Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1900-05-12
LAST WORDS OF FIGHTERS.
Ladysmith Hero's Last Thoughts
Were of ChrickeI.


When young Lieutenant Egerton, of
the British cruiser Powerful, had both
his legs blown off at Ladysmith re-
Gently, his first thoughts were not of
his ancestral home, his broad acres or
his friends and relatives he was never
to again, but of England's nation
al game, of which he was an enthusi-
astIc devotee, This spOils my crick-
citing" he exclaimed, and lapsed into
Inconsistencies
A parallel case was that of COrnet
W. Banks, Seventh Hussars, who lost
his life at the Moosa Bagh, Lucknow,
in May 1858. Alone and unsupported,
the heroic boy-for he was only Is
charged a strong body of rebels and
killed and wounded a round dozen
ere he was endorsed by an unlucky
tulwar stroke. When rescued he was
in terrible plight. One leg was lopp-
ed off above the knee; the other was
only hanging by a shred of flesh, one
arm was cleft TO the bone, the other
had entirely disappeared, and about
the body were many gaping wounds.
They tell me L can go yachting If L
get over this he cried they bore
him from the operating tent and
tainted away. An hour later he was
dead, never having regained con-
seriousness.
Mind you stick in my whistle. eN-
claimed, IaughIngly, to Melton PRIOR,
who was skeJching him, Colonel Scott
Chisholm of the Imperial Light
Horse, at EIandsIaagte. len minutes
later he was shot dead. In the same
battle there fell Colonel Cunning, OF
the Sixtieth Rifles, whose last words,
Follow me, Rifles, must have help
ed carry many brave fellow forward
up the tire-swept hill.
Die hard, men; die hard" shout
ed Colonel lnglis, of the Fifty-sev-
enth, when mortalIy wounded at Al
buhera, and the regiment has borne
the proud name OF The Orchards
from that day to this. Ensign An
struthers, who planted the colors OF
the Royal Welsh on the heights OF Al
ma and was Immediately shot dead
f. his pains, cried: "Floreat rUona
he was an Elton boy-as the fatal
bullet struck him.
Nelson's THANK God, | have done
my dutyI" is historic, but the same
phrase, or something very like it, has
been used many times by soldiers OF
their deathbeds. Very touching in Its
simple and self-deprecatory modesty
was the paraphrase OF 1T used by Col
oneI BooJh, OF the torty-thlrd, who
was mortalIy wounded while leading
the unsuccessful attack on the Cate
lah in the Maori war. w hen he tounC
his end approaching, he sent for the
general and said very quietly: Sir,
eudeavored to carry out your odrers
L am sorry L have tailed L at 1eas
tried to do my duty.
General Washlngton's last words
were: 1T is we'll Wolfe's: What
do they run already? Then | die hap
py.' Napoleon, u lew moments before |
he expired, stammered out the words; |
Army and France" but it coulc |
not be ascertained whether 1t was
dream, denrium adieu.
The Duke of Cumberland said loud |
ly: 1T is all over Sir Hugh Percy I
killed fighting unsuccessIully fol- |
henry VI, at HedgeIey Moor, cried /
as he fell: Il have at least saved tn,
bird IN my bosom" meaning that h,
had kept the troth he had pnghted tt
his unfortunate sovereign, wnIe 81
many had deserted him, and therebI I
retained his own self respect.
Cromwell, when he lay dying, wa
pressed to drink posset which hat
been prepared for INN, or at least It
take some sleep, TO which he replied
It i not my desire TO eat or sleel
bdt my Design to make what haste
can TO be gone" Sir John Moore, kill
Ell a orunna, turned to one OF hi |
aides-de-camp the Hon. Captain Stan
hope, and said: Remember me t.
your sister.