Connecticut western news., 1895-05-30
BRUIN JONES.

Captain, who was the best soldier you ever knew?"
 This question was propounded recent ly 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, "but can tell you very easily who was the best fighter ever knew"
 Whats the difference?'
 "There's 8 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. can't say in regard ta the best soldier, but the best fighter ever knew was undoubted- ly a man named Jones. I 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 tho 18th of August, 1862, just the day before the awful fight at Lone Jack. !"
 It 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 devill'
 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 subsided, and then he re- marked:
 ''He voted for blamed sight better man than Bronaugh, anyway"
 think that the reader will concede that when the captain compliments MT. Jones' fighting qualities it is not be- cause of any special personal friendship for him. Hewas man of about 30 years of age, below medium height, slender, clean shaven, dark complexion, and was very much like hawk in the keenness of his eyes, the curvature of his nose, the musicalness of his voice and the general suitability 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 diershappened 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
 "Yesp exclaimed Jones, with pro- fusion of lurid language. There's only one more contemptible hound in the universe than Lincoln.
 Who's he?'
 Jeff Davis, he replied, with all the whitening contempt he could crowd into the words. From this speech it may be imagined that while MT. 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 ous for him, provided only he was al- | lowed to have his fill of profanity aud abuse for the world in general Once when it was hinted that the artillery was not strong enough to dislodge a ccr- 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 well as the men. Several times he was known to knock his messnnate down with the flat side of 8 spade, and then if he | was so inconsiderate as to remonstrate 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 "Bruip, ' not only on account of his bearlike 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 c bear caged by itself to prevent it from injuring anything.
 In this way things worked tolerably moothly for awhile, but before long Captain Bronaugh and his men decides
 that if it could be done they would lik
 very much to get Bruin transferred t
 some other company. There were jus
 two difficulties In the way of this. l
 the first place, no captain who kneN
 him very well would consent to talk
 him, and, in the second place, if Brui
 knew that Bronaugh and his men di
 not want him he would insist mos
 strenuously on staying. Both these diff
 culties were circumvented by a littl
 stracegy. In the company of Captai