Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1890-07-02
OVERCOME BY FEAR.
An Experience Which Made an English
ficer's Hair Stand on End.

An Experience Which Made an English Of
icer's Hair Stand on End.
'Was i ever afraid in battle?" said an
English army officer. Many times. But
there are different kinds of fright I
have served in India, in Egypt and in
Western Africa, but the worst funk I
was ever in was when there was no enc
my within thousands of miles of me.
Il was Captain at the time and was
stationed at Port Royal, Jamaica We
had just got lot of recruits on our
hands, the rawest, greenest recruits you
ever saw. l was drilling them in rifle
practice at long range, and had great
trouble to make them obey orders with
precision. In fact, one could never be
sure whether they would fire when you
wanted them to present, or present when
you wanted them to fire.
Il had been sending them through a
practice one afternoon, and they were 50
terribly stupid that / got into vile hu-
NOR The day was fearfully warm. and
the sun beat down so fiercely that my
horse, wicked brute, got into an al
most ungovernable temper. sat on my
horse at the right of the squad and was
giving them volley practice at long
range. When my patience was entirely
gone the men seemed to gain a little
sense, and began to fire with rapidity
and accuracy. Things were running as
smoothly as clock-work, and l was soon
soothed into cheerfulness despite the
heat. Not so my horse. He was never
more vicious.
''We are getting along so we'll by this
LII -
and the vOlley would ring out like sim
gle report.
''Once l cried out Ready and the
work was as pretty as that of veterans.
Present. and every rife went up to
shoulders in perfect form. At the very
instant l was about to say 'Firer my
fretting horse bolted, cutting directly
across the range was not twenty feet
from the squad. My eye caught the
glittering rifles leveled right at me, and
instinctively closed my eyes and duck
ed my head. If you know what British
soldiers are you can imagine my feel
1ngs, my terrible fear, for, as said be-
fore, l was never before in such funk
l knew that if / opened my mouth those
recruits would riddle my body with rife
balls, for they were expecting the word
'Firep and probably would have taken
any sound for that. My desire to cry
out AS you werep to get the rifles off
my body was so great that / had to
clinch my teeth to keep from crying out.
OF course the whole thing took only a
few seconds, but it was many minutes
longer than that to me.
when my plunging horse had carried
me from before the motionless rifles,
managed to wheel him. AS he came
around / cried 'Firer and every one of
those stolid men obeyed the command
with absolute decision. That assured
me all the more that had opened my
mouth while crossing their range
should have been a dead man, for they
were not drilled sufficiently to distin-
guish different order at the last in
slant, and yet followed ones words with
blind fidelity.
81 have often thought" added the of
fcer with strange smile on his lips,
that those recruits fancied / had cut
across them to test their drill, for they
showed no surprise, not the faintest
sign of emotion when l suddenly wheel
ed and cried 'Firer But you may we'll
believe that this was not the case And
pledge you that | never afterward in
rife practice did get caught in so dan
gerous and helpless situation."-N. Y
Tribune.