Life — May 13, 1897 — page 15: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

CROSS COUNTRY AFTER THE HOUNDS. WHEN IT COMES TO THIS THE HORSE IS SURELY OUTDONE, gress in the back part of the ‘*Con- gressional Record” of that date. At seventy-one Harry Hodges was taking it easy on the accumulated evi- dences of a grateful nation’s esteem. At eighty-one he was still at the same job. At ninety-one the old gentleman met a sweet girl one day at the store where he bought his smoking tobacco, She was but sixteen, and her name was Janie. He had heard the pro- prictor call her that. What an army of memories that name recalled to Harry Hodges! And something there was in the girl’s face that brought back to him the sound of the fife and the drum, and the old soldier walked out of the store. whistling ‘The Girl I Left Behind Me.” The next day he cameto the store— which was also the post-office—and received his pension check, as he had done so many times before. Only never before had this unknown Janie handed it through the window to him. What a hale and hearty old fellow he was, and how fair the pretty girl seemed as she smiled at him through the little window in the post-office. Two days later he knew that her name was Janie Jermyn, and that she was the xreat-granddaughter of the Janie Jermyn he had loved so long ago. How glad he was to know that this Janie Jermyn was dependent upon her own resources for her living, and that he was in a position to help her. It would be a sweet revenge. a noble vengeance, upon that other Janie Jermyn. Six months later Harry Hodges and Janie Jermyn were married. The happy event occurred in June; June, the rose month; June, the god- dess of the year; June, 1935, seventy- one years and seventy-one days after the day of Appomattox. Let us now skip to the year of our Lord, 2015. A United States pension agent is smiling at a bright-faced old lady. Yes,” she says, cheerily, ‘Iam the widow of Harry Hodges, and I came after his pension check. I'm five years older than he was when he died, but Harry's health was injured by his service in the army. “Yes yes,” smiled the agent, hand- ing her the envelope. ‘‘Here’s the check, Mrs, Hodges, and many re- turns of the day." *W. /. Lampton.