The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1880-05-07
THE SEKGEANTS STORY

IHE SERGEANTS STORY
TOLD IN THE GRAVEYARD OF A FRONTIER
MILITARY POST.
TELL you, pard, in this Western wild,
As general thing the dirt's jist piled
In rather promiscuOus sort of way
On top OF q soldiers mortal clay;
An persona think by that marble shaft,
An the flowers a wavin' above the graft
But the corpse down there wore q private's
plume.
remember the day they swore Mead in:
He was pale completed, an rather thin:
he bin what they call q trampin' beat,
An enlisted fur want O sumthin' to eat!
1t always the case that q new recruit
Is the butt O tricks from the older fruit:
An the way the boys tormented the cuss
Was real down wicked, an scandalous!
~ Het took it all with a sickly smile.
An said if they'd wait till afterwhile
Till he got fed up in some sort O. trim,
1t mightn't be healthy to fool with him!
An knowed by the look o the fellers eye
Eur all he was backward, an rather shy
That behind his skeleton sort O. breast,
A heart like a lions found a nest!
o. One night as the guard, at twelve o'clock,
Relieved the sentinel over the stock,
The corp'r seen kind of glare
From toward the officers quarters there!
Inc alarm was raised an the big gun fired,
An the soldiers, not mOre'n half attired,
Come rilshin' out on the harrack ground
With wild an excited sort of bound!
<' The COlonel's headquarters was all afire!
An the flames a-mOu1tin' higher an higher!
An what with the yeils o men, an shrieks
U the officers wives, with their whitish
An the roar o. the flames, an dev'lish light,
illumination the pitch-dark night!
Iwar SIGH sight as I've often thought
You could see in hell, when it's b'ilin' hot!
An then, with a wild despairin' yell!
The Go s6n shouted: My God! Where's
His wife responded: She's in her bedv
Then fell to the ground like person dead!
Up through the roof the mad flames roared.
An the blindin' smoke in dense mass
Through every crevice an crack, till the
Hung above like a death-black shroud!
q 1t might'n be out o place to state
As kinder accountin' fur this Meads fate
That Nell war an angel, ten year old,
With heart as pure as the virgin gold!
An she had a kind of an angel trick
OF readin, an SIGH like, to the sick;
An many's the dainty her hands d bear
To Mead, one time, in the hospital thcre0
- Ny God! it was 'nough to RAISE the hair
On the head of a marble statue! There
Stood a crowd of at least two hundred men,
None DARN to enter that fiery pen
Men that war brave on an Injun trail,
Whose courage was never known to fail
But to enter that buildin' was certain death;
So they stood there starin', an held their
breath.
80 Then all at once with an carer cry,
An bulldog look in his fiaShin' eye!
This Mead rushed up to the wailin band,
An paper thrust in the ColOnels hand,
My mothers address, he said, an then
He sort o smiled on the crowd O. men,
An jist like flash O hghtnin', shot
Through the door right into the seethn' pot!
:" With yell of horror the crowd looked on,
Fur they felt with him it was goodbye,
But half minute after the dash
An upstairs window burst with a crash!
An there stood Mead, like smilin' saint,
The gal in his arms in a death-like faint,
Heyelled fur a rope, an let her down,
To terra frmH-w'1c h means the grOun'i
- Then he tied the rope to the winder sash
Fur to fOller dOwn-but there came a crash,
An the blazin roof, with q fearful din,
Throwed the boy to the ground as it tumbled
in!
We carried him way from the fearful heat,
hOpin the noble heart still beat;
But the old post surgeon shook bis head,
An said, with sigh, that Mead was dead!
-
- 1t wasn't long afore little Nell
Got over the shock, an as soon as well,
She circulated among the men,
With sheet o. paper, an ink an pen.