Rock Island Argus., 1903-09-10
DAILY SHORT STORY.
On the Brink.
IOriginal.l

to pass Judgment upon what l alone
was cognizant of, have no opinion to
offer One thing 1 know-we, living
in this age of rationalism, have ban
ished all save the material. Fools!
We see stars in the heavens countless
millions of miles away because our
eyes are adapted to see them. How
easy for our Creator to have given us
another lens with which to discern
spirits near at hand! And may not
mans eye, under certain strained con
ditiOns, be so changed as to form a
spiritual image?
From early morning TIL afternoon
the Confederate General Albert Sidney
Johnston had flung one battle wave
after another upon the Union army
under Grant. He had said at sunrise,
Before it sets we shall water our
horses in the Tennessee" Before that
setting he and thousands of his men
had passed from their material bodies.
The first day of the battle of Shiloh
had passed, leaving no sound save an
occasional boom, here and there a rife
shot, but above all the cries of the
wounded.
1 had fought in the "hornets' nest"
and there 1 had been severely wound
ed, lying where 1 fell, among a heap
of slain. 1t was early in April, and
in Tennessee April is what June is in
the northern states. looked up and
saw the leaves of a tree lazily fiutter
ing in the breeze. 1 remember it be-
cause of the peaceful contrast with the
I,.,IV lit
How it was driving me mad! Then
for a time lost consciousness.
When 1 came to myself it must have
been after midnight. 1 think so be-
cause the wounded, at least those near
me, had been removed, and there was
no living thing near me. Doubtless l
had been left for dead. Was l not in
the first stage of death, yet not destined
for the last stage? 1 had no feeling of
pain. 1 lay thinking of the events of
the past day. Suddenly 1 heard a
bugle call. 1t was "the assembly" But
instead of having the rasping ring of
metal it WIS like a seraph's voice.
1 started up. How light 1 was!
Nothing was an effort Looking
around, saw over each body its coun-
terpart rising and hurrying away. 1
stood on my feet, and, looking down,
there lay my own corpse. Turning, l
saw men forming in the ranks of war.
called to an officer who passed me
and asked him:
"What does this all meanr'
"They are cOmingP
"Who?"
1.-The Confederate dead"
what, Do the dead fight onf''
Yes; we are simply what we left off
being yesterday. We shall now de-
velop differently, more rapidly and or
a much broader scale. But for the
present-come, we must join"
We hurried forward to where this
singular army was forming, and, pass
ing the flank, l stood for a moment
looking down the line. In the faces Of
the men was all the war passion of liv-
ing beings, but none of the fatigue,
none of the suffering. The forms were
like a night mist and l noticed that
they not only fliclSered with an un-
steady motion. but the line seemed
like flag through which n breeze is
passing, imparting undulations.
BY this time there was line of bat
tie formed composed of regiments,
whose meager numbers were indicated
by the nearness of the standards.
heard a cheer-it sounded like a dis
tant whistling of wind-and a man
rode by in a generals uniform.
"Ie was the ranking sacrifice yester-
day." said man at my elbow, ''but he
is no match for the Confederate gener-
al in chief" To-.
Our leader waved his sword above
his head, beckoning us to follow him.
There was neither sound of firing nor
tramp of men. Often since, when look
ing at the great panoramas of battle
fields in which the action is vividly
portrayed without the slightest sound,
have thought of this advance of dead
men. Here and there we would come
to a part of the field occupied by
camps, but we passed through them as
though they were of vapor. Then sud
denly emerging from a wood we saw
the ConfederateS advancing to meet us.
Their leader was a tall, magnificent
looking man in the uniform of Con-
federate general. When first saw him
he was riding back and forth before
his troops encouraging them. They
artillerymen, cavalrymen, standing
shoulder to shoulder. The battle flags
were torn and dingy. The singular fea-
ture to me was that disembodied spir-
Its should have had to do with ma
terial surroundings. But a moments
thought shows this to be probably ow-
ing to the imperfection of my spiritual
vision. Might not have been able to
discern the spirit with an embryo spir-
itual eye. clothing it with material
with my bodily percep-
tions? Be that as it may, the men
were dressed and armed and moved as
living beings.
But my vision was cut short in the
beginning. for just as 1 was looking
to knowledge of how spirits
fight we clashed, and l heard a hui
man voice say, "This one isn't dead"
and in twinkling the spectral armies
and a man stood over nc,
leaning on a spade. A cloud of smoke
coi1o1 FROM, tho y,,41zzIoe of fl,o