The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1898-01-22
s elett Stprp.
WAS | A COWARD
From Chambers Journal.
CHAPTER /.

Was a coward ? Reader, you shall
hear my story, and Judge for yourself.
Before describing the supreme moment
of my life, when my courage was tried to
the uttermost, it is necessary to the light
understanding Of my life to give brief
account of my early days
During my childhood | was weak and
sickly, passing through several severe i'll
nesses, the consequence of which was that
| did not 60 to school till some two years
after the usual age; and all this time had
been coddled at home, and carefully kept
from seeing anything of the rough side of
life. Perhaps this accounts for my great
weakness, which was an absolute horror of
fighting or rough usage Of any sort-eyen
an unkind or harsh word would make me
miserable for Il day or two afterwards.
With this weakness strong upon me,
was sent to rough and tumble old fash
ioned grammer-school, where the boys had
to fight hard and often before they could
command any respect or peace, and life
was hardly endurable for those poor boys
who, like myself, dreaded the ordeal of
battle. Added to this. we were half
starved, and all our pocket money used to
go in buying food, chiefly black puddings
(reader do you know what they p to
satisfy the cravings of hunger.
With all my fear of fighting, there was
no fear OF danger in other ways. If there
was any daring thing to be done, incurring
risk to limbs OF even to life, [ was among
the foremost to undertake it, For IN
stance, we used to be kept carefully within
bounds. and were never allowed outside
the Fairgrounds, 50 our only chance of
procuring any extra food was by getting
out of one of the bedroom windows at
night, when everybody else had gone to
bed, and getting up into the town. To
do this, We had to walk along ii narrow
shoot, and then with the help Of an old
vine climb down descending pipe. This
| could do without the least fear, though
Il slip at the top meant almost certain
death. But when it came to fighting, it
was quite il different matter | would do
everything possibly could to avoid it; and
when forced to fight, as sometimes was,
fought badly, and always got the worst
of it. In justice to myself. | must say
that | believe my dislike to giving pun
ishment was quite as great as my dread Of
receiving it. As result, my first two
years at school were years of misery; still,
during that rough time health and strength
increased, and as became very good at
all games, particularly cricket and foot
ball. lived down the bad name | had got
for want of p luck.
Strange to say, with all my fear of
| fighting, as | grew up my one great de-
! sire was to become IA soldier | studied
with avidity all the books which told of
| the great soldiers and sailors of the early
part of the century. Wellington, Napo-
leon, Nelson Napier, Cochrane, and the
like were my heroes; and my parents, after
a time, finding | was bent upon entering
the army, took me away from the old
grammar school, and gave me Il military
education, and in due time | was gazetted
! to an infantry regiment.
1t was the year 1882. Europe and
the world in general seemed to be in state
of profound peace and, as far as man could
Judge, war was never farther away than ii
seemed then Consequently, no fear OF
my ability to perform well soldier S part
in battle marred my joy at donning hel
Majesty's uniform, and ! set to work hard
to learn all the details of a soldiers life,
and even studied tactics and strategy on
my own account.
As there was no fighting to be done,
and as | was good at nearly everything
else, fair shot, daring rider across coun-
try, and good-tempered fellow to boot,
| soon became 4 popular man in my regi
ment.
| had one special chum, Charlie Seton
He was sub of about the same standing
as myself, splendid fellow in every way,
feet in height, and a perfect specimen
of manly Saxon beauty--broad- -shouldered
ell-proportioned, with curly, auburn hair
and bright, blue eyes, and the brightest,
cheeriest pluckiest fellow | ever had tho
good fortune to know. The only thing
Charlie was not good at was his drill, and
in that | was often able to help him, al
we were generally working near each 9th
er, and |, from sheer love Of the work
had very soon got my drill by heart bu
though 1 knew my drill better than he'
was quite sure Charlie would lead his mel