The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1899-01-12
PASSING 1T ALONG.
How Our Sick and Suffering Sol
Liers Showed the Generosity
Of Their Natures.

OF human impulses. i ne man NEO Is
naturally kind and unself.h finds SO
much opportunity to exercise his GOOD
qualities that they stand out empha-
sized in him, and the man himself seem.
to his friends trans1igured. while the
selfish and base man, seeking his own
safety and comfort above all other
things, is marked in the sight of all men
as a coward. A correspondent of the,
Companion writes:
On the steamer Seneca returning
from Siboney to Fortress Monroe with
passengers and sick and wounded, here
was a young volunteer soldier whose
name l could give if had right 10 90
so. He had been very ill., and was pale.
weak and emaciated. lie was no; yet
q years old, and when the war broke
cut he was sophomore in great uni
,ersity. Leaving his beloved studies
and his life of comfort and scholarly
elegance he enlisted as private sol,
der.
Doubtless he was physically unfit for
he hardships and privations which the
American soldier. and especially tie
American volunteer. has had to endure
in this war. A long and arduous tern
of service in a camp of instruction. then
q long ard terrible journey to Cuoa in
a troop ship, in which the men had :tt'e
Hir and little food brought on pain
full maady. which led the surgeon S to
send the young man home on the Sen
eca. 1t was a great grief to him 20 be
sent home. and he talked already of
the time when he should be strong
enough to go back to the regiment
What he needed as much as anything
MAS something good to eat and es-
ecialIy a little fruit. There was neither
fruit nor anything else good to eat On
he Seneca. Sent home as a sol Tier.
the young man had only soldiers fare.
and soldiers BUCK amidst the forest
Of rough pine hunks between decks.
Military service reduces man so low
that this youth accustomed to the COM
forts Of life and 10 delicate home at
tentions, sat on the deck and accepted
the gift from a passing waiter of 4 bis
cult or any other bit of food left from
the captains dinner. as the tray was
carried back to the galley.
He rested sometimes in the scrap of
shade along the forward deck-house,
and I often talked with him there; but
he was missing for hours together and
found he was doing what he could for
the sick and wounded soldiers below.
tie knew every case among them.
At Fortress Monroe the cases of sus-
picious fever on board caused our ehir
to be detained a day. and then sent to
New York. There came change in the
fare OF the passengers, for the ship
took on stores of fresh meat and veg
otables. We had with Us an army off
Ger, a captain, whose wife had come
tc Old Point Comfort to meet him. and
although she was not permitted 0 come
aboard, she managed to send her hus-
land mysterious parcel.
What this parcel contained soon be
came apparent to some of us, for the
captain was generous man. He be-
gan to produce oranges bananas and
2ther fruits, and even fresh eggs! We
had not seen an egg in Cuba, and scarce
y fresh one in Tampa.
The size of the captains parce! did
rot warrant him in distributing his
fruit among the whole ships company
He was an invalid himself. and his wife
doubtless thought of him as eating
every particle of the food; and yet per
haps she knew him better.
The captain took early pity on my
own lean and hungry look. and began
te slip banana now and then into
my hand. As he plainly meant the
fruit for me, ! would begin to peel the
sanana; then the vision of the pale and
starved young soldier would rise so be-
fore my eyes that I could not get the
fruit to my lips, hard as tried. Iwouid
furtiveiy get the banana into my jacket
Eocket, make some excuse, and go off
and find the boy
When I found him, I would slip the
banana into his hand He would thank
sic, and make the same pretcnse OF
Eating it that had made with the cap
tain. | even saw his jaws moving but
did not see any of the banana d.sap-
bearing in his mouth.
Then he would make some excuse and
go away with his hand spread sus-
plciously over the pocket in his brown
service blouse-and knew well en:urh
that he had gone to give the banana 10
some poor fellow who, he thought, need
I'd it worse than le did.
In fact. I caught him doing this very
thing by watching -and / did no. let
him know that I had caught him. nor
that | even supposed that he did nor
eat the fruit himself. This was no
more than fair, for the captain never
'equired me to eat the fruit in his pres
eEce when he gave it to me.-Youth's
Companion.
White Snpphires.