New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-04-09


The Rachelmeurning, comfortless.
oh g, di once moro that face to zee!
Ny little darling, come to me-.
-Harpers MagaS.ne.
IN DANGEROUS COMPANY.
ssThere's q sayin', sir, as maybe you've
heerd NECESSITY makes strange bed
fellows" and if any man ought to know
whether that's true, think ought to,
and no mistake! If was ever to rite my
life, and put it in printed book, that ere
saying ought to be the motter of it.
t'You was q sayin' just now that you
never seed any English soger drink as
little as I do; but if you'd fallen in with
me twenty year ago, you wouldn't ha said
that, I'll be bound. More like you'd ha'
said t'other way, for was good 'un at
the lush [drinkl in them days; but while I
was out yonder 9TH be fifteen year come
next month, as I make it, had SIGH a
adventure, that it cured me better'n the
ta,kin' of all the temperance chaps in
England could ha' done it. Hye, it acas q
bit of adventure, that, and no mistake;
and if you care to hear it, as you seems
to be fond of queer yarns, I'll tell it you.
II dom: s'pose you've ever heerd of
Hutteet Bagh, for nothin' never happened
there, as know on, and it amt down in
none O. the maps; but that's where we
were stationed, anyhow. It's little bit
O. q village somewheres along the Jumna,
stuck away by itself, like Robinson Cru
soe's Island, loobin' as if it was hundred
miles from everywhere. You may think
there want much goin' on there, and the
deafness ont seemed to get into our very
blood and dry us up, till, pom my word,
we was Almost glad when parade cum
round, cause it felt like somethin' to do.
So at last (for that's how it always ends)
the men began gettin' drunk for want of
anything better-and SO did l too.
''Now mark ye, I don't stand up for
getting drunk, no more wouldn't anybody
as had any sense in his head I've seed
too much of it, and OF what comes ont,
for that; but what I says is, every
things got two sides to it, and it's always
best to look at 'em both Drinks NOR
tial temptation to an Urinary man, Special
~ in burning hot climate, where you
may drink a bucket1ul and be thirsty
again Eve minutes arter; and when a
mans got nothin' to do, and is half mad
in dom nothin', and somebody comes
and offers to stand him a drop, why,
faint in flesh and bones to say no. o.
course it's clean agin discipline, and you
can't pass it over, nor you didn't ought to
do it, neither; but there's two ways O. pun
ishin' mel, as there is O doing everythin'
else. Seems to me, dye see, as how
mems pretty much like HOSES keep
as firm q hand on 'em as you like,
but don't go a-jerkin' of their mouths till
you gals 'em, else you just makes em
vicious, and does more harm than good.
'.But our colonel, he was one of the
jerkin' sort, and q power of harm he did
do with it. You see, he hadn't never been
drunk in his life, and, o course, couldn't
know what temptation it was to US COM
mon folks as had; so he was always agoin'
on about drunken beasts, and lookin' out
for every chance Of bein' down on us, till
at last we got to hate him so that some
on 'em 'ud get drunk out O bravado, just
to spite him.
"But some O. the other officers was q
very different lot, and the best on 'em all,
to my thinking, was the junior lieutenant,
Mr.. Edward B. We all liked him, for
that matter, every man Jack of us, pretty
near as much as we hated the colonel.
Not but what Mr.. Edward could be as
stern as anybody when there was need for
it; but he didn't lay hissef out to catch q
poor fellow trippin', like the colonel did;
and when he seed man really tryin' to
keep steady, he was always ready to
hearten him up with kind word and q
kind look, that was bern the word, Almost.
Fact, when you cum across him, you felt
that you had to do with man like your
self, as had feelin's of his own, and could
understand yourn; whereas, the colonel
seemed Just like some great high and
mighty sort of god away over our
heads, seem nothin' but his own pride
and stiffness, and the way he meant to go
hisself.
"Now Mr.. Edward had always been
good to me, and specially arter I saved
him from prod with spear one day
when we had bit Of skrimmage with
the black fellers; for he warn't one to for
get it. God bless him! He never passed
me without kind word or two; and
when he found out as I knowed how to
read, he'd lend me book every now and
then when was off dooty, that mightn't
be driven to the canteen for amusement
(them was his very words, and they was
true enough, for many Of our chaps got
drunk not SO much cause they liked it
as cause they couldn't find nothin'
else to do). So, O course, as long
as I had his eye on me, l was
bound to keep straight; but when he went
away to the hills on sick leave (and can
tell you every man in the regiment looked
as glum as Lunnon fog the day he start
ed), why then-there amt no use denying
it, began for to carry on as bad as any
body. And it was just the same with all
the rest, the minute the lieutenant cleared
out, they all began to go on the spree and
get into trouble, just as if, as my chum
Tom Lee said, the good luck O. the regi-
ment had gone away with him. The
colonel had his hands full that bout, and
no mistake; there was more foggins that
season than e'er one afore, and the lock-
up warn't empty once for clean month
on end.
'.Now I should tell yer that this lock-
up warn't the regular one of the station,
cause it was under repair at the time; so
they had to rig temporary 'un out Of
big shed jest outside the cantonment as
we'd been used to store our provisions in.
It wouldn't ha' kept in q regular cracks
man very long, specially if he'd had
knife about him; but it was quite strong
enough to hold any or'nary man, with
on'y his own four bones to help him; and