Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-08-12
BRAVEST OF THEM ALL.
The story Told by War Hero to His
.steady'' ON "a Suburban Car.

One of the veterans of the late war with
Spain took his best girl out to Chevy Chase
the other evening. and behind him on the
car sat a skilled stenographer, who. being
interested in the conversation of this brave
soldier took down the following story YER
batim:
I'VE laid N der trenches for long time.
and 1 was getting mighty tired of it. l
went to der colonel, cause | never spoke
to any other officer in der regiment, and l
says. Say, colonel. l wants to fight Says
he. I knew you was a brave man when
You enlisted says he. but you will have to
wait a while | says. Damned if | do l
went TO the 'commissary and got twenty
seven more rounds of ammunition and
waited my chance After a while seed
whole batch of Spaniards away off on the
hill. and | just makes up my mind to cap
tUre dem ALL So l lays in wait and steals
away from the trenches, and starts after
dem 'DagoCs.' Before / gets away from
der camp the colonel sees me and he says,
Come back here, You are de best man in
my regiment. and 1 know you will do dem
up, but ! don't want you to run any risks
l says. Colonel l am going to take that
crowd He says. Go ahead, then So. as
/ says, l started after them ~ elbow Da-
goes, and gets within short distance
when they seen me, and l started on der
dead run for dem. Just as soon as deE
sees me coming for dem dey tried to get
headed dem off, and dey turns to fight. My
damned old gun snapped fire four times,
but on the fifth it went all right, and l
killed seventeen of them before dey got up
u me-"
oh. Charles
Il looked around and saw General Shat
ter and Colonel COrbin standing on der
hill looking at me, and 1 just made up my
mind to show dem some lighting So L
throws away my gun, and pulled out my
knife and started to close quarters There
was ten left in dat crowd, and, to tell you
der truth. it was a picnic for me. Dey
seemed to walk up one at a time, and all
l had to do was to stab EN-. After | had
done the whole crowd up and gone back
10 the hill l met Colonel Corbin, and he
says. Would you mind me shaking your
hand?' l says, certainly not, if you wants
to-. So der old duffer grips me by the
hand and he says, You are the bravest
man l ever seen. BY the way, General
Shafter says when it is convenience for
you he would like to Sc you at his head
quarters
Did you go right away?''
We'll, l guess not. After mOnkeying
around about forty-eight hours l went to
see what the old man wanted, and he said,
! am awful glad to see you. Charlie; sit
down and have some lunch So | sat down
and We had grub together. After dinner
General Shafter says, Charlie, you deserve
a promotion, and 1 am going to see that
You get command of a corpse But 1
didn't want that, you know, so | says, No.
l come down to fight, and that is all 1
want 3"
You refused command of a-a-a-what
did you say it was. Charles"
"A corpse"
What is that?"
"A crcwd OF fellows who go out to see
where the Spaniards is
And didn't you get anything for killing
all those men,
'NO, l tell you l didn't want anything
but every time any fighting was to bS done
der old man always saw that l was in the
'front.'