Owingsville outlook. [volume] (Owingsville, Ky.) 1879-192?, 1892-09-07

ments than You have done IN the past.
Mr.. Drake" he said to his aijutant,
who was tripping around after MS
chief afoot. ''call on Mr.. Wsri..e ,o sx-
plain his absence in writ, ami : nh
out delay. This Indifferent 20 duty
is something to which a,u utterly un-
accustomed. continued Ersxtou gain,
addressing Cram, who r-'rssrv.G a most
uncompromising serenity of counter
ance: and with this parting shot thu
colonel turned gruffiy away and soon.
retook his station at the reviewing
point
Then came the second hitch. Minor
had had no experience whatever, as
has been said, and he first tried to
wheel into column of companies with
outclosing ranks, whereupon every cap
tain promptly cautioned STAND fast, :"
and thereby banished the last remnant
of Minors senses. Seeing that some
thing was wrong. he tried again, this
time prefacing with "Pass in review"
and still the captains were implacable.
The nearest one, in a stage whisper,
tried to make the major hear .'Close
order, first" But all the time Bra4
was losing more of his temper and
Minor what was left Of his head, and
Brax came down like the wolf on the
! fold, gave the command to Close
order" himself, and was instantly
echoed by Grams powerful shout Linn
Der to the rear" followed by pieces
left about. Caissons forwardr' Then, in
the rumble and clank of the respond
ing battery, Minors next command
was heard by only the right wing of
the battalion, and the company wheels
were ragged. So was the next part of
the performance when he started to
march in review, never waiting. of
course, for the battery to wheel int7
column of sections. This omiss OF
however, in no wise disconcerted
Cram, who, following at rapid walk.
soon gained on the rear of column.
passing his post commander in beauti-
full order and with most accurate salute
on the part of himself and officers. AID |.
observing this, Minor took heart, aad,
recovering his senses to a certain ex-
tent gave the command Guide lefe'
i'm abundant time to see that the new
guides were accurately in trace, there
by insuring what he expected to find q
beautiful wheel into line to the left,
the commands for which movement he
gave in louder and more confident
tone, but was instantly nonplussed by
seeing the battery wheel into line to
the right and move off in exactly the
opposite direction from what he had
expected. This was altogether too
much for his equanimity. Digging his
spurs into the TANKS of the astonished
sorrel. he darted off after Cram, waving
his sword. and shouting:
Left into line wheel, captain. Left
into line wheel"
plain matters. .linor presumed that
the artilleryman had made an actual
blunder and was only enabled to cor
rect il by a countermarch. and SO rode
back to his position in front of the cen.
ter of the reforming line, convincet'
that at last he had caught the batter,
commander.
When Braxton. therefore. came
down to make his criticisms and com
ments upon the conduct of the review
Minor was simply amazed to find this
instead of being in error Cram bad
gone exactly right and as prescribe
by his drill regulations in wheeling tx
the right and gaining ground to thk
rear before coming up on the line. III
almost peev:shly declared that hi
wished the colonel, If he proposed
having a combined review, would as
sumo command himself, as he didn't
care to be bothered with combination
tactics of which he had never had
previous knowledge. Being of the
same opinion, Braxton himself tool
hold, and the next performance
though somewhat erroneous in man,
respects, was a slight improvement Or
the first, though Braxton did not give
time for the battery to complete One
movement before he would rush it in
to another. When the officers Assem-
bled to compare notes during the res,
after the second repetition, Minor
growled that this was "a little better
yet not good" which led to some one
suggesting in low tone that the major
got his positives and comparative
worse mixed than his tactics, and I'm
! quiring further whether it might not
be well to dub him Minor Major. u
The laughter that followed this sally
naturally reached the cars of. the
seniors. and so Brax never let ND on