True stories of old Houston and Houstonians: historical and personal sketches / by S. O. Young. Page: 143
244 p. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this book.
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HOUSTON AND HOUSTONIANS 143
While Judge Duncan was yet unable to get out of bed, the
lady's husband came home on a furlough one afternoon, and the
same night the house was surrounded by Federal troops and the
husband was captured. He would have been simply made a
prisoner of war had they not found Judge Duncan there. When
they discovered that the people had been harboring a "rebel,"
the officer held a drum-head courtmartial and ordered the husband
to be shot at daylight.
Judge Duncan begged them to shoot him instead, but they refused
and the next morning they took the husband out and
shot him. The poor woman was left a widow with two little
children,
Judge Goldthwaite told me that Judge Duacan had deprived
himself of everything. except the actual necessities of life, to
send money to that woman. Being a cripple, past middle life
and extremely poor, it was uphill work, but he faced it manfully
and at the time of his death, he had succeeded in giving the two
children a fair education and had kept the lady from actual want,
at least. .
When I heard that story I felt like tearing my hair and kicking
myself for ever having even thought that the judge was a miser.
He was a noble man, and I and all others who had laughed at
him were unworthy to unloose his shoe. Had the judge ever told
his story it would have been different, for then it might,have
seemed that he was asking sympathy or trying to get praise for
his act. He did nothing of the kind. He went through life quietly
and silently, performing the great duty he felt rested on him.
Now by the side of this man, place your wireless operator calling
for help or your fool engineer staying on his engine because he
had lost his head and was too scared to Jump-these socalled
heroes, and note the difference., Once or twice I have thought of
writing this story for the Confederate Veteran, but I am glad now
that I did not do so, fbr it is much better to tell it through the
columns of The Chronicle, where it will be seen and read by
hundreds who thought they knew Judge Duncan, but who will
find that they did not, and like me they will want to breathe a
prayer for the rest of his soul, now that it is too late to do anything
else.
+ , '+
CAPTAIN CHAS. BICKLEY.
fO NE rrads a great deal in newspaper circles about "Bohemians,"
but the fact remains that one seldom comes in
contact with a genuine one. In all my experience I have
never met but one, though I have met several of the spurious
article, fellows who were simply more or less refined tramps and
bums, and who were glad to be called Bohemians because it gave
a bit of respectability and gloss to their otherwise dissolute behavior.
There are tramp newspaper men just as there are tramp
printers and telegraph operators, but there are few genuine Bohemians.
The race, or whatever they may be called, died out
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Young, Samuel Oliver. True stories of old Houston and Houstonians: historical and personal sketches / by S. O. Young., book, 1913; Galveston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth24646/m1/143/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.