Blue-grass blade. [volume] (Lexington, Ky.) 188?-19??, 1892-01-02

willing to do this as a persona
matter, that trait of character ex
cites my repugnance.
] want to tell of two instance
of my life that most severely triet
my courage. One fthem 1 hav'
alluded to before in the Blade.
l was on the banks of the Sein,
in the great, and then imperial
city of Paris. A man as large q
| was was drowning in the: river
having gone in to commit suicide
as 1 afterward found. In tn
agonies of death he called TO
help.
There was not man in the city
that knew my name, and l knew
that if l were drowned no frien(
of mine would ever know what
became of me. l saw that nobody
else was going even TO try to save
him. / knew he was a French
m,n, and that under the mos
faserable circumstances / could
talk but little French.
l did not have time to take of
even my long tourists coat I had
to see and think all this in ten
seconds and I was so far from the
river that it would take a hard
run before I could get to the
waters edge. The expression "a
drowning man will catch at a
straw" flashed through my mind
as I jumped into the river, deep
enough to drown me the first
plunge. 1 swan for. the place
where I had last seen him 90
down believing he would catch
me with a death grasp, and be-
lieving the chances were at least
one out of two that he would
drown me. When l got to where
1 last saw him he was ''out of
sight" / swan around over the
spot, and finally saw the top of his
head l caught him in the hair and
pulled it above water. He did
not struggle or make any noise,
and ! was afraid he was dead,
then l started to swim to shore,
and I got there, and I had my
man. My own breath was so
nearly gone that I was almost
and could hardly get out
of the water, but I dragged my
man with me, and in that condi-
ton managed to draw him across
the gunwale of small boat with
his lead down, and the water
pour4 g out of his mouth, and 1
saw him draw a breath, and then
I stopped to take a breath, and
worked with him little more and
theI hw that he could breathe
pretty Nearly as well as I could,
and them l set him. up on q seat
of the boat, and We both painted
for breath. But after q while he
said "Alfrci, merci, mile fois
merci and 1 have never forgot
ten I'll French until this day. l
took at poor unhappy French
man home to his wife. She offerd
me a glass of wine, but / did not
take it. i was more afraid of that
little wine than of all the water
in the Sein. When I remember
how cowardly the newspapers de-
scribed me as acting the other
day, l can comfort myself by
thinking of the words of that
Frenchman, away on the other
side of the ocean in 1865.
These Christian people tell me
that after death the nations of the
earth will be brought to ,judg-
ment. If 1 shall be called upon
to plead my own case, I've got my
little speech ready. 1t will be
part English and part French. /
am just going to say this; "For
whosoever will savei his life shall
lose it; and whosoever will lose
his life for my sake shall find it."
''Merci, merci, mile fois mere"
And / will submit the case with
out another word.
But swimming for that man
was not the severest test of my
courage to which 1 was ever SUBJ
jected.
One exceedingly dark, but hot.
night during the war, /
was with the Confederate
wounded and dying and dead on
battle field, in a dilapidated old
log cabin, in a wilderness. There
was not a woman any where near,
and for the fevered and thirsty
wounded we had no icel and even
common spring water was hard
to get; it was so dry.
In the day time a drunken
Yankee soldier had met me in a
lonely place with nobody near us.
1 had no weapon. He cooked his
rifle, and / recollect it now
distinctly that l could see down
the muzzle of it that it was nice
and bright and in good order,
while he discussed the propriety
of killing me right there. I did
not argue the case with him, but
l remember distinctly that 1 did
not feel any great dread.
But about midnight a poor fel-
low who had a minnie ball hole
clear through him that had en-
tered almost at the center of his
chest and who died the second or
third day after, said "Oh what
would 1 give for some cold water" !"
l knew that down in deep ra-
vine some distance from the cabin