The wings of fame fly slowly, reputation travels faster. It is said that remorse is the echo of a lost virtue. Alfred felt that remorse of conscience that can come only to one who has fallen and lived on in the happy illusions that no one heard him drop.
Governor Tener, Doctor Van Voorhis, Mr. Daly and others of John's friends will no doubt be surprised at this leaf in his life. In all the years that John and Alfred have lived since, neither has ever forgotten his first experience with a tin cup that was loaded.
FOOTNOTE:
[A]The flags referred to were painted on the upper doors of James Fouts's barn, situated on the old pike three miles east of Brownsville. The flags were very brilliantly colored and naturally draped. They were the admiration of all travelers over the great thoroughfare. As the war progressed the Confederates raided near that section several times. The owner feared that the flags might imperil the safety of the barn and other buildings on his farm. He therefore sent an order to Alfred's father to paint the flags over, who desiring to cover their brilliant colors with one coat selected dark Prussian blue. Very soon after the flags were painted over, their colors began to appear through the blue. Not many hot summer days had gone by until the flags were almost as distinct as when first painted on the big doors of the barn. The reappearance of the flags was regarded as a phenomenon or a miracle by the country folk. The "Brownsville Clipper," in commenting upon the miracle, declared: "It is an omen of victory for the Federal armies; you cannot efface the Star Spangled Banner, it still waves on Fouts's barn." The paper criticized the owner for having the flags daubed over and intimated that Fouts was lacking in loyalty. (Fouts was a Democrat. Three weeks later the owner of the paper ordered Danny Stentz to pull in the big flag that hung out of the third story window of the "Clipper" building; the Confederates were reported as but fourteen miles away. The chemical properties of the coloring matter in the paints was the cause of the reappearance of the red bars of the flags through the blue paint that was spread over them.)
[CHAPTER FOURTEEN]
The man who borrows trouble
Is always on the rack,
For there's no way, by night or day,
That he can pay it back.
Mt. Pleasant, Pa.
Dear Muz: