Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1890-12-15
The Soldier Tramp.

..Your honor pleads guilty; I'm hummer;
don't deny the Cop here found me drunk;
3 d,nt deny that through the whole long summer
The sun-warmed earth has been my only bunk.
haint been able for to get a living;
A man with one leg planted in the tomb
Can't get job-and I've a strong misgiving
Bout being cooped up in a Soldiers Home.
..where did lose my leg? At Spottsylvania-
PerbaEs you've read about the bloody fl ght-
But then 1 guess the story won't restrain you
From doing what the law sets down as right.
I'm not vac- through choice, but through misfortune
And rs for drink-well, all men have their faults;
And judge, guess I've had my lawful portion
OF rough experience in prison vaults.
81 served a. private in the Tenth New Jersey,
And all the boys'n say done what's right;
There amt a man can say that Abram Bursey
was ever found a Sinking in a fight.
Right in the frightful, hell-bon roar of battle,
Where shot and shell shrieked thro' the darksome
wood,
Right in front of the lannon's terrible rattle,
You'd always find me doing the best could.
eve had A brave old Teller for a colonel
We called him Sweety, but his name was Sweet
Why, Judge, swear by the Great Eternali
That brave old cuss would rather light than eat.
And YOU could always bet your bottom dollar
In battle Sweet would never hurt a tree,
He'd always push into the front and boiler,
sBrace up, my gallant boys, and follow me-
..WeH, Just afore the Spottsylvania battle,
Old Sweety came to me and says, says he:
Il tell you, Abe, faint many thingsn rattle
A tough old weather beaten cuss like me;
But in my very soul I've got feeling
That I'm going TO get a dose to-day,
And faint no use for me to be concealng
Al.
For weary years you've been my neighbour Bursey,
And I've always found you square and true
Back in our little town in old New jersey,
No one has got a better name than you.
And now want your promise squarelY given,
That if our cause to-day demands my life,
And YOU yourself are left among the living,
You'll take me back and lay me by my wife.
''wel, judge, that day, amidst the most Internal
And desperate bloody fight l ever seed,
Way up in front l saw the daring Colonel
Throw up his hands and tumble off his steed
In half a minute was bending DER him,
And seeing that lie wasn't killed outright,
/ loaded him up my back and bore him
Some little distance back out o. the fight.
1.-THE blood from out a CHASTITY wound was flowing
And so L snatched the shirt from off my back;
For L could see the brave old cuss was going
To die, unless 1 held the red tide back.
And pretty soon 1 seed he was reviving
And heard him whisper ABE, you've saved my life.
Your old wool shirt. along with your conniving,
Has kept me from that grave beside my wife,
swell Judge, while stood there beside him, schem-
ing
On how to get him in doctors care,
A ten-pound shell came toward us screaming
Just like raving demon in the air,
And when it passed, found myselfa lying
Across old Sweety's body and I see
That tarnal shell, that by went a flying,
Had took my leg along for company.
''We Judge that's all; 'cept when the war was over
found myself cripple, and since then
I've been a sort o. shiftless, worthless rover,
But jest as honest the most ofmen.
never stole dime from living mortal,
Nor never harmed a woman, child or
I've simply been a bum, and hope the cOurtn
Be jest as easy on as it can"
Then spake the Judge: ''Such helpless, worthless
creatures
Should never be allowed to bum and beg;
Your case, tits true, has redeeming features,
For in your country's cause you lost a leg.
And vet feel the world needs an example
To check the tendency of men to roam;
The sentence is, that all your life-your campm
Be the best room in my humble home.''
The soldier stared! Dumb! Silent as a statue!
Then, in a voice of trembling pathos said;
"Judge, turn Your head and give one look at you,
That voice is like an echo from the dead
Then forward limpod he, giving hand extended,
While adowa his Drowned checks did roll,
And said with slang and pathos strangely blended,
''why, Colonel sweety, darn your brave old soul"