COLONEL CARTER’S
CHRISTMAS
THE ROMANCE OF AN
OLD-FASHIONED
GENTLEMAN
BY
F. HOPKINSON SMITH
ILLUSTRATED BY
F. C. YOHN and A. I. KELLER
CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS
NEW YORK:::::::::::::::::::::1911
COLONEL CARTER’S CHRISTMAS
Copyright, 1903, by
CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS
THE ROMANCE OF AN OLD-FASHIONED
GENTLEMAN
Copyright, 1907, by
CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS
Katy dropped her head on his shoulder again.To my Readers:
It will be remembered, doubtless, that the chronicles of my very dearfriend, Colonel Carter (published some years ago), make mention of butone festival of importance—a dinner given at Carter Hall, nearCartersville, Virginia; the Colonel’s ancestral home. This dinner, asyou already know, was to celebrate two important events—the sale tothe English syndicate of the coal lands, the exclusive property of theColonel’s beloved aunt, Miss Nancy Carter; and the instantaneoustransfer by that generous woman of all the purchase money to theColonel’s slender bank account: a transaction which, to quote his ownwords as he gallantly drank her health in acknowledgment of the gift,“enabled him to provide for one of the loveliest of her sex—she whograces our boa’d—and to enrich her declining days not only with allthe comforts, but with many of the luxuries she was bawn to enjoy.”
Several other festivals, however, did take place: not in the days ofthe dear Colonel’s prosperity, nor yet at Carter Hall, but in hisimpecunious days in New York, while he was still living in the littlehouse on Bedford [Pg vi]Place within a stone’s throw of the tall clock-towerof Jefferson Market. This house, you will recall, sat back from thestreet behind a larger and more modern dwelling, its only outlet tothe main thoroughfare being through a narrow, grewsome tunnel, lightedduring the day by a half-moon sawed out in the swinging gate whichmarked its street entrance and illumined at night by a rusty lanternwith dingy glass sides.
All reference to one of these festivals—a particular and mostimportant festival—was omitted, much to my regret, from my publishedchronicles, owing to the express commands of the Colonel himself:commands issued not only out of consideration for the feelings of oneof the participants—a man who had been challenged by him to mortalduel, and therefore his enemy—but because on that joyous occasionthis same offender was his guest, and so protected by his hospitality.
This man was no less a person than the eminent financier, Mr. P. A.Klutchem, of Klutchem, Skinham & Co., who, you will remember, had inan open office and in the presence of many mutual friends, denouncedin unmeasured terms the Cartersville & Warrentown Air LineRailroad—an enterpris