Richmond daily palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1876-1904, 1901-11-19
OLD KENESAW'S
LAST BATTLE
The Story
of Dying Veteran
BY CHARLES Il. YOUNGER.
BY CHARLES b. YOUNGER.

door or WlndOW open tilaf winter morn
ing and allowed the bitterly cG1d w.nC
TO sweep through the corridors anc
wards Of the great hospital. their
would have been no more shudderina
among the hundreds Of patients than
was caused by this whisper. passed
rapidly from cot TO cot. from nurse IL
nurse. speeding across TO be dissemi-
mated among the hundreds of students
in the adjoining buildings.
"Old Kenesaw is dying,'
The attending physician, summoned
hastily by the alarming symptoms, had
stopped but moment to hand his
snow covered cap and ulster to the re-
ceiving nurse. A glance into the con-
torted, agonized face Of the venera BILE
patient, touch of the pulse, the brief
est study of the paroxysms that were
but the surface indications of the ter
rible torture within. and the doctor
turned away with look of utter de-
spair and helpIessness.
mo hope. doctorY' The head nurse
had witnessed other death struggles,
and IL is said that nurses become inur
ed to such scenes. But the girls inter-
probation of the doctors manner left
her presenting "a picture of abject mis-
cry. "Oh, dear, dear, to think that
kind Old kenesaw must suffer sou
Through her wet eyes she looked at
the poor, wasted old body writhing and
twisting upon the cot. "Oh, doctor, If
you are quite sure he cannot recover,
In ho
end less painful?"
DIR. Blank had turned away from the
scene and was looking vacantly out Of
the window. If he made no immediate
response to the nurses appeal, it was
because he was revolving the same per-
picking problem in his own mind. AL
though he had grown gray in the hos
pital service. DIR. Blank was for the
first time face to face with a most vio- |
lent case of angina pectoris, but he
recognized it as hopeless beyond all |
human means.
What could be done to ease Old |
kenesaw in a losing struggle with /
death: The battle could end but one |
way. and it was tearing the very
heart from the victim and subjecting
him to the worst torture man can ex-
perience.
Aside from the means of the dying
man the little room was quiet. The few
seconds that the doctor stood there
seemed an age to the nurses
and the internes. who first glanced in
sadness and terror at the patient. then
n appeal to the silent man at the win
low. Presently the doctors dark
lopeless counfenance changed. ana
rope was discerned in his quick COM
nand:
"Send for Ainsley. Take my horse
md buggy and get him here quickly
is possible
Then IS an inferno fastened through
he hall 80 carry out these Instructions,
he SAD news spread over the great
buildings. whispered by nurse to nurse,
,y patient to his neighbor in the next
,ot:
'.Old Kenesaw is dyinge'
Never was a man more truly loved.
Many years before he had come to the
hospital suffering from old age and the
ailments contracted in the southern
swamps during four years service in
the civil war Broken in health. with
put a home or relative. depending upon
{
and shattered body together. he drift
ed into the free clinic and asked for
treatment. AS NO. "A" he had first be-
come known to the nurses and in
ternes, but after he had related his
war experiences to them and had told
md retold with glistening eyes of his
greatest battle his title was changed
to Old Kenesaw Mountain and in time I
to Old Kenesaw.
When Old Kenesaw enlisted with 4
the army OF patients. 1t was thought /
he would eventually be relieved and |
After two months of good \
care the old warrior was again fairly +
but he evinced no desire I
TO depart from the hospital. and. in
fact. no one wanted him to go. He /
had become a sort of general factotum.
and his services We're regarded as
We'll worth his bed and board.
Old patients and new internes,
nurses, medical students. the entire
hospital staff and even the visitors at
the institution came to know him ia
His slow, shutting step and
the CHEEKY click of his cane on the
hardwood floors were as familiar as
the scheduled visits of the nurses and
always as welcome. if not more so.
Old Kenesaw had access TO every
nook and corner of the hospital. The
patients drew inspiration from his
kindly old face. and his stories Of
camp and battle served as a tonic.
To the children in the hospital Ken
esaw was the incarnation of all that
was good. kind and helpful He was
their chum. their never falling friend.
He would creep TO the cots of the lit
tie sufferers. chase away thoughts OF
pain and bring smiles TO their wan
faces with his inexhaustible fund OF
stories
Once when n child. scaling the dizzy
heights between life and death, had
cried for some goldenrod it was of
xe,nrfl IL Old EeneSaw had trudg-