Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1903-02-19
The Old Fort and
a Passer By ~
BY S. RHETT ROMAN.

mense height, in unbroken sweeps
and angles of green, and it looks soil
tary and deserted. Only 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 a company of United States ar
tillery 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, stormy his
tory, and romance attached to it.
1t once withstood assault after as
sault long years ago from a 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 soil
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 plodding 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 hsroieally
to storm the battlements ;of the
grass-grown fort.
Conditions are changed to-day, but
it still remains impregnable.
A young man sat on the grassy
edge of the road, and while smoking
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 girD,
which had gone so decidedly against
him during the summer just passed.
So a feeling Of friendly interest
went out from his heart toward the
ancient field work which had held out
so long and so well, but was now oc-
cupied by those against whom it had
been CALAMITY and uselessly fought
in the long past years.
cit was all to no purpose, old fort"
he said, lazily, as mis- eye measured
the noble proportions of the bat
terry, and he noted the solitary SEN
try pacing back and forth on the
rampant above, his figure dwarfed by
the light but distinct against the yell
low and crimson clouds in the west
where the sun was setting.
"You held your own with splendid
strength and tenacity, and you
thought you had won a great victory
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 a useless struggle.
To-day the men who man your guns
are the brothers of those who per-
ished attempting to scale your walls.
You are a monument to the futility
of desperate effort and the mutabil-
ity of human affairs"
A breeze swept over the walls of the
fort and ruffed the short grass grow
ing thick and rank this late summer
month and sent an aromatic odor Of
field flowers in the face of the detected
tourist sitting on the edge of the side
walk.
at was not useless, young man. No
lesson. of struggle and immortal
prowess is useless" said the walls,
browning down in disapproval on the
athletic, good-looking young fellow
idly smoking a choice Havana, his
neatly turned-up trousers, patent
leather shoes, polka-dotted socks,
well-cared-for hands and handsome
seal ring plainly showing that his were
lines running smoothly along the easy
road of prosperity, where bitter
struggles, disappointments and de-
feats are not usual.
"What have you to complain of,
young man?" asked the old fort.
''What are you detected and spiritless
about? I've noted you often passing
along here with a clever-looking,
bright-eyed girl-a spirited girl with
& handsome face and erect carriage.
What are you so moody about?"
81 have not what l want, old fort.
What do l care about wealth? have
not the love of a brown-eyed girl,
whose smile is the light of HEAVIER, and
for whose sake l would scale your
sombre old walls in the face of all your
cannon if I thought it would give me
the hope of winning her.
you talk of battles! It's easier to
storm up in the wild craze of battle
and wrest victory and possession
against long odds than to dawdle
through life and see the thing you
ardently crave beyond your reach. To
realize that you may have Dead sea
fruit in abundance, but never the only
Joy which would make life worth hav-
ing. You talk of ancient battles and
forgotten struggles. Mine is battle
of to-day for my life's happiness, and
/ I've lost it. I'll go out west and look
after my mines, or I'll go cruising, and
/ I'll play the same old bluff society
game. But, rain or shine, what do L
/ care?"
''Tut! tut!" said the old fort con-
temptuously. "You should have been
born 40 wears ago. You have all the