The Emporia weekly news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1881-1889, 1889-03-14
A SOLDIERS KISS.

"A SOLD1Lh = AlLCC.
That truth is stranger than fiction is
one of the most threadbare of aXioms,
vet it received a new illustration in the
strange succession of circumstances
through which Major Henry Estes won
his blue-eyed wife.
Among the recruits who were sent
forward to be mustered into New
England cavalry regiment attached to
the Army of the Potomac, in the Spring
of 1864, was young man of fine APP
pearance and excellent education, who
from the first showed signs of having
at some time been under military drill.
No recruit ever fell into his place with
less trouble. or so rapidly adjusted
himself to the roughness and hard
ships of camp life. Every inch a
soldier" was Major Estes comment
the first time that his glance rested on
Private Herbert Jauvrin, and neither
in camp nor in battle had he ever any
reason to modify his verdict.
The rank and file with whom Jau-
win associated could never quite make
him out. They recognized instructive
" that he belonged to a higher social
order than their own; they found out
that he had travelled i'll many lands;
they said among themselves that he
was foreigner and yet were puzzled
to know Just where To place man
who spoke half Il dozen languages, and
vet they were never Jealous or ILL
natured toward him. He performed
his duties with unfailing conscientious
ness; was in his place i'll every engage
ment; proved himself hero in the
skirmish at st. Mary's Church and in
the long and dangerous raid 10 Irevyl-
Ian Station, and endeared himself to
every man in his company by some
little act of kindness or CHEEKY word of
comradeship.
That there was mystery about him
was evident. Not that he ever attempt
ed to create such an impressiOn-far
from it. But officers and men knew
that there must have been some cause
that had moved man of his culture to
enlist as private in a cavalry regi-
ment in which he had not a single ac-
quaintance. There were hints enough
given him to break through his reserve
and talk about himself, but he always
brushed them aside with a laugh and
the oft-repeated by-word of the camps,
''Who wouldn't be a soldier?"
by jove!" said the Colonel one day.
as Private Jauvrin retired from his
presence with courtly salute, ''that
fellow has broken more than one
heart, and in our set, too, Major, or
I'm Block Island Goldfish. Put him
in a swallowtail and he would be the
most distinguished looking man in the
regiment and would saunter through
the lancers like lord. i wish l could
do something for him. but he doesn't
ask for promotion and doesn't seem to
Mt and Annif lrnnNxy Tuhn &c
friends are so as to push him. I'd bet
whale to mackerel that there's a
woman in the case, and mighty pretty
one, too"
1t was in an insignificant little skirm-
ish on the edge of Chapin's Farms that
Private Jauvrin received a desperate
wound which caused him to be sent to
the cavalry corps hospital on the APP
pomattox. At first he babe fair to re-
cover, and the whole regiment pre-
pared to welcome him back, and
the Colonel had made interest at
Washington to procure his promotion
to second Lieutenant But one day a
messenger came from the corps
hospital with the news that Jauvrin
was worse, and with an earnest re-
quest that Major Estes would ride over
to see him.
nO 01dlOI dISO iDdHI105Itu Il
sincere liking for the soldier, and had
tried more than once to gain his con-
fidence, with a sincere desire to be-
friend him. He had not been success
full, yet there had always been that
sort of friendship between officer and
man that led Major Estes to sit down
and talk with him of other times and
other scenes. It was a shock to him
to hear bad tidings of the soldier
whom in his own mind he had associ-
ated with story of romance, and
whom he honored as an example of
duty.
1t was on chilly Autumn afternoon
that the Major lifted the flap of the
wall tent in which Jauvrin lay on a
rough cot set on the bare ground. He
was shocked at the wounded mans
appearance. The staIwart frame had
become reduced to skin and bone, and
only the eyes had retained the old fire
of life. He fairly started when the
ghost of the well remembered and ring
ing voice welcomed him and tears
started to his eyes as he grasped the
thin and wasted hand and said: Poor
fellow, why did you not send for me
before?"
The Major stayed at the hospital
strength of the speaker permitted, he
learned the story of Private Jauvrin.
Born to an old and honorable name
and the prospective inheritor of wealth,
Herbert Jauyrin, after wild and way
ward boyhood, had been commissioned
o Lieutenant in the British army be-
fore he had reached his majority and
had fought CALAMITY before Sebastopol.
Among his papers would be found, he
said, his commission and his Crimean
medal On his return to England he
had gone the way of all young men in
his position and had exhausted his in
come and the round of London
pleasures. At last his father and his
family had cast him off and he had
wakened from his dreams to find him.
self deprived of all resources until he
succeeded to the entailed estates of his
family.
There was one pure spot, he said, in
the darkness of his life. He had loved
and his love had been returned. II
did not know there was any such love-
illness on earth, said the dying soldier,
''until / met Helen Conyngham. l
have her picture here and you cAn
judge Of her yourself Here. with 3
painful effort. he drew out portfolio
from under his pillow and gave it to
the Major. Her letters are here. too
do what you viii with the picture
and the letters. and only write TO her
and tell her that gave her my last
thoughts and all of my love.
At intsrvals be filled in the rest Of