ough with convulsive
effort, be broken.
Miss Chase was but "a treasure lent," her sweet, loving nature having won
the heart of one who made her his life companion; hence it became
necessary for me to find another to fill her place. She came in the person
of Miss Kate Fowler, a lovely young girl of seventeen years, who possessed
great charms of person, mind and soul, as the sequel will show.
We traveled together throughout Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania,
meeting with greater success than we could have hoped for while the din of
war was raging, always making sufficient for our support.
At Hollidaysburgh, Penn., I learned of the presence of General Anderson,
and resolved that I would offer a tangible evidence of my appreciation of
the "Hero of Fort Sumter." Entwining one of my little books with red,
white and blue ribbons, I sent it to him with a little note, asking its
acceptance from the authoress, a Baltimore lady, in behalf of her native
city, then under a cloud, the Massachusetts troops having been stoned by a
mob collected from various points, and for which she bore the undeserved
odium. These I sent in their tri-colored dress, expecting only a silent
reception. But, as I sat at dinner in my hotel, there came a singular and
unexpected response in the person of the General himself. He was
introduced by the landlord, and was accompanied by his little daughter,
holding in her hand my token, as she smilingly approached me in her
fairy-like beauty. A delightful chat ensued, and an urgent request upon
his part that I should visit Cresson Springs, to which he had resorted
with his family in order to recuperate his health, shattered by the
protracted and gallant defense of one of our national citadels.
With a kind "good bye" he left, and as I passed out of the dining-room
door I received an evidence of his great delicacy in a token he would not
publicly tender. The landlord handed me a box from him containing a
handsome plain gold ring, ever since cherished as a memento; and, although
worn by time, there is still legible the name engraved within this shining
circlet, even that of General Anderson.
After canvassing Altoona I went to Cresson Springs and was no sooner
registered than I received a card from the General. Meeting me in the
parlor, he gave me a cordial welcome, after which he said: "Now I am going
to assist you in your sales." He drew together three of the parlor tables,
and, taking one hundred of m
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