Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1890-10-06

an old tobacco barn that stood on q side
hill, and the commissary took charge of
it. Pardon my going into detail this
way, but when | see bureau Just pant
ing for private information | hike to load
il up. and only wish that the American
people would Join me in this praise
worthy endeavor.
''The liquor was extremely rocky,
guess; but that's neither here nor there.
The silence of night gathered about the
sleeping encampment and tired nature
soon yielded to overpowering fatigue.
All was silence along the misty line of
slumbering forms. save the near by
crunching and grinding of provender by
the jaded horses or the distant report as
some faithful picket discharged his duty.
''Then all was silent again.
canon the day breaks, and with it a
wild, mellow howl from Company G.,
knownas the Sparkling and bright-in-its-
hquid-light company; also the tee
totlers. This was calculated to be sar-
castle because they had painted every
southern state a bright red barring
Texas, and that was too big for their
stock, so they run out of paint.
ven. IutSt ItlltTS WERE Ill extremely
full, and they went on to state that they
were glad of it. They had been heard
| to speak disparagingly of the rebellion
several times, and to say also that if they
were home again they would be almost
! willing TO let the colored man break his
| own fetlocks in such style rs he might
deem proper. They said great many
| things about the Inconvenience of being
chased and shot at for two days running
! by an Infatuated foe at $t3 per month
| and find ones self.
Later on we ascertained that the
liquor had been secured by incendiaries,
who had stolen two barrels out of three,
| and almost out from under our noses.
This very naturally Infatuated our Off
GERS, who had had only one or two big
drinks out oft so far, preferTing to wait
day or two in order that it would have
more age. | tasted of it myself once, so
| was told by friends who held my head
all the day afterward. l couldn't help
thinking at the time that if this sort of
liquor was general in the south, piracy,
treason and the use of cuspidors in the
sanctuary ought not to be looked upon so
severely as they would where less
malignant style of rum was in general
circulation.
well, to make long story short, Mr..
Census Burro, was selected to guard
the remaining barrel that night. put
it up on a trestle, locked the doors and
laid down alongside the trestle in nv
blankets and waited for day. / kept
awake for probably an hour, though it
seemed to me like year Then the
crickets sounded further and further
away, and that was all, for was tired
Oh, sir, | was indeed very tired. |
wasn't doing regular guard duty. recol-
lect, Burro, but sort of ypl7Dteer police
duty.
along about o'clock, / should say,
was woke up by sharp pain in my
person and with shrek of agony which
was heard distinctly by loyal neighbors
of mine in. Montreal. who said that it re-
minded them of the shrek made by Free
dom at the time when kosciusko fell,
stood in the middle of the floor wrapped
in my own sad thoughts and an army
shirt which did not extend to the close
of the war by any means.
CAS- darted away from what seemed
to be the sting of an overgrOwn hornet,
such as one might run across while ram
bling through Satan's preserves. saw in
the uncertain light the retreating bit of
a two-inch auger. Then l could make
ont dimly large collection of anger
holes distributed around over the floor,
evidently in a vain search for spirits, and
below l heard the football of escaping
cplliar-H- fhar- fall aarh hay
their efforts to escape
1.-The whisky was saved, and in one of
the battles which occurred soon after
ward | think it won US the day. for our
colonel was so i'll natured because of the
head he had upon him on that day that
before any one could pacify him he
rushed in and killed quite lot of the
enemy, thus weakening them and turn
ing their flank wrong side out, which
we took advantage of, and it gave us the
victory.
But have never been the same man
since | was 50 horribly bored. never
feel sure of my victuals unless of the
very coarsest character, and | suffer
great pain at times. What cannot un-
derstand is that so many people regard
the whole matter as mirth provoking.
Even quiet, sensible old people who are
not at all frivolous give themselves up
to paroxysms of laughter when tell my
sad tale. Why should old silver haired
people whose bloom has been rubbed off
for many a year let off peal of laughter
because my pancreas is weather beaten
and the night air whistles through my
thoracic ducts?
81 have put in all the testimony that
anybody need to, think, regarding the
case, and have swore to everything that
my attorney has besOught me to swear
to. For six months my right hand was
in the air all the time. it seemed to me,
and my neighbors ali have been real
good ab0nt swearing to things. | have
changed works with some of them that
way, swearing to their things, ,you see,
where they was old comrades like, and
they swearing to mine in return.
Zone man-fn never forget his kind
ness to me-swore that ne was at the
anger when it struck me. He gave the
date and everything, all the circum-
stances regarding the case, and said that
after midnight they had invested some
TWO LnOuSlnu auBer nOleS IN the 11OOr
and extended them into the atmosphere
above, when he was called upon to act.
He said he took the anger with heavy
heart, but made "a last appeal, hoping to
bore into the barrel and fill washtub
which was held in place by two sad
eyed boys. who had been whooping of it
up the night before and so pinned now
for something to moisten their mouths,
which, rs they expressed it, had flavor
which reminded them of basket of
pups.
'He said he all at once heard yell,
which turned the hairspring in his
watch perfectly white. He jerked the
anger out, and. according to his sworn
testimony, ON the end it had frag-
ment of an old army shirt and birth
mark which he recognized, saying to
those about him, My Godi we have
bored intothe commissary's assistant; let
us begone without delay
..After such testimony as this thought
I would ONLY have to establish my own