The Labor enquirer., 1882-12-16
ment, if it was whole army corps p:


Another pause.
rs that alI?7 said I.
"Yes, sir"
"Well, dear me, what is the complaint?
What do they want done?"
Done? Why, bless you, sir, they want
you to stop him from singin."
"What an idea You said his music
was divine"
''Thats just it. It'stoo divine. Mortal
man can't stand it. Itstirs bodyu so;
it turns a body inside out; it racks his
feelin's all to rags; it makes him feel bad
and wicked, and not fit for any place but
perdition. 1t keeps body in such an
everIastin' state of repentin', that nothin'
don't taste good and there aint no COM
fort in life. And then the cryin', you see
every mornin' they are ashamedto look
+ one another in the face
"Well, this is an odd case, and a singu-
lar complaint. So they really want the
singing stopped?N
Eyes, sir, that is the idea. They don't
wish to ask too much they would like
powerful well to have the prayin
shut down on, or leastways trimmed off
around the edges but the main things
the singin'. If they can only get the
singin' choked off, they think they can
stand the prayin', rough as it is to he
buIlyragyed so much that way
[ told the sergeant I would take the
matter under consideration. That night
| crept into the musicians quarters and
listened. The sergeant had not over
stated the case | heard the praying
voice pleading in the dark | heard the
execrationS Of the harassed men; | heard
the rain Of boots whiz through the all
and bang and thump around the b}g
drum The thing touched me, but 1t
amused me to. BY and by, after an i'm
pressive silence came the singing, Lord!
the pathos Of it, the enchantment OF it
Nothing in the world was ever 50 sweet,
so gracious, so TENDER so holy, so moving.
| made my stay very brief: | was begin
ming to experience emotions of a sort not
proper to the commandant of a fortress.
Next day Iissued orders which stopped
the praying and singing. Then followed
three OF four days which were SO full of
! bounty jumping eXcitements and irrlta-
tiOns that | never once thought Of my
drummer boy. But now comes Sergeant
Rayburn, one morning, and says
THAT new boy acts mighty strange sir
"How?'
swell, sir, he's all the time writing."
"Wrting? What does be write-Iet-
ters?!"
81 don't know, sir; but whenever he's .
off duty, he is always poking and nosing
around the fort, all by himself-blest if | !
think there's a hole or corner in it he !
hasn't been into-and every little while
he outs with pencil and paper and scrib-
bles something down"
This gave me most unpleasant sensa- !
ton, | wanted to scoff at it, but it was
not time to scoft at anything that had
the least suspicious tinge aboutit. Things
were happening all around us in the
north then that warned us to be ALWAYS
on the alert, and always suspecting re-
called to mind the suggestive fact that
this boy was from the sOuth-the extreme
south, Louisiana-and the thought was
not OF reassuring nature under the cir
cumstanCes. Nevertheless, it cost me q
pang to give the orders which Inow gave
to Rayburn. Ifelt like fatherwho plots
to expose his own child to shame and in
jury. told Rayburn to. keep quiet, bide
his time, and get me some Of those
writings whenever he could MANAGE It
without the boys finding it out. And 7 |
charged him not to do anything which |
might let the boy discover that he was
being watched. [ also ordered that he
allow the lad his usual liberties, but that
he be followed at a distance when, he
went out into the town.
During the next two days, Rayburnke-
ported to me several times. No succeAs
The boy was still writing, but he alWads
pocketed his paper with a careless aiar
whenever Rayburn appeared in his vIl
entity. He had gone twice to IN old deA
serted stable in the town, -lnained aA
minute or two, and come out again. One
could not pooh-pooh these things-thev
I had an OWL looI- IT,.