Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1883-11-10
A DISSIPATED GHOST.
BY I. F. ROBERTSON.

4
pioyers being too crippled by the calamity to
continue business Unlike many others, though,
within week had the good fortune to acci-
dentally meet a civil engineer whom 1 had
known slightly when / was lad, aud on making
| myself known to him he offered me work as an
assistant on the preliminary survey of pro-
jected railroad which he was then on his way to
make. 1t goes without saying that l accepted
! gladly. the more because | was young and
vigorous. detested office slavery. and coveted
open-alr employment.
The party TO which / was attached was ev
ceDtional. in that the entire staff were educated
| gentlemen and good fellows good-natured and
Jolly. with an unlimited capacity for making
| aiau|eneht. while the laborers. the .'hewers Of
| wood ana drawers of water" seemed to follow
! Their lead. and cheerfuily took their hardshjps
| Ike pleasures. in fact | believe that th., hi
larity and urbanity OF the staff had attracted the
very choicest of the lab6rers tO seek cmpl0y-
| inent with t',e party. At any rate, eXCept while
DIT WORK 1here was small distinction of rank,
| ana many an evening did make the quiet
hignt ring with the united shouts Of the marty "a
| We LAUGHED over some comcal story and ban
died Jokes with one another, and often and
often did the flames of our campfire leap in
| UNISON with a tuneful chorus whose notes
| Heated OF into the wilderness around us and
waited strains OF the JOYS of civilization to the
untutored savage in the far distance.
| Ihe CHEF OF oar party was all engineer named
Jones. (of course, that wasn't his name but il
Will sPrve). a snort. fat CHEEKY little man. with
an imperturhabe acceptance of circumstances
ho"eVe" adverse. which often struck as an
| attribute of fatast Every one called him
| major. though nobody could tell why. There
was nothing in his bearing to inspire the appli-
! cation OF q military title-rather the contrary
but still We ali called him major. / never saw
another man SO full of straightforward energy
| SO thoughtful of the welfare of his subordinates
Ss t..itHa Ttlt rt,,f.-
| anti apparently Hght-hearted. He seemed to
| Ike the wild LIE of a preliminary survey and
| once told Us, as We lay about our fire at night
talking vi home and our ultimate return there
| that he would like to die without ever seeing
| the settlements again.
| This remark set us all to talking in a reminis-
| cent strain, and from mothers sisters and sweet
hearts we passed on to the rosy joys OF the opera
the ballet and the circus; OF Nilsson as Lucia
| Lucca as Ze1li'.d. Aimee in ia Jolie Parfu-
| meuse. Dan Bryant and. Charlie Backus SOth-
ern. Jefferson and Booth. One fellow exuited
| over suppers with daahing blondes Of the va
| riety stare another lalnented the passages of
| his successes as a leader of the german: another
| goated over all-night ''rackets" and discoursed
| OF abslnthe as a morning healer. Many were
the recolections of the Argyle Rooms in New
1ofk, OF nocturnal adventures in the streets
behind COvent Garden in London of wild
nights i'll Paris. Vienna. Venice or San Fran
CISCO; and the dancing-9irls of Honolulu YokO-
hama, and Delhi were descanted upon till a gem
| erai indication OF enyious discomfort warned
| US to change our topic. Then we talked "rour-
| mandise," and compared whisky and bacon
| with omelet sOuffie, frogs a la pouiette and
champagne frappe. We were all wise on the
| merits of various beers, and some of us could
| talk OF Chambertln. Clos Fougeot Chateau
1queIn. and Johannisberger. which we ignOr-
| antly BATTERED ourselves we knew something
about. Finally Jack Saxton got up and lazily
| stretched himself, remarking: We'll, gentle
| men. you may all talk about delicious drinks
L t,1ft toll tta$t,
| drink ever tasted was big pull out of my
saltwater pitcher about five O'Clock in the
morning, Most of US knew something about
that. too. and the boys said nothing but drifted
quietly off to their blankets. leaving Jones and
me TO finish our pipes by the dying fire
We smoked in Silence for a few minutes and
then the Chief turned and looked intently at Inc.
with iar-away look in his eyes that | mad
never seen there before. Presently he said:
My boy. you were all of you wise to take the
good things Of life when they were within yOur
reach. for the time wiPcome alive or later, when
the ashes of remembrance will be all you can
nope Tor out of the glory of existence. | en-
}eyed those things Once-enioved them SO that
don like to talk or even think abOut them
Thank your stars. old fellow. that YOU are still
here to embrace the fragrant delight of them"
tie leaned back on his elbow and looked Off into
the sky. diligently shooting great mouthfuls of
smoke at cloud which SWING along the hori-
Zon- At length he said. half to himself and al
most defantly: Il think will tell YOU nv story
don't know why shouldn't. know You will
respect my confidence. and it will serve to bring
me TO mind sometimes when you are stad old
citizen and / am rotting skeleton" l said
nothing, but retlled my pipe threw chunk of
wood on the fire. and stretched myself out
again where could see his pleasant face by the
Pickering freight.
After a few more smoke-puffs he commenced.
''SOOn after the war began / left college with
my civil engineers degree in NV pocket and I
Immediately enlisted in-cafi 1t the One Hun
dred and Fourth Rhode Island. went out as
first lieutenant. was soon made captain and
was with my company at the battle of Antie-
tam. During the day was hit in the face bv
fragment OF shell. which knocked me down
and stunned me fora few moments, but | soon
came to myself found that was not seriously
hurt and hurried on after the company. which
had gone ahead When caught up with them
the men told me that the same shell which had
upset me had killed a private named John p.
Weed, completely dlsemboweling him. l had
passed the poor fellows fragments, but didn't
look to see who it was. You know that in the
volunteer service the separation between officer
anu private was not very marked and had come
to KNOW Weed pretty well but in the heat of bat
tie there wasn't time to be sorry for his death.
took that out long atterward He was a queer
spirituaiistic sort of fellow with no direct be-
llei IN anything. and entirely without respect
for the moral laws Of the nineteenth century.
We often talked together. and he had told me
that he had no kin in the world and he nsad tn
wonder. if he should be killed what would be-
come of about fifteen hundred dollars which Law
to his credit in the Grocers' and Chemists bank
of New York. He had been a bon riuont in all
ways, and 1t seemed to grieve him that he had
not had time to credtably spend it in luxurious
dissipation before he enlisted
We'll, served through the war and came
out major, and by the way. the title is the
only remnant OF my old life that cngs to me
now. and can't get rid of that.
After the war l didu't think of going at nv
profession. for was too rusty in it, and / OBJ
tanned a elerkship in the Grocers' and Chemists
bank. through the influence Of friends With
the vagabond instincts of soldier still in me.
devoted my nights pretty generally to the illicit
pleasures with which the city abounded but l
stuck by my work during the day and was
eventually made paying teller. Of course /
couldn't raise the deuce nights without spend
ing a lot of money; SO my salary was always
Oyerdrawn and was in debt besides One day
! got to thinking of Weed, and went to tho
books and found. sure enough the fifteen hum
dred aud odd dollars still to his credit After
that used to brood over it good deal and
think what pity it was that much money
should lie there in the bank forever, never to do
any one any good, and what q godsend 1t would
be to me if had it,
one night got into a game of poker, and
iOSt TO one of nv fellow ciprksa onnd daal mora