The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1897-07-15
THE FATAL UNIFn RM.
COLONEL SEXTON TELLS HOW Mt
CHANGED HIS LIFE.

i The Girl Who Would Have Married
Dida's Like the idea of Young Fellows
/ In cnieers' Clothes She Relented Lit
i tie When Her Adnirer Was wounded.
The only bad feature of this thing
of addressing the school children, z said
: Colonel James A. Se-.ten, the former
i postmaster, Z. is the fact that they al
1 waya want me to wear my regimentals.
Y It's thing haven't the courage to do
/ except when I'm among a uniformed
4 body OF men.
i lay aversion to- caring a uniform
about il public dates froza "a bDyhooa
/ days. Upon that aversion is basaa an
early Incident that may have had a
/ good deal to do with the. course Of my
4st 3se6EgIeH
alf listed aa 8 Triyaf at tss8 aaIllre SIX
sFs fsae war, being then 10y of tn !;
+ raj her t1sssts1lis 3oqki 9s2 ever. for,
/ those Hfss. 4illya IA Lows OF tIl8t age,
N ss az 4 a, 9sJE eyea43-
9Isllas III bash1ul ii tl3 sic
/ Aae sl1a ssgoLaa ii II d t,ss l98I ST Il
q dear 81 gha1sl e
1850 ~ y + J1s l9A ~ ~
lEe tglselft q IL .sIll sstI. & oil fl5ssG-
/ ltig YVES more alLeaf1IlS tslf51 va egsgB
Zen u iEsae1lf u 4or SD fort.
I ilea gase s.tes2. 81 IS SCAT hae'sz to
llltcissa. % Recover flana 5ao5il7t3 il tia
| 5a1S 1Jll1ia myself as Qeal % hex :s
| egsr, and f3ha as dear to nse, it goes.
] Wlthout sas7 ing. / was ia the ll5sal5al,
At Camp Douglas S7onna, Heated
| rapidly, IAgg4.s allowed. to So 8!5ans tlis
Lefty very much a5 chose, and prayer
( meetings, Tsitll their escort iIeges,
scIssiDed 4 gree Elart 0f ms atgansia{a. 4
About that time the Il d.. Cs A.
was organizing a reginent, TO be. com
| posed exclusively of men who professed
religion The scheme naturally attract
| ed a great deal OF attention. Tie papers
| were full of it. was selected to cap
tain one of the new regiments co1npa-
nies. Protest against the selection was
| made on account Of my age-then just
Is. The matter was carried up to. the
| adjutant general of the state, who final
| ~ decided in my favor. My age, the
| singular character of the case and the
popularity of the regiment caused such
an amount of Newspaper gossip that it
seemed as though everybody must have
heard of the matter at least All this
time never wore my uniform outside
OF camp. The dear girl, therefore, new
er saw me except in citizens clothes.
It's an outrage, she said just after
/! we met a very youthful looking man IN
captain s uniform on one Of our walks,
that such young men are trusted with
| the responsibilities of command. don't
| know what the country is coming to. Isl
Fora moment | was overcome by
the shock. When I recovered my breath.
told her that youth did not necessarily.
debar a man from possession of the
qualities Of a commander. She declined
| to be convinced, and the conversation
became decidedly chilly. Instead Of
| making my customary call when we
reached her house, stopped at the front
| gate.
Laura, / said, I must tell you
| goodby. My regiment has orders to
leave for the front tomorrow. It may
be that we never shall see each other
again.
But we did. All fashionable Chicago
came to Camp Douglas the next day to.
see the final dress parade of the much
talked of Y. IA. G. A. regiment, and T
| could see the dear girl among the crowd.
My new captains uniform gave me a
good deal of satisfaction just at that
time, can tell you. The colonel of the
regiment had asked me-, ON account Of
the power Of my voice, to act as adju-
tant for the occasion. That furnished
additional qualification. The parade had
| the magnificent splendor that only
| dress parade can have, and the solemnity
of this occasion was vastly increased by
the reflection, not to be dismissed, that
many of those among regiment and spec
tators were seeing each other for the
last time on earth. The band played as
though speaking our last farewell to
our friends. Every one, am sure, was
deeply impressed. It was at this time
that the dear girl had her first and last
view Of me in my captains uniform.
Officers to the front &and center!
March!' / ordered, with all the dignity
I could assume. As they reached the
center they saluted me.
! Sir, the parade is formed, I said,
lsaluting the colonel
The colonel returned as grave sa-
lutte as he had @eeiye1 and put the reg
iment through sthe manual of arms.
Meantime marched few PAGES be-
hind him, turned squarely and took po-
sition almost within arms length Of
the dear girl. There stood at parade
rest, with my. back to her, until the
regiment wheeled into column to march
off the field. AT that junoture / took
command Of my company and went
with it aboard an Illinois Central train.
| Between the dear girl and myself there
passed no word.
s few months passed and received
a slight wound. The circumstance was
mentioned in the Chicago papers. Then,
| for the first time after my departure
from Chicago, the dear girl wrote me a
letter. It was a beautiful epistle. full
of regret for our misunde nding,
hopes that my wound would not prove
serious, assurances that she never could
have doubted my ability and requests
for forgiveness for her mistake. / an-s
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