The Grange advance. [volume] (Red Wing, Minn.) 1873-1877, 1877-01-03
AN OLD SOLDIER.
How He Ended the Year.

On a December evening in the year
1870 train, entering the depot with
much noise and hustle, elected Cot
tlieb Braun into the city streets.
There was nothing remarkable in
the circumstance. He was still and
insignificant in appearance, with an
expression of patient suffering, and
one arm gone. Such was Gottlieb
Braun, one of those quiet natures capa-
BILE Of bravery. also capable of fighting
in the last trench, as he had done in
the war, which had manned, crippled,
and left him pensioner. Had you ask.
ed him where the arm was lost, he
would have replied with military brev-
ity, ''Gettysburg." Or did you in
quire as to the cause of an ugly sabre
cut across his brow, and wound in
the thigh rendering quick movement
painful, he would have added. ''Seven
Oaks and s'Shenandoah.' Despair
had rendered him a hero for brief
moment; he had sought death in the
ranks and had not found it, but hope
had died within long before, when his
little daughter Gretchen was swept
away by the fever; a lonely, quiet
man, of whom war had made a cruel
sport, and left alive. Humble as he
was, Gottlieb still cherished ambition;
in summer he was peddler back among
the hills =; in winter he mended shoes.
The ruin of large business houses cast a
shadow abroad the ruin of Gottlieb
Braun, sOldier.peddler, occasioned no
comment in the mercantile world, and
brought grief only to his own heart.
The autumn mists of mountain lakes
had claimed him as a victim of ague,
and while he was i'll, strong men rob-
bed him of his little stock. Surely,
among the crimes on earth that cry to
Heaven, this robbery must be heard
Did Gottlieb weep and replne Not
at all. He was now coming to draw
his pension of ono hundred dollars,
and in the spring would start life again.
Here he was in the city streets, gaz-
ing about him blankly, without a
friend, and, still worse dilemma, with
no money in his pocket. It would
make no difference to any one how he
went or came, he thought land yet at
that very moment Christine Carlen.
terror in her wide blue eyes, was say
ing to the sh0p.man, 81 never did it,"
The chance of being left supperless
and without shelter had still worse
aspect when it is remembered that it
was Saturday night, with Sunday COM
ing, and Gottlieb would not receive
his pension until the following Wed.
nesday.
Up among the mountains the Sab.
bath meant nature-worshipt to Gottlieb:
skies were then brighter, and sun.
shine rippled the silvery waters of
cascades; the breeze played among the
leaves and in all the voices of woods
and air he heard only the laughter of
his child Gretchen. Often at such
times he took his:pen and endeavored
to write his thoughts of her on the
day of days, when Heaven kissed
earth but his great need would not
flow in words on paper he remained
dumb, the purple mountains raising a
prayer all about him.
In the town all was different. He
paused on the curb-stone irresolutely,
pierced by the miserable conviction
that he was weary, hungry, and cold.
A carriage drove up, and gentleman
whose bearing betrayed fussy impor-
lance alighted.
'sBless my soul! 1 am late, actually
late for dinner party in my own
house - he exclaimed, testify. his
glance falling on Gottlieb Braun.
The gentleman whose middle age
I s. $50 aEsS III b IS s