Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1900-12-17


substantially as follows:
; GIVE come to make clean breast of
it, gentlemen I'm not fit to wear your
uniform. [ never was. Inever wanted
! to. It was practically forced upon me
by men who ought to have known bet
ter, who did know better, but who did
not care so long as they got me out Of
the way. My father as much as owned
more than one congressman in York
state. The Hon. Mr.. Cadger Of the
military committee couldn't have been
renominated If it hadn't been for him,
and he didn't want me round home
any more. He got me kept on bureau
work long after all but few volunteers
were mustered ont, and showed me
down to New Orleans, where I'd often
been steam boating before the war.
Il had the fever there when [ was
only 20. Perhaps he thought | could
get it again and that would be the end
Of me. If there's q worse place for
young officer to start III than that in
fernal town was just after the war, it
amt on the map Of these United States.
[ had the luck and the opportunities of
the devil for nigh on to year l got
more money and learned more ways Of
getting it than [ knew how to use, and
then [ got married.
GA homeless woman, woman with
brains and good looks and education,
married ne for the position l could give
her, [ suppose. They told me afterWard
she did it out Of spite or desperation;
that she was northern girl who had
been employed as gOverness in an old
southern family that was ruined by the
war: that she had q younger sister in
New York whom she was educating--a
girl who had q magnificent voice and
wanted to go on the stage-and all the
money she could save went to her. She
got employment when Ben Butler took
command, for she knew all the southern
families that had money and plate and
Jewels and those that had nothing but
niggers.
"She fell in love, they told me after
ward, with swell colonel who came
there on staff duty, for he cut dash
and made desperate love to her, until
his wife got wind of it and came down
there all Of a sudden, just after che
smash up Of the C0nf6deraCy, and put
a stop to his fun. That was III May,
and ] got there i'll July. We We're mar
ried that winter, and I loaded her with
the best I could buy and gave her all
she could spend on her sister until she
found out how my money was made
there in cotton and cards. She thought
and I'd let her think sO-that I had
big property in the north 1t was an
other woman gave her the tip, and then
the trouble began. She sWOre we must
give up the house we lived III, the
horses and carriage and go to d cheap
boarding house. She got the jewelers. TO
take back the watch and all the trInkets
I'd given her at their own valuation
about a quarter of what they cost me.
She argued and pleaded and prayed and
swOre she'd confess the whole thing to
General Sheridan, who came there right
after the riots of 1866 and took com
mand-and that would have sent me to
the penitertiary.
'There were regular officers in the
deals besides me, and they got F-nl of
it and tried to bride Ter. and she'd cry
all night and lnOpe all day and swear
she'd leave me unless I cat loose from
the whole business and restored what
I'd made. by God | couldn't! Id F..
spent it! [ was no worse than three or
four others who had eyes open to their
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES Of 'em III the regu-
lar army now-bang up swells, and at
last couldn't stand it and got to drink .
ing, and then | lost NY card nerve, and .
the money went with it, and it made me I
desperate-crazy, l reckon, for one night (
when | came home DRINK and she made
a scene, I suppose | must have struck
her. and then she took sick and got
delirious, and | was horribly afraid,
and SO were my partners, that she ID give
up the whole business; so they got me
leave of absence.
"They saw me aboard the steamer
for New York. My money was running
short and they gave me enough to place
her in a sanitarium on the Hudson and
get her sister with her, and then I
came back and bad luck followed. I
was strapped, when the old man told
me I'd have to go out and join my reg
iment, for he'd got me appointed in
the regulars. Why, some of Sheridan's
officers, when they saw my name in
the papers, wrote to stop it. but it was
no use. The military committee in con-
gress couldn't go back on Mr.. Cadger,
and he daren't 60 back on my father.
But they got me sent out here to be as
far away as possible and, yes, there
were three deserters from Grams bat
terry aboard the steamer, so learned,
and one of them, the man you call Hig-
gins, who was betrayed to Lieutenant
Blake by another deserter just as bad
as him, was stalking the other two, for
he had money in plenty until after I
had done with him.
"What my life's been out here you
know we'll enough-same as it was in