Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1899-07-08

front.
But of all the worlds great heroes
There's none that can compare
With a tow-row-row row-row row,
To the British grenadier!
The men of the Fore and Aft were
gathering thick at the entrance into the
plain. The brigadier on the heights fa1
above was speeches. with rage. Still
no movement from the enemy. The day
staid to watch the children.
Jakin halted and beat the long roll
of the assembly. while the fife squealeG
despairingly.
Fright about face! Hold up, Lew
you re drunk" said Jakin. They
wheeled and marched back
Those heroes of antiquity
Meier saw a cannon ball
Nor knew the force O. powder
Here they comet" said Jakin. "Gc
on Levi
To scare their foes withall
The Fore and Aft were pouring out
of the valley. What officers had said tc
men in that time of shame and humili-
alton will never be known, fer neither
officers nor men speak of it now.
"They are coming anewI" shouted a
priest among the Afghans. "Do not kill
the boys! Take them alive and they
shall be Of our faith. -
But the first volley had been fired,
and Lew dropped on his face, Jakin
stood for a minute spun round and col
lapsed, as the Fore and Aft came for
ward, the maledictions of their officers
in their ears and in their hearts the
shame Of open shame
Half the men had seen the drummers
die, and they made no sign. They did
not even shout. They doubled out
straight across the plain in open order,
and they did not fire.
"This," said the colonel of Gurkhas
softly, 'is the real attack, as it ought
to have been delivered. Come on, my
children.
-"Ulu-lu-lu- lu!'' squealed the Cur
khas, and came down with a joyful click
ing of kukris-those vicious Gurkha
knives.
On the right there was no rush. The
highlanders, cannily commencing their
souls to God (for it matters as much to
a dead man whether he has been shot
in a border scuffie or at Waterloo,
opened out and fired according to their
custom-that is to say, without heat
and without ntervals-while the screw
guns having disposed of the imPerti-
nent mud fort aforementioned, dropped
shell after shell into the clusters round
the Pickering green standards on the
heights.
''Charrgin is an unfortunate neces-
sitY, " murmured the color sergeant of
the right company of the highlanders.
cit makes the men sweer SO, but l
am thinkin that it will come to a
Charge if these black devils stand much
longer Stewart man, you're frin
into the eye of the sun, and he'll not
take any harm for government ammu
neetion. A foot lower and great deal
slower What are the English doin?
They re very quiet there in the center.
Runnin again?'' -~..-.-.,
The English were not running. They
were hacking and hewing and stab
bling, for, though one white man is sell
dom physically match for an Afghan
in a sheepskin or wadded coat, yet
through the pressure of many white
men behind and a certain thirst for re-
venge in his heart he becomes capable
of doing much with both ends Of his
rifle. The Fore and Aft held their fire
till one bullet could drive through five
or six men, and the front of the Afghan
force gave on the volley. They then Sc
lected their men and slew them with
deep gasps and short hacking coughs
and groanings of leather belts against
bodies and realized for the first
time that an Afghan attacked is far
less formidable than an Afghan attack
ing, which fact old soldiers might have
told them.
But they had no old soldiers in their
ranks.
The Gurkhas' stall at the bazaar was
the noisiest, for the men were engaged
to a nasty noise, as of beef being cut
on the block-with the kukri, which
they preferred to the bayonet, well
knowing how the Afghan hates the half
moon blade
AS the Afghans wavered the green
standards on the mountain moved down
to assist them in last rally, which
was unwise. The lancers, chatting in the
right gorge, had thrice dispatched their
only subaltern as galloper to report on
the progress of affairs On the third oc-
casion he returned with bullet Craze
on his knee, swearing strange oaths in
and saying that all things
were ready. So that squadron swung
round the right of the highlanders with
a wicked whistling of wind in the Yen-
mons Of its lances and fell, upon the