University of Virginia Library

18. XVIII.

ABLITE hez fallen o'er my soul. My eyes,
albeit unused to the meltin mood, hev distilled
nothin but tears for twelve hours. A Piller
hez fallen! In the meetin-house there is a vacant
pew, and a chair at Bascom's is without a setter.
Last nite, at precisely nine P. M., Elder Abimileck
Gavitt departed this life, aged 63 years and some
odd months.

I weep ez I write. The Elder wuz snufft out jest
ez the flowers uv spring wuz cumin — jest ez the
weather wuz a gittin warm enough to go barefooted
— jest when it wuzn't nessary to bother about getting
fire-wood, or be concerned about feedin the stock
— jest when it begins to be comfortable a settin

onto the grocery stoop — jest at the threshhold uv
six months' enjoyment. Why wuz he taken? Ekko
ansers. The ways uv Providence is inskrootable.

Elder Gavitt wuz a native uv North Karliny,
wich State he left in the blush uv early manhood,
jist after he wuz married. Wat he left North Karliny
for, I never wuz able to assertane percisely;
but I hev understood that it wuz suthin in connection
with a smoke-house, and the hams wich did
hang therein. He wuz in a Whig naberhood —
his naber, the proprietor of the smoke-house, wuz
a Whig — ther wuz sum hams mist — the rinds wuz
found in his possession — Whig intolerance and persekooshen.
Upon sich slite evidence he wuz adjudged
guilty of theft, and wuz ignominiously rid
on a rale, and ordered to leave the country in
twenty-four hours, wich he did, driftin nat'rally to
Kentucky. Thank Heaven for sich outrages! But
for sich, Kentucky wood hev bin a Republican
State, or wood hev remained unsettled to this day.

Elder Gavitt wuz alluz a Democrat uv the strictest
sect. He voted for Jackson, and reglerly for
every Democratic candidate sence. He didn't read
very much; indeed, ef I remember right, he coodent
do it at all, and wuz, consekently, stedfast in the
faith. He wuzn't shook about, and driven hither

and yon by every wind, but remained thro life fast
in the groove into wich he hed bin origenelly sot.
His politikle creed wuz made up uv this one idee,
to wit: Hatrid uv Noo England. He hatid Noo
England becoz Noo England hatid whiskey, wich
he coodent git along without, and slavery, uv wich
he hed a hundred niggers. He votid agin Noo
England all his life reglerly, and ez many times on
each eleckshen day ez he cood without risk.

My acquaintance with the deceest commenst about
three years ago. It wuz at his house I stopt on my
advent into these parts. Ther wuz no need uv
formel introduckshens — ther wuz already a bond
atween us wich knit our souls together. His eye,
ez it lit onto my nose, lighted up with a smile; and
ez I gazed on hizzen, I felt that he wuz indeed a
man and a brother. He took me in— he sheltered
me — he gave me whereof to eat and to drink and
to make merry, and with him I tarried till I wuz
reglerly installed ez pastor uv the Church, and
thereby reglerly pervided for.

The cause uv the Elder's death wuz a broken
heart. He wuz a ardent Confedrit, and manfully
bore up under the reverses of the war. His courage
wuz unshaken doorin the repeated successes uv
the Federal armies; and even when emancipation

deprived him uv his slaves, he still hed faith that,
evenchooally, all wood be well. “We may be
beeten now,” wuz his constant remark, “but the
Northern Dimocrisy are all right, and thro them
we'll yet conker!” Confidin in em, bleevin in em,
he held out brave up to the passage uv the Military
Reconstruckshen Bill.

I then saw a change steel insensibly over my
venerable friend. His head bowed with supprest
grief — his bosom throbbd with the emoshen that
wuz strugglin for uttrance. He wood come over to
my offis five or six times a day, and ask me to read
him that passage uv the law givin the nigger the
ballot. I wood do it, when, without sayin a word,
he wood reel off, with tears flowin down his wasted
cheeks, to Bascom's. I wood foller him, to see that
no harm came to him. The old man wuz so broken
that he'd pay for his own likker and mine too,
without noticin. Fearin to awaken unpleasant emoshens
in his mind, I never menshend the latter circumstance.

