The National tribune., 1898-08-11

death-Wafrant, he sad. III he dries 10
| lf NIT her she'll feed him Wild parsnip, and
he'll ket n house of red clay, dat you put de
| roof on nit /, shotfel. Id'll pc no kreat loss.
| jeff aind worth in year de pread he'll eat
| in day.
"She may be smothered in that hole"
Shorty bethought himself 81 guess we'd
better let her ont for awhile"
"Yes, :" said Rosenbaum "She CANT do
| no harm now. Nopody else will gone dis
way tonight De men dat vas NIT me viii
SCATTER de news dot de house is in Yankee
| hands. Dey dink dere's q pig force here,
| unit so We Won't pc disturbed till morning"
Then I'll go in and let her out" said
Shorty"
The other inmates of the cabin were asleep
when he entered, but they walked up, and
begged him not to let the woman out until
morning.
Keep her in there till daylight" said
Squire COrsOn, and then restore me to my
home and functions, and FL call out posse
comtatus and have her publicly dueked,
according to the laws of the land, as common
scold. I've never heard such vile language
as she applied to me when / gave her the
advice it was my duty to give to live in peace
and quietness with her husband. That there
woman's Niagary Of cuss words and abuse"
yo'," begged Jeff blackberry "She1l kill
me, sho', if I've to stay in here till mornin'
with her. She begun by f1ingin' bag o. red
pepper in my face, and set us all to sneezin
until / thought the Squirrel sneeze his
burned head off. Then she jobbed me with
a bayonet, and acted as no woman Orter to
ack toward her lawful husband no matter
how long they'd bin married, let alone their
weddin' night s
'Sorry, but it's again all my principles to
separate man and wife, said Shorty, as he
moved to the puncheon trap-door and undid
the hasp. ''You took her for better or
worse, and it's too early in the game to COM
plain that you found her blamed sight
worse than you took her for. You're one
now, you know, and must stay that way
until death do you part"
Shorty lifted up the trap-door, and ST
helped the woman out with some difficulty.
They expected a torrent of abuse, but she
seemed limp and silent, and sank down on
the floor. The boys picked her up and laid
her on the bed beside jeff blackberry.
''She's fainted she's dead She's bin suf
ferkated in that hole" said jeff
''No, yo' punkin-headed fool, !" she gasped.
/" I haint dead nor I hant tainted; nor
haint sufferkated. Yo'll find out when / git
my wind back little. Pm so full o. mad
an spite that Pm done tuckered clean out.
I'm clean beat, so clean beat that haint got
no words to fit the 'casion. I've got t. lay
still an think an gether up some.
"She's comm to- Shorty" said ST. eth
be pleasanter outside"
" You say you have been having unusually
exciting times,' said ST to Rosenbaum, as
the boys again seated themselves by the fire.
''Vell, | should say so" replied Rosen-
baum with emphasis Do you know dat
Cheneral Pragg is de very worst man dat
effer lived?"
'All rebels are bad, /" said Shorty oracularly.
90 But 1 suppose that some are much worse
than others. | know that the private soldiers
are awful, and l suppose the higher you 60
the wuss they are. The Corporals are cussier
than the privates, the Sergeants can give the
Corporals points in deyilshness, and so it
goes on up until the General commanding an
army must be one of the DEVILS favorite.
imps, while jeff Davis is Old Horney's Junior
partner"
NO; id isn't dat" said Rosenbaum.
" I'fe known a good many reppel Chenerals,
unit some of dem amt really pad vellers out
side Off der rebelness. Put oft Pragg is
porn deffil. He has no more heart dan
rattlesnake. He actually loves cruelty.
He'd rather kill men dan not. Ife seen
b1enty of officers who we're entirely too Will |
ing to shoot men for little or nodding. Chen
eral Piagg is de only man / eifer saw who
would shoot men for nodding at adjust for
example, as he says, unit 10 make de Others
afraidt, unit ready to obey him. He goolly
CALCULATES to shoot so many effery month
If dey've done anything to dcserfe it, all
right. If dey haint he shoots dem all de
same, just to 'preserfe discipline. :"
Stand Shorty uttered Explanations of sur
prise at this cold-blooded cruelty.
81 know it's hard to belief" said Rosen-
baum, put it's drue all the same, as any
pody around his headquarters will dell you.
Chef Davis knows it, unit approves it. He is
the same kind OF q man as Cheneral Pragg-
no more heart dan tiger. l half seen a
goot deal of de inside off the reppel army
unit Cheneral PTagg is de coldest-blooded,
cruelest man in it or the whole world. It's
drue dat de men he orders SHOT are cheneraly
off no aggount like your man jeff blackberry
put it's de principle Of de ding dat shocks
me. He just takes adislike to de way man
looks or acts, or de way he parts his hair,
looks at him NIT his steely gray eyes, unit
says coldly, Put him in the bull-pen In
de bull-pen de poor deffii goes, unit de next
time Cheneral Pragg gets an idea dat de
discipline off the army is running down, unit
he must stiffen it up nit a few executions, he
orders all de men dat happen to pc in de bull
pen taken out unit shot"
without any trial, any court-martial,
any evidence against them?" gasped ST.
- Absolutely mitOut anyding put Cheneral
Praggs orders 1t is like you read off in de
pooks about dose Eastern countries where de
Sultan or other High muk- a-muk says Gut
dat mans head off, unit de mans head is gut
OFF, unit no questions askel, unit no funeral
ceremonies except Washing up de plood."
Lucky for you, Levi, said Shorty, "that
he didn't have any of the common preudices
against Jews, and slap you in the bull-pen."
20, put he did, I" said Rosenbaum He
hated Chew worse dan any man / effer met
Unit it brought NE SO near death dat actu-
ally watched dem digging my CRATE"
''Vhile / hat my ups unit downs, unit some
very narrow escapes, continued Rosenbaum,
when first vent inste Pragg's lines, got
along very veil chenerally. l played de
peddler and smugger for de Southern Con
iederacy in great shape, unit run dem through
a lot of guncaps qunine, medicines, unit so
on unit brought in Il great deal of Informal
ton, which dey found to be drue. Some of
dis Gen Rosecrans gave me himself. for he is
smart enough TO know dat if he wants his
SECRET Service men to succeed he must gif dem
straight goods to garry to de enemy.
81 brought in exact statements Of what
divisions prigades unit rechiments we're at dis