some way. a spiritual pre monition that he is going to let fly from death's quiver the fatal dark Be that as it may—I hud no premonition of death. Not when they stood me np to hear my sentence und to answer, nor after ward in the cool contemplation my iso lation and silent dungeon afforded; not when the officer of the day, on that eventful execution morning, read to mo in my dungeon the day's programme and delineated my doom at the hands of twelve detailed soldiers. Ho found me whistling ns I paced my narrow cell that morning, and exclaimed in surprise: “Good God, captain! what kind of a man are yon?" “Oh, I don't know; skin and bone, flesh and sinews, blood and bile. Why?" “Why! Don’t yon know you are to be ahot today? Outside here are the twelve men detailed to send you Into eternity. Yonll never see nuother morning! And here yon are—whistling!" “Well, why not whistle us long as pos sible, and cry when yon cannot langhU Hence. 1 may not be able to tell jnst how a man feels who stares death calmly in the face, for may be I did not so com prehend my situation. Bnt 1 was sentenced to death, that 1 folly comprehended when they inarched me, handcuffed, betwocn two guards with arms at “charge” and bayonets fixed, back to the prtaon; and, instead of to my former 13 by 13 cell, barred and bolted me in an underground, dark, dank dungeon, 3 by 10 feet, with a tub occu pying two feet of that sparso space, sig nificantly suggestive that I was to stay right there until the day and hour. The sentence was fully realized during the sunless days and no darker nights of tho weeks that followed. Daylight! Good God, man! you do not appreciate what a ray of glad, bright sunlight is until shot in from all that makte day beautiful. Ob, yes; I comprehended, slightly, that mine was no trifling sentence os I WltEN CAPTURED. crouched in that felt darkness, waiting till dilated pupils enabled me to see im perfectly what was the dampness that 1 touched. Finally, however, I was permitted to send out and buy a lamp and to keep it lighted. The walls had been repeatedly whitewashed, but the humid filth oozing through tho bricks had pushed it off in discolored flakes. The floor was stone; a solid or cemented mass that at once negatived any Morganic idea of “dig ging out." Away up yonder, ten or twelve feet away, was tho arched brick ceiling, whose sweaty surface told it, too, was under sod. Slimy snails and “thousand lege" drew their clammy ways across the moist walls and floor; vermin found and fed upon the noxioos dirt- damp; the disgusted rats that crept in at the grated door darted back to find a more yielding substance for their bor rowing teeth. Bnt the dampness, and the darkness, and the dirt were bnt grains of dost compand to the unutterable k—Bneni that grew upon me in that sepulcher. >'■• "J' - - wu' — ra. Not a human sonl—not even a brnte, ex cept tho scampering rats—to break the heavy stillness of that mnrky tomb! Ont yonder, somowhere, I knew was a grim sentry, for I heard the measured tread of tho relief as they left him on his lonely post. Bnt I never saw or heard him. Twice a day, grimly silent, came the cook's detail with my barrack soup or coffee. Bnt ho was mute, under strict orders not to speak or signal to tho pris oner, as his bakerlike shovel reached in my morsel of tainted food. Perdition! how I strove to make .Jliin speak! If he only would curse me, abuse me, anything: even his profunity would have sounded ns melody in my solitude. I never know what mnsic there was in. the lmmun voice till in that dungeon where it never sounded, and where I soon grew startled at my own. The post chaplain's was tho only hu man voice I heard for weeks—and his only onco, for my levity sbockod him so that he gave mo np as an irredeemable reprobate. Ho offered a prayer for me, however, 1 courteously kneeling with him on the stone floor. Bat he never caino again. Ho told mo—what my occasionally al lowed letters from my friends had too plainly informed me—that there was. no hope of escape from the fate that aoetned to them imd the ontsido world to l>e staring me In the face. Every possible effort had been made, every available in fluence pressed into service with the president, and he had positively declined interfering with the judgment of the court martial. Tho worthy chaplain cor roborated their sad information; said he: “Captain, you should prepare fordeath. for yonr life cuds in a few days." Here was food for reflection, surely. In the prime and vigor of early man hood, my veins thrilling with tho hound ing energy of young blood, life jnst be gun, with its plans, schemes und pur poses all to work ont: a young wife und two children, with nil the hopes of joy existence with them gave; ambitions walks all wide before mu awaiting to be trod; what burning pages yet nnreod in the book of life! In buttle the half read paragraph of life is suddenly left with a dash , au unseen, unfelt ballet cuts off. without a thought, the might lie. But here, alone, in silent darkness the heavy wonder would come, “So strong in health und hope of life, is death so nesr?" Life's retrospect, as memory was forced to the review, presented so much to be undone, so much yet to bo done, so much jnst