Springfield globe-republic. (Springfield, Ohio) 1884-1887, 1885-01-03
A BABY MARTYR.

Ing WIN palnIul eXactnCSS In the MD
die of the deep ruts and glancing with
occasional nervous distrust at the bor-
der of rank-looking grass on either side
of the way. The constant rains, alter
mating with fierce suns. had rendered
the whole soil continuous, puffy,
spungy mass, and more than once they
had passed by the decaying. half-sun-
ken carcasses of stock mired within
easy reach of the drivers whip.
As the stage took an extra-heavy rut
faint whimper from a bundle carried
by a woman on the back seat reminded
the passengers of the presence of baby.
That puts me in mind" said an
erect, gray -whiskered man in the front
seat, .'of queer experience lot of us
army fellows had with a baby way back
in-in-"
In "a, major" put in n handsome
young lady of about 90, who sat beside
the speaker and who had received the
undivided attention of a couple OF drum
mers on the back seat, they evidently
taking her for the old gentleman 5
daughter.
Won't you tell us about it. sir?'
said one of the pair, ingratiatingly, all
the lady passengers, married and sin
gle. indorsing the request.
We'll" said the major, with a retro
spective smile, .'you see l was stationed
at Fort Laramie at the time, and was
sent with a detachment of twenty-five
men to escort Gen. Whipple. who was
visiting the fort, and his staff to an
nth CT 4 f,,,- J.
north. The country was full of Indians
on the war-path, but we didn't mind
them so much as the weather, which
was simply fearful. Snow breast high
and a steady norther blowing that
would cut the eyes out of you. We
struggled along somehow for couple
of days, but finally the snow began to
fall again and we lost The trail. The
whole party was just on the point of
giving up for good when one of the
scouts came to report that he had found
a few miles further on a certain log
and stockade that we had been aiming
for. OF course that braced us up once
more. and we soon reached the house
and started up a roaring fire you may
suppose As tho men wsro bringing in
their last armfulS of wood they heard
a faint call for help on the wind. A
forlorn hope volunteered to 90 ont and
see what was the matter. and pretty
soon they brought in an emigrant fam
lily whose teams had got showed in,
and who had just about laid down to
die some half-mile from the house.
There was the father, three boys, and
-, ii Ii
mother with small baby wrapped in
a dozen shawls."
Dear, dear mew exclaimed the lady
passengers in chorus.
1.-The log house had small room in
one corner, and we gave that to the
poor family. and made them comfort
able. That night it blew gale, and
the wind swept the trail so clear that
the emigrants decided to push on south.
Our party concluded to wait another
day for the weather to settle, and well
enough it was. as the snow began
again. Some time during the next
evening one of the officers happened
to go into the room that had been oc-
cupied by the emigrant family, when
he heard sort of low cry, and, going
toward a bunk, saw something move
inside a bundle lying there wrapped up
in an old red shawlr'
"A blue shawl, major" interrupted
the young lady, merrily.
so it was" said the old officer,
glancing fondly at his companion. He
was a. brave fellow, that lieutenant; but
he ran out to us as pale as death.
Gentlemen said he. in the excitement
OF getting away. those people have
left their baby"
"You never saw such scared lot of
men in your life. There we were,
showed in, 800 miles from civilization,
with baby. A grizzly bear would
have been more welcome"
''Oh, you horrid thingn' shifted the
mother on the back seat.
You don't seem to grapple with the
proposition, ma am" explained the
major. "On canvassing the matter we
found that there wasn't but one mar
ried man in the whole command, and
he. as luck would have it. had never
had baby. We didn't have any more
idea how to take care of a baby than
the man in the moon. Oh! it was
Dreadful and the major wiped the
perspiration from the face at the mere
recollection.
Had the poor darling been all that
day without anything to eat?" indig-
nantly inquired a young bride who sat
up with the driver.
ITO drink, YOU mean," said the ma
jor. That was just it. There wasn't
even a can of condensed milk in the
outfit. so we went into a council of war
as to the proper thing to give it to eat.
One officer said flour and water was
the correct thing. Capt. Brown in
sisted Oh milk. Boggs thought that
meat chopped up fine would answer.
Somebody else argued that the proper
ration for baby was sugar tied up in
a rag somehow. A young ensign be-
lieved they sucked the juice of a piece
OF rubber. so to speak, while old Whip
pie stuck it out that babies were fed ex-
clusively on paregoric. You never
heard such a wrangle."
"And the poor little creature suffer-
ing all that time" murmured the moth
er, wiping a tear off her nose.
"lhe result was that we agreed to
make an impartial mixture of all these
things. on the theory that if one missed
fire the other would sort of counteract
it. as it were. So we made a sort of
stew in the coffee-pot, which included
a whole bottle of paregoric from the
medicine chest, for most of us rather
leaned toward Whipple's ideas after
all. Then we hunted up a small tin
funnel used for filling the whisky keg."
What was that for?' gasped the
lady passengers. who by this time had
worked themselves into a state of sup
pressed fury.
why. to run the compound into the
baby with, so as not to spill it," con-
tinued the major, calmly; 80 when
the committee on pap concluded the
mixture was cool enough we started to
feed the"
Il wonder 1t didn't kill you" intar-