The Savannah morning news., 1904-08-14
GOOD DEEDS OF TWO FLIES.
One Woke Up Soldier at Critical Mo-
ment and Another Bit Him in the
Nick of Time.
From the Washington Star.

menI ana AnOtnef BIT MIN IN thc
Nick of Time.
From the Washington Star.
A persistent fly was irritating one
of the two men on the lawn bench.
He kept slapping at the fly, and grow
ling. Although the fly was impartial
ly addressing it's stinging attentions to
both of them, the other man on the
lawn bench never made a move toward
annihilating the busy winged pest.
How do YOU stand having that con-
founded malicious fly boring into you
nose that way without making wall
Top at it?" inquired the irritated man,
petulantly.
Don't mind it at ALL replied the
calm man. Flies are pals and side
partners of mine. haven't slapped at
a fly for a good many years now.
Just let EN- gnaw and gouge all they
want to. The reason? None, except
that flies have saved me from a heap
of trouble on two occasions since
began to shave.
First time was when 1 was soldier
ing on the rock of Alcatraz, in the
harbor of San Francisco.
zone night-the night following pay
day, by the way, and as there had been
much tud-pokerishness and things on
pay day night, l want any too Wide
awake was on guard, humping AL
catraz's No. l post in the black dark.
No. l post at Alcatraz is the dock
far below the looming citadel and
barracks at which the government boat
lands.
THE corporal of the guard Jared
me awake on my guardhouse bunk at
midnight, and escorted me down to
the dock to pound the dock post for
my little two hours.
Il walked up and down the dock for
about twenty minutes, thinking it over
Wondered a good deal what the deuce
l was doing swinging up and down
with gun on my shoulder in the
middle of the night, when there real
ly had never been any necessity for me
to do anything of the sort.
THE harbor waters, tidebound out
through the Golden Gate, brushed pur-
lingly past the dock. That was sooth-
ing. So was the resiny breeze blowing
over from Berkeley and Oakland way
miles distant. Mighty soothing breeze.
Il decided to sit down just for a
minute or so. At the end of the dock
there was a pile of bags of coal that
had been unloaded from the govern
ment boat. the General Mcdowell, the
afternoon before. l sat on one of the
bags of coal, resting my gun between
my legs.
1T was, as I say, the night after
pay day, and l should never have TAX
en- chance on sitting down at all
when on guard. l nodded and fell
asleep, of course.
AT 1 o'clock in the morning, or
about half an hour after I had done
that unfortunate thing, from the mill
tary point of view. of falling asleep
while on guard, the corporal of the
guard had stood at the prison railing,
and, making a funnel of his hands,
called down to me:
One o'clock and alPs we'll
ut was up to me, then, of course, to
reply:
No. l, O'clock and alrs WELL
| But how could l have done that,
when, being sound asleep on a bag of
| coal, 1 didn't hear the corporal of the
| guard?
"All of a sudden I was awakened
with start, and was brushing at my
nose. A barrel of molasses had been
| landed on the dock the afternoon be-
| fore, and some of the treacle had leak
| ed. That had attracted a swarm of
| flies from the barracks to the dock.
| One of those flies had awakened me
| by biting my nose.
And maybe that fly hadn't awak-
ened me in the very nick of time! /
| had no sooner slapped at the fly than
I heard the even tread of quick foot
steps advancing in the pitchy darkness
| from the direction of the guard house
The footsteps were perilously close
too. But I was on my feet, and as
stiff as a ramrod, and giving the Who
| goes there?'
TT was the sergeant of the guard
| who happened to be a man who had il
in for income with my relief. The
corporal of the guard had reported tC
the sergeant that No. l sentry hadn't
| responded to the 1 o'clock ALPS well
call. The sergeant of the guard hao
hurriedly awakened my relief and come
after me, confidently expecting my relief
to find me asleep on post. If he hac
| found me asleep, you know what would
have happened-my gun and belt would
have been grabbed, I'd have been put
in the clink and then would have fol-
| lowed the general court martial with
all of the dismal consequences. But
the fly had stung me awake Just il
the instant of time. The only thing
the sergeant who had it in for me
could do was to growlingly inquire why
hadn't replied TO the corporals
| o'clock call. l told him that the WIND
had carried the corporaTs hail in the
other direction. The sergeant returned
to the guardhouse with my relief
| grievously disappointed that he hadn't
been able to clink me. That was tbs
first time a fly helped be out nobly.
Next time a fly came along and
handed me a sting at the psychological
| moment / was on a ship of war.
was working at some books in a log.
room on the berth deck, when the off
Ger of the deck-he was on the mair
deck-called down the after companion,
way for me. l hustled out of the log.
room and rushed around the compan-
ionway to respond to the summons. II
was dark on the berth side. I had for.
| gotten for the moment that the CUR
crews were overhauling the magazines
that forenoon. At the bottom of the
after ladder. up which l intended tC
vault to make the main deck, a maya
zine hatch was wide open and yawn-
ing. l didn't notice that open hatch
I had foot raised to take the step thai
would have landed me, a mere man.
| gled mass at the bottom of the maya
zine. when a fly lit right under my left
eye and gave me bite that l can fee
yet. l drew back suddenly to feel OF
the bitten place. so that my foot didn't
come down in that open hatch. II
wasn't until after I had drawn back
that I noticed the open hatch, through
which I had all but tossed myself
when the fly gouged me; and when ]
saw II and perceived what a narrow
shave I'd had. l was so weak that !
had to sit down on the bottom ladder
step and fan myself with my cap for a
minute before going above to see what
the officer Of the deck wanted of me.
I'm not overly sentimental, but I've
IL a a