The National tribune., 1901-07-04

Forage Becomes Precious, and Pete Brings
On Prize Fight.
For the next few days the army
marched through the apparently endless
plains of sandy pine barren which con-
stitute lower Georgia.
There was something weirdly melancholy
in the vast stretches of sand, with giant
pitch pines, standing as far apart as tele-
graph poles, n ragged little cluster of the
limbs at their very tops, and nothing on
| the starved ground below but thinly grow
| ing wire-grass.
The pines had evidently completed their
| growth centuries before, and since drawn
| up into their great, tall trunks all the
| nutriment there was in soil around them,
| for there were no flowers, no herbage, no
| thickets, no shrubs, no young saplings
| growing up to take their places 1t was
| n barren desert, modified only by the pines
rigid, rugged, unkindly, uncompromising
columns and every few miles a sluggish
creek, wandering through a wide-spreading,
! fetid, malariOus swamp, which grew rank
\ with briars, vines, cane, and fat weeds.
| 1t was a wonderful and depressing
| change from the towering mountains, with
| their dense forests and tangled laurel
thickets of northern Georgia, and the rich
| farming country in the center of the State.
The men had gotten used to the noun
learned their qualities and limitations, and
| how to make use of them for their own
| defense, and for offense against their
enemies.
1t was the same with the hills and the
| rolling landscape in the middle of the
| State. 1t was something like their own
homes, the country with which they were
| familiar.
| But there was something vague, somber
and mysterious in this great starved
| waste, where one could see for miles
| through the wide spaces between the
giant pillars of pines, and yet feel that one
was not seeing. There might be some
! lurking danger hidden where no hiding
place could be seen. 1t seemed as if the
army were drifting off into some shoreess
| sea, which would disperse and scatter its
| fragments.
More disturbing than phantom fears
was the fact that food was running low.
No longer the comfortable farmhouses and
gathered crops OF Middle Georgia to
forage from for the man and beast. There
| were few plantations in the piney barrens.
In the scattered cabins dwelt the poorest
and most ignorant people of the State,
descendants of the paupers and jailbirds
who in early times had been transported
to the colony, to get them out of England,
and be slaves of the landowners in build
ing up the new country.
There had been food enough and more
than enough for the whole army on every
days march in Middle Georgia. The rear
guard found plenty after everybody else
had taken all they wanted. Now, there
was not enough anywhere for the ad-
vance guard even, and every ear of corn
and fitch Of meat disappeared before the
main body came up.
The Generals and COlOnels began to
look with austere parsimony on the ration
wagons and the daily issues No more
prodigality, no more carelessness. Moth
ing must be wasted. Every ration wagon
must be brought through, no matter what
the trouble. The standard regulation ra-
ton only must be issued, and that with
scrupulous exactness as to weight. Moth
ing must be lavished on the swarming
negroes following the army. There was
now no telling where the march would end,
and more supplies be obtained. An OBJ
struction to the forward movement by
the force which Hardee was gathering in
front would point toward siege diet, until
a battle could be fought.
The first to grumble 1T this was Aunt
Minerva Ann, and she grumbled more than
the whole regiment.
Col. McGillicuddy was one of those Off
GERS who believed in the same rule for
himself as for his men, and when the
stinting of rations began, he commenced
it on his headquarters and himself
Fer de Lawd's saker' she exclaimed,
in sour discomfort, as she surveyed the
meager allowance issued her for the ra-
tions for the day. What sort OBJ truck
dat t git a spectacle breakfuss wild?
'Cept de coffee, fer which Fadder Album
be thanked, hits jes' lack gibbin' out per-
vizions fer de niggar quarters, only haint
so good. Dat dar pork haint no lean
streaks-all fat, an fries right down t
n cracklin. All grease an no meat. An
dat wheat bread, hard as chips, no more
stick t de ribs dan a SNOWFALL t
shingle. How kin dey' spect a spectacle
cook-lady t git up a breakfuss outen sich
truck as dis fer de Cunnel OBJ de regiment?
Why, hit wouldn't do fer ole Eph de
mornin's dat rs mad at him. De CunneTll
starve t def, an den I'll be blamed. II
ole Eph wuz WORT his salt, which haint,
he'd go out in de country an git some
'Aigs, ole woman" hooted Uncle
Ephraim. ''Yo' ole fool, whar d'yo' 'spect
t git aigs in de piney- -barrens? Whar de
chickens? Whar dey 'roost? A chicken
habit had wings lack Noah's dove t fly
up t de top OBJ desc ole pines t. roose
Talk a leetle sense, won't yO', fer a
change?'
Eggs, Auntie?" echoed Shorty. "If
there's an egg in this back-lot of the
United States it'd have to be laid by the
American eagle, and then it'd belong to
Uncle Billy Sherman. Nobody else'd have
any right to it.
''That's all right Auntie," said 81 cheer
fully. Just stand it for a few days.
We're coming down to the rice planta-
tons. Then we'll have plenty to eat again.
You know rice
"Nebber seed none OBJ hit" remarked
Aunt Minerva sullenly. She was not in
the humor to be pleased with anything
well it's the incest stuff to eat" con-
tinued 81, jubilantly. Makes the incest
custards and puddings. You just ought
to eat some of the custards and puddngs
mother used to make. Never could get
enough of them. And it's so easy 70 cook.
You just put it in and boil it, and 81
stopped, choked with the memories of bis
first attempt at boiling rice. "Only YOU
mustn't put too much in the kittle at first,
and must keep it well-stirred so it won't
burn"
Don't want no rice, nor udder new
tangled truck" answered Aunt Minerva
Ann obdurately. "All I want is some
good corn-meal, hams, bacon, collards.
aigs, an yams. 1 know how t. cook dem.
an dey's good enough fer anybody. When |
l get t hebben all l 'spects is enough |
young collards an ole bacon, an yaIier |
corn pone. De white angels kin had all |
deir wheat bread an fancy filings, fer all |
OBJ me-"
The Brigade Wagonmaster came up.
swearing about the disappearance of fod- |
der from his pile during the night, and |
suspiciOusly scrutiniZed where 81 and the |
rest had fed their horses, but he found |
nothing there to satisfactorily trace his |