The Logan County banner. [volume] (Logan, W. Va.) 1889-1903, 1890-05-29

of his grandmother on the Isle of Vas
sill. He was good scholar, marched
we'll, would soon have been able to take
his place in the Imperial Guard, his
hearts desire at first. But war had
come; he had wished to go to the front,
and they had attached him at his own
request to the artillery of the Caucasus
BATTERY, halt" rose the voice of Lit
vinof They stopped with a dull rumble,
a heavy shock.
what is it noac2v demanded Aliochine
OF soldier near him, with a vague pre-
sentiment Of something terrible.
at is the wounded, Lieutenant; they
are bringing them i'm
Rising in his stirrups, he saw them,
black spots in the distance, growing
larger and larger, till the lugubrious pro-
cession began to pass the battery; the
eertege headed by an old man, saber-
cut in bis neck, his shirt unbuttoned,
around his throat the red circle of a gap
ing wound. His eyes were staring; "a
low groaning came from his laboring
lungs. Behind him was handsome
conscript, shot in the breast, red wave
spreading across his bosom, his young
face of mortal pallor, the blood leap
ing like fountain with every step. On
litter lay young sub-ofiicer; in place
of an arm he had but bleeding rem
nant of flesh and cloth.
sGod!' thought Aliochine, "a few min
utes more, and / may be thus!'
And he moved aside to- give room to
something carried in a bloody cloak.
ssThe Maori cried voice from the
ranks.
What battalion?n
he third
His own battalion, his own Major, who
had received him 50 cordially on his ar
rival in camp. Could that be the Majors
face?-that distorted countenance, BLU
ish, covered with spots of coagulated
blood, the mustache stained red, the
kind eyes wide and staring, and seeming
to- say to him repreaehfully: Ali ii
was you who wished to know war! Very
we'll, you have seen lido you admire
it?n
The Major passed; new cerpses= and
new wounded followed him, pale visages,
fading chances, dismembered bodies
but Aliochine saw only those two glaz-
ing eyes which had smiled on him but
yesterday, which looked him to-day with
mute reproach.
Second battery! where is the second
battery?" cried at his ear despairing
voice.
Reused from his lethargy, Aliochine
turned and saw an orderly whom dust
and sweat had made black, hurriedly
talking to Commandant Litvinof. He
caught but the closing words to the
death-hold it!' and the orderly, like
the courier, was gone, straight at the
hill into the flying shells, to lose himself
in cloud of smoke.
At the same instant, she'll burst be
hind the battery, and the neighbor tc
the right Of Aiochine was numbered
with the dead,
"Advance!" cried the voice Of the
commandant. .
"Advancels Advancer the officers re-
peated.
"Advancep' cried Aliochine, his soul
suddenly fired with a desire for ven
geance-the bestial instinct of destruc
ton; his step unfaltering, as he, too
mounted the fatal hill.
| At first he saw nothing; he was
stunned by the thunder of the battery
Intoxicated by the odor of blood and
powder which filled the air. But gradu
ally. the vision cleared, the smoke on the
| plain had scattered-before him was the
black front of the Kisil-Tapa belchinl
] fame.
The Turks their advantage
with stubborn heroism; the Russian.
battled to regain itwith furious courage
while behind the one and in front of the
other, @the blazing circle of the Russian
artillery toiled to position-indomitab
formidable and guarding with menacinf
mouth the daring madmen who sough
to climh~those inaccessible rocks-wht
did climb them to the internal music O
the cannons and guns, and a ceaseless
chorus of cries and human groanl
uniting in hymn of merciless devasta
ton.
To the left Of the hill long black lines
crept patiently and courageously-tht
attacking columns, One. of the line
crawled faster than the others; echo re
peated PARKWAY hurrah; a white CLOUD
rose above the crest of the rock-and thu
glided rapidly down the flank Of the hill
to vanish in the smoke of the plain.
Soon the smoke died away; anothel
line replaced the routed one; another
discharge, new losses, and yet without,
pause and with singular constancy, NOR,
human beings crept upward to encoun
ter. the same death.
On the other side Of the hill, from tn,
smoky plain, more lines and broade
ones crawled as steadily toward tn,
Kisil-Tapa-cavalry lines closing in t,
the attack, and beyond them, farthe
still, to the right of those emerald sum
mits, crowned now with smoke clouds
the tender blue of a cloudless heaven.
"And this was war! This was battlel'
and like flash there came befor,
Aliochine's memory, regarding the pict
ure before him, war and battle al
charted on the black-boards of the mill
tary school; platoons of soldiers in sym
metrieal squares, the infantry exactl,
aligned, the cavalry aligned beside them
the artillery aligned behind the cavalry
every thing correct, exact and neat as
pnew pin, Only. the professor forgot t.
mention in his eloquent and daily ex
plantations that his well-shaped square
were made up Of human lives. and tina
interesting battles poured out rivers 0
human blood.
The squares were not regular, nor tn,
infantry aligned in the scene befor,
Aliochine's eyes, and they moved with
out symmetry across that bloody plain
Halt"
The command ran through the -battery
I Aliochine refined in his horse an,
1fooked about him. They had stoppe,
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