Show iWAS A WANDERER I II I YEARS Returns Home After Lapse of Half a Century FAILED TO MAKE FORTUNE Mother Left Lef Light Burning in Win Window I dow for Twenty Years Hoping i for or Return New York Oct 22 2 Alfred Altred Booth Sands Is a veritable Rip Van Winkle except that he ho did not sleep leep Given up for tor dead years and years yedra e rs ago ngo he haa has returned after atter an nn absence of years ears to the Hudson river village of ot Milton where he ha was born to find that nearly all aU his hi relatives and friends including the sweetheart of at athis his young oung manhood are dead Many of ot the elements of or Washing Washington ton Irvines Irvings famous story of ot that other I Hudson river village at the foot fool of ot the Catskills mountains are to be ba found In the experience of ot Alfred Sands who now at the age of 79 Is renewing associations which he abruptly sev sew severed severed ered more than half halt a century ago a o to seek his fortune In California It was In fact a chance reference to Rip flip Van Winkle by one of his com corn comrades I rades in the Yountville Soldiers Home near San Francisco that put ut it Into tho the old mans head last spring to return as Rip flip Van Winkle did to his birthplace and take by surprise any who might be still alive to remember him Perhaps too the t o memory of or an anold anold i old romance and a desire to learn how she had spent her life prompted his decision to return For eighteen years ears Sands has been In the soldiers home in California While sick last spring a friend on an adjoining bed saluted him as Rip i iVan Van Winkle Inkle Instantly the familiar story star ran through his mind and the idea of or returning to Milton MIltor occurred to him Gradually his plans took form torm and June 18 IS found tho the old soldier on onboard onboard onboard board the steamer City of ot Panama steaming to the tho isthmus He jie engaged passage as Rip Van Winkle Winkie con can concealing coaling his hip hl own identity Brothers All AU Dead Getting off oft the West Shore train at Milton on the west bank of ot the river four tour miles south of or this city he asked Billy Brewster the stage driver If it he knew where Walter Valter Sands could be bo found Hes dead years cars ago an answered answered answered Brewster Walter alter Sands was his hia brother And Horace Sands inquired the tho stranger Dead too answered Brewster Then one after aCter another the old man asked after atter the Williams boys Fletcher Wesley esley and George with whom thom he played In the tile fields and swam In the river They The too were dead said the stage driver The old man sighed AH AU my m Jour Journey journey Journey ney for nothing he said Nobody will remember Alfred Sands Yes Yee I remember you y u spoke up Brewster Si I was wa lL 11 a young lad la when you were here working tJ with Ith your our father at ship building I can ann see Jee the tho family likeness In your face tace But you were given up for tor dead many man years ago Brewster took the stranger into his stage and drove him to the village where as soon as us it became noised around that a member of the once prominent Sands family had returned as from the grave the homes of ot count countless countless less leEs nephews nieces and other rela reia relatives relatives tives were opened to him He Is now dividing his hla time among different members of ot the family Visits Mothers Grave Tho The first place Mr rr Sands a ds visited was mas the tho grave of his mother in the lit little little littie tle tie Methodist cemetery She was In poor pOOl health when ho he disappeared in 1859 and was not expected to live livemore livemore livemore more than a year car or two Therefore he was surprised when they the told him that she ahe lived for tor twenty years ears after atter he went away and that for tor nearly all that time confident of ot his return she kept a lamp burning at night In the window of ot her home One day one of ot her other sons re returned returned returned turned from New ew York and told her that he had seen a grave in that city eft which was believed to be the grave of ot the missing son There seemed to be ba bano beno beno no doubt of Alfreds death The moth mother er or discontinued for tor some month months the practice of ot burning a light In her win window WIndow window dow but she dreamed one night that Alfred was still alive and there thereafter thereafter after atter there was a nightly beacon in Inthe tho the window until she died The old man wept as he heard this narrative and ho iio thanked those who had kept his mothers grave so green and orderly He was glad Klad too to find the monument which he had erected to his father lather after the tatters death In 1854 in good condition Never Made Unde Ills His Fortune I failed to find tind a fortune in Call Cali California fornia but Ive found a lot of ot pleasure in returning to the old homo homes and anti every one is so kind to me that it makes my old heart beat young again said Sands After Atter Sands father tather David who was waa born in fn 1778 In Milton was the son of Benjamin Sands one ono of a colo cole colony colony ny fly of ot Quakers who settled in and near Milton before the revolutionary war Benjamin received a grant giant of ot ot 1000 acres from the crown and this grant grantis is now part of or Milton MUton village David his son had two wives by whom ho he had thirteen children Alfred being the seventh of nine by the second wife My father who Inherited a large part of my m grandfathers grant from the king built the fourth steamboat In the United States said Alfred Sands It was modeled very et much like the Clermont and was called the Washington running between this landing and New ew York My M I father r built many sailing vessels and anti wharves and was a pioneer among the early steamboat navigators pf It f the Hudson He lost much of his hl proper L 1 through an unfortunate partner partnership partnership partnership ty ship In New York and after his death in 1854 the estate was In a 11 bad badway badway of ot 1857 1867 way which the depression made worse rather than better There Thore were many heirs and we had a hard hare struggle trying to straighten matter out To help one ono of ot my brothers who was In business I indorsed notes which we could not meet and seeing no future In the way I was WO then liv living livIng ing I decided in 1859 at the age of ot 28 to go to California and never n ver re we return return one know where I was turn or let any anyone until I could return with a fortune f Fought Against Indians Indiana I 1 went to California by way of ot the Isthmus of at Panama The gold fever had been ten years under way when I reached the coast I went to mining just out of ot Sacramento but after two winters In the mines during which w I accumulated a little money I went to farming in the valley alley Then came camEt the ho civil war and in 1863 I enlisted In tn the tho First Fint California volunteer cavalry Second SC on l battalion company I and served for tor three t ree years in California and Arizona holding holdIne the Apaches In Incheck Incheck Incheck check Relieved by b regulars in 1866 1 16 we were mustered out in San Fran circe and I 1 returned to farming I 1 en engaged also In cattle and horse and dairy dalt business never on a very v ry large scale until 1892 when I entered ent ed edthe the soldiers home I receive a pas sJon sion of ot 20 0 monthly m from tram the govern government government government ment Why did I never marry Did I Ineer never neer fall tall In love The old man re we repeated reI the questions of ot the corre correspondent I musingly mus Why I suppose the reason is I left leU lefta leUa a girl behind me back here in Milton I never heard fora her nor she from tram fromme fromme me I vowed that no one would know where I was until I had made my for fortune fortune fortune tune I supposed that th t she forgot all about abou me and an l married some one else long ago but they tell teU me that she never hever married marrie and that she sh died only a year and a ahal half ago age |