The Orangeburg democrat. [volume] (Orangeburg, S.C.) 1879-1881, 1880-12-17
Vidette Of Duty.
OUT PosT, Dec. 10, 1873


think Of anything except the shoulder
straps lie has won) that his last shot
lifted my scaly, and that if my bones
are not now bleaching on the Out
Post, that at lea my Enfield is now
in the hands Of another, and so far as
| ain concerned, it is silenced forever.
Well, rather hesitate to spoil this
delightful, day-dream delusion and
again awake him to the fact that this
mortality has not yet become Il
''kneadcd clod," nor has the Enfield
lost whit Of her accuracy or power.
Tho reason lie has not heard from me
before this is, that have been too
busy taking care Of the front to look
behind. In the light Of the general
engagement, all minor matters paled,
and now after the smoke has some
what cleared away and ! look about
me l see Picket with Mdt commission
in hand and the shoulder straps on
quietly sitting in his wall tent study
ing the army regulations. l natural
~ suspect that hc is looking up On
anticipation of my next shot) the
best "charge' and The necessary
specifications" to get me before
military court. No wonder then that
l hesitate about "shooting without
orders" for to tell the secret Pickct's
commission gives him authority in
n'y brigade mind you, not over it.
SO whatever he says l must do. l
will have to obey until q superior Of
ticcr says otherwise, as 1 am still a
simple videttc. SO will not disturb
his Mid by answering the points (I
am glad they were not pints) he
made in his last 10 me, but will leave
him to the study Of The army rcgula.
tions-he will find that he will need
TO 10 SO.
But, Nessfs. Editors, I will not
close my letter here, as L wish to
Talk a little about some mementos /
have picked up in walking over the
battle field. I came across q whole
pile OF missiles the other day that
were fired off, think by our side.
lhey were fired from very light ordl-
nance ifI am to judge by the weight
OF the metal. Somebody had found
them before | did, and labeled them
"chunks Of wisdom" This attrac-
tive index interested me and al,
once picked up these "chunks" and
examined them carefully one by one.
found tfem very light chunks and
ncver did fnd the acisdom. sat
down and thought the matter over
very seriously, and all at once it
flashed into my mind that the man
VINO walked over the field ahead of
me and found those "chunks" was q
wag, and piled them up and labelled
them just to play practical joke on
The next one who might pass that
way. | was the victim. The Registey
man stumbled over them too, and as
lie does not believe half as much in
Jokes as lie does in statistics, he scat
tered the chunks promiscuously.
lie forgot TO state how many there
we're in tic pile, and how much money
The time il took 10 fling these
"chunks" together cost the State.
l LETT these chunks and went on.
found Messrs. Garfield, Conkling,
Blaine and Cameron playing seven.
up. | looked on and found that the
stakes we're government positions.
Each one would name his man for
certain place and the one who beat
would have his man put on the slate
for the position played for. | don't
know much about the game, but 7
asked them if they would not let me
come in and give South Carolina q
chance. They looked at me, thought
conld not win u game, and let me
come in. | lost very much oltencr