The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1908-10-03

was unerrlngIy taken-Our flag trem-
bled and fell
And so it went on, the familiar but
ever moving tale of a flag bearer
killed, sOldier-the narrator of the
bringing to the rescue of his
standard, himself to be laid senseless
by bullet. From this oblivion he
had been wakened from a drenching
cold waterbath to hear the verdict,
Poor fellow; leg badly shattered"
pronounced over him by a voice with
a slight nasal twang. A voice, it
CHANGED, that he was destined to hear
daily during his tedious illness, for
the man who had picked him up on
the field was also the assistant in the
hospital, and quite friendship grew
up between the young doctor and his
patient, through their many CONVEX
sations. So it was that on the day
OF the narrator's discharge, the sur
geon, along with congratulations on
the others recovery and approaching
exchange, gave a confidence and asked
favor, as he said, while your ardor
is yet at white heat"
Three years ago. the doctor con-
tinued. before this hateful war was
ever dreamed of, and while l was a
student in Philadelphia, became ac-
quainted with young lady from Rich
mond The circumstances were ro-
manuc-well, never mind them-it's
long story-telI you some other time,
perhaps, he added, obviously, five
years after treaty of peace, as the
confederate bills say
We'll, without going through the
various stages of the affair, from rap
ture to despair. and from despair back,
through faint glimmerings of hope, to
ecstasy again, the decision was finally
reached that we were, well, after a
fashion, engaged; quite, assure you,
on the order of poor Harry and the
well-nigh forgotten Flora of Madison
Square fame. Just then, with abom-
Unable inopportuneneSs, l felt, Mr.. Lin
coin asked Virginia (mind you, when
the day was, after many delays, actu-
ally fiXed) for her quota of troops.
Poor old Virginia had, with her usual
deliberateness, been slow to move,
but this call moved her-out of the
un1on-leaving me, as Miss Elizabeth
thought, on the wrong side.
"One day, it must have been by the
last through mail, 1 received a most
astounding letter from the young lady
herself; terrific headlines, shocking
sentiments, Southern confederacy,'
and all the rest of it. Quite a doubling
up of fists all round regular one
southerner-can-whip-f Yankees epis-
tie. She said ending everything
said Never with a capital N. Well,
to come to the pith of the affair, we
hear through personals of each other
-awfully cut and dried way of writing
love letters though, you know; so l
ask you, as man to man, to get let
ter to Elizabeth for me. OF course
you can't carry a written communica-
ton. I don't care to treat the camp
to a specimen of my ability as mill
tary Romeo, so 1 am going to read
the epistle which you, once safe in
Richmond after your exchange, are
to write out in my name and hand to
her in person. Now will you do this,
without altering jot or title, except
to throw into it all the fervor you can
convey on paper; and will you remem-
Der that under no circumstances are
you to give this precious document in
to any hands save those of the terri
BILE little rebel who wrote the wonder
full letter of 1861; or, if impossible to
see her, then into those of her moth
err"
To that question the letter that now
passed from the hands of the Tragedy
man" to the feminine fingers that
dropped the unfinished haversack to
receive it, was the silent and sufficient
answer.