Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1895-03-28

aSoTat the 18th; then came the success
sion of billiards that cut communica-
ton almost entirely and caused a wall
of dismay from the shopkeepers of
Butte, most of whom had laid in goodiy
stores of toys and trinkets for the de-
lectation of their best customers, the
people out at the fort. The stage had
to be taken off, and for days the mails
were carried to and fro in saddle. The
doctors, senior and junior, found
plenty to do at the fort and little to
tempt them elsewhere, SO their visits
to Morgan became infrequent. There
was just one man at the post whom no
gale could daunt, no storm could con-
quer, and that was Schramm.
Every one knew that Morgan was
slowly growing feebler. ''He ought to
have gone to the Hot Springs long
ago." said the doctor, ''but now it is
too late" He could not stand the jour
ney without special attendants and
accommodations, and those were
things he could not, and Uncle Sam
would not, pay for. Knowing that he
would have nothing to leave, and deem
ing him near dissolution, his creditors
were bounding him again. If he lived,
the fifty dollars per month would grad
udl4Y pay G1CM OuG IL hO O1CO
there was nothing; hence the renewed
clamor for immediate settlement. The
weather was bitter, the little house
cold and draughty, fuel was horribly
expensive, and there was the veteran
dragon, a helpless cripple, looking
death in the face and imploring him
yet little while to hold his hand, not
that the broken-spirited soldier might
recover his strength-he was past all
that-but that he might linger on even
in labor and sorrow, that with his
annuity he might save his children
from utter restitution. Hours he sat
in loneliness, for it was impossible,
save at rare intervals, for his old com
rades to reach him now. He wondered
how Connie could sing SO hap
PLY about the house. Surely
she and Bertha, the middle-aged
maid-of-all-work, had accomplished
wonders with the little sum he
could devote to household ex-
penses. Lot and Billy looked hearty
and rosy and well-fed and clothed
when they came tumbling noisily in
from school. Comics sweet face and
slender form were rounded. The dark
circles under the big brown eyes were
gone. Here he was, hardly daring to
eat, thinking how soon they might be
| left without bite, sup or cent. Yet
Connie smiled and sang, and was pick
| ing up little household words and
phrases in German, and blushing1y &C
| costed Schramm in his native tongue
when Schramm came, as he rarely
failed to come, twice, thrice, or oftener
during the week, to pay his respects to
the gnadige Frau1ein, and to see what
he could do for the Herr Rittmeister,
who, ever since the day of the Thorn
tons coming, had vainly protested
against the further use of the name
Schramm, had insisted that the time
had come for the German sergeant to
| drop his punctilious observance of the
| Difference due all superior officers, and
had informed Connie that he should be
| addressed as Herr Won Rhetz; but it
was all to no purpose. Schramm for
babe. 81 left my name with my past
when came to enlist in this army"
said he. ST had to win a future for
myself, and so took my mother S name
meantime. Call me by that SO long as
I wear the blue Indeed, he couldn't
bear to have the gnadige Fraulein adj
dress him as sergeant" at all. He
said that from the first he loved to
|
the combination that finally gave ut
terance to Sch-r-r-ramm. There could
be no question that he loved to watch
her lips, no matter what she might be
saying, and small blame to him either.
But out at Ransom Schramm was
becoming a notability in earnest.
Despite his plea to Col. Thornton to
keep secret as yet the story of his diff
| ference with his stern old father, his
| retirement from the German service,
his practical Punishment from home,
and then the proffered forgiveness and
reconciliation, there were SO many
suspicious that the Thorntons were
piled with questions they could not al
together dodge. Everyone knew by
this time Schramm had money in
plenty, and that it was deposited in a
German bank in the east. ''Yes," said
Thornton, ''that was his mothers for
tune, which had become his own" but
the colonel refused to tell more, saying
the soldier had perfect right to serve
out his time as Schramm and nothing
else. Everybody saw, however, the
courtesy and distinction with which
the Thorntons, father and son, treated
him-Perry, in fact, waxing hot and
wanting to fight an ill-conditioned,
cross-grained subalterD who sneered
| at him. Schramm's box was kept in
the vault of the First national now,
where the cashier and other officials