The Dupuyer acantha. [volume] (Dupuyer, Mont.) 1894-1904, 1896-01-16
A S~'TASESMAN'S STORY.

milne has been a varied life. 1t has
had it's successes as well as it es-
capes."
The speaker was a congressman of
some fame; a congressman whose
geography and sentiments were of the
SouAh. Southern.
among the latter" he continued. II
might record what follows. 1t shows
how l owe a life to Gen. Wheeler:
when the war broke out on this
people like a storm l was a boy of per-
haps a dozen years. My father had
chosen to be a resident of Kentucky
strongly tinctured; deeply streaked
with rebellion. l sympathized with
the South in her efforts to have her
own way. | was a warm SecesSioniSt,
and ever as a child l had but one am
bition. and that was to destroy this
nation. | wanted to tear h country
in two in the middle and leave 1t OF
both sides of the trail of history.
ut was even so. In 1861 Jefferson
Davis had no more inveterate auher-
ent; the South no stronger supporter
so far as sentiment might 60, than l
at the ripe age of twelve.
ut befell, however, that my father
did not share the violence of my
views. His convictions had, no doubt,
a Southern leaning; his hopes a South
ern hue; but he concealed these facts
with a mask of silence, and, like many
another of that day, waited discreetly
to give the cat a chance to jump.
MY father cautioned me against a
too fearless freedom in exposition of
my rebel feeling. He also-albiet prob
ably from no prudential r~easons-dis-
patched me to II of the small in
terror hamlets back from Louisville,
to be in attendance on a grammar
school of considerable local celebrity
to the end that l be educated and
ready to take my part in h war of
existence later on.
AT his interior village about the
only public improvement to be dis
cerned was a rude stOckade of green
timbers made by the handful Of enter
prising Yankees who garrisOned it.
These representatives of the enemy
made of this stockade a sort of a eta
del. from which coign they ran the
udlilct anu IL tOISlueldDlc pdtcl VI Tie
country hard by.
"Of course | loathed and hated this
huddle Of Yankees as became a youth
of my bent, and desired them to he
heir to all kinds of disaster.
zone day d sharp rattle of small
arms sent its echoes through the
school. The joyful word went around
that the Confederate forces had ar
rived, taken the stOckade and driven
the villain invaders from our suffering
midst. That was enough to wind uI
school for the day. With the rest OF
the scholars | rushed to the scene OF
action to revel in our victory.
when / got there l found the goOG
news true. The dark Yankee had beef
spurned forth from the hateful pail
sades, and the Confederate troopers OF
which there were w companies, Were
eagerly trying to burn the defenses
The enterprise was failing Profound!
because of the green nOn-burnabl,
character of the wood. / drew near t,
give the business the encouragement
of my cOuntenance, possibly the ad
vantage of my advice.
"As came up a rebel trooper tosse,
me the reins of his horse.
"'Here, Bud he said, hold m,
horse a minute until l see If l can
. get "A blaze to gOin'.'
Il was nothing backward in thi
d. service, which had something mani,
, and patriotic about 1t, and so Will
my patron of the cavalry split kindlini