Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1902-11-22

olbil vi y gray Wills Il Hdu sui diib
eaten and drunk and been happy in
that simple touch of her foot beneath
mine? Could II be so? 1t did not seem
possible. Could 1t be, too, that that
genial Baron Riedesel and the young
boy prince and his comrades knew
aught Of this? And yet why not? Did
not we up In Connecticut this two years
know this hell and the other hells
swinging at their rotten cables in the
river, that held their crowds of living
and dying and dead?
must get away from this scene! /
could not stand Il. And so with severe
pain | rose carefully and, picking my
way over n among the two hundre
and more men In hat long narrow
room, made for one of the small win
dowJ Each was crowded two and
three deep with silent figures clinging
together in the hot air, their faces
touching cheek to cheek and filling the
lowe" space of the window. each man
had his mouth open drawing in long
breaths.
Would you but let me get a Whit
OF air, frlend?" / asked one Of those on
the outer edge of the group. But no
sooner had I spoken than voice behind
me said:
THAT is not your group!"
l turned 10 him and he must have
seen my bewilderment, for he asked:
when did you Gomez"
But just now, this morning."
You do not know then that the room
is divided into groups Of six men, and
hat every ten minutes a group must
change to allow another six to breathe
the air"
mo, I did not know It," said I weari-
ly. And then without interest, but
without di%sCourtesy, / vas assigned to
group No. 81. Turning again to him
who had spoken first, / asked what
group those men now by the window
belonged to, and he told me twas No.
%.
Then I cannot get to the window for
an hour and a half?"
THAT is 1t, my friend"
80 be it. If these men vino have
been here so long can stand 1t, so can
l." And 1 was about to lie down, feel
ing unable to stand and knowing an
other Of those shivers was coming on,
when the tramp of military feet sound
ed in the corridor and a hoarse voice
cried:
Turn out your dead! All hands turn
out your dead!"
"A strange, intangible rustling
sounded through the room, before so
silent that 1t did not seem as If so many
men could be housed there. Then the
tIO"u lOSts tANCDl lllOpS II NOulu
never rise again this side of the grave,
and with the same quiet, silent method
that everything seemed to have in that
fetid room-the lack of interest, the
sombre, mirthless procedure, the same
set faces with only one expression on
them-with all this a few raised the
eight or ten bodies and carried them to
the two doors leading into the corridor.
| watched from across the room n
ca ~ tho living q AIRY the dead hrnthpT'
tenderly, quietly in his arms and with
out a word deliver him to two soldiers,
who, one taking him by the feet and
the other by the arm pits, carried him
off down the corridor, to be thrown
without covering or burial service into
the trenches outside the breastworks,
there to rot with thousands of others,
good men and true all Of them!
With the same quiet manne the
Others settled back in silence to sit or
lie motionless, looking at nothing.
thinking, thinking for hours, days,
weeks at a time, without speaking;
others to walk aimlessly about over
and among their fellows. l lay close
by the wall trying to get such air rs !
could, now and hen frozen with chills
and with the pangs of hunger gripping
me. But no morscl OF food came TO us
that day, and only by the generosity of
n man with whom | talked had | n bit
of foul bread and salt beef.
Sc came the night, without charge
except for a shade less light in the
room. But l slept, as / had during the
day, in a doZe that seemed even to me
wrong and unnatural, and when l woke,
somewhere in the early hours, my face
and body burned with a fever and the
undressed wound gave me terrible pain.
| pitched about a while on a bit OF
straw / had got into my possession,
and then, turning to one near me, said;
ARE you awake, my friend"
Always q the other immedi-
ately.
do yeu know aught OF the chirur-
geon's work."
mo, man, that | do not. What is it?"
Il have a wound here" answered L.
"And If l could but get my clothes
away from 1t, 'twOuld be less trouble"
Let the cloth stick to 1t, lad" said
he. The room is full of typhus and
smallpox, and 'twere better to keep it
closed. But wait till daylight when we
can see it better"
So l lay wide awake for several hours
till the light came slowly in, my
thoughts running riot at times, so that
| thought that l might go out of my
head. And then l would go over every
hour of my life with her, from the wet
lkIll LII " pASNN NSNlNiA NllICl W
that moment at the princes soiree
when she turned from me and my heart
died within me. 1t was all a matter of
three short weeks, yet l could not fancy
MY existence before it, could not re-
member much of what l lac thought
felt for twenty years. And then,
fancy running on, l would present TO
myself, as n will, thousands of inn
possible ifs"
If / had now the chance Of going out
freely into the open air ana way from
the city, but to do hat must give Up
must not know ut all-my short three
weeks with her, would | do it? And
in my heart that l would lie
down on the dirty straw n shake my
head. Yet how could she doubt me?
What was she thinking, doing. feeling
now, and now? And then what had
become Of Curtis and Acton and that
specimen of manhood that went
with them? What of the expedition
Newport? And so back again
to Deborah Philipse, and round her and
round her in n circle of thought, with
fever climbing into my veins all
long.
At daybreak the guards came, bring
ing each man six days rations, and we
ordered to form in line and march
past, taking our share, one by one.
When 1t came my urn | found lying in
my hand about two pounds of raw pork
and as much weight of sea biscuit.
And finding my friend, we got an iron
bucket wherewith n could heat the
SO we cooked and ate our meal,
only a bit of water with which
he kind friend helped me get my shirt
away from the wound. And then, tear
ng the linen up into ribbons, he wound
{ tight around my body for a bandage.
Ao hn did GO hig nryn hpi rb a--l =. Ia
Il knew a queer bird up the river
was part c~hirurgeon n part man
IF God-though mostly pirate said he,
who showed me how thus to tie a
oandage." l paid little heed to what
he man said, for just then a faintness
rom he pain took me. He knew
of all three trades. a TRANCE