Montour American. (Danville, Pa.) 1866-1920, 1902-06-19

spurs?
One night this question was an
swered to some extent Our tent was
round, and the - men who lived in it
slept with heads toward the outside
and feet to the center. By early No.
vembcr the nights were so cold that a
man needed a blanket as well as his
uniform to keep him warm. Several
recruits who admired my spurs had
purchased others as much like them
as possible of the regimCntal sutler or
stOrekCcpCr, and they wore them con-
tinually. One evening after our tentful
had enjoyed a private supper of fricas-
seed goose, purchased from n colored
woman, we all lay down peaceably to
sleep. Whether the geese-there were
two of thcm-WCre underdone or too
rich for men whose ordinary supper
was dry bread and sauce of dried ap-
pies don't know, but some of US were
affected i'm our dreams very much like
small children after Christmas dinner
and unlimited candy. How the trouble
began do not know, but | awoke
from dream of being heavily shackled
in rebel dungeon to find a terrible
uprOar and struggle going on in the
tent which was as black as Egypt dur
ing the plague of darkness. To make
matters worse, the most serious part
of my dream seemed still in operation,
for | could not liberate my feet when
| tried to crawl away from the center.
"What blankcd cuSs has been tying
our feet togcther?" roared one man.
'Lct 90 Of my blanket" shouted an
other, cor I'll break your headT
you're a nice one to talk" said a
hird, "when it's you that's making all
the trOublew
Meanwhile /, who had just awoke
and didn't know anything about the
difficulty, was being dragged one way
and another by my feet, SO l raised my
own voice and complained of unfair
treatment.
The din awoke the first sergeant, one
Of the only two noncommissioned Off
GERS yet appointed for our company,
and he opened the tent flap and roared:
keep quiet here or I'll send you all
to the guardhOusew
"Pd be greatly obliged, sergeant"
said Brainard plaintively, ''if you'd
send me there right away, if only to
get out of this frightful snarl."
"Strike a light" said the sergeant.
Hamilton, who always carried match
es, scratched one and lighted the can
die, which was in n socket on the tent
pole; then, as | struggled to q sitting
posture, l beheld an odd spectacle.
Nearly all the men in the tent seemed
bound together by the feet by blankets
or held down by blankets stretched
tightly across their legs. After each
man had investigated for himself lit
tie while it appeared that the men
with Mexican spurs, like all the others,
had been tossing uneasily in their sleep,
all on account of the goose supper, and
had worked the point Of their spurs
through the blankets over their feet
As the blankets greatly overlapped one
another at the center, a spur as often
as not had contracted an entangling al
lance with some other fellows blan-
ket, and the harder the wearer tried in
his sleep to free himself, tossing and
straining, the worse became the mis-
cry.
"Unloose yourselves" said the SER
geant.
"Unloose thunderw shouted n big ex-
drayman from New York. "You can't
unloosc tie till you find the end, and
the ends of these blankets is all inside
somewhere"
"Be iabers," grunted an Irishman,
81 behave some spalpeen has stole the
inds and TUX 'em away"
We picked and pulled and tugged and
lost our tempcrs, and the few men who
weren't in the tangle drew out Of the