Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1906-11-28
DAILY STORY.
SHE WAS NOT UP TO WAR.

4
will be; not that women lack bravery
sometimes they are brave as lions
| but you can never rely on q woman
not being put to route-to speak fig
uratively-by her sympathies. That
| isn't war. War, as General Sherman
| said, is hell.
Il was one of Sherman's bummers
myself, and you can bet your bottom
dollar the people of Georgia were hot
| against us, and it's like Haunting
| red rag before a mad bull to mention
| one of us to Georgian to this day. I
was out with foraging party one day
and got separated from the others. I
went into a potato patch and was dig
ging up the potatoes and putting them
into q sack when l heard a woman's
voice say:
"'Hands upv
Looking up, 1 saw a strapping girl
about twenty years old pointing a
shotgun at me. If the muzzle of the
gun looked cold, the girls eyes looked
hot. They fairly blaZed. 1 dropped
the potatoes and held up both hands
mighty quick. for 1 feared she would
shoot me anyway. A man came out
Of the house and disarmed me; then,
covered by two guns instead of one, l
was marched to a barn and told to
climb to the loft 1 obeyed and, look
ing out of q window, saw the two
standing guard over me. My blood
ran cold at hearing the girl urge the
man to hang me in the barn. He
argued that If my body should be
found there by the Yankees it would
go hard with them, and he was in
clined to wait till the army had passed.
When evening came the girl brought
me my supper. l took advantage of
her coming to talk soft to her. l told
her 1 had been married just before the
war opened and had the loveliest little |
boy in the world, just two and half |
years old. This was all made up. |
was only nineteen and hadn't sign |
of a beard, aud, as for 4 wife, I'd never |
even been in love. But the girl swal |
lowed the story, and when L told her |
some Of my boys smart sayings she |
said she loved boys of that age and |
wished she could see mine. Then L told |
her L knew they We're going to hang |
me and asked her if she would let me |
have something with which to write q |
farewell letter to my young wife and
darling boy. My voice trembled, and |
the girl put her handkerchief to her |
eyes.
That night they placed lanterns
around the barn, and | saw four men
on guard. The next morning l heard
one of the men say that the Yankees
would all be out of the way by sun
down and they were going TO hang me
to one of the beams of the barn. The
girl brought me my breakfast, and l
talked TO her some more about my wife
and boy and got her crying in no time.
''At noon all the men except one
went into the house to dinner. The girl
brought me something TO eat, and
saw at once from her face that some
thing was in the wind. She was white
as n sheet
They're going to hang you this aft
ernoon,' she said.
"'Great heavens, Can't you stop
'em?'
mo
''She was looking round evidently for
some means of getting me of out of the
way. but there was nothing in the loft
except hay. Then she went below. and
I heard her rummaging around. Pref
ty soon she climbed the ladder and
beckoned me to come down. l follow
ed her. and she showed me some
sheaves Of grain. Unloosening one of
thnY, c1, cold 70 Iir, fl,n Il
and, packing me inside. made a sheaf
of me. tying n wisp around my waist.
Then she picked me up and put me on
her shoulder.
81 didn't weigh much more than q
hundred pounds. and she was bigger
and stronger than l was. She listened
till the guard lounged around TO the
rear of the barn. then opened the door
and carried me away. II
"'Wha' yo' goiG', Man,? | heard the
guard call from n short distance.
"'Goin' to the COW she'd with some
straw
THAT was all the interruption there
was. and pretty soon she had me in
the she'd. Luckily the open part didn't
face either the house or the barn. 1t
faced on a depression in the ground,
and about twenty feet away there was
n thicket. All l had to do was to
crawl to the thicket and run for 1t.
One would suppose that a man not vet
from secret hanging would
light out at once. I stopped to tell the
girl how much happiness she had given
to two people besides myself and asked 4
her if she hadn't something to send to
my boy. She hadn't, and 1 asked her
Il / might take him a kiss She said 1
might if thought my wife wouldn't
object. i assured her that she wouldn't
md, putting my arms about her. gave
her kiss loud enough to be heard at
the house Then 1 rolled down the
Incline and. crawling into the ticket.
-an like deer till came upon some