The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-08-26
WRESTLING NAILS
Made 10000 Men Think the Yankees
Were Using Noiseless Powder.
From the Kansas CITY Times.

Were Using Noiseless Powder.
From the Kansas CITY Times
81 see" said the veteran, as he twisted
his feet up on the versnda railing and gazed
lazily at the sunset, that they are making
whole lots of talking in the newspapers
nowadays about smokeless aud noiseless
powder Why, we were talking about the
same thing when | was in Prices army.
You know we were away down in the
brush in South west Missouri, where we
were all cut off from the world, and couldn't
| get any news from the outside. Well, the
story got started somehow that the yankees
/ had invented new POWDER kind that
| burned with no smoke, no flash and no
noise. Pretty soon they were talking about
| it in every regiment, worrying over the
thing and reviviag the devilish ingenuity
| Of the yankee. There was nothing to talk
about. and you know how it is in a big body
| of idle men.
There was one fellow that took great
stock in the noiseless powder story. 1t
! bothered him all the time. This was Bill
| Oliver of Col Winston's Second Missouri.
Bill came from up here at Platte City. He
was blacksmith, a strapping great big
fellow. strong as a horse. He weighed, /
reckon, 200 pounds
"One black night Bill was put out in the
| brush on picket duty. Now, he was just as
| gritty fighter as you ever saw In line with
man on either side of him. but | tell you,
| my boy, set man out in dark thicket all
alone, and the enemy known to be near and
supposed TO be everywhere, it takes all the
starch out of the best OF them.
so Bill was trembly and shaky and saw
yankee sharpshoo ters everywhere.
Now, in the same regiment they had
| daredevil, harum-scarum fool-Reub Hill.
This Reub Hill was the kind of a specimen
an aari a1kh ac IL
joker. nuisance that everybody liked.
Here was rich chance for one of Reuben's
little jokes. Soon as Hill had got settled at
his post Reuben loaded his pocket with a
| dozen or so big wrought iron nails, and out
through the dark be circled to get in front
of the pickets. he hid in sassafras brush
about hundred feet from the big black
smith and looked out.
There was Bill tiptoaipg up and down
his beat like an elephant on q rickety
bridge, lodging and whirling every time
grasshopper chirped or a horse back in the
camp snorted. He was getting badly scared.
Reuben picked up right ragged nail and
flung it just as hard as he could jerk.
You know what vicious screeching O
nail makes when you throw it that way?
No mimic ball ever sounded wickeder. 1t
goes:
'Whi-u-u-u-ur
Poor Bills heart stopped with big
thump like sledge hammer, and Reuben
| away off in the thicket heard him catch his
breath as if some one had dropped a bucket
Of ice water on him. His big bulk dropped
in the weeds like a sack Of sand, and for
about a minute there was not the sound of
breath. Then the big picket muttered
shakily: 'Sho, I'm gettin' skeery as a
woman with thinkin' Of them Yanks an
their new-fangled POWDER And he got up
and began warily to walk his beat.
Reuben let go another of mis- nails, and O
third just as quick as he could throw.
They went whirring bloodthirstily toward
William, and one of them ripped through
the leaves over his head, scattering twigs
| and bits OF leaf all about.
There was no doubt about 1t this time,
and big Bill, as he let his musket off lively
| in the air, charged for camp, suffering,
putting, yelling, tearing up weeds and sod
| and bolting into trees His trail looked like
the track of young cyclone. Into the
| camp he plunged, over men and tents,
| musket stacks and cook trenches. It's an
actual fact that he ran over little foraginR
pony that was tied to a tree and couldn't
| get out of the way, Knocked the poor beast
| down and crippled it for week. His head
way was terrific. He finally brought up
| full tilt against a tough little hickory
sapling, which he ran down like moose
landing up in the leafy top with his hands
| clawing at the boughs.
He walked every man in the regiment.
| Down the line went shouts aud bugle calls.
| Within ten minutes every one of Prices 40, .
| 900 men was in line of battle, staring into the
darkness for the enemy's advance guard
listening for the purr of their silently fired
bullets.
"Of course the enemy did not come, but
the men lay on their arms all night
Reuben was too tickled over the way
Bill tore through the brush to keep quiet.
| Next day every man in the army had the
story. But 1t did not take we'll with the
officers A corporars guard came after
Reuben and put irons on him, and this little
joke was ponderously considered by q court
martial. That afternoon came news of the
enemy in deadly earnest, and Price set out
on one of bis long, forced marches. Reuben
went along He took with him, by special re-
quest of ne court-martial, a full-sized
black oak fence rail, soggy with SAP de
was charged carefully not to lose that rail
for three days.
1.-THE first day. said the disconsolate
joker after it was all DONE that rail felt
neavy. just like an ordinary rail. Next
day it felt like whole tree. but, nv! on
the next day thought was carrying the
woods
1T is still an open question among the
boys of Winston's regiment whether the
joke was on William or Reuben -
IT IS DOUBTFUL il the record of early expendi-