The Marble times and Crystal silver lance., 1900-11-09

BUGLER CALVIN TITUS.
who could not sleep that night. Sleep
would not come He got up and walked
to the brow of the hill and looked long
toward Pekin. A dead city it lay in
the night No smoke curled up from
the high smokestacks, the busy whirr
of machinery was absent. Unlighted
and unlovely it lay, an eastern city
of the past in strange contract to the
western cities he knew. He was only
youth, 20 years old, and he carried
a bugle at his side, for he was rated in
the army as a musician. But the band
never gets on the firing line and so
he forsook the band and carried the
bugle to the front. He had been in
the army two years and had never
had a chance to distinguish himself
During the war with Spain he enlisted
in Company K First Vermont, and
never got any further than Chicka-
mauga, where he was mustered out in
November, 1898. He was back agais
in the service in April, 1899, bound
for the Philippines and China. g
He stood outside the wall and won
dered if it could be scaled.
Don't look a4y harder than the
palisades of the Genesee river" he
mused, with his head on one side re-
ferring to the climb he had when Ne
carved his name on the highest point
of the heights below the middle falls.
in Wyoming county. New York.
by jimminy, I'll do it," he cried
I slapping his knee, and he went back
to the corn field to sleep
Attack the Wall.
Next day the sun rose on scene OF
war The japanese troops attacked
the wall on the north with their long
guns and artillery. The Russians next
to them formed for charge. The Ger
mans, the English and the French
swung around the half circle and the
/ Americans brought up the left flank
Along the top of the wall the pig
tailed heads of the enemy could oe-
casionally be seen by the allied troops
on the ground. The watch towers over
the gates bristed with cannon, which
| swept the country for miles around.
The order came along the line to pre-
pare, for the charge and the men
g1lpped their guns tighter and, with
atern faces and set teeth. waited the
sound of the bugle which would send
some of them to their death.
1t was a one-sided fight for the most
part. Except for the artillery in the
/ possession of the Japanese and a few
naval guns which the Europeans had,
dragged from the warships at Tien-
tsin. the little, army of the west had
nothing with which to fight their foes
at long range. On the other hand, the
I Chinese were well equipped with
aeavy fort pieces, which they had
mounted on the wall With them they.
hoped to keep the enemy at bay.
But there was one thing with which
they had not reckoned. and that was
that their guns could sweep the~foe off
the face of the earth at distance but
could not harm them close under the
walls OF the city The American off,
GERS were first to perceive this fa.t.
While their men were being shot to
pieces at long range and dying with
their useless rifles in their hands. the
officers had resolved upon charge for
safety under the very walls Of the city.
There the fight would be ON more even
terms. for 1t would be rifles against
rifles. and the best shots would tell.
And SO the order charge" came sweep
Ing down the line. The men broke
from cover and ran in open order TO-