Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1894-06-14

sun did blaze and glare! Was there
any water in the world? any cool spot
under these copper skies?
Night came at last, and the worn
out, tortured creature dropped to the
ground to roll and moan like a
wounded beast, and to dream dreams
of the cool springs and brooks back in
the hills of New England. The prowl-
ing skulkers of the night came near
and shifted at him, only to fly at the
sound of his strange husky meanings.
So the night went, and the relentless
sun rose up once more to torture man
and earth. In dim way, like a man
drugged, he seemed to know he must
push on, and he moved out into the
white heat of the plain, staggering
weakly, and waving the gun he still
chung to, until his feet walked mechan-
ically into a beaten trail that his eyes
did not see nor his mind grasp. On and
on he staggered, growing weaker and
more indecisive, and then he dropped
in the hot plain with faint, signing
gasp, and the world slipped away from
him.
And when the SHOWS had whitened
the Sierras and had thrown the mantle
of their white charity over plain and
mesa, canyon and arroyo, they fell like
a benediction upon the pile OF whiten-
ing bones that lay in the trail in the
Tulerosa valley, adding another mys-
terry to the desert, and indicating that
another man had passed on in death to
oblivion.
When Corporal Franklin and Private
Mcguire rode out into the desert they
carried with them certain government
property borne on the accounts of Capt.
Bancroft, to wit: two troop horses, two
saddles, two curb bits, brides and
reins, two pairs of leather saddle bags,
two lariats, two picket pins, two nose
bags, two horse blankets, two Sharps
carbines. two Remington revolving
pistols, and other accoutrementS.
These properties must be accounted for
satisfactorily, or the sleepless priest of
red tape in Washington would stop the
captains pay until satisfaction was
given, and then the captains wife and
babies must suffer.
The death of his men in action with
Indians, or their desertion, would cover
the loss of property and take it off
Capt. Bancroft's accounts. If the men
were killed in action, the place where
the fight and death took place must be
duly reported, with such particulars as
to interment and SO on as are custom
airy in the service. The articles of war
define clearly the conditions that
make deserter, and these two men
were absent from the colors beyond the
time laid down in the regulations.
Clearly they were deserters, and, as
the government property went with
them, thieves. Deserters and thieves!
And SO across the muster-rolls of
Company K, of the Twelfth cavalry,
appeared the final military record of
the men who had persisted in the des-
ert: ''Dese rted in the field, en- route
fro m Camp Bancroft to Fort Wingate.'.
While the whitening bones in the des-
ert will attest the valor and glory of
two dead and forg often heroes until
they crumbie to dust, the yellow rec
ords in the temple of red tape will tell
to some curious searcher Of the future
that Henry C. Franklin and John Ma
guire were deserters and thieves.
Is it not well that there is One who
sees and knows all? For SO passeth the
glory of the world.-Harper's Weekly