Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1905-06-15
~ -.
The Numbered
His Regiment
BY FRANCOIS coPPER
BY FRANCOIS coPPER

W op OAC vi L4O - SANb oPFNS%N -
swarms at the harvest times, but SC
ugly and suspicious in appearance that
he was driven away from all the farms
where he asked for work.
The stick OF oak upon which he
leaned looked less like an innocent
walking stick than a murderers blud-
geon and, stamped on the under side
of his coarse blouse, there was doubt
less the black, ignoble number Of the
galley or prison.
His age? Misfortune knows none,
Tall and thin, he walked with the agil-
fly Of a young man, but his yellow
mustach was grizzled and years Of mil
ttarV discipline showed in his straight
shoulders and erect carriage. The man
was following a narrow path between
two cornfelds, whole high stalks
reached nearly to his head.
He had no idea where the road
would lead him. Before him and be-
side him the golden fields shone In
the June sun. Scattered gayly among
the waving corn stalks, we're brilliant
peoples and blue cornflowers where,
his note betraying him, the cicada
shrilled moaetonously. Overhead, the
pure blue of the noon sky was unbro-
ken by single fleecq cloud.
The tramp rubbed his arm across
his wet brow.
The day before, In answer to his
hoarse, pleading question: "Have you
D. days worA for me. :" the farmers,
after a quick glance at the rough face,
had. one and all, replied defiantly:
mol We need no one
There were Just three sous left in
the tramp's pocket. With these he
had bought bit Of bread and eaten
Il as he went along, drinking from the
brook beside him.
When night came, a June night,
glowing with radiant stars, the out
cast jumped hedge and, his stick for
q pillow, slept ssundly until daybreak.
To-day he had had nothing to eat,
but his keenest distress was his lack
of tobacco. 1t was long since he had
been able to get any, and the pipe IN
his blouse pocket was constant az
gravation.
As he plodded through the warm,
understanding fields, the tramp
thought vaguely Of his dark, horrible
life.
A founding, brought up by char
Ity nurse in the country, he could re-
call nothing of his early childhood
save his terror of the old woman
whose hand was always lifted 70
strike. He had worked with her In
the forests, gathering dry wood and
roofing in tie soft earth like a pig
for the acorns that eked out his scanty
fare OF black bread and thin soup, and
somehow, in some way, he had scram-
bled up to boyhood.
When he was eight the old crone re-
luctaptiy sent him to school, where hs
learned to read and write and count.
But his comrades, little peasant boys
with red cheeks, full Of nourishine
soup and cruelty, called him the
witch's son and would have nothing to
do with him. He returned their hatred
warmly and his school life was the
scene of constant fighting, battles in
which, happily for him. he was almost
always the victor
His wicked old nurse died when he
was IA and the boy would then have
starved had he not obtained work as
stable lad at three francs a month and
the privilege of sleeping In the straw.
Hated by his companions, Knocked By
all the girls about him, passing for
an idiot because he was sullenly un-
sociable, he had yet grown to be a
strong, vigorous young man. Then he
was seized by the conscript officer and
sent to the Seventy-flfth regiment Of
infantry.
Those first years in the regiment
were his only happy memories. There,
for the first time, this pariah, this so
cial outcast, learned the meaning of
the words equality and Justice.
His uniform might be too thick in
summer and too thin in winter, but 1t
was what every other soldier wore; bis
rations were often impossible to eat,
but his were no different from anyone
else's. In his barracks, in the bunk
next his, slept a viscount who had en-
listed after several escapades. Here
what a surprise! one man was the
equal Of another; and to rise in rank,
one virtue only was necessary-obedi-
ence.
This much his early training had
taught him. More intelligent, less H.
Iiterate than most of the blockheads
in their red trousers, the man had won
his corporal's stripes at the end Of his
first year; at the end Of the second he
was a sergeant Now, when he met
them, the pFivates were the first to
raise their hands in salute.
A single night Of drunkenness, of
follv. and all that he had gained was
lost. He had Just been appointed SER
geant-msjoF, One day, when he had
the company's pay In bis pocket, three
glasses Of abslnthe, taken one after
another in a spirit of bravado and q
girl with cruel eyes, had made OF him
Q thief, criminal.
From that time on, his life was hor-
rible once more. Bitterly he remem-
be I'd his shamed attitude before the
epaulettes and crosses of the council
of war.
Then came the interminable years
..a ..o...i1o L.. AZ Rrionr hatfaliOn-