The Cairo daily bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1870-1872, 1872-05-29
OLD BEESWAX.
AN INCIDENT OF THE LATE WAR.

Beeswax.
As matter Of fact he was exceedingly
unlike beeswax, IN his tenacious sticking
to tine cook-house.
He was n man, though that is to say,
before the war, in which he took not u
prominent, but conspicuous greasy part,
he had voted and l happen to know that
| he intended TO have continued to exercise
his right of suffrage but for the events
which will appear in printers ink hereaf-
| ter.
| And the cook-house above referred 10
was that particular spot on the soil, then
called sacred, but which was treated in
the most irreverent manner where he
built his fire, and hung his teapot, and
bolstered up, with the red embers of trans
ferred fence-rails, his Dutch oven, from
which, at proper intervals, came forth
biscuits, or roast beef or mince pies, as the
appetitss of the captain and other officers
and the occasion required.
Probably no one ever surpassed Old
Beeswax in the construction and produce
tion Of mince pies.
He had only to look at an apple tree,
either in blossom or in fruit, or, for that
matter, in leaness nakedness, and visit the
Commissary Department and smell of the
frcshl y-slaughtered cattle, and throw into
that Dutch over IA little water and Hour,
and wave over 1t in imaginary circles his
long, bony arms, while he was swearing at
"Bill, the chronically delinquent darby,
who was his wood and water-carrier, and
from that mysterious oven came forth
such mince pies as would have failed u
boarding house, or htly graced the table
of n Boston Alderman at least SO it
seemed, after a day of hard fighting, to
the hungry, powder-stained artillery OIL
GERS for whom he manipulated the oven
and the pies aforesaid.
don't mean to assert that soldiers are
not all heroes. 10 an
although, / am free to confess, have
known quartermasters and hospital stew
ards for months, without being able to de-
tect anything heroic, either in their ma
lures or their actions.
And / am willing to admit that ell
those patriots whom you saw parading the
streets with great guns and small, and
drums and ambulances, on their way TO
the front, were heroes, because of the d.
rection they were taking, only in the field
men distinguish themselves and become
heroes in various and un-
like, and very dissimilar ways.
Some, by snatching the regimental coll
ors and calling on their associates to
follow them whittier it is quite impossible
to 20 and make long stay. This is
history heroisrn. Others, by raiding
through the enemy's liner, in the midst
OF chicken-coops and other unprotected
walking and flying rations. This is the
safest and most easily grown ofall various
kinds Of heroism. and has been called
newspaper glory. Others, by the cool
calculation Of artillery.shooting which is
rather disagreeable to a sensitive person
ut all times and may become excessively
SO if your opponant is cooler than you
are. This is that quiet kind of heroism
which is only determined by an inspec.
ton Of the hles of the War Department,
and is thought to 20 further in ones record
hereafter than in the public prints. The
| heroism of Old Beeswax was none of these,
but of more subdued and sympathetic
nature--he was an heroic cook.
His cooking utensils were transported
in IA four-horse conveyance, technically
called an ordnance wagon, but Familiarity
spoken of us the "hash mill"
And the captain was fond of having the
hash-mill, which was supposed to contain
cannon-balls, but really contained fish.
balls, near him while they were pumping
into the fellows on the other side.
Pumping, perhaps, ought to say, was
the term applied to the reckless propul.
sion of shot and shell in which the bat
terry sometimes INDUCED.
And 1t happened Of u bright morning
in June, while the battery was pumping
and being pumped into, that one Of the
projectiles from the other sde-it was
II III Lnl1 a
rectly over the heads of tho batterymen
and directly into the front end Of the hash
mill, and into Old Beeswaxs mess-chest
and there exploded, and lifted the tive
tents which were on the chest, and or
which old beeswax was rather unheroical
ly slumbering, quite abruptly into neigh
boring sweet potato patch.
And this was an emergency for which
the cook hero was entirely unprepared.
To that chest he had devoted the bes
part Of his latter life.
1t represented the crockery Of many o
the best and first and Oldest families il
that part Of the country, through whicl
he had cooked and gathered.
1t was the most promiscuous collection O
; earthern monographs and stone armoria
3 ornaments ever seen in this democracy
, and he had no duplicates thereof; and
was all mashed in the fash of one poun,
: and four ounces Of gunpowder, and coul(
l not be replaced; and he sat beside the sad
dler, who was two deaf to hear the report
but was able to take in usually the condi
! ton Of things, on the trail of the batter
$ wagon and wept.
Q And the ssddlsr requested Old Beeswa
to "dry up" and said "Though tn
crockery be- lost, all is not lost. Let's &c
out the oven"
And here was yet a ray Of hope.
: Then those two shoe and besswsx patrl
OTIS overhauled the remnants Of the hash
mill, and found that the eccentric missile
prior TO its demonstration Of the mess
chest, had knocked q fearful hole In tn
ovens bottom; and Old Beeswax sat AGAR
this time on the sacred soil, and wept eve
more profusely than before and It seeme
: as IL his tear soul was running out throug
=, that hole. es'Yd 'la %" "'ia [.
1t was something Of surprise to tn
> battaryman to SEQ Old BeeswaH among tn
guns, shortly afterward, for. bis provinc