The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1895-05-31
A TRUTH SEEKER.

OF FRANCE, OF freueGlCk DaTDhrOssa vi
Germany, or Richard OF the Lion Heart
They are now in the spirit world ant
have been for 700 years, more or less. ]
can { Just recall their numbers.
The medium went through the usua
form required by the spirits in such
cases and said:
IL find that the gentlemen you wan
are all talking now, but there is :
young man at Richards instrumen
who says no would like to communicate
with you.
"All right" said the seeker after
truth, maybe he will do There is
| little matter want explained, and he
can do it as well as anybody. What !
want to know is how on earth the peo-
pie got along in the days of sheet iron
armor when the snow and the cold
winds came "
Then there was scratching on the
slate, and tho medium handed it over to
the truth seeker 1t read
"Goodl That's Just what l want to
tell you. My name is Ichabod Potts l
lived on earth in the twelfth century
! and was with Richard the Lion Hearted
/ and Frederick Barbarossa and Philip Au-
gustus In the crusade that lasted from
1889 to 1892, and I'm the man you
want to see. There's lot about that
crusade that history has botched up. In
the first place, we called Richard Our
Dick, and Frederick, Reddy, and Philip
oh, we called him several unoompli-
mentary things Do you want the story?
Let me know at once how many words,
Let her go, said the truth seeker as
| he looked over the slate and arranged
with the medium for the use of the line
all day.
"Well," began the slate, las l said,
am lchabod Potts, yeoman. | left
London in / 1888, or such matter, to go
to Jerusalem with Our Dick. The boys
always called him that Just before
war Several thousand of us pulled out
and marched across country in the fall
and got down into southern France for
the winter, and by good luck got through
that winter without misfortune. Then
we fiddled around France and Italy and
Germany, drumming up a crowd, when
the fall of 1889 found us over in Aus
tria, with lot of Dagos. Dick got gay
one day and ordered lot of the Eye
Italian armor-a job lot, with automatic
clasps and lot of duplex levers and
swivels that he was mighty proud of.
He kept us drilling in those old base
burners all fall, and Reddy-him they
call Frederick Barbarossa in the book
looked on mighty jealous, for his men
only had one dog chain armor that
| It1p nIunk y1ittar nnthino
Its only advantage was it was comfort
able. Well, to make q long story Of
magazine length, the winter of 1889
came on-you remember of course the
cold winter-but of course you don't
Well, it was fearfully cod-rained all
December and took the stove polish off
them armors and rusted EN- up some
And then ON the Sth of January there
was the worst blizzard on the 20 years
record of the University of Vienna. The
hinges of them automatios were wet
and rusty. and. by Johnnie, when we
got up the morning of the 9th, we had
to thaw EN- out to get 'em on. 1t kept
getting colder and colder, and at 10
O'Clock Thursday morning it began to
snow Say. but it did blow and snow
Dick, he had some tin ear muffs and
didn t care cent for the cold, so he or
dered the boys out for dress parade.
at was awful The snow drifted into
the crevices of their breastplates and
leg guards and iron shoes till every man
was walking snow blockade. But
Dick wanted to make the Dutch dog
chain armor look sick, wanted to show
DalI .l,nf Id Sob Lac 90
good for all kinds of weather, sort of
general purpose armor, and he put us
through the Knights Templars' drill.
and the fire drill, and the X. of p, and
the Sicilian circle, and the cheat or.
swing, and the ring around the rosy,
and all the rest of it, But | saw old
Reddy, who was looking on, wink the
other eye, and one of his head men rode
off to our camp. say noticed this at
the time, but didn't think Of it until
after.
well, the rime frost was a-gathering
on their breastplates and arm covers
and sheet iron helmets and hauberks Of
our n an inch deep, and the thermome.
ter was getting down deeper and deeper
in the tube When we broke ranks and
went back, you could see the steam
come up from under them iron breast.
plates and through the bars in our
visors like the steam comes out of the
manhole of q sewer on cold morning
1t was awful The snow had drifted
through the slashes in our boots, and
we had to empty 'em out before the
track was open.
The slate was read and erased. and
the pencil began again:
II was pulling through an extra deep
cut going back to camp when | spies a
lady who had on one of tho new high
hats they were wearing that winter
| Old Dick, he was going on ahead Of
me. and saw him bracing up to make
killing. He felt hurriedly all over his
armor to see that it wasn't wrinkled
nor unbuckled any place-he was such
a skeezicks among the women that way
and as she went by he tipped his
hand mp to his iron helmet that was
covered with an inch of frost, and az
he started to salute her the hand didn't
come Froze fasti And the lady, she
huns as she passes, Where Did You
Get That Hat?' thought the Lion
Heart would just burst his breastplate,
he was that mad. But he pretended
that was the way he always done, says
the best people was all doing that way
holding their fingers to their helmets
after saluting lady. l didn say moth.
ing 1t wasn't my cue to come in. So
just helped the old man up the palace
steps and pulled out to tell the boys"
A new slate was brought, and the mar
rative went ON.
well, sir, when got there, what do
you s'pose found? Weather cold. mind
you, way down to 30 degrees below and
still a-dropping. found that whole |
blamed army of English crusaders in
their job lot base burner armor leaning
up against one another, not able to |
budge-f There they was, a-whooping and |
hollering for some one to come and take |
the base burners off n 'em, but not NOV. |
ing an inch. They couldn't They had
perspired ON the road and melted some
of the snow, and that. with the rust of |
the night before. had froze tight as a
rock. They oouldn I move, or they d fall
over.
There they stood stacked up like
fire sale Of old iron, and the snow drift
ing in and packing down harder in the
cracks OF the armor plate every minute.
was still In working order. SO 1 sets
out to find the blacksmith. When
found him, he was silly drunk, a.drop-
ping the last monkey wrench on the
whole European continent into hole in