The Douglas independent. [volume] (Roseburg, Or.) 187?-1885, 1884-09-20
MADAME SALVAGE.


cause she had money-everybody knew thati
So she remained alone in her isolated house,
SO far from the village at the edge of the
forest. But she was not in the least afraid,
being Of the same stock as the men of the
country-a hardy old woman, tall and gaunt,
who seldom laughed, and whom nobody pre-
sumed to trifie with. Indeed, the country
women there do not laugh much. Laughing
is well enough for the men! The minds of
those women are melancholy and narrow, for
their lives are dismal and seldom hghtened
by an hour Of joy. The peasant husband OF
son learns something of noisy gaiety in the
tavern; but their helpmates and mothers re-
main serious, with visages perpetually
austere The muscles of their faces have
never acquired the movements of laughter.
Old Mother Savage continued her ordi-
nary mode of life in her cabin, which was
soon covered with snow. Once week she
used to come to the city to buy little bread
and meat, after which she would return to
her dwelling. As there was good deal of
talk about wolves, she never went out with
out gun slung at her back-the sons gun,
rusty weapon whose butt was quite worn
away by the mere rubbing of horny hands
against it, and it was really curious to watch
the tall old woman, a little stopped by age,
striding leisurely through the snow, with
the barrel of the gun sticking up above the
black covering which surrounded her head
and confined those white tresses which no
body had ever seen.
One day the Prussians came. They were
quartered upon the inhabitants Of the place,
according to the fortunes and resources of
each family The old woman had to receive
four, because she was4nown to be rich
These were four big lads with fair flesh,
fair boards and blue eyes-who had remained
stout in spite of all the fatigues they had en-
dured, and who seemed to be right good fell
lows, although conquerors in conquered
country. Finding themselves alone with the
old woman they took pains to show her all
possible consideration, and did all in their
power to save her trouble and expense
They could be seen every morning, all four
together, making their toilet at the well, in
their shirt sleeves; pouring the cold water
over that fair, rosy, northern flesh of theirs
even on the days when it was showing most
heavily-while Mother Savage went to and
| fro, preparing the soup for them. Then they
could be seen cleaning up the kitchen, wash
| ing the windows, chopping the wood, peeling
| the potatoes, washing the linen, in short, do
| ing all the house-work, just like four good
sons might do for their mother.
But she, the old woman, was ever thinking
| of her own son-her tall giant boy, with his
| hooked nose and brown eyes, and thick nous
| tache that seemed to cover his lip with a
veritable pad of black hair. And every day
| she used to ask each of the four soldiers quar-
tered i'll her home: ''Do you know where
that French regiment is-the Twenty Third
of the line' My sons in that"
They would reply, as well as they could:
"Nein! dom know-don' know nodings." And
comprehending her pain and anxieties, these
| young men, who had mothers living far away
in Germany, paid her q thousand delicate lit
| tie attentions. She liked them well enough
too-those four enemies of hers; for peasants
do not feel patriotic hate; such feelings only
| belong to the upper classes. The humble folk
those who pay the most just because they
are poor, and who are being perpetually
weighed down by new burthens; those who
are slaughtered wholesale, who form the yer
table food for powder, because they are the
majority; those, in fine, who suffer most
atrociously from the niseries of war, because
they are the weakest and the least aggressive
such folk do not at all understand what wal
enthusiasm is, nor touchy points of military
honor, and still less those pretended politica
combinations which exhaust two nations Ii
six months the victor as well as the van
quished.
People in that part of the country uset
always to say when speaking of Mothe
Sauvages Germans:
There's four fellows who've found .
snug berth"
Well, one morning while Mother Sauvag
was all alone at home, she caught sight of
man, quite far off on the plain, hastenin,
toward her dwelling He soon came nea
enough for her to recognize him; it was tn
country postman. He handed her a sheet O
folded paper; and she took her glasses
, which she always wore when sewing, out O
an old spectacle-case; and read as follows:
, MADAME SALVAGE: This will bring you
, sad piece of news. Your boy Victor wa
killed yesterday by a round-shot, which litel
, ally cut him in two | was close to him q
the time; for my piece was always next hi1
in the company; and it was only that yer
day thai he was talking to me about you, S
) that l could let you know if anything shoul
| happen him.
[ took his watch out of his pocket to brin
it to you when the war is over
salute yo" amicably,
CEsAIRE RIvoT
Private second class In the Twenty-Thir
regiment of the line.
The letter was dated three weeks pr
viously.
She did not cry. She remained motion
less, so overwhelmed, so stupefed by tt
blow that she did not at once feel t, e pain
it. She thought only: "There's Victor killes
now!" Then, little by little, the tears slowl
rose to her eyes, and the pang began to NAL
itself felt at her heart. Fancies came to he
9 one after the other-frightful, torturin
Never could she kiss her child again-h,
i obi ha,- toll
gendarmes had killed his father, the poache
!, now the Prlissians had killed her son. T
q had been cut in two by cannon ball. Ar
L it seemed to her she could see the thing-tl
g whole horrible thing; the head falling ol
with eyes wide open, and his teeth still gna,
e ing the corners of his thick mo,lstache, as
e was wont to do in his hours of anger.
e And after, what had they done with
), body If they had even given her back b
Q son again, as they had brought her husbaI
e back to her, with rife ball through Il
Q center of his forehead. Z
But she heard sound of loud voices
was the PruSians returning from the villag
Quickly she hid the letter in her pocket, al
!. received them very calmly with her CT
!. tomary face; for she had had the time
= wine her eyes well.
: They were all laughing, the four of them
2 quite delighted because they had been al
. to bring home splendid rabbit with them
!; stolen, no doubt; and they made signs
= the old woman that they were going to ha
: something wonderfully good to eat.
:, She set to work at once to prepare brea
: fast for them; but when the time came to
= the rabbit her heart failed her. And yet
!. was not the first rabbit by any means tn
= she had been given to kill! One of the st