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Rowe Descendant Tree Index of Names George Henry Clay Rowe

Journal of George Henry Clay Rowe
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Thursday, August 21, 1862

After breakfast, which was earlier than usual, I sought Dr Stanley's room and communicated to him my suspicions that we both had been deceived. He reassured me by the opinion that, in the press of business, the officers had not time to attend to us, an opinion in which the inmates of his room coincided. Thus reassured, I was somewhat satisfied. Soon after returning to my room, Washington was called to the door. He closed it after him, but soon reopened it and beckoned me to come to him. On approaching, I observed the negor man, Jim, who acted in the capacity of scullion for the priviledged floor. It turned out that jim was now acting in a different capacity. He was the winged Mercury, bearing the love messages of a damsel, apparently of some sixteen summers. She had now sent a letter, as Jim said, to the gentleman who had been signalling her from the windows on our floor. I had observed on several occasions previous Mr Charles C Wellford, Mr Thomas F Knox and the Reverend Dr William Broaddus engaged in the exhibitions of gallantry to which Jim referred. Indeed I had several times laughed at them, and jokingly charged them with being men of dangerous moral character. This letter therefore was a great treat in the way of a practical joke. Taking it from Washington and summoning the rest of the Fredb'g delegation to repair to the room of Messrs Broaddus, Knox and Wellford. When they had all assembled, I arose and solemnly informed the crowd that they had been called together on a matter of serious importance, in fact, the case involved the moral character of the gentleman of Fred'bg, and, as it then stood, the reflection was cast indiscriminately on all. That the love letter I held in my had had been sent by the confiding damsel in pink calico and white apron who was even then in sight, probably awaiting with anxious heart the results of Jim's "mission." Then reading the letter which mainly consisted of an acknowledgment of the signals, an earnest protestation of love, a fervent wish that her lover might speedly be released and an equally fervent invitation that, so soon as he was free, he would visit her, I remarked upon the moral turpitude of such an act of corruption of a young female mind, and urged that the guilty parties should be ferreted out, and visited with such punishment as the hitherto stainless but now dishonored reputation of Fred'bg gentlemen demanded. Thus far I had spoken with gravity. Hunter and Washington who had taken seats behind me were enjoying the thing hugely, but with undisturbed countenances; turning around partially, I caught the expression the latter's eye which nearly upset me, the rest of the "grave and reverened seigniors" looked wonderingly, as if to say, what next. Now, concluded I, gentlemen, it is well known that but three of our number have been guilty of the nefarious practices which have led to this shameful conclusion, and no one knows how near an awful crime. Those three individuals, gentlemen, are Rev Dr Broaddus, Mr C C Wellford, and Mr Thomas F Knox, and I may add, that the last mentioned has added to his enormities that of using a spy glass in his operations. The facts to which I referred were undeniable, the letter was genuine, the joke stuck like Nessus' shirt.


Next, finally a visit from Mrs Rowe




 

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