The weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1878-1881, 1881-03-29
THE ~sERGEANT's STORY.
OLD IN THE CIR AvEYARD OF A FRONTIER
MILITARY POST.

Id IN H GRAVEYARD IF A FRONTIER
POST
I" tell you pard, in this Western wild,
As q general thing the dirt's jist piled
In q rather promiscuous sort of way,
On top of a soldiers mortal clay;
An q person'd think by that marble shaft,
An, the flower a wavin' above the graft
That q Major-Generai hulds that tomb
But the corps down there wole q p~rivate's
plume.
g l remember the day they swore Mead in;
Hed bin what they call a trampin' beat,
An enlisted fur want O. sOmethin' to eat !!
It's always the case that a 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!
g He took it all with a sickly smile,
An said If they'd wait till a~fterwhile,
Till he got fed up in some sort O. trim,
1t mightntt be healthy to fool with him!
An l knowed by the o O. the feller's
Fur ali he was backward, an rather shy
That behind his skeleton sort o. breast,
A heart like a lions found a nest!
60 One night as the guard, at twelve O'Clock,
Relieved the sentinel over the stock,
The corp'ral seen a cir of glare
From toward the officers quarters, there !
The alarm was raised, an the big gun
fired,
An the soldiers. not more'n half attired,
Come a rnshin' out on the barrack ground
With a wild an excited sort of a bound!
{" The Colonel's headquarters was ALI afire !
An the flames a-mountin' higher an
higher!
An wnaI with the yells o. men, an shrieks
o. the officers wives, with their whitish
cheeks,
light,
Illuminating the pitch-dark night!
Twas such a sight as Nv often thought
You could see in hell, when its bilin' hot !!
can then, with a wild despairin' yell!
The Colonel shouted: My God! Where's
His wife responded: she's in her bed !
Then fell to The ground like a person dead!
Up through the root the mad flames roared
Am the blindin' smoke in a dense mass
poured
Through every crevice an crack, till the
Hung above like a death black shroud!
(' It might'n be out o'place to state
AS kinder accountin' fur this Mead's fate
That Nell war an angel, ten year old.
With a heart as pure as the virgin gold
An she had a kind of an angel trick
Ofsreadin', an SIGH like. 10 the sick;
An many's the dainty her hands'd bear
To Mead, one time. in the hospital THEREBY
I" Ny God it was 'nough to raise the hair
On the head ola marble statu! There
Stood a Grove of at leest two hundred
men,
None DARN 10 enter that fiery pen
Men that war brave on the Injun trail,
Whose courage was never known to fail
But to enter that buildin' was certain
So they stood there starin', an held their
breath.
"Then all at once, with an eager cry.
An a bulldog look in his fiashin eye!
This Mead rushed up to the wailln' band
An a paper thrust in the Colonel's hand
my mothers address. he said, an, then
He sort O. smiled Oh the crowd o. men,
An jist like a flash O. lightnin', shot
Through the door right into the seethin'
pot!
:" With a yell OF horror the crowdl looked on,
john
But a half a minute after the lash
AM upstairs window burst with a crash !!
AM there stood Mead, like a smilin' saint,
The gal in mis- arms in a death-like faint,
He yelleG CIR a rope. an let her down,
To terra fl means the ground!
Then he tied the rope to the winder sash
Fur to foller down-but there came a crash
An the blazin' roof, with a fearful din,
Throwed the boy to The ground as it tum-
blei in!
We carried him way from the fearful heat,
= hopfn' the noble heart still beat;
But the old post surgeon shook his head.
An said, with a sigh, that Mead was dead!
y y y n y X y X X
SO 1t wasn't long afore little Nell
Got over the shock, an as soon as well
She circulated among the men, .
With a sheet of paper, an in ink an pen.
An axed each one fur to give his mite,
In remembrance o. Mead's brave work
that night!
An as the result this monument stands,
Among lowers planted by Nellie's hands?
An every evenin' she wal ks up here,
The boys all say, fur to drop d tear
An have seen her, too, on her knees right
there,
With her face turned upwards as if in
prayer.
You'll see that line up above's to tell
AS now the stone was Erected by Nell,'
An down at the bottom, there, you'll see
Some Bible quotin';
"HE DIED FOR Me-
-"WuOmin0 Hit" in Detroit Free Prose