Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1893-12-02
A SENATOR'S SUPERSTITION.
why William IL. Bate Never Lights His
Cipar.

Cigar.
William B. Bate, twice elected Sena-
tor from Tennessee, never lights
cigar. He has always one in his fingers
or between his lips, but no match is
put to it. He is a familiar figure in the
upper chamber-his abundant snow
white hair, carefully-tended nous
tache of the same color, his stopped
form and lined face, with massive UNI
derhung jaw, making him marked in
an assembly of strong personalities.
His advocacy of the dry smoke" as
it is called, and his habit of using
twenty five-cent weeds as chewing to
bacco have continued for more than Il
quarter of a century. A story is at
tached. He is the last man in the
world whom one would suspect of SUI
perstition, but his avoidance of match
rs is due to that part of our natures
and to nothing else.
He entered the war as private when
his State seeded from the Union, and
rose through the successive grades of
lieutenant captain. lieutenant-coloncl.
colonel, brigadier and major-gcneral
He had a taste Of military life in the
Mexican war and embraced the first
opportunity to re-enter it. One day
towards the close of the long and bitter
struggle, when the two stars of the
ma or- general were on his shoulders.
his corps, which was n part of the
Army of Tennessee, was engaged in a
battle in the mountains. At that time
he was an invetcrate smoker. Always
cool in action, his cigar-case was as
much part of his makeup as his horse
and saddle. Along towards noon, when
the fire from the FederalS under IS
sault was particularly heavy and vic
ious, he moved up to an exposed posi-
ton in order to give countenance to his
men. His brother went with him.
Senator Uhcn GencraD Bate reached
for his breast pocket and took out a
cigar. He bit off the end with custo-
mary nicely, scratched a match on the
back of his saddle, and settled down in
his stirrups to enjoy himself.
There was shock in the air. the
nameless, indefinable stir produced by
the close passage of Il shell or round
shot, and the match within two inches
of the end of the weed went out.
Struggling his shoulders and preparing
to get another light, he glanced about
him. His brother, who had been sit
ting on his horse a little to the left and
in the rear, was Il corpse. The ball
had struck him in the chest and all
that Bate saw was a mixed mass Of
dead flesh ten feet behind. The horse
stood unmoved The man who was
alive looked at the unlighted match
between his fingers. He twirled it
slowly a moment and then rode TO the
rear for an ambulance. The cigar he
held in his hand for an hour or two
and slowly chewed into bits.
From that day to this he has never
known what 1t is to smoke Some
sense of an awful danger providently
avertcd has been with him. 1t is pos
sible that he has come to look upon
the lighting of Il cigar as Il dissertation
Of his brothers memory. Anyhow, he
does not light it. Day after day in the
Senate chamber or in the corridors of
the Capitol he may be seen with a
cigar in his hand that is frequently
carried to his lips, but it is unlt. When
it is worn down to a mere end he takes
another.-Washingto Post.