Evening star., 1898-12-03
HE GATHERED MUCH MOSS

| 'One Oh my SWaQ0leS, Wnen 1 was SOL
dier'ing in the heavy artillery on Alcatraz
Island, harbor of San Francisco, a number
| of years ago, was clever Englishman,
| surnamed ST. Ronald on the muster rolls,
| but known unto us of the command only as
| Me Lud,'" said War Department clerk
| who put in a five-year stretch in the ar
| tillery branch. 1--WE didn't call him Me
Lud' because he was in anywise pompous
or stuck up-that sort of thing doesn't GO
among the enlisted men of the American
army-but because, although genial, amia-
bic, and a corking good fellow, St. Ronald
really had a mighty fine manner about him,
and, when it came to a pinch, he didn't
have to take any dust from any of the Off
GERS in courtliness and grace of personality.
st. ROnald about twenty-seven years
Old when he frst joined the battery, and he
was the very pink and picture of nne,
naturai-born Soldler. tie had been a fine
soldier before he ever broke into our outfit.
He had a NO. l discharge, with extremely
complimentary remarks attached thereto,
from tine cape mounted ponce of South
Africa, in which he had served three years
as sergeant, campaigning all the time
Then he had a No. l 1scnarge from the
Canadian mounted police, IN which he had
served for two years. SO when he drifted
into our heavy artillery outfit he didn't
need to be tod the difference between a
cartridge belt and a faugue cap. He was
Sot~li II Cl titkdJaCh from btie Ndy thdt ne Sot
among us that ne was rated a corporal and
then a sergeant WithIn three months, and
We We're all glad of it, for he was way
ahead of the buck private class. L figured
st. Ronald out from the first the bad lot
of a good family, which, in fact, hs was,
although he rarely spoke about his past
except to two or three of us who were very
chummy with him. He had his ups and
downs in our battery-got busted from SER
seant to buck private, and put in a thirty
day trick in the guardhouse for trying to
tear San Francisco loose from Its founda-
tions, then had to go up to his former nom
commissioned rank again by SLOW stages
and in general had the usual career of an
American soldier who doesn't belong to the
goody-goody platoon. Whatever happened,
though, Me Lud' was game for it, and he
never had kick coming, and several times,
Nhen some fellow IN the battery got INTO a
general court-martial scrape, and was dis
honorably discharged and turned adrift
without cent, with nothing but the uni
form to his back, Me Lud' was the boy to
turn In his whole months pay to help the
unfortunate out, and to get the rest of us
| to do something on the same general order.
After doing his three years with the
battery, st. Ronald took his discharge and
went over to San Francisco He didn't tell
any of US what he was going to do, and he
only had about $50 $50 when he was
paid off. week after he left AIcatraz a
number of us went over to San Francisco
one night on leave. We were walking up
kearney street, when pushed into a
crowd surrounding fakir. The faklr was
gotten up in stage ranchero styl4-Velvet
Dell-bottom pants, with gold tinSel running
down the sides; velvet jacket, loose, ruftted
spotleSsiy white shirt, and enormous white
sOmbrerO, with two or three heavy silver
cords running around it. The fakir was
telling ON of some perpetualy fragrant
| beans that he had discovered on a tour of
South America The beans were devils 4
to take the place of sachet powders or of
| liquid extracts, and the perfuma-said the
fakir-neVer left them H. certainly had a
great spiel about those beans, and he sold
en- like hot cakes, at the rate of hfty cents
for a paper bag holding about pint of
them. Me Lud, the fakir winked at US
sOi9mny when he saw US on the outer cir
Gle of the crowd, and we didn't have Il
chance tC talk with him for some time
afterward. Then he told that the beans
he was selling we're the ordinary frjoles of
commerce, soaked over night in cheap toilet
water and that he thought he had q
pretty good thing, inaSmuch h was
hauling down a profit of about so a night.
Il didn't see any more Of Me Lud' on the
coast after that. came on to Washington
and entered the War Department soon
alterWard. l went out to the opening of
the worlds fair. and on my third tour
around the buildings / met up with Me
Lud.' He was the second man in charge
OF the exhibit from Ceylon, and he looked
! out of sight in the makeup OF a Ceylon
tea planter. He was prosperous and thor
| oughly in the game. He had quit San Fran
cisco and gone 10 Ceylon before the mast
| (after going broke on 'Frisco's BarDary
CCast) soon after l left the coast and had
| put III the intervening years as a time
keeper on a Cingalese tsa plantation. He
| vas apparently pretty glad to see me, |
think; anyhow, | know l had a terrible
headache when L woke up on the morning
after thus strangely running across Me
| Lud. | saw him a number of times while
| l was taking in the fair, and when l left
| he told me he expected to go back to Cey-
| Ion and finish the game of growing up with
| the island.
| Il was leaning on the rail out at the Ben
| ming race track on Thanksgiving afternoon
! watching the horses parade on to the track
| for the Washington cup race when 1 heard
1 a voice behind me exclaim, in a well-known
! accent, L say, there, you soldier l looked
| around, and there was Me Lud.' He was
| gotten up regardless, they say, and he
| was a good deal the swellest-looking man
! at the track. After he had collected his
| winnings the big race, we got into his
| trap and he drove me to a hotel that's not
| more than a mile from Lafayette Square.
| There he presented me to his wife, who is
| a queen, as most New Orleans girls are,
| and then he demanded me to accompany
| HIM back to his home in Tegucigalpa Hon
| duras, where he's getting rich at gold min
| ing. He came up here from Honduras on
| some business with the State DEPARTING mt
| in connection with a claim. OF course,
| with my thirty days leave of absence all
| chewed up, | couldn't hear of the Teguci-
| galpa proposition, but l saw good deal of
| Me Lud' and his wife until they went
| away last Sunday night When L bade
| them goodbye, Me Lud' handed ma lit
| tie plush-covered box. 1 opened it after I
| got to my room. 1t contained scarfpin--a
| gold cannon, studded with diamonds and
| sapphires-a very neat reminder of our
| heavy artillery days together out on bleak
| AlcatraZ.
| so this is the true story of a free-lance
| and a moss-gathering rolling stone who has
| won out"
| THE HORSES GRIEF.
| A Faithful Animal That Committed