Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1886-07-09
SIR WILLIAM NAPIER.
How He Managed the Most L"wlcss Sol'
diers In the British Army.

! flow He Managed the Most Lawlcss Sol.
diers In the British Army.
Sir William Napier, who first helped
to make history and then told it, was
the most tendor-hearted of men and the
sternest of di%sciplinarians. The COM
pany of which he was made Captain was
the worst in his regiment, and the regi-
ment, the Forty Third, was the worst in
the army. Three months after Napier
took command of the company it was
in such perfect order thst the young
Captain was looked up to as the best
disciplinarian in the army. The regi-
mcnt at the siege and assault Of Badajoz
had shown itselft the bravestof the brave.
Its Colonel had been killed, and nearly
all its officers were dead or wounded,
when Napier, twenty-seven years of age,
arrived from England to take COM
mand.
He found the men who had braved
unheard-of terrors dcmoralized by de-
bauchery and the absence of control.
His heart jumped into his mouth at the
thought of Furnishing such brave men,
but punish them he did with unilinch-
ing severity. He told them plainly that
he would curb their lawlcssncss, and
they defied him to do his worst. At
Salamanca, while a skirmish was going
on, and the enemy's guns were pouring
shot into the regiment, his men became
disobcdicnt. He halted the regiment.
and logged four of the ring-leaders UNI
der fire. Then they submitted TO the
order, and advanced three miles under
a constant %cannonade, as steadily as at
a review. At Vittoria, his regiment,
which had been the most lawless of the
plunderers at Badajoz, marched over
the richest articles of dress and furni-
ture strewn about the field, and not a
man stopped to pick up a single thing.
Yet this same officer. who could halt
a regiment under fire to fog four men,
had the heart of an affectionate woman.
Once when he returned to England on
sick leave, his youngest child, a baby of
twelve months, was so frightened ut the
sight of his moustachc that she would
not kiss him. He stepped into an adj
joining room, shaved off his moustache,
and came back to be kissed. One dav
he met a little girl sobbing over q
broken bowl, because she would DO
whipped when she got home.
"But zee can mend it, can't 'ee2" said
she, looking up at the giants face.
"I'm afraid not, my DEAR" said he,
feeling in his pocket; .'but l will give
you q sixpence to buy a new bowl.''
He couldn't find even n penny.
Meet me here tomorrow at this
time" said he, "and l will give you the
~sixpence."
The child went off smiling, to tell her
mother that a stranger would replace
the bowl. Napier returned home to
find an invitation to dine in Bath the
next evening, to meet q gentleman
whom he wished very much to see. At
once he thought of the little girl, and of
the possibility of meeting her and then
returning in time for the dinner. Find
ing that it would be impossible, he
wrote declining the invitation, saying
to his daughter:
me SO implicitly"
1.-The young Colonel could halt a mu-
tinous regiment, under plunging can
non balls, and fog their ring-leaders,
because or his tender heart. All his
men knew that Napier loved them, was
their best friend and was trying to save
them from their wicked selves. He
held them while they saw their COM
trades tiogged and their ranks decimated,
because he had hold upon their hearts.
The leader who has gripped his men by
love can do what he pleases with them.
They will stand in the jaws of death, if
he cries ..Haltn'-Youth's Communion.