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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




[Illustration: Katy dropped her head on his shoulder again.]




_To my Readers:_


It will be remembered, doubtless, that the chronicles of my very dear
friend, Colonel Carter (published some years ago), make mention of but
one festival of importance--a dinner given at Carter Hall, near
Cartersville, Virginia; the Colonel's ancestral home. This dinner, as
you already know, was to celebrate two important events--the sale to
the English syndicate of the coal lands, the exclusive property of the
Colonel's beloved aunt, Miss Nancy Carter; and the instantaneous
transfer by that generous woman of all the purchase money to the
Colonel's slender bank account: a transaction which, to quote his own
words as he gallantly drank her health in acknowledgment of the gift,
"enabled him to provide for one of the loveliest of her sex--she who
graces our boa'd--and to enrich her declining days not only with all
the comforts, but with many of the luxuries she was bawn to enjoy."

Several other festivals, however, did take place: not in the days of
the dear Colonel's prosperity, nor yet at Carter Hall, but in his
impecunious days in New York, while he was still living in the little
house on Bedford Place within a stone's throw of the tall clock-tower
of Jefferson Market. This house, you will recall, sat back from the
street behind a larger and more modern dwelling, its only outlet to
the main thoroughfare being through a narrow, grewsome tunnel, lighted
during the day by a half-moon sawed out in the swinging gate which
marked its street entrance and illumined at night by a rusty lantern
with dingy glass sides.

All reference to one of these festivals--a particular and most
important festival--was omitted, much to my regret, from my published
chronicles, owing to the express commands of the Colonel himself:
commands issued not only out of consideration for the feelings of one
of the participants--a man who had been challenged by him to mortal
duel, and therefore his enemy--but because on that joyous occasion
this 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 in
an open office and in the presence of many mutual friends, denounced
in unmeasured terms the Cartersville & Warrentown Air Line
Railroad--an enterprise to which the Virginian had lent his name and
which, with the help of his friend Mr. Fitzpatrick, he was then trying
to finance. Not content with thus slandering the road itself,
characterizing it as "beginning nowhere and ending nowhere," Mr.
Klutchem had even gone so far as to attack the good name of its
securities, known as the "Garden Spot" Bonds, and to state boldly that
he would not "give a yellow dog" for "enough of 'em to paper a
church." The Colonel's immediate resentment of this insult; his prompt
challenge to Mr. Klutchem to meet him in mortal duel; Mr. Klutchem's
refusal and the events which followed, are too well known to you to
need further reference here.

The death of this Mr. Klutchem some years ago decided me again to seek
the Colonel's permission to lay before my readers a succinct account,
first of what led up to this most important celebration, and then some
of the details of the celebration itself--one of the most delightful,
if not the most delightful, of all the many delightful festivals held
in the Colonel's cosy quarters on Bedford Place.

My communication drew from Colonel Carter the following characteristic
letter:

                         CARTER HALL, CARTERSVILLE, VA.,

     MY DEAR MAJOR:

     I have your very kind and welcome letter, and am greatly
     impressed by the views you hold. I was averse at the time to
     any reference being made to the matter to which you so
     kindly refer, for the reason that some men are often more
     sensitive over their virtues than they are over their
     faults.

     Mr. Klutchem's death, of course, completely alters the
     situation, and you can make what use you please of the
     incidents. In this decision I have been helped by my dear
     Fitz, who spent last