begun that should bo finished. b it possible—is it true—this hale, hearty, healthy body so soon to feed the wormsl Are these lithe limbs to walk ont in funeral pageant, my own funeral! Quick, active, firm as the soldiers who march with me. Am 1 to march out with them, and they back without me? To go forth from this dark, living tomb to give my longing eyes one quaff of son- light, and then shut them forever in the eternal darkness of death's real grave? Am I to die? To quit? To bo no more? Talked of a day or week and then for gotten? Is it I who am to look at those twelve soldiers in silent rank twelve paces at my front? To hear the command, “Beady—aim—Are!" and hear the death message, feel death's bullet nnd know death, nil in ono brief instant—and then forever know no more? For the life of ino l could not say. Yes, it is L” I had no such feeling, and why I cannot tell. I knew the law military—knew if I was found guilty as a spy no power bnt that of the pardoning prerogative of the chief executive coold avert death. I knew all had been done by my friends that could be done, and without avail Still, I coold not think 1 was to die so soon. Such reflections, retroapectiaas, ertf Central and suburban property at bar gain figures. M. CALLAWAY, Real Estate Agent. LITTLE MARDRE. Hie Old Reliable Stationer, 105 FORSYTH STREET, Keeps always On hand a complete assortment of Books and Fine Writing Papers; School Books for every county in Southwest Georgia. Fine * Pictures, * Framed * and * in * Sheets. Large lot of New Moulding just received. Send in yout Pictures and have them framed. I lead, others follow. REMEMBER THE PLACE. S. MONTGOMERY, Pr«t. 1. C. RONEY, Vice Pmt. JNO. WINDSOR. C’r. LESTER WINDSOR Ant. C'r. E. A. HAWKINS, Attorney NO. 2830. Peoples’ National Of Americas. Capital, 8.10,000. Surplus, 825,000 ORGANIZED 1883. I.ALLE Pres. H. R. JOHNSQN, V.Pres. .Sffte'N,^c P in® 6,n - AH »- Americas National Building and Loan Association. AUTHORIZED CAPITAL. - 850,000,000. OVER $200,000 WORTH OF STOCK ALREADY SOLD. Money loaned at fl per cent, principal, and intercut payable In easy monthly install- men ts. Large profits secured to Investors. DIRECTORS: E.Taylor, Retired Merchant; H. R. Johnson, of Johnson A llarrold; W. t*. Wallis. Atty. at Law; T. M. Allen, Experienced Ho tiding und Loan Manager; Lott Warren, Hecretary und Treas. Mutual B. A L. As*.; 8. If. Haurkins, Pres. H. A. A M. Ry.; J. B. Folder, Mayor of Americus and Bros. Street Ry. 4-11 ’91 d.<wly SCHOFIELD’S IRON WORKS, FOUNDRY A.INO MACHINE 8IIOP. H. C. Bagley, Pres. W. E. Hawkins, Sec. <& Tr. Americas Investment Go. Investment Securities. Paid up CaDital, 81,000,000. ISurplus, $260,000. nniECTOits: H 0 Bagley, W E Hawkins, S W Coney, W S Gillls, J W Sheffield, P C Clegg, W M Hawkes, B F Mathews, G M Byno, W E Murphey, S Montgomery, J H Pharr. B. P. Hollis. 9,401,23. * Bank of Southwestern Georgia. * J.W. WHEATLEY, Vice President. A. W. SMITH, >1. SPEER, President, IV. H. C. DUDLEY* Cashier. Assistant Cashier, DIRECTOR?: J. W. Wheatley, E. J. Eldridge, C. A. Huntington, II. R, Johnson, R. J. Perry, J. C. Nicholson, A. W. Smith, W. H. C. Dudloy, M. Speor. E. Burnt,|Jm, Pros. H. M. Kxapp, V. P. to. A. Coi.kman, Sec, a Treas, J. S. SCHOFIELD’S SONS A CO., Prop’rs, Manufacturers of Steam Engines, Boilers, Cotton Presses and General Machinery, Cotton Gins, Cane Mills and Saw Mills. Dealers in Mill and Maehinists’ Supplies. Special Attention to Repair Work. MACON, GEORGIA. Baseballs, Baseballs, Bats, Bats. Our stock in this line cannot be surpassed In 8outh Georgia. HAMMOCKS! HAMMOCKS! It will pay you to see us before placing your order elsewhere. Cro quet Sets, Croquet Sets! We have just received a fine assortment in this line, and can save you money by trading with us. We would not forget to call your attention to the fact that we have added to our general Inc of Rooks and Stationery a full line of Moulding and Picture Framing iqa- tcrial, and we have an experienced man at the head of this department, and can do you as good work as you can have done in Macon or Atlanta Mail orders will receive special attention. ALLISON & AYCOCK, 310 LAMAR STREET. AMERICUS. GEORGIA. Negotiates Loans on improved Farm and City Property. B P Holms, Attorney, J E Bivins. Land Examiner. W. 0. MURRAY. PRESIDENT. I. E. CLARK, CASHIER Planters’ Bank of Ellaville, KlUrtlle, Georgia. PAID UP CAPITAL, . . .33,000 Collections a Specialty. Liber*] to it* customers, accommodating to the public and prudent in Ita management, this bank solicits deposits and other business in ita 11 • janS-dawly. loans. Loans negotiated at LOWEST RATES. Easy payments, on city or farm lands. J. J. HANESLET, °°* 5 ly Americus, Georgia. K. T. BYED, FIRE AND LIFE INSURANCE. Insurance Office on [commroox ururra paok.] > placed on City and Country Property. Jackson Street, next door below Mayor's H. SANFORD, Contractor and Builder, AMERICUS, ga„ With large experience In building he can guarantee u good work ae can be done any where. Designs Furnished, Estimates Made. Innide finishing a specialty, In hard woods All latest designs. Samples can be had on ap plication. Cali at J. R. Drum's store, on Tama, street. Americus, Ga. declMm SHINGLES, SHINGLES. •gj;