The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1890-05-04

illness. he was fitted to be most excellent
scout, skirmisher or sharpshooter, for he was
a trained woodsman, and his aim with the
rifle was almost as unerring and deadly as
lightning.
'''Iaint no use er tryin' to beat i'm er
shootin'," the mountaineers would say.
.'for ,ye cayn't do it, 'ceptin' hit are pint
blank accident. He air mighty weak an
bobby an wobbly, but he giner'ly bob
BILE an wobble right onto the center, he do
He poorly nigh never misses wat he
shoot att
Although inclined to cheerfulness of dis
position, Brainard FELTON, brooded over the
soldier, and gradually the mood grew I'M
til it pervadcd his life like shadow of de-
spair.
His daily habit was to climb the noun
tain behind the house and sit upon the
high, bare peaks of brown rocks, with his
long fint-lock rifle across his knees, gazing
out over the deep little valley through
wagering beam of light among the fields
and woods He coughed a great deal, a
hollow, hacking. racking cough, and every
hour he felt his hold OH life a little weaker.
But the clear realization of his hopeless
state made him all the more impatient at
the army of his country. Now and then he
would curse with awful profanity the dis
ease that had made him it's victim. Clench-
ing his emaciated hands, he would shake
them wildly at the blue vault of heaven
overhead and call it knocking, dreamy
abyss of hell.
His reflections were SO bitter and at times
SO violent that toward the last his disease
found no check to its rapid progress. He
talked of nothing, thought of nothing
cared for nothing but the war. The fam
boyant descriptions by newspaper CORE.
spondents of the battles as they took place
were read by him with a devouring eager
great struggle into heroic proportions.
If l could have been at Shiloh" hi
would gasp, in spasm of regret. He
walked the floor of his room at night, and
muttered between paroxysms of coughing
his Impressions on the hereditary malady
which had barred him away from the glory
| of the Virginia battlefelds.
Hearing him. his mother prayed, she
scarcely knew for what, anu his sister COW
| cred her face and wept herself to sleep.
As time passed. and the awful tide of car
mage ebbed and flowed and shifted bither
ana thither, each day brought it nearer and
nearer to the mountain home, and at length
| the growing of distant cannon was heard.
News came OF heroic fighting and glorious
| death on the battlefield. One after an
other of young Felton's late companians
| fell Mt the front covered with wounds and
honor.
II must die as surely as they" he ex-
claimed, "but not for my country"
The we'll meaning but not oyerwise
mountain folk, old men and women mostly,
said many things in Felton's presence that
burned INTO his heart. One old man who
had been in Jackson's army at New Orleans
said to FELTON,:
Nov if every man could manage to kill
Just one of the enemy, it wouldn't be lone
till victory would be ours"
These words got into the convolutions Of
| the young mans brain and remained there
repeating themselves over and over.
"Just one of the enemy" he muttered te
himself, as he sat on the mounts ain, witt
his rifle on his lap, and gazed far away to-
ward where there was booming along the
hiM-notched horizon. booming of dis
tant battle cannon-have you ever heard it
No other sound is like it. To those who
have heard 1t. what a memory it is!
To the mother and sister of FELTON, his
constant brooding over the fate that had
befallen him was source of hopeless anG
understandable anguish. They knew that
within a few months at best he must die
and therefore they would have made an,
sacrifice to have his wish to die in battle
Rratihed, terrible as was the thought,
These were the days when death in any
form was preferable to inaction. Thu
weakest woman had the spirit of bsttle.
Meantime the armies came nearer anS
nearer, until at length they occupied tn
valley, camping on the banks of the littl
river few miles away. One morning Eel
ton went down and spoke with some of tn
, soldiers, thereby learning that battle va
: At hand. Hope sprapg up in his heaxts IN