Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1892-04-28
HEARING A SHE'LL SCREAM.
A Hideous Sound That Tries the Nerves
of the New Soldier.

l Oh the new soldier.
The talk turned upon personal cour-
age in a conversation | had the other
day with an aid-de-camp of General
Alexander Hays. The veteran, who had
the name of being the most daring aid
on HAYS staff. said: You ask me how
1 felt when first smelled powder, so to
speak. Well, after the lapse of all these
years I'm almost ashamed TO tell you.
was panic stricken, scared out of my
senses. nv courage oozed out of me in
an instant, and small boy could have
captured me without trouble. This aw-
full experience came after | had been
about year in the army. The regi-
ment of infantry in which Twas was pre-
pairing to go into camp. Wewere few
miles outside of Yorktown, which was
in the possession of the Confederates,
but none of US, not even our officers,
realized the proximity of the enemy.
| There were some cattle with the army,
and some how or other some of my COM
rades and / were part of the crowd that
drove the beeves to the place where they
were to be slaughtered.
I'VE formed circle, sort of bull
ring, and fell to skylarking and firing
our pistols at the cattle as they ran
hither and thither. 1t was all laughter
and shouting. Suddenly, without the
slightest warning, a sound that we had
never heard before rose above the clamor.
1t was sort of whirring howl, lasting a
few seconds only, but long enough to
strike terror into our hearts. The men
who had been as gay and noisy as school
boys a minute before were dumb. !
don't remember how they behaved. My
own affairs kept me busy. felt as if
my boots were nailed to the ground.
| They wouldn't move. neither would my
legs-in fact had lost control of my
body. 1 was perfectly limp and M
knees sagged out.
| THAT was the first strange sound, rs
| of some hideous, deadly bird flying over
| head. l hardly realized, mind you, that
the enemy was shelling us. All knew
| for sure was that somehow my life,
which had enjoyed SO much a minute
before, was in danger. Iwanted to run,
but my legs wouldn't obey me. Two
| shells passed over me before l could
shake off the paralysis. Then ran as
never ran before or since, with profess
sional sprinter's speed, to the shelter of
the woods from which our regiment had
only just emerged. A second terror
seized me as / reached the first scatter
ing trees. had selected one, big fel-
low, as my refuge, and when reached
| it three other men who were crouched
behind it pushed me violently away,
saying there wasn't room for more
| Shells were still in the air, and with ter
ror pursued my flight. When at last
fell exhausted upon the ground beyond
the range of the enemy's artillery, 1 al
most lost consciousness for awhile.
Nobody was killed by those shells
but the 'Rebs' must have laughed to see
us run, and laughed louder yet when
our cattle ran into their lines as they
did. felt more or less uncomfortable
always in going into battle afterward,
but never again lost my nerve as did
at my fire baptism before Yorktown, ;,
Pittsburg Dispatch. osq
ait
Why We Have Leap Years-ilGrt,
Why is it that there have to bebleap
years-that all our years are not of hthe
same length? 1t arises from -the-fact
that the year does not consist of an ex-
act number of days. The length of the
day and that of the year are the meas
ures of the motions of the earth. The,
globe we live on moves in two ways. 7 It
turns itself around like spinning .tbp, I
and at the same time it foes steadily
forward like bullet shot from a guns
1t turns itself once completely around.
in twenty-four Of our hours. as shown BY
the clock; this amount of time we call a,
day. Its forward or onward motion
carries it around the sun in a path that
is nearly circle; the time it takes to go
completely around we call a year. The
first motion gives as day and night fol-.
lowing each other in turn (the word;
''day" here having -now a different
meaning namely nQti fMesliftIy sfe3ur
hours, but the time of daylight
The second motion gives us days (thati
is, periods of daylight growing gradual
ly longer and then gradually shorter,
one end yof, the earth turning more to-i
ward the sun for half the time and thf
either end fop tthesothdr half; and this
brings MS summer and winter and the.
Iseasofns 9'Now the length Of f9the year is
found to be nearly 1851 times the length,
of the day of twenty 5fppSE h9qrs;1 thsstJs
the year is 365 days long and nearly six
hours more. tits these )si& ih6hrs that
give us our leap years, and it is in the
'snearly" thaS I'VE ffial the reason for.
1900 not being one, of their NUMBER
Rev. George McArthur in st. Nicholas.
: ,2linM I,
CrippIes at the Capital.
Strangers in the capital express much
sI1rDrisa at the numher of crinD1es tO he