The National tribune., 1900-01-25

! from use.
81 guess there must be couple hundred
more in there. said Shorty, making a
| mental estimate. u must've got away
| with old Smoots's whole wad of rhino, and
! hell have to beg or borry until next pay
/ day. ] don't care. only wish it had bin
! 10 times as much. Wen need it, and he de
serves TO lose it"
"Gracious-S7o0!" gasped ST, to whom
| that amount represented the price OF nice,
snug little farm, or all the hogs and cattle
| that his father would have marketed III a
| very good year "Ain't that an awful
swipe TO take from one man? You know
I've got hardened to petty larceny-the
| kind of cribbin' they send n man to Jail for
| 30 days for up in Posey County. but own
| amt quite up yit 10 things that have a
penitentiary smell about 'em. OF course,
| 'taint like it was greenbacks, but still 500
90, bother and bow-wow," Shorty broke
in impatiently. Il only wish it was S1OO.-
900 1 only wish had chance to snatch
everything that every blamed rebel in the
Southern Confederacy has. They haint
no right to nothin'-not even their evil
souls. It's agin the Constitution and laws
| o the United States for 'em to have any
thing. It's good soldiers dooty to take ii
away, every chance he gifts. The Ten
| Commandments don't go south o. the Ohio
! River. The rebels don't pay no attention
to 'em; why should we? After seein' the
| way they're murderin men here, shouldn't
| think you'd have qualms about anything,
| ST Klegg. Here, you take these three S100
| bills and pin 'em inside your shirt, for
future use I'll do the same with the other
| two. Here's about half o the small bills.
| Well put them in our pockets for market
money. Let's see what else is in this old
They went over to where pine-knot was
| blazing in front of one of the esleeping-places
| hat
ceeded in making out that most OF the
papers We're those connected with the
| Justices office-writs, subpenas, sum
| monses, etc. crudely printed Hanks
headed: state Of Georgia. County OF
| COweta, S." and filled out in still cruder
| handwriting, with returns on the backs.
Better burn EN- all up, hadn't Ne?" said
| Shorty, with a motion toward the fire
They'd be bad evidence if found on me"
Don't seem right to burn legal papers.
demurred ST. Seems much worse n
stealin'. May hurt some innocent party
awfully to have the papers gone. I've
read about that in books Better stick 'em
away somewhere SOS they'll be found just
| in time 10 save some innocent man from
| ben' hung, or havin' his farm took away.
IN keep 'em awhile" said Shorty, put
ting the papers into the wallet, and study
| what to do with en-
The first thing to do" said ST. the next
morning after they had washed at the
creek, taken a comprehensive view of the
surroundings, and noted how the sun had
| come up like a great, ScOrchlne ball ot
| fire, sis to git some kind o kivrer. Layin'
outdoors with nothin' but the clouds for
n roof and bedclothes may do well enough
when you're on a march or scout, but II
don't seem quite Christian as a Stiddy
thing. Even the cattle i'll the field git under
tree when they kin, and it's mighty
mean man that don't leave tree or two
sarned rebels've done. wonder if they re
ackshelly white men and human bein s?
Seems to me sometimes they re mostly
nigger and Injun."
He and Shorty anXiously studied the
thousands of shelters crowding the in
terror of the Stockade for some useful hints
as to the architecture of their proposed
abode They saw every conceivable meth
cd by which ingenuity could be made to
exc out the SlendereSt materials. Very
much the most We're blankets stretched
Shelter-tent fashion, over upright sticks.
Generally, the boys slept on these blankets
at night, and made tents" of them by day.
Only those who were lucky enough to have
more than one blanket could afford to keep
one up all the time. Some had been so
fortunate as to bring their Shelter-tentS as
well as blankets in with them, and these
were the wel-to-do residents of the settle
ment. The white muslin shone out in
cleaning contrast with the dingy blankets.
MANY had tried to increase the room under
their shelters by digging into the ground,
and by building up walls of clay and sticks.
The older prisoners had mostly Shacks,
made by sticking four poles into the ground
and fastening them together by other poles,
upon which they laid "a thatch of long
leaved pine-tufts. But there had been
little opportunity to get these materials in
the later days.
"rThat seems to be the style of thing
we've got to come to-" said ST. pointing to
Ike Deeble's tent" And it suits my
idees bettern anythin. else. But how
are we goin' to git tile stuff? There's
plenty of it in them woods out there, and if
we was only let loose with an AK we could
fix ourselves up in great shape before sun
down. / can't see why these beasts won't
turn us loose and give US chance. -
Lets go up and talk to Ike Deeble.
said! Shorty. Hell give us pints on how
to go about it."
mo use, boys" said Decide. "You
can't get out now. When We first came
here there was plenty of that stuff lying
around, and for a button or two you could
get guard to take you out and let you
pick up all you could carry in. But they've
stopped that. You can't get out now
except on written PISS from Capt. Wirz,
and there's no use asking that old Dutch
varmit for a pass. II you were dying
wouldn't make any difference to him. He
sees too many men dying every day to care
as much for them as we used to for dead
mules. | don't know of but one man
who's got a written pass, and that's a
Pennsylvania boy who gathers shoomake
~.