The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1882-11-23
NI,lyne Reid as q Soldier.

anu she.alas! Is married to Hugh Trefoil.
; NIayne Reid as a Soldier.
Correspondence Philadelphia Record. :
Mayne Reid, who was placed on tho
pension list the other day, and who is
living in a very quiet way near a little
English town, in Strengthened circum-
stances, writing snarline letters about
his English neighbors to a New York pa
per, instead of the thrilling fiction which
has made his name we'll known to the
boys Of the world, was gay youth when
he was younger. He is described by
men who knew him before the Mex.
lean war as a dashing. somewhat
reckless, somewhat handsome young
Enslishnan, with hot and quick
temper. He went to the Mexican war
in the New York volunteer regimen:
commanded by Gen. Ward Burnett.
who was, by the way, himself
lensioned last year. Reid knew some
thing about soldering. and, having
found favor in the eyes Of his colonel,
was appointeda a lieutenant and placed in
command OF company. At Pueblo,
Mexico, where the American array halt
ed for q time, Lieut.. Reid, while reprov-
ing one Of the men in the company. be.
came very much heated, and ran his
sword through the n'an's body. the
man died the same night. Lieut.. Reid's
grief was almost uncomfortable. The
feeling against him, despite the fact that
lie had had provocation for the act, WAS
very strong in the regiment. A soldier
and . slave were not Synonymous terms
in an American army ill. those days,
even in the mouths ot officers. II the
regiment had not moved with the rest Of
the next day Lieut.. Reid would have
been court-martialed and might have
been shot As it was, he marched for
ward with heavy heart. On the night
that the army reached the field efChap-
ultepec, Lieut.. Wilcox, u West Pointer,
Oh Gen. Quitman's staff, afterward ma.
jor general in the confederate army, and
now employed in the clerks Office OF the
United States senate, who had already
manifested his sympathy with Lieut.
Reid IN many ways, rode over to where
the New York regiment was lying, and,
calling up his friend, told him that on
the morrow Il storming party of volun.
teers and regulars was to be sent against
the fort on the heights, and urged him to
apply for permission to 20 with it that he
might wash away the blood on his hands
with the blood Of the beleagured Mex
leans, at the worst dying bravely in
the foremost of the fight. Lieut..
Lieut.. Reid. his face gluwing with pleas
ure and his form guivering with emotion,
graspcd the hands of his friend, and
shaking them in his strong, hearty way,
thanked him in, terms almost extrava.
CANT for: his kind. thougI,tf1lness. Will
cox galloped back to his headquarters,
and Reid, after some preparations for
the possibilities Of the next day, went
to bed: He was sleeping more restnlly
than he had slept before for weeks, when.
Wilcox came ! galloping back = TO-
ward morning, and routed him out again.
Tie smile with which Reid met him
faded away when Wilcox said: l: .am
sorry to say that have Just learned
permitted to go in the storming party
to-day" Then, as he saw Reds face
fall and the old sorrow coming blck,
he went on to say: "But ( think see
away in which you can take hand in the
attack. Your regiment will probably be
set to guard the artillery, which viii
cover the advance of the storming par
ty. OF course the guns will be silenced
as soon as the storming party gets with
p p,rtunity." Reid's face flushed with
pleasure, and the smile came back again
as his friend continued: Leave your
men where they stand and run after the
storlning party with all your might. Get
into it, and if po asible, get in front of it,
SO that you may be the first man in the
breach. After that it will be plain sail
ing Lieut.. Reid again thanked his
friend in the Warmest terms, and again
they separated, Wilcox to ride on the
mornings errands, and Reid to prepare
for the mornings work. Everything
turned out Just as 1t would III a romance.
Rcid's regiment was place behind tho
battery. and Reid was placed in tho front
rank. The guns screamed at the fort for
u while, and the fort screamed back while
the heavy storming party of blue-coated
regulars moved steadily and silently
across the plain toward the heights. Sud-
lent. Suddenly Lieut.. Reid, sword in
hand, started from his place in the front
rank of his regiment, and ran swiftly
heights. He caught up with the storm
ing party Just as it reached the foot OF
the hill, pushed his way to the front,
and was the first man on the great stone
wall of the fort. Shot twice through, the
body, and wounded once or twice in the
limbs, he was carried down the hill on 4
bloody stretcher. But it was the old
Lieut.. Reid, loving and beloved, IN / no,
he sad-eyed homicide, who was borne
back to bis quarters In his blood. Still
the hasty act, which he 90 deeply 10.
Rrrtted, clouded his whole life. There
is that about blood, however shed, which
will not out, though washed with multi,
fndinns,a naaa