The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1890-04-01

sill. lie was a good scholar. marched
] well, 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, haiti" rose the voice of Lit
| vinof They stopped with dull rumble,
heavy shock.
What is it nOlcr" demanded Aliochine
of a soldier near him, with vague pre-
sentiment of something terrible.
1T is the wounded. Lieutenant; they
ere bringing them in
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
cortege headed by an old man. a saber-
cut in his neck, his shirt unbuttoned,
around his throat the red circle of gap
ing wound. His eyes were staring:
low grooming 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
a litter lay young sub-otficer: in place
of an arm he had but a bleeding rem
nant of flesh and cloth.
God" thought Aliochine, IA few min
utes more. and may be thus
And be moved aside to give room to
some thing carried in a bloody cloak.
The Major" cried voice from the
ranks
What battalion?"
The third.
His Own battalion, his own Major. who
had received him so cordially on his ar
rival in camp, Could that be the Ma ior's
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 reproachfully: ''Ah, il
was you who wished TO know war. Very
well, you have seen lido you admire
it?''
The Major passed: new corpses and
new wounded followed him, pale visages,
fading glances. dismembered bodies
but Aliochine saw only those two glaz-
yesterday. which lJoked him to-day with
mute reproach.
Second battery! where is the second
battery?" cried at his ear despairing
voice.
Reused from his lcthargy. Aliochine
turned and saw an orderly whom dust
and sweat had made black, hurriedly
talking to Commandant Litvinof. lie
caught but the closing words TO the
death-hold it, and the orderly, like
the courier, was gore. straight at the
hill into the flying shells, to lose himself
in cloud of smoke.
At the same instant, shell burst be-
hind the battery. and the neighbor to
the right of Aliochine was numbered
with the dead.
Advance cried the voice of the
command mt.
advance! Advance the officers re-
peated.
advance" 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.
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 belching
flame.
The Turks maintained their advantage
with stubborn heroism; the Russians
battled TO regain it with 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 menacing
mouth the daring madmen who sought
to climb those inaccessible rOcks-who
lid climb them to the Internal music of
the cannons and guns. and ceaseless
chorus of cries and human grOans
uniting in hymn of merciless deyasta-
ton.
To the left of the hill long black lines
crept patiently and courageously-th
attacking columns. One of the lines
crawled faster than the others; echo re-
peated PARKWAY hurrah: white cloud
rose above the crest of the rock-and the
Dlack llne- broken INTO ntJle PARTICLES.
glided rapidly down the flank of the hill
TO vanish in the smoke of the plain.
Soon the smoke died away: another
line replaced the routed one: another
discharge. new losses, and yet withOuta
pause and with singular cOnstancy, more
human beings crept upward TO encoun-
ter the same death. f
On the other side of the hill, from the
smoky plain, more lines and broader
ones crawled as steadily toward the
Kisil-Tapa-cavalry lines closing in to
the attack, and beyond them, farther
still, to the right of those emerald sum-
mits, crowned now with smoke clouds,
the tender blue of cloudless heaven.
"And this was war! This was battle!"
and like a flash there came before