The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1896-01-08
CHAPTER XIV.

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'.To,U's The arm today Ellis"
A month later and Holden has his
wounded safely housed under the roof
of the hospital at old Pawnee, many
severely shattered or suffering great
pain. Many VIII bear TO their dying
dav melnentos Of that savage Decem-
her battle. Some of the twoscore are
doing very well; others perhaps have
done better, and are sleeping under the
flag. A busy man Is Holden, and very
proud one. as he has the right TO be, for
one and all the troopers love 10 speak If
him as their fighting sawbones." He
was in the thick of il al when the rush
Of the rearward mounted troops swept
into and through those fire splitting
lodges, and the lndians-warTiors.
squaws and children-were scattering,
fighting fiercely all tire way to the
shelter of the ravines among the bluffs.
Tireless as ever he and his assistants are
constantly at the bedsiCes of the wound
ed. So is the chaplain, one of the church
militant, whose ''souls in arms and
eager for the fray" for his friends of the
Twelfth are under two fires.
Calamity and well have they with
stood that which, with sudden treachery
at the hands of their savage foes, flashed
IN their very faces. But they have no
redress as against this-this civilized
lashing at their very backs. The par
TO the driveling sentimentality Of GER
tain misguided ecclesiastics far from the
scene Of conflict almost lifted old Ken
Won and his comrades out of their seats.
The major hugged his chaplain after
service and stopped TO shake hands with
him every time he met him during the
afternoon. In many pulpit east of tie
Missouri with fearful fervor was the
picture drawn of those helpless. plead
ing Indian mothers, those shrieking. ter
rifed little Indian babes, ruthlessly
slaughtered by brutal and infuriated
soldiery. Nor We're the clergy without
warrant for their bottom facts since
in some mysterious way the representa-
tives of the press, lowering about that
impersonal section of military anatomy
known as headquarters, Were flooding
the columns of their journals with para
graphs about the wanton killing Of wo-
men and children in the fight IN front of
the Twelfth
Holy joe" as the parson had been
termed. knew well the day when, in the
seclusion and simplicity of his seminary
life. he would have swallowed who'll
just such statements and turned up the
whites of his eyes in sympathetic horror
at the recital. But the man of God on
the banks Of the Merrimac and his
brother in the cross on the upper Mis-
sUuri see very different sides of the yex-
ing Indian question. Holy Joe" at
Pawnee this sparkling month of Janu-
AIRY was mad clear through at the indig-
mites and aspersions cast upon his blue
coated comrades. He wrestled with the
brethren 0f his cloth and downed them.
He even dared to establish a censorship
Of the press and TO keep from the hands
of his precious wounded those Journals
which had assailed the Twelfth.
He had had his hands full, poor fell
low. long before the wounded came, for
those We're dire DAYS and nights after the
news was flashed to the post and the
widowed aud fatherless in their Attic
ton were thrown upon his hands. Poor
Ms. Thorpe, All, she was only one Of
several. There was vailing among the
wives ana little ones down where once
the soldiers families We're 50 thickly
clustered. There were other households
il dread anxiety. There were wsmen
broken down with grief and sleepless
watching. There was one so III she
could not even now be told she would
never look upon the face cf her gallant
soldier again. But draw the veil. Ii
was on such bleeding hearts and on the
men who bore the brunt of the iiercest
fighting of the campaign that the lash
of press and pulpit fell.
BIT old Kenyon was in his element.
To the best and kindlicst OF men there is
in being able TO say Didn't | tell You
so: a JOY that surpasses the sweets CT
religious consolation. 1t was something
10 hear him declaiming among the artil-
lery and infantry officers during the
days that followed the announcement of
official investigation at the expense of
the Pawnee battalions. WHY. gentle
men" said he, Il have never ceased 10
thank God | didn't take the chance Tor
promotion that came IN the reorganiza-
ton twenty years ago. was one Of the
senior captains of infantry thea Icould
have got one of those cavalry vacarcies
Just rs well as not-been a yellow lraio-
ten years before the leaves dropped on
my shoulders in the blue; but if by any
chance / were ordered into the Dragons
today I'd swap out or quit for good.
From the time those BlOods and Piegans
got their deserved thrashing at the
hands of Tim Bakers battalion I've
known enough to steer clear Of Ii. You
know those facts as well as do. You
know those Indians had been numbering.
robbing, burning, pilaginy, for two
wears. You know how all Montana
begged and implOred General Sheridan
to put a stop to it. There WAS no catch
ing them until winter.-s nd then when
he sent those Second cs,.-.lry fellows up
there with orders 10 thrash sheoi out Of
them. what was the result: Didn't the
papers east and west turn TO and damn
him and them? Didn't they dub him
'Piegan Phil from that time forth: Nc.
sir, 10 cavalry service for lie. There's
only one thing harder than the knocks
that they have been getting for the last
twenty years on the frontier. and that's
the knocks they've had 10 bear at home
But toward the end of January the old
post was beginning to pluck mp heart
again, and TO the keen delight of Mrs.
Berrien and Winifred their particular
major was able TO drive with them.
bundled MP in his furs. and lollinS back
IN the cushions Of Berengaria's barouche.
as he termed his wife's comfortable car
rage, with that rejoicing matron by his
side distributing smiles and sunshine
and joyous mods Of recognition wherever
she weIt, everybody waving hand or har
or handkerchief as they bowled along. !