Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1878-04-10

about to be made, and the young husband,
month after his marriage, concluded to take
advantage of the governments liberal offers,
and enlist, rather than run the risk of being
forced into the ranks without any emolu-
ment save the meagre pay of private. So
he voluntarily enlisted and became private
in the ranks of the Union army.
His courage and intelligence soon gained
him the respect of his officers and fellow
men, and in several hard-fought battles he
distinguished himself to such an extent that
his name was forwarded to the department.
headquarters in st. Louis, and in short |
time returned emblazoned in second Lieu
tenants commission.
The regiment was then Stationed in north
ern Arkansas, and at this opportune moment,
when he was SO near to all he held dear (for
a son was born to him in his absence). he
could not resist the temptation to obtain
short leave of absence and visit his wife and
child.
This boon was easily obtained, and with his
commission in his pocket, he mounted his
horse and started for home. At length the
well remembered landmarks came to view.
He was close to homo.
A few hundred yards of the leafy forest,
and he would be in the opening, where he
could see the smoke from the cot that con-
tanned his treasures.
How he would surprise them!
How his wife would cry for Joy!
How his bright-eyed babe would
s'Haltr' came fierce order in stentorian
tones, from the brush that surrounded the
road. Ere he could rein in his horse in
obedience to the dread summons, he was, as
if by magic, surrounded by twenty or thirty
fierce and heavily armed men, whom his
practiced eye told him they were the most
unrelentling foes that the uniform he wore
ever had. His heart sank within him, brave
as he was, for he knew there was no mercy
in the breast of a bushwhacker, for such
they were.
A few questions were put to him by the
leader of the band, but they were more for
FORMS sake than anything else. His uniform
was mute answer for all they wished to
know, while from his pockets. which were
rapidly turned inside out, was the commits
sion drawn forth. which made them more
eager for his blood.
The leader of the band was a man near his
own age, and to him he appealed and de-
manded that he be treated as prisoner of
war. His request was treated with derision,
and a moment more his legs were pinioned,
and an ominous rope with moose at its end
dangled from the limb of an adjacent tree.
Again he appealed to his inhuman captors,
and implored them to let him see his wife
and child but for moment before he died.
But even as he supplicated the leader put
the moose around his neck, gave a signal
with his hand, and the unfortunate man was
swung off into eternity with prayer for his
widowed wife and orphaned child upon his
lips.
The next day the corpse was discovered
swaying in the wind by a passing soldier.
who, stopping at the next house (Which hap
pened to be the home of the officer, told
the woman that there was man hanging
dead a short distance down the road, and It
was better, perhaps. he should receive a
Christian burial. This was not unfrequent
news in that locality, and nearly all the men
being in the army the sad work of interriug
the dead and caring for the wounded devolved
upon the lone women. And faithfully and
tenderly was it done, too, for they knew not
but their own loved ones were being cared
for in a similar manner far off in some dis
tant State.
SO the woman procured help of others of
her sex who lived in the neighborhood, and
| together they proceeded on their sad mis-
sion. AS they approached the corpse a
strange foreboding passed through the mind
of the woman who led them, for there was
| something familiar in the suspended form,
even in the midst of its unnatural surround
| ings. The blood rushed back to her heart
as she neared it. Suddenly the breeze
swayed it around, and-oh, horror in his
| distorted features she beheld the Eneaments
of her idolized husband, the father of her
child. and she swooned away in dead faint
upon the ground at the feet of him who in
| life was her all.
Ten years had passed. And though time
had healed the wounds in her heart. the love
for him who had been the husband of her
youth was still faithful. Her child had be-
come youth, and needed the stern, restrain
ing hand and experienced counsel of father.
| SO, too, weak, lone woman, was tired of
| lighting the battle of life, and yielded to the
| suppllcatlons of man who bore a good
character. They were married and their
lives blended into a happy, even tenor of
connublal existence. He treated her kindly
and afectionately, was father to her son,
and an honest, industrious bread-winner for
them all. She loved and respected him. and
her future seemed to her full recompense for
the weary past.
One day not long since-ah it was an
evil day-an old acquaintance visited him.
They had in the years agone been warm
friends, for they had fought together under
the banner of the sunny south, and oft had
shared the same blanket as partisans-yes
guerrillas. bushwhackers, if you like.
Right glad they were to meet. and the hus-
band received him cordially for old tines
sake, and the wife made him welcome for
the sake of her husband. One night. as
they sat around the ruddy hearth after the
evening meal. the two men talked of the
stirring scenes through which they had
passed, and, as old soldiers will. thought
their battles DER again.
While engaged in dwelling on reminis-
censes of the war, the husband remarked
that he never knew how strong were the
feelings of affection "a man felt for his
family until he himself had married, and
placing his heavy hand on his companions
knee, he said, mournfully and earnestly:
John, l have always been sorry that I
did not let that poor Yankee lieutenant see
his wife and child before we strung him nm.
ten years ago.
His wife heard the remark, and slowly rose
to her feet, with her face aa white as marble,
and her distended eyes were fixed upon her
husband s face with an expression of intense
horror. Twice she essayed to speak, but
failed. Then, with loud, unearthly, heart
broken scream, she fell like corpse to the
floor.
When she recovered sher consciousness.
She had little to say. The light of her life
had gone out forever. She loved her hus-
band, for he had been good and true and
KIND to her. Perhaps he was not SO much
to blame that he killed her first love. Il
was the fortune Of war, she supposed. But
-but--she conld live with him no longer,
Oh, no! There came picture from The.