The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1904-08-26
STAMPEOINC A
PROCESSION.
Siias ford's Fourth of July
Flag--Iakihg Poison
by Mistake.
For The Messenger.

DO you remember the &Hle SiiaS
Ford stampeded the Independent Light
Infantry? / laughed outright on the
question, for the whole scene flashed
on my mind, when two OF three Of us
were sitting in the office Of a friend
the other day. talking over old times.
Fayetteville, as long as it had COOL
fortune to own him as a citizen, had
its heary laughs at Silas Ford, for he
was funnier in his righteousness and
owl-like solemnity han other men were
in moods Of merriment, just as Ben
Allen was funnier than his chum Rob
Sawyer, in Dickens "Pickwick Pa
pers.' One day a neighbor. gossiping
with Silas' wife, said: Your husband
is a mighty nice man, but be is So
queer i reckon you never know what
he is going to do when anything turns
up That 1 do" replied Mrs. Ford,
Il know he'll do just what nobody
else would, and if there's a right thing
and a wrong thing, he'll do the wrong
thing" That was Silas.
He was a hard-featured raw-boned.
Slab-sided man of about 80 or 40 Years
old, L first knew him, with a
tuft of sandy hair sprouting out from
the very point of his chin in the share
OF a bow, which was always in motion.
like the beard Of a goat. for Silas Ford
was chewing tobacco always, when he
wasn't eating or sleeping. He lived in
the southern outskirts of town, and
could beat any man 1 ever knew rails
ing tomato and cabbage plants.
The occasion on which Silas Fer
CT ~ Il .-l% -
fantry was a Fourth of July celebrat-
ton. which was held at Camp Adam
on Haymount, and the grafton, IL my
m serves me, was delivered sby
h late, lamented Benjamin Huske.
What right Silas a to carry a fiag
on that occasion 1 never knew but ne
obtained permission to head the
organizations with a banner and
he made UP his mind to ride. as
being more dignified and spectacular.
He hired a horse from Mr.. Murdoch
Mckinnon, who ran the stage line 20
Warsaw, which was as raw-boned and
slab-sided for II horse as Silas was fer
a man, with one ear sticking straight
up, and the other lying down over one
eye, and which was taken off the
stage line because he was so deviliSh.
AS he lived at a considerable dis
tance, SilaS decided to join the para1e
from in front of Myrover's store, on
the corner of upper Hay and Wins.nw
streets, and when the procession got
about to Cook and Taylor'S store he
proposed to put himseIr at the heau
Now, anybody but Silas Ford would
lave leaned the flag against the null
berry tree, mounted, and had it hand-
ed him; but SilaS attempted to do this,
carrying the flag. The Consequences
were humiliating and disastrous. The
horse tnnE fri 0ht inst n G hic ,i1a-, thr1Nx-
one leg over, and boltcu, WITH SilaS w
ing flat across his back, wrapped iE
the fiuttering folds. and holding on like
grim death, while his steed charged
straight at the Independent Light In
fantry company in front, with Ham
mond and Tom Drake playing the ket.
tle-drum and fife at the head.
Military tactics forbid a command TO
break ranks, even at a mouth.
but nothing is aid about a runaway
stage horse; and the commanding Off
cer-I hin it was the late esteemed
Maj. A. NJ. Campbell-gave an order
not in the books: Lord, boys. scat
teri and they scattered, as did tha
different bands of celebrators coming
on behind. A hundred yards in the
real the horse took another devilish
notion, whirled short around, Silas still.
kicking and squirming on his back,
and split h procession in half again,
regaining his place It the front, and
finally ~depositing his rider in a mud
puddle.
Silas was an enlisted man of the In
dependent company, and the command
ing officer, in a towering age had
him arrested, and marched in disgrace
under guard UP to Camp Adam.
The late Benjamin Huske, if he was
the orator on hat occasion, had just
attained his majority, and he was still
in the flush of a young manhood, that
gave brilliant promise of a life replete
with usefulness and crowned with
honors, when he died of what was
first supposed to be a slight woun in
the foot. received in one of the battles
of the civil war. OF him it might we'll
be said, as Longfellow wrote of Burns.
And then to die SO o and leave
Unfinished, what he might achieve.
He haunts his native land, an immortal;
youth;
His hand guides every pillow,
He sits beside each ingle-nook,
His voice is in each rushing brook,
In every rustling bough."
In old days the people of Faystte-l
vile We're very tender and consider
ate Of their gifted youth; and, whenl
they crossed the threshold of manhood,I
panoplied for the conflict and triumphsl
of life, gave them a chance to show
their mettle by selecting them to deliv5
er orations on public occasions, etc.
For years it was the custom to assignl
to the newest licensed lawyer the task
OF charging the grand jury on the
opening Of superior court, but the pre-
siding judge has long since taken that
matter into his own hands.
Ex-Justice James c.. MacRae, the,
learned dean OF the university lawl
school,, who has sat OF the bench Of
10Th the superior n Supreme courts
and who, since his young days, has
been wont, to address large assert
blages with conspicuous ability, digni-
ty and grace, did not, when he first
entered in pubic life. appreciate the
compliment of his fellow citizens I'M
putting him to the front.
He was billed for an address on some
august occasion, from a stand erected
on Green street in front OF the old
Shemwe1 house. He mounted the plat
form faultlessly dressed. with roll Of