The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1893-08-12

4Wh,t was the matter? Didn't the
old solo iers treat him well? Didn't they
seem to yearn for his society" asked the
grocery man as the boy was making a
lunch On some sweet crackers in q tin
canister.
"Well, they were not very much
mashed on Pa. You see, Pa never gets
tired telling us about how he fit in the
army. For several years didn't know
what sutler was, and when Pa would
tell about taking musket that dead
soldier had dropped and going into the
thiclsest of the fight and fairly moving
down he Confederates in swaths the way
they cut hay l thought he was the great
est man that ever was. Until / was II
years old thought Pa had killed men
enough to fill the Forest Home cemetery.
/ thou yht a mtler was something higher
than a general, and Paused to talk about
Il and Grant, and what Sheridan told
him, and how Sherman marched with
him to the sea, and all that kind of rot,
until wondered why they didn't have
pictures Of Pa on a white horse, with
epaulots on and sword. One day at
school told boy that my Pa killed
more men than Grant, and the boy said
he di,ln't doubt it, but he killed them
with commissary whisky.
ssThe boy said his Pa was in the same
regiment that my Pa was sutler of, and
his Pa said my Pa charged him $5 for a
centeen of peppersauce and alcohol and
called it whisky. Then began to in
quiro into it and found out that sutler
was sort of liquid peanut stand, and
that his rank in the army was about
The fame as q chestnut roaster on the
sidewalk here at home. 1t made me
eick, and never had the same respect
for Ia after that. Bnt Pa don't care.
Hc thinks he is hero and tried to get a
pension on account of losing piece of
his thumb, but when the officers found
be was wounded by the explosion Of a
can Of baked. beans they couldn't give
it to him. Pa was down town when the
veterans were here, and / was with him,
and saw lot of old soldiers looking at
PA, and told him they acted as though
they knew him, and he put on his glasses
and said TO one of them, How are you.
BiliY The soldier looked at Pa and
crlicd the other soldiers, and one said,
sThnts the old duffer that sold me the
bottle of brandy peaches at Chickamauga
for 33, and they eat hole through my
siulnInick.'
Another said: He's the cuss that took
f10 out of my pay for pickles that were
put up In aqua fortis. Look at the corps
badges he has on Another said: The
old whelpl He charged me 90 cents a
pornd for onions when had the scurvy
at Atlanta Another said: He beat me
out Of my wages playing draw poker
with . cold deck and the aces up his
sleeve. Let ms hang him. BY this time
Pas nerves got unstrung and began to
hurt him. and he said he wanted to go
home, and when we got around the cor
ner he tore of bis badges and threw them
IN the sewer and said it was all mans
lifo was worth to be veteran nowadays.
He didn't go down town again till next
dag, and when he heard q band playing
be would 80 around the block. But at
the sham battle, where there were
no veterans hardly, he was all right
with the militia boys, and told them
how he did when he was in the army.
! thought II would be fun to see Pa
run, and 90 when one OF the cavalry
fellows lost his cap in the charge and
wcs looking for il told the dragoon
Tint the pussy old man over by the fence
had stolen his cap. That was Pa. Then
told Pa that the soldier on the horse
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