Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1895-06-24
BRUIN JONES.

Captain, who was the best soldier
you ever knew?"
This question was propounded recent
" to Captain Bronaugh, the present
coal oil inspector Of st. Louis and man
who has seen enough of war to make
his Judgment in regard to soldiers worth
something.
"Well I hardly know" was the re-
ply, shut I can tell you very easily who
was the best fighter I ever knew"
whats the difference
There's a great deal of difference.
To be a good soldier one must have
courage, patience and endurance, disci-
pline and great many other things. To
be good fighter one only needs to have
plenty of the devil in him. I can't say
in regard to the best soldier, but the
best fighter I ever knew was undoubted-
ly man named Jones. have no idea
what his first name really was, but our
men all called him Bruin, for reasons
that I think you can guess when you
hear the story. He was member Of my
company, but / have no recollection Of
how Or when he joined us. The first
day remember ever to have seen him
was the 10Th of August, 1862, just the
day before the awful fight at Lone
Jack"
1t seems that on that date all the COM
panies in Lewis regiment were reor-
ganized, and that the voting for officers
was all done by ballot. When it came
to Bronaugh's company, every vote read
was cast for him for captain, except the
last one. To the surprise Of every one,
the last vote was called out in stentorian
tones:
The DEVIL"
At the announcement of this unex-
pected vote the men stared around at
each other in amazement
"Say," remarked the wit Of the COM
pany at last, "that fellow ought to have
better manners than vote for himself. !"
In the laugh that followed all the
company Joined, except Jones. He stood
stiff as a ramrod, with countenance
like that Of Mephistopheles, until the
laugh had subsidized, and then he re-
marked:
"He voted for blamed sight better
man than Bronaugh, anyway"
I think that the reader will concede
that when the captain compliments Mr..
Jones' fighting qualities it is not be-
cause Of any special personal friendship
for him. He was man Of about 80 years
Of age, below medium height, slender,
clean shaven, dark complexion, and was
very much like a hawk in the keenness
Of his eyes, the curvature Of his nose,
the musicalness of his voice and the
general amiability of his disposition.
The captain sums up the case by saying:
HE was soured on the world and all
the rest Of mankind. -
He was never known to agree with
anybody on any subject that could be
mentioned. The nearest he ever came to
1t was one day in camp, when the SOL
diers happened to be discussing the char
acter of Abraham Lincoln, and one Of
them forcibly expressed the opinion that
he was the greatest scoundrel that ever
lived.
"Yes!' exclaimed Jones, with pro-
fusion Of lurid language. There g only
one more contemplate hound in the
universe than Lincoln.
who's hep
JEFF Davis, he replied, with all the
whitening contempt he could crowd into
the words. From this speech it may be
imagined that while Mr.. Jones hated
the Union he did not adore the Confed-
eracy. The boys in camp suggested that
he wore the gray merely because he had
more men to shoot at than if he wore
the blue There was no duty too hard
for him, no night too cold or rainy for
him to stand guard, no fight too danger
GUS for him, provided only he was al
lowed to have his fill Of profanity and
abuse for the world in general Once
when it was limited that the artillery
was not strong enough to dislodge GER
tain battery belonging to the enemy,
some one suggested:
''Put old Jones up in front and let
him cuss at 'em. If that don't clean 'em
out, there's no use to try bombshells. "
He would not only curse the Federals,
but the Confederates also, the officers as
we'll as the men. Several times he was
known to knock his messmate down with
the fat side Of spade, and then il he
was so inconsiderate as to demonstrate
to threaten him with the edge. Owing
to such traits in him as these, the men
gradually grew unwilling to eat with
him, so that for months he was veri-
table hermit, though surrounded by men,
No one spoke to him or had anything Of
any kind to do with him when it could
in any way be avoided, and this seemed
to be exactly what he wanted. About
this time he was nicknamed "Bruin,"
not only ON account Of his bearike tenn
per, but also because the solitary figure,
squatting about by his campfire, eating
his own food and holding converse with
no one was very much like that Of i
bear Gagged by itself to prevent II from
injuring anything.
In this way things worked tolerably
smoothly for awhile, but before long