Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1889-09-04
Did Hh 30 RIGHT?
Trying E5xDe~ience CT IN American
N.e- Correspondent

w s'C1 UPON t&39 pAtt Jttts itiJits Dll
am not going 50 much TO tel! goa Il
story as to ask you whether did right
on one trying occasion.
The lie OF n war correspondent is.
rs yeu fellows very we'll know, il
! many respects hard one, but the cor
respoaden5of OF a paper not unirequenbiy
sees more of what is goln on In
campaign lnon the soldier himself ana.
bein : comparatively unattached ana
able at nearly all times to sea Ell
fruitful field for stirring Incidents.
hi' mind rapidly becomes stored
y III q vast collection OF incidents,
tragic I'd comic, hum proui ard So j.
| Jn', dramatic anl insignificant, which
too often crowd ono another out Of his
mind and only recur to him when
some special circulp tanGe ari les 10
suggest them. The campaien OF the
autumn aud winter OF 1850 in the
Balkan Peninsula, though ert, was
not devoid of snch incidents, and tEere
was ons which has branded 1t iadollhly
upon my mind. had been ia Fari,
| when the war began and was engaged
by q numbet OF American newspapers
To go TO the 1ront as their correspond
eat.
We wers merry crew IN TIE corra-
| soondent's tent, bat there is something
/ aiDgai&r,Y caslous about o corrcs pond
ent after ho has been through cam-
| paign or two-they seldom get killed.
! though the fate OF Ssins.Ieger Her
bert, Power and d )nn0Qan, Wh gell at
MY side in the Sou<lau, are exempllh-
cations Of the prorerb that tho exe.p-
tion proves the ru g. Still, when the
| days tigh,.rg Is over, wben the cur
tatn ofnight has fai.el upor the drarra
of war ard TIE treble o. tie infantry
and tho bs.ss OF Ga8 a tlji1rT are al
rest, il i4 not vi hout u co,tsin grim
h2mcr that tao 5p0udoutB look
round fcs each other ID count noses.
OF all tie bright, Joyous little gel-
lows that | ever 1aet ia tae fed or
elsewhere, Maxine Durand was the
brightest example. lie was the spec
ial correspondents in the Balkan PENN
suia OF { ct us sav) the Ll France, his
real rune as a SO tart Of the paper for
which he corresp poaded, together with
certain other ideatifcatory particu-
la $, | have SUI gre 'sed for reasons
VIII eh will appear. He was the hap
piest fellow in our mess He came
| from D0uai, and on tbs most gloomy
/ days and in thu most deadly snow he
! would sing to VI snatches of his Breton
| folk songs, echoes Of the Chanps
E.ysaes end "Reminiscences of the Fol-
les nergereS He and | had made
friends before we met any Of the rest
of the boYs One nirhtwhen we were
encamped before TirnJva and [ had
been sitting up writing some letters
to leave at headquarters, for we ex-
pected hot Gay on the morrow and it
was Just q toss up which Of Us
boys" would be alive TO dine. on the
| following evening, | went to the head
quarter lines and left my dispatches,
and as got buck to the correspond
ent tent saw u dark form standihr
1t lss entrance and tie pale face OF
Ia->4me DGr;l4d Iurned up 10 the MOON
light
-'Cheer up, / said. humping him
ca the shoulder, YOUR losing your
beauty eep and then what Will all
those Gaul5els at Douai say when you
get back 30
Insten OF turning round and chaff-
ing m5 in exocrable Breton slang as
usual, Maxime TOOK mo by the haad
and sad:
ooh, Ned" q had taught him to
use the contrac. ion of my nancy, IL
feel thai | shall never see Douai
again"
In vain | expostulated with hiaa,
walking IN Rai down in the snow; in
vain pointed out TO him the fact that
throughout the campaign no corre-
spondent hal baen so much as touched;
for answer he took nae to the top OF a
mound and showed me the lights Of
Iirnoya in the distance and said:
There Is a bali waiting for me be-
bind those walls; it will come to find
me to-inorro@,n
Ia vain reasoped. In vain Ichaffed,
and at last l thought it best to humor
him aud then he said to me:
Med, you are roy most intimate
friend among the boys here. want
Won 70 do somathioo, for ,,oo n,hor