The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1904-06-01

49, ''Oote" oouDle QUICK anu we
started on run for the scene Of ac-
ton. Just little afterwards, as our
brigade was coming in the plank road
at the double quick one of those in
cidents occurred SO frequent in war
which strangely mixes the ridiculous
and the pathetic with the sublime and
the terrible.
"One of these little Southern boys
3 mere stripling-passed US on his way
to the rear. He was of slender build,
ragged, dirty and bloody. He had o
knapsack strapped to his back big
enough for pack saddle. He carried
an army rifle in hie hsnds of greater
length than his body. re also had 9 |
large blanket hanging in roll from
che shoulder and o plump looking
hsversaok from the other. And o
cartridge boz and bayonet sca5bard
buckled to his waist, and you have
bim in his complete equipment. He
had been in the charge just made and
had been shot in the face or about the
head, and he was ss bloody as butch
cred hog. AS he passed US he called
out: oh. boys, they are running,
they are running. They've got the
shoes, too, and l got pair!' AS he
said this he hourished o pair Of brand
new shoes over his head in an ecstasy
Of enthusiasm. Our men gave him
rousiDg cheer as they rushed past him
and could hear the cheer prolonged
by the troops behind US.
"Unconquerable scrap of hero It
was only glimpse that had of him,
but that glimpse was as vivid as light
ning's fash in the darkness of the
storm, and his childish face, covered
with dirt and blood, was pictured on
my memory in colors which the chad.
owa Of forty years have not dimmed.
I can only fondly trust that he passed
on into life and health and happiness
ON to the front in the battle Of life
and that fortune has lavished upon
him her choicest favors and her sweet.
est smiles.
"Oh, those wild, grand old days OF
glorious lifel Wrapped now in the
shadows Of the ye'-s, gone glimmer-
ing with the gallant spirits that made
them radiant with glory, yet it were
worth many years of these dull plod-
ding timas of selfish greed aud sor-
did gain to feel once more the heart
leep to their wild stirring music and
toJ soul swell with their glorious
inspirations. But they are gone for
ever.
II have read somewhere Of twelve
young men who were dining together
on the first day of one year, and being
engaged in permanent pursuits, and
expecting to spend their lives in the
same community, they agreed to or
gauize themselves into alifelong social
club, on the condition that they would
never admit new member, that they
should dine at one another's houses
on the first and the last day Of each
year, that when one died eleven
should meet, and when two died ten
should meet, and so on to the end,
and chat the first bottle of wine un-
corked at this their first meeting
should be recorked and laid away, and
the last surviving member on the an.
niversary of their first meeting should
sit a. the table the usual number OF
hours, and should uncork the bottle Of
wine and drink to che health Of those
that were gone.
"Thirty years passed and two of
the number had fallen. The remain
ing Ten met and they drank and talked
Of business and politics, OF wide plano
and bright prospects for the future.
Twenty more years CANT aud went aud
only four Of them assembled. with
bowed heads and tottering steps,
wrapped in great coats and thick muf-
flers, and when they took their seats
at the table they talked about the
great changes that had come over the
country, and they ohirped oheerily
over their glasses, though they could
scarcely carry them to their lips If
more than half full. They cracked
their jokes, though they artioulated
their words with difficulty, and heard
each other with still greater difficulty.
They mumbled, they ohattered, they
laughed, and ss the wine sent their
ICY blood in warmer pulses through
their shrunken veins they talked Of
their past as if it were but yesterday
that had slipped by them, and their
future as if it were busy century be-
foro khon. -, -