Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1905-01-28
CHAPTER III.
THE FIRST UNIFORM.


For many a week there came no
word from Paul Ladue. At the little
frame cottage near the lake a sad
eyed, submissive. broken man sat long
hours each day in a worn old rocking
chair, apathetic, accomplishing, yet
looking wistfully into the faces of the
few who came to see him as though
imploring news of his now doubly ban
ished boy
In every way did the squire seek to
alo the needy household and, all unre-
buked now, Elinor went day after day
TO see Ladue and the fragile woman.
his wife, who never left her room. In
one brief letter from ST. Louis. Paul
had announced his intention of making
his way to Mobile. After that-who
could say?
And Fred, too, Elinor's stanch ally
and supporter, was gone. Denied a
commission In the earlier regiments of
his native state, for the reason that
the men demanded the right to elect
their officers from among these en-
listing with them, a course which his
father had forbidden, he had found life
tragic events Of that night in June,
and so boldly wrote long, urgent, ap-
pealing letter to general oflcer-an
old soldier Of the old army-who.
since before the days Of the Mexican
war and until recalled to active seryice
in the spring of 81, had made the
Badger state his home. and that vehe-
ment, vigorous letter the general took
and laid before the president himself.
This was before the first serious
eye-opencr-the battle OF Bull Run,
and the tall, ungainly son OF the west
was still able to see the whimsical side
Of things, untinged by the infinite and
suffering Of the days to come.
Wants to be soldier and to sink
the law, does hep" said the president,
stretching his long, lean legs under
meath the table and running his huge
hand through the crop of bristling hair
that crowned his forehead like a
hedgerow, land the squire WONT let
him enlist met Benton once at
Rice's caravanserai there in Chicago
and the boys won't have anybody that
doesn't start even with them? Well,
| general, l see only one way out of this
fx-that is to make him a second lieu
tenant of regulars, unless" he contin-
ued, with a twitch about the corners
| of his broad mouth, unless I appoint
him brigadier general. According to
some of the papers 1 may have done
| worse. Which shall it be?''
| 'The second lieutenancy will appeal
| TO him, think, sir" said the general,
and then l can appoint him aide-de-
camp and teach him practical soldier
ing SO that he won't be utterly novice
when he goes TO his regiment. I know
the lad and am under many an obli-
| cation to his father"
| $50 be it," said the president. And
SO it happened that two days later
there came to Fred a wire from Wash
ington bidding him join his general
there forthwith, and within another
as hours he was gone. For a few days
in mid July he was home again as aide
to the general, who had been ordered
| thither to help the state authorities
in the organization of still more regi-
ments. Tall and stiff and "swagger''
he looked in his eastern-made unifo' m,
a vivid contrast to many an old school
friend whose first blue frock coat
seemed more like ali off-color edition
of some clerical garment than the garb
OF soldier. Fearfully and wonder
fully were they made-those uniforms
OF our western volunteers, and much
did they of the great army about
Washington marvel and make merry
at the sight of the officers of the few
regiments from Badger and Hoosier-
dom chosen to represent their states or
the sacred soil" of eastern Virginia.
! And about the first thing Fred Ben
ton had done on his return was tC
snub, If not actually insult, his fathers
junior partner. between whom and that
father relations were already severely
strained
Never yet had George McKinnor
been able to satisfactorily explain how
that letter addressed to Paul Ladut
had come into his possession. Impor-
tant as it doubtless was held to be, as
evidence of Ladue's active sympathy
with the rebellion, there were not &
few responsible citizens who declared
the postmaster gravely culpable fol
surrendering it to any but the Lawful
owner. Whereat the postmaster OF
hearing of the cry against him came
out with card in the "Watchman,'
insisting that the letter had beer
placed by the distributing clerk in the
Ladue box, which was at least six fee
from the general delivery window, anC
that neither he nor any one OF the
employees had subsequently touched it.
Naturally matters looked squally fol
McKinnon. He had been popular, bu
the better class of people felt tina
Paul Ladue had been harshly, ever
outrageously, dealt with, and that Nc
Kinnon's insidious, if not fiery
speeches were the direct cause.
A revulsion of feeling had set in
Before leaving for Washington Their,
had been ample time for Fred Benton
to spread abroad Ladue's declaration
that nothing would persuade him Il
cast his lot with the south.
Such was the state of feeling tina
Gale, the would-be heroic leader of pub