Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1906-12-26
as i ever saw, even when the COM
hatantS were unarmed- and the fact

batants were unarmed, and the fact
that we chung to them like cats was
what%knocked the Britishers out of
time, for they, with all their experience
in such business, had never come up
against anything like 1t.
"It was my i'll luck to get hold Of a
big Britisher who was fifteen or TWEEN
ty pounds heavier and stood a. full
head taller, but while he was trying to
run me through with his bayonet /
had chance to get the hold wanted,
and down we went. Again had fortune
deserted me, for while falling he so
contrived to twist his body that he
fell on top, and for few moments
had quite as much as could do to keep
pumping air into my lungs owing to
the grip be had on my throat.
"'Now, 1t stands to reason that l
didn't lie still SOS to give him good
chance to choke me to death, but wig
gled the best knew how, and, thanks
to some OF the tricks had learned
among the mountains, 1t was soon pos
sible to roll him over. There wasn't
enough strength left In my body to
keep an upper hold, but over and over
we went until we struck the swamp,
and that which l thought would be the
death Of me proved my advantage.
"'We had wallowed in the soft mud
and water until we must have looked
like clay images, when let go my hold
tn cr,.;r, NV ho
forth every ounce Of muscle, managed
to so far turn it that his face was
pressed deep into the mud. That took
a good bit Of the fight out Of him,
for of course he couldn't breathe and
was trying to yell for quarter, when
up came some Of our boys.
cit stands to reason that they
couldn't make out which man came
from England and grabbed at the first
that came handiest, which just then
happened to be me.
"'"Come up here, you blasted Brit
isher!" the best friend had in the reg
iment shouted as he pulled me back by
the collar of my coat, and wasn't
much more than a half drowned kitten
in his clutch.
""Let go of me, you idjut" 1 yelled
as soon as it was possible to get some
Of the mud out Of my mouth. Don't
you know your own comrade?"
""The Britisher wasn't anybody s
fool, and of course he understood just
what a mistake had been made. He
came up on his feet like steel spring.
and while MY comrades were Growing
over having captured one Of the enemy,
as they supposed, he took to his heels,
running like deer, with the mud fall
ing off him in flakes until some one
saw what kind of uniform he wore.
"'1n all that squad only a single
man had charge in his gun, and ne
fired at the poor fellow, but 1t was the
widest kind of snapshot, and the
bullet went wide, of course.
"'By the time l had cleared my face
of mud the Britisher was out Of range,
and perhaps I didn't talk the sweetest
I knew how to the laundering fellow
who had not only lost me prisoner,
but came very near finishing the chok-
ing which the redcoat had begun.
"Then the battle was we'll nigh
over my grandfather always said at
this point in his story, and as to the
result of the engagement he would
give me we'll worn slip Of printed
paper, from which / could read the
following:
"Toward noon the fire of the British
vfsibly slackened, while that Of the
Americans was unceasing. The bat
teries of the foe We're crushed and
broken. The sugar hogsheads had been
converted into splinters, and their con-
tents, minglng with the soft earth,
soon lost their volume. The guns not
dismounted We're careened and worked
with great difficulty.
THE invaders fed In inglorious
haste, heller SHELTER, to the bitches in
search Of safety and under cover of
the ensuing night crawled sullenly back
to their camp. dragging with them over
the spongy ground part Of their can
non, leaving five Of them a spoil for
the Americans
I'm the fight that day the American
loss was eleven killed and twenty
three wounded, while twenty Of the
Britishers were found dead on the field,
the greater number lying near the
swamp where the attack on our lines
had been made, and certain it is that
no less than thirty had been disabled -
Chicago Inter Ocean.