Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1906-05-25
His Fathers Son.
From the Ledger Monthly.


"'Lige Peters enlisted? You don't
say? Well, I hope he'll make a better
record than his father did"
Such expressions as this were the COM
ments which the %neighbors made when
they heard that Widow Eliza Peters
youngest child and only son had volun-
teered for service in the Philippines.
Gridcomb's Bridge people did not mean
to be unkind when they made such re-
marks. They did not expect to be under
stood as condemning Like Peters, senior,
particularly. His lack of reputation had
come rather from shiftlessness and weak
ness of will than from intentional wrong
doing.
Back in the years when the Civil War
was being fought, he had not enlisted I'M
til the last months Of the struggle. and
then he had been wounded and sent home
before he had seen much hard lighting.
Years afterward he had been granted a
pension for his wound.
His neighbors said. when the money
| came. Il don't begrudge 'Lige Peters his
| pension one mite, sence he's had the
| gumption to put it into n farm and settle
the place on his wife, for Eliza Peters,
for all she's his wife, is the salt of the
earth" . ~... ,, H..
Then came, the Gail scrape," as it
was called. 'LiGe ran the village tan
merry. in a slip-shod way, as a means of
adding to the income from the farm. Iii
his watts the sheriff one day found a load
of stolen hides for which he had been
securing the country. The strong hem
lock liquor in the watts had not been pow
erful enough to obliterate the marks on
the hides, mad the tanner was taken
away to Jail, although, at worst, it SEEM
ed likely that he had only been q par
ticipator, and not the thief.
And there, in Jail, he died.
Although some of the townspeople may
have been unkind enough to say They're
better off without him." the dead mans
family had mourned for him, because, un-
reasonable as perhaps it may have seem
ed, they, his wife and children, had
loved him.
And when, on Decoration Day, by
tacit understanding of those who trim
med the graves Of the soldiers, his was
quietly overlooked, his children and their
mother came, after the others had gone
home, and laid an extra heavy wreath
of flowers on the mound behind his head
stone. 1888.
The boys Of Gridcomb's Bridge who
had enlisted for the Philippine service
were to be mustered in at Fort Ethan
Allen for a months drill, before they
started on the long car ride across the
continent and the longer transport ride
across the Pacific ocean. =
The bag which 'Lige was to carry had
been packed by his mother with every
thing which either of them had thought
he might need. They did not Know how
many of the things would soon be left
behind for want of room, or as useless,
nor could they ~foresee, fortunately, which
Of them were to be left blood-stained on
the burning sands Of Luzon.
They were not thinking Of these things
that last evening; or rather 'Lige was
not, and his mother was trying not to
think of them. She was sitting just with
in the door of their farmhouse home. and
he on the doorstep. They had been look
ing off to the glowing, sunset-lighted
west, and had been talking of how he
was to go farther and farther into that
wonderful distance, until he was half
way around the world, and by going
west at last had reached "the East"
His mother would miss him on the
farm, even though it was small and near
the village, but they did not speak Of
that, my more than they did of one other
thought deep down in the heart of each,
which each knew. although they did not
say it in words, was the real reason for
his going. @-. ~. a.. "
But when the last Of the sunset light
was failing, the boys mother, going into
her bedroom, brought out a little old silk
flag, not bigger than a handkerchief, and
reaching it down to her son, said: Your
father carried this all the time he was
in the army. 1t is our turn now" And
the boy, taking the flag, folded it softly
and put it inside his blouse.
Then came Fort Ethan Allen, the cars,
San Francisco. the transport, Manila,
and weeks of marching under blistering
sun and wading through tropic swanps,
which made a soldier Of the boy.
Sometimes a flash of lightning streaks
downward from a cloud which seemed
to threaten nothing. Like that was the
attack of the Filipinos upon the squad OF
men sent to onyoy a paymaster on his
way to the companies at the front.
No one knew how it had come about,
and few knew just what had happened.
Some were dead, others dying, and some
were running away. Private Peters, Of
Company e, in those first few minutes
could not comprehend 1t all. He only
knew that he alone was left alive. there,
in the road, holding by its strap the
heavy leather pay-bag, which he and an
other man had been ordered to carry.
The Fiiipinos were coming close He
could hear them shouting louder every
GeS0nG.
Calling up all the muscle which the old
farm life at home and the new soldier
life in the field had given him, Private
Pethers flung the bag into the dense