San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1889-07-13
why doesn't the surgeon Gomez


lies The ambulance came and the surgeon
came, but when he looked at the child he
shook his head
"He will live, doctorg" asked the general,
as though commanding the surgeon to save
the boys life.
Again the surgeon shook his head. The
general turned abruptly away.
~ want to go fur to see my pop" said the
boy feebly.
The commander turned and took him in
his arms, carried him out to the ambulance,
and gently laid him in it. The surgeon got
up on the seat with the driver and the gen.
eral sat at the rear end with his feet on the
step, while aids and orderlies followed
mounted, an orderly leading the generals
horse. And thus they went slowly to the
boys home.
When they arrived they found the house
surrounded by Confederate cavalrymen. The
lieutenant whom the boy had met two days
before came out as the ambulance drove up
to the door. That morning before daylight
he and his men had surprised Tom Lane and
half dozen Union guerrillas who were sleep
ing there. A fight had ensued. Tom Lane
was killed, and his men-three of them badly
wounded-were prisoners.
as he heard the story. He had brought a
death wound to a child, and now he was
bringing that child to home where lay the
dead body of his faeher, killed by the men
whose cause the son had served so nobly-
killed by his own order.
The general lifted his charge tenderly from
the ambulance and carried him into the house
of mourning. The wife and mother was
there, with several of the neighbors who had
come to be with her in her affiiction. She
sat in rocking chair, weeping
"Maw," said the boy, excitedly, "rm
goen' fur to be capn!'
In the gray of the morning the woman
had seen her husband shot down before her
eyes. In the twilight of evening she saw her
boy carried in, bleeding, with death written
in his pale face and in his wild eye. The
double affection overcame her. She swooned
and was taken to an adjoining room.
The general laid his light burden on sofa
The boy caught sight of a little girl about
his own age who had come to the house with
her mother.
Mag" he said, did y git my letters"
"No," said Mag, IL didn't git no letter, but
sor one o them sojers take sumpn out'n the
box"
The general glanced sharply at the lieuten-
ant. TIE young officer took a crumpled bit
of paper from his pocket and handed it to
the commander, who was about to transfer
it to little Maggie, when the lieutenant whis-
pered to him that it contained the informa-
ton by which they had caught the Unionists
The general sat mute, with the unopened
paper between his fingers. A reproof for
his subordinate was on his tongue, but he did
not speak it, In warfare it is essential to ex-
anime private papers. The boy who had
| done them so signal a service had been robbed
| of his childish scrawl and the information it
| contained had been used to surprise that
boys father With bowed head the soldier
handed the paper to the little girl.
At this moment the wounded boy caught
sight of his father lying stiff and stark ON
the bed
"Pop!" he exclaimed, with moan, "pop!"
He had never seen death, but something
| told him that this was death. With diff
| Guilty he raised himself and sat up on the
lounge.
did you shoot my popr' he asked, looking
with his great, honest eyes at the lieutenant.
Without word the officer turned as one
might turn from a storm of bullets, and left
the house. The boy fastened a reproachful
gaze on the general.
What d. y let him shoot my pop fur9"
my boy-my little hero" began the sol
der He could not go on. How could he
make child understand the necessities of war;
Chivalrous war! that permitted him to read
a child's letter and kill the child's father.
II didn't do nothen to you uns What d.
you uns want t go N kill my pop furT'
moaned the boy.
Little Maggie was standing by, looking on
with childish wonder.
Mag" said Tom, Il writ y that letter. /
writ it all myself; all ont The sojers token
it, reckon"
The general drew the girl up to the lounge,
and put her hand in that of the boy The two
children remained in this position to the end.
The boy soon began to wander. He was rid.
ing with the paper pellet in his mouth; he was
passing the pickets; he was conversing with
officers and soldiers All the while the gene
raj was trying to soothe him, smoothing back
the uncombed locks from his forehead, or
pouring a little water between his lips.
Suddenly the boy sat up.
Pm a-gOen' fur to be capn!" he shouted,
then fell back, dead.
One may fancy tEe angel fiend of war-if
such there be-looking down on this scene
with grim satisfaction. Even in an innocent
child there was the germ of that thirst for
glory which, melted by the ambition of ADLER
brains, furnishes food for battle fields.
The NEXT afternoon the army, beginning a
movement for which the little courier had
paved the way, had struck its tents and was
marching along the road that led past the
Lane house As the head of column emerged
from wood, the men saw a funeral pro-