The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1885-09-10
A Baby Martyr,
BY DERRICK DODD.

4 Ar4gf
ialnt "hunper, from uundC carried
Ny "a WOMAN on .he back seat, reminded
ti,.. ,,asso,,..o,. IA t,,, ,,,.s,.roo ,f =, Lol,-
""' t'''H i'l' III ''.'''''t H"'" "i' ei''O z
| -raN -WhiSkered han IN the from seat,
""l . queer experience 4 lot oi us army
tllloWs had with baby way back IN
ji-
| IN -. R:J f, put IN handsome
| young !ddI y, about twenty, Nho sat
aesit he speaker, ami Who had fectlN-
| ed tue unnlNlded attention OF a couple Of
| ~ iHlliefs on ihe back seat, they eNl-
| oHHu} ,akinE her for The OLD Scl ,lcinan' S
"au@Licl.
N"h I"u ttll US about It, SIN! S"id
one o! lhe par, lngratla'lneIy, AN the
! ll"A passengers, married. inu Single, ln-
| 0"'s.0I tne request.
NflI, sad the Mayor, with retro
| Si'ecllNe smile, ''you see Was stationed
| at Fort Laramie at the time, and was
sent with a detachment OF twenty-five
men to escort General WhlppIe, who was
WISHING the tort, and his staff to another
| post about 400 miles further north. The
country was luIi "i Indians, on the wal
| path, but We didn't mind them SO much
as the weather. which was simply fearful.
| SNOW breast hEh, and steady norther
| Blowing that would cut the eyes out Of
| Nou. We struggled along somehow tor a
couple OF days, but finally The snow be
gan to fall again, and We lest the trail.
he whole party was just on the point Of
| giving up Tor good, when one Of the
| scouts came III to report that he had
found, few miles further Oh, certain
| log house ana stockade that we had been
aiming for. OF course, that braced Us up
once more, and we soon reached the
house and started up q roaring fire, you
may suppose As the men were bringing
IN their last armtuls of wood they heard
a FAINT call for help on the wind. A for
Iorn hope volunteered to 90 out and see
Wnaf was the matter, and pretty soon
they brought IN an emigrant family whose
teams had got showed in, and who had
Just about lain down to die some half
mlle from the house. There was the
father, three boys, little gll carrying
kitten, ana the mother With a small baby
wrapped III dozen shaWls.'
Dear, dear me- exclaimed the lady
passengers IN chorus.
The Jog house had a small room in
one corner, and we gave that TO the poor
laInliy ana maze them comfortable. That
llSnV IL bieW gaze ana the Nlnd swept
IIG lIali SO cleaf lhat the elAl9fahlS de-
cided TO push on South. our party CON
ciuded to walt another day toI the Wea-
lhef 10 settle, ana we'll enough 1t was, as
lhe snow began again. Some time during
tHe neAt evening, one OF the olllcers
happened to go INTO the room that had
been occupied by the emlgrant family,
NheL ne hearu SORT OF low cry, ana go
Ing towards bunk saw something move
inside bundle lying there wrapped up
in an old red shaw -
~ Dlue shawl, Mayor interrupted the
young lady, meruiy.
80 1t was sad the Old officer, glanc-
ing i"ndly at his companion. "lle was
a brave fellow, that lieutenant: but he
ran out TO Us as pale as death. Gentle
men, sand he, 'ln the excitement Of get
ting away those people have lett their
baby.
"lou never saw such a scared let Of
men III your life. There we We're. showed
III, three hundred miles from civilization
with a baby "a grizzly bear would nave
been more welcome"
"Oh. you horrid thing shifted the
mother on the back seat.
"lou don't seem to grapple with the
proposition, ma'am,' explained the Ma
.jor. con canvassing the matter, we dis
covered that there wasn't but one married
man in the whole command, and he, as
luck would have it, had never had a baby.
We didn't have any more idea how to
take care Of a baby than the man III the
moon. Oh. it was dreadful !" and the
Major wiped the perspiration from his
Face at the mere recollection.
"llad the poGr darling been all that
Gay without anything to eat Z" indignant
ly inquired a young bride who sat up
with the driver,
'To drink, you mean,' said the Major.
''Ihat was just it. There wasn't oven Il
can Of condensed milk in the outfit, 50
we went into a council of war as to the
proper thing to give it to eat. One officer
said that flour and water was the correct
thing. Captain Brown insisted on milk.
Boggs thought that meat chopped up
fine would answer. Somebody else ar
Sueu tildt Tue proper ration LOT pdDy
was sugar tied up in rag somehow. A
young ensign believed that thev sucked
the Juice out of a piece of rubber, so to
speak, while old Whipple stuck it out
that babies were fed exclusively on par
egoric. You never heard such wran-
gle
''And the poor little creature suffering
all that time" murmured the mother,
wiping a tear off her nose.
''The result was that we agreed to
make an impartial mixture of all these
things. on the theory that if one missed
fire the others would sort of counteract
it, as it were. SO we made a sort of stew
in coffee pot, which included a whole
bottle Of paregoric from the medicine
chest, for most of US rather leaned toward
"hipple's ideas after all. Then we hunt
ed up small tin funnel used for filling