The National tribune., 1898-12-22

adventures as recruits and veterans nave ioI
SO long amused the comrades and many
Others, visit Sis home. and on the return
trip are detailed to aid in getting into
shape" a number of recruits, gathered in
Indiana by members of the regiment on that
duty. All take the train for the front
again. They reach the field of Chickamauga
and engage in fierce battle, after finding their
regiment. ST and Shorty capture a rebel
flag, but both fall in the melee. They are
taken off the field in bad condition.
A Telegram Reaches Sis Folks The
Deacon Goes to Chattanooga.
That evening Lieut.. Bowersox sent tele-
gram to Deacon Klegg 1t had to be strictly
limited to 10 words, and read:
JOSIAH KLEGG, ESQ,
Snmpunkins Station, Ind:
Josiah not killed. Hospital at Chattanooga.
Badly wounded. Z. c. BowERsox.
Tt did not arrive at Sumpunkins Station,
three miles from the Deacons home, until the
next forenoon. The youth who discharged the
multifarious duties of Postmaster, passenger,
freight and express agent, baggage-master,
and telegraph operator at Sumpunkins Sta
ton laboriously spelled ont the dots and
He had barely enough mastery of the Morse
alphabet to communicate the routine messages
relating to the railroads business, aided by
the intelligence of the conductors and engi-
neers as to what was expected of them. This
was the first outside message that he had
ever received, and for awhile it threatened to
be too much for him, especially as the abb
sence of punctuation made it still more eng
NAUTICAL. He faithfully transcribed each let
ter as he made ii out, and then the agglom-
Grafton read:
:" .Josiamnotkildhospitala INTERCHANGEABLE
acknowledgements
'.Confound them smart operators at Louis
vile aud Jacksonville" he grumbled, scan
ming the scrawl They never make letters
plain, and don't put in half Of 'em. just to
worrt country operators. I'd like to take a
club to cm. There's no sort o. sense in sich
sending. Philadelphia lawyer eonldn't
make nothing out of it. But I've got to or
get cussing, and mebbe the bounce. I'll
/ try it over again. and see if / can separate it
into words. Why in thunder can't they learn
| to put space between the words, aud not
| tumble the letters altogether in that fool
| fashion ?" II
| The next time he wrote it out:
q. O. S. T. an not kid Hospital at
Chattanooga badly wounded E. c. Bower
sox." j n
| That begins to loJ,S mora like something
said he, wipingethe sweat from his forehead.
g But who is j. O@S? Nobody o. them
initials in this neighborhood. Nor e. C..
Bower Deacon X legg can't know any Of 'em.
Then, hows the hospital badly wounded
Bower? What's that about his socks? I'll
have to try itiOyereaga as soon's No 7,
freight, gets byi' Il
After No. had gotten away, he tackled
the message ag3in:
- No. that sixth letter . not an m, but an
| h. II is four dots, anu m is two dashes.
It's specks in the. paper that makes it look
like an h. Tilaput in some letters where
they're needed. Now let's see how it'll
read:
Josiah Mott killed Hospital at Chatta-
nooga Badly wouaded E. C. Bower sox''
THAT seems to have more sense in it, bat
don't know any JOSIAH, Mott in this country.
Does it mean that lie killed man named
Hospital at Chattanooga, aud badly wounded
E. c. Bower in tho socks? That don't seem
sense I'll try it again:
The next time he succeeded in making it
read:
Josiah Mott killed Hospital at Chatta-
nooca. Badly wounded E. C. Bowers OK. -
"There that's best can do he said, sur
vcying the screed. 'sIt'li have to go that
way, and let the Deacon study it out He's
got more time II | have, and mcbbe knows
all about it. / can't spend no more time on
it, No 3, passenger from the West s due
in 20 minutes, and I've got to get ready for
it, Good luck; there comes the Deacon's
darby now, with load of wheat I'll send
it ont by him."
The operator wrote out his last version of
the message on a telegraph blank inelosed it
in Western Union envelope, which he adj
dressed to Deacon Klegg, and gave to
Abraham Lincoln, with strong injunctons to
make all haste back home with it.
Impressed with these, Abraham, as soon
as he delivered his grain to the elevator, put
his team to trot, and maintained it until he
reached home.
Everything about the usually cheerful
farmhouse was shrouded in palpable gloom
The papers OF the day before, with their
CHASTITY lists of the dead and wounded, had
contained Sis and Shorty's names, besides
those of other boys of the neighborhood, in
terrific, unmistakable plainness. There were
few homes into which mourning had not
come. The window curtains were drawn
down. the front doors closed, no one appeared
on the front porch, and it seemed that even
the dogs and the fowls were oppressed with
the general Sadness and forebore their usual
cheerful utterances Attired in sober black, |
with eyes red from weeping, and with cam
phor bottle near, Mrs. Klegg sat in Sis room,
and between her fits of uncomfortable weep |
ing turned over one after another, the re-
minders OF her son. There were his bed, his
Clothes, which she had herself fashioned in
loving toll for him; the well-thumbed school
books which had cost him so many anxious
hours, his gun and fishing rod. All these
were now sacred to, her. Elsewhere in the
house his teary-eyed sisters went softly and
silently about their daily work.
The father had sought distraction in active
work, and was in the cornfeld, long corn
knife in hand, shocking up the tall stalks
with desperate energy to bring forgetful-
ness. -
Abraham Lineolil burst into the kitchen,
and taking the dispatch from his hat said:
"Hyah am papek or sumfin dat de agent
down at de station done tole me to bring hyah
jest as quick as + dohe could. He said hit
done cum ober ire or q telegraph, or sum-
fin OBJ dat ere s ! t,h and you must hab hit
30. my; it's a. telegraph dispatch, f"
screamed Maria With that sickening appre-
hension that all women have of kilograms
Its awful can't fetch it. Take it,
SONNY ~