The silver messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1890-1912, 1903-10-06
The Old Fort and
a Passer By 80
BY S. RHErr ROMAN.

n
| the Atlantic shore. It's grass
grown walls towering up to an i'm
mense height, in unbroken sweeps
and angles of green, and it looks soil
tary and deserted. Only a small SEN
try box on the sea face indicates that
the impregnable earthwork is again
occupied, while the occasional sound
of drum beats, and bugle calls, show
that company of United States ar
tiIlery is stationed there to look
after the row of sunken guns, quite
invisible from the outside, and which
no intruder is ever allowed to inves-
tigate.
The Old Fort. like an ancient CO.
quette, has a history, a stormy his
tory, and romance attached to IT.
1t once withstood assault after as
sault long years ago from vigor-
Gus and determined enemy, and the
sod of its bastions and outer wall,
not then so lofty and imposing as it
is to-day, was dyed red in many
places, and the white sand road,
winding around in front of two of
its sides, covers the crumbling bones
of most of a gallant line of blue,
which surged up, was beaten back
thinned and decimated, then swept
up again to remain in queer mis-
shapen heaps, and outstretched soli-
tary figures, all along the escarp-
ment of the walls from whose case
ments puffs of gray smoke oozed out,
and were blown this way and that
by the salt sea breezes.
They were placed side by side,
those silent figures, and given decent
burial down in the white sand at the
foot of the fort, where they had
fallen, and to-day butcher carts and
bakers wagons go Flooding along
above them. and pedestrians living
in the pretty village, scattered over
| the island, tramp cheerily along mar
row sidewalks skirting this forgot
ten cemetery, being quite ignorant
/ that their careless footsteps are
passing over the remains of men who
had tried fruitlessly and heroically
| to storm the battlements of the
| grass-grown fort.
Conditions are changed to-day, but
it still remains impregnable.
| young man sat on the grassy
! edge of the road. and while smoking
a cigar, glanced with idle interest
at the towering slant of the forts
walls behind him. crowned as they
were by the sentry's watch tower.
And as he lounged he ruminated
moodily on his own private battle
| between himself and a pretty gir)
which had gone so decidedly against
him during the summer just passed
So a feeling of friendly interest
went out from his heart toward tbs
ancient field work which had held out
so long and so well, but was now oc
cupied by those against whom it haC
been gallantly and useIessly Tough
in the long past years.
1T was all to no purpose, old fort,
he said, lazily. as his eye measured
the noble proportions of the bat
terry, and he noted the solitary sen
try pacing back and forth on tn,
rampant above, his figure dwarfed b,
the light but distinct against the vel
low and crimson clouds in the ives
where the sun was setting.
"You held your own with splendi,
strength and tenacity, and 70,
thought you had won a great victor,
the day when your sides were red
stained and the smoke of your can
non blew in the eyes of your gun
ners. But it was useless struggle
To-day the men who man your gun
are the brothers of those who pei
) ished attempting to scale your wall.
, You are a monument to the fulfill
of desperate effort and the mutabi
ity of human affairs"
A breeze swept over the walls of tn
fort and ruffled the short grass grow
ing thick and rank this late summe
month and sent an aromatic odor o
field flowers in the face of the dejecte
tourist sitting on the edge of the side
walk.
ut was not useless, young man. n
, lesson of struggle and immorts
proves is useless" said the WALL
frowning down in disapproval on tn
athletic, good-looking young fello'
idly smoking a choice Havana, hi
5 neatly turned-up trousers, paten
? leather shoes, polka-dotted sock
well-cared-for hands and handsom
seal ring plainly showing that his wer
lines running smoothly along the cas-
road of prosperity, where bite
struggles, disappointments and d,
feats are not usual.
"What have you to complain o
young MANI" asked the old for
"What are you detected and spiritle.
about? I've noted you often passin
along here with clever-lookinI
bright-eyed girl-a spirited girl wit
handsome face and erect carriag
What are you so moody about?'