Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1884-01-24
ETCHED BY REPORTERS.
Another RemIniscence of the War-A
Constable who Sold Crockery to
HimseIf-CranA's GenerOsity-LocaI
Dashes Here and There.

During the first year of the war,
said the captain, as he took a mighty
chew of tobacco, and then squinted
along his wooden leg to see if the
thaw had sprung it, 81 and four or
five other fellows got such fright
that it fairly loosened our teeth. We
were in camp at Elizabethtown, KY.
My company's quarters were in the
middle of an old graveyard There
were funny old thumbstones all
around my tent. The weather was
cold, and the government had not
yet furnished us with the little sheet
iron stoves that were so common dur
ing the closing years of the war. We
fellows set to work and built our
selves a nice stove We made the
sides of it out of mud and sticks, and
took big flat marble graye-stone for
its top. When we had finished it
and built roaring fire we had rea
son to be proud of our ingenuity
just as 1t was growing dark that
evening here came an old colored
nanny to our tent door. We had
seen her searching among the graves
some minutes earlier. When she
looked IN on us she had pulled her
red turban off and stood crushing it
in her hands. Her kinky, white
wool stood up over her head and her
black features worked with sucn rage
that she looked like fury.
Well, nanny, hadn't you better
be getting outside of the lines
| said to her. in friendly sort of
way
"She never said word for a min
ute Then her eyes fell on our new
stove AS soon as she saw the top of
it she gave a yell and rushed into the
tent. She grabbed the grave-stone,
but it was nearly red-hot, and she
had to let go. We pulled her away,
or | reckon she would have carried
that stove off without waiting for it
to cool.
1.-The old girls crazy, said one of
the boys, as we showed her out of the
tent
Crazy she shrieked. LIEF de
Law'd cuss come ON you sojer mans
fo stealin my misSus' grabestun
Let de Lawd strike 20 dead wild His
lightnin', and lef de debbil scrunch
yo' boneSn
"Well, she gave us a lot more of
that kind Of talk She was either
crazy or else she was a hoo8oo, or
something of that nature. We had
to drag her outside of the lines, and
she scratched and bit and cursed us
all the way. When we got back TO
the tent and had settled round our
y fire with "a "a How pon1la Stftpl- IA "a
bottle to give us light, was talking
and laughing a good deal about the
angry old woman After awhile we
/ got to pla wing poker, and forgot
/ about her and the gravestoEe Sud
/ denly there was a terrific report right
4 in the midst of us. The candle went
out, and we pitched through the sides
of the tent on our heads Then was
1 the time that we were scared. For
my part thought the devil was bonn
/ harding us with hot shot at short
range l was afraid to move for
4 several minutes. Everything was
| pitch-dark Finally | remember l
was alive, and ] scrambled to my feet
and ran. | reckon the other fellows
/ did the same, An hour afterward we
met in another tent and compared
notes. Several of the follows were
4 badly hurt and had to be bandaged
\ mp. When we finally returned back
to our tent we found out what caused
the trouble
What was it2' asked listener.
The grayestone had exploded with
4 the heat OF the fire. Pieces Of it were