Things grew worse with him. When Mr. Randall
wrote me to consiliate the niggers ez Wade
Hampton wuz a doin it, the old father in Democrisy
obeyed without a murmur. Democrisy wuz
his first idea, and he obeyed her behests, tho 'twuz

consoomin his very sole. He shook hands with
niggers at my rekest, tho the touch wuz ez red hot
iron; he took two of em into his pew, tho his
promoxity to em set him a shakin like the ager;
and he votid to change the name and objects uv
the Institoot, tho the convulsive workins uv his
face showd wat the struggle cost him.

Day by day the Elder faded. The iron entered
his sole, and it wuz corrodin! corrodin! corrodin!
and eatin him up by degrees. He walked the
streets listlessly, his eyes suffoosed with teers, and
his lips movin ez ef mutterin suthin to hisself. I
become concerned for him, and so did the entire
cirkle. Bascom figgered up his akkount at his bar,
and went to the records to see whether his farm
wuz unencumbered, and sich uv the neighbors ez
hed lent him small sums sot about gittin em.

Last Sunday the pitcher went to the well for the
last time. I hed four niggers in his pew, upon
whom he looked vacantly, but sed nothin. After
servis, I stopped him. “Elder,” sez I, in a whisper,
“it wood hev a good effeck ef yoo cood kiss
them little nigger girls.”

“Parson!” sed he, tremblin like a leaf, “is it
abslootely necessary?”

“It is,” sez I firmly, “a dooty evry Dimokrat

owes to his party, in this crisis, to kiss ez many
nigger children ez possible.”

A strange expression lit up the old man's countenance.
In a frenzied manner he kissed all there
wuz in the church, and, ez ef insane, commenst on
the adult femails uv that persuasion. With difficulty
we restrained him; but breakin loose from us,
he startid down the street, a running down and kissin
every nigger child his eyes restid on. Finally he
sunk to the erth eggsaustid, and we bore him to his
house and put him to bed. From that bed he never
ariz. He wuz a goner. We hed to give him his
likker in a spoon, and I never knowed a Kentuckian
to recover who wuz past drinkin out uv a
bottle.

Slowly his strength wasted. Yesterday he rallied
and asked for me, ez the candle uv life flickered
feebly in the socket.

“Perfesser!” sed he, with an effort, “is Kentucky
to rool the niggers, or the niggers to rool
Kentucky? Has the Dimocrisy swallered the nigger,
or the nigger swallered the Dimocrisy?”

And all wuz o'er! He fell back a piece uv clay,
wich never cood rally to the poles agin.

Bascom and I turned aside and wept. Sed Bascom,
“Hed he lived two years more I wood hev
hed his farm.”

“Not any,” sed I, bustin into teers. “I wood
hev hed it to endow the Institoot.”

“In that event it wood evenchooally hev bin
mine,” gasped Bascom, relapsin into a fresh spasm
uv grief.

We buried him yesterday. It wuz the biggest
funeral ever knowd at the Corners. It was a
tetchin site. Standin around his bier, wuz his four
children by his first wife, and his six children by
his second wife, and twelve or fifteen other children
uv all colors, from that uv a new saddle up to dark
molasses, who insisted upon bein counted in ez
mourners. It wuz the tightest place I wuz ever
in in my life.

“My friends,” sed I to em, “is this seemly? Is
this proper?”

They replied that it wuz. “I mourn a father,”
sed one; “not much uv a father, but he wuz the
only one I ever hed.” “I mourn a husband,” sed
the mother uv the first speaker, “not legally a husband,
but morally, or rather, immorally.” “We
weep,” sed all these various shades in korus, and
they bustid out into a torrent uv greef wich completely
extinguished them on the tother side uv the
grave, wich hed the legle rite to mourn.

Ez a matter uv coarse, it ended in a row. Issaker

Gavitt swore that no cussid bleached niggers
shood shed teers at his father's funeral; and
Amandy flew at a quadroon wich wuz cryin too
prominently, and Mrs. Gavitt attacked the quadroon's
mother who wuz displayin altogether too
much white pockit hankercher. In the melee I
left, satisfied that Democrisy hez altogether too
many rough pints to git over pleasant.

I feel it my dooty to erect a monument to the
memory uv this good and true man — this martyr
to Democrisy. Demokrats, feelin an interest in the
matter, and wishin to contribute to the work, may
send by mail sich donashens ez they see fit, to me,
with perfect confidence that they will be yoosed.
Let em remember that but for his devoshen to the
coz he wood hev bin livin to-day. Ef we cannot
do much for the livin, let us not forgit the dead.