The National tribune., 1899-12-28

After examining it he said: Your au
thority is good, and handed me his pass.
How is it." said /. that you are travelling
ON a citizens pass?"
/ Said he: ii belong to the 10th Texas
Cav; am a prisoner on parol, and an
a citizen until am exchanged.
You wear the insignia OF your rank,
said l.
IF that star offends any onc," said he
Il will take it off," and taking off his ha
pulled off the star that held up one side o.
the brim.
All this time the conductor was standing
J in the front of the car watching me.
knew the Majo was deSerter, but L did
not intend to arrest him, even at the risk
of being reported by the conductor.
| l walked back to where the conductor
was standing, and said to him L was not
sure he was deSerter, and that L would
remain in the car and watch him; which
| did, and when the engineer signaled for
the next station he began to gather up his
baggage, and soon as the train stopped he
got off. | watched him go down the steps
and on the platform of the depot, and was
much afraid the conductor would see him;
but he did not. The train started. let 1t
get under fairly good headway, when sig
nailed the eng gineer to STOP and at the same
time started hurriedly through the train.
l met the conductor hurrying back, and as
soon as he saw me- asked: What is the
L
is the matter with the engineer" He
has failed to obey orders, and refused to stop
the train when Signaled to do so and the
Major jumped from the train just as we
left the station, and is gone"
He was quite angry, or pretended to be;
said he would report me when we got in from
our run. l defied him to do it. and told
him when it came to that | would have
some things to report myself. l was run
ming a bluff on him. for L was really afraid
he would report me; but he never did, and
never heard of this circumstance again.
By this time l had become partially
reconciled, and must say was enjoying my
work very well. | was clothed with good
deal of authority for one so young, and had
gained the perfect confidence of my superb
ors; and while l was not doing the work
assigned me, they did not know it. l was
the only one ON the train with authority
to make an arrest, and if l found
a poor fellow whose papers were not right,
/ simply passed him, just the same, and no
one knew anything about it. My Captain,
who was a perfect gentleman, always
treated me with kindness and consideration,
and when | was not on duty much OF our
time was spent together. and had almost
made up my mind that if | was allowed to
remain in this work ! would stay, for
knew l was of service to some poor fellow
almost every day by passing him and
giving him a chance to get away. But
while was thus congratulatlng myself
OH my good fortune, a circumstance again
occurred that changed the whole course Of
things.
ADVANCE OF UNION FORCES.
On the morning of the 18th of July l
went on duty as usual, made the run east,
meeting the train from Lynchburg, and
returning. When we arrived at Dublin,
where our company was, at noon, found
everybody wild with excitement. Our
Captain had received a telegram to the
effect that the Yankees" were advancing
on Wythville, about 40 miles west of us,
end also orders to sidetrack the passenger
train, attach fiat cars sufficient for our
battery and company, and run out to
Wythville as quickly as possible. You
can imagine the excitement an order of that
kind would create, especially among women,
and nearly all our passengers were women,
with few children and old men. We did
as ordered-switched the passenger cars,
and told the passengers they would have to
remain there until an engine could reach
them from the other end of the road.
We coupled on two flat cars, loaded two