The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1908-07-23

But all such fanciful thoughts as these
Were strange to a practical man like
Burns.
Who minded only his own concerns,
Troubled no more by fancies fine
Than one of his calm-eyed, iong-tailed
Quite old-fashioned and matter of fact,
Slow to argue. but quick to act. Sd 5.,.Htl
That was the reason. some folk say,
He fought so well on that terrible day.
And it was terrible. On the right
Ragged for hours the heady fight. ...su.
Thundered the battery's double bass
Difficult music for men TO face: r
While on the left--where now tho
graves
Undulate like the living waves a.1s
That all that day unceasing swept
Up to the pits the rebels kept -t+
| Round shot ploughed the upland glades,
Sown with bullets. reaped with blades:
Shattered fences here and there r--s
Tossed their splinters in the air;
The very trees were stripped and bare:1
The barns that once held yellow grain
Were hcaped with harvests of the slain:'
The cattle beloved on the plain. -+5.c
The turkeys screamed with might and
main, ltlt..s
And brooding barn-fowl left their rest
With strange shells bursting in each
nest.
| Just where the tide of battle turns. So.
| Erect and lonely stood old John Burns.
! How do you think the man was dressed?
He wore an ancient long bug vest,
| yellow saffron. but his best;
And. buttoned over his manly breast.
| Was bright blue coat. with a rolling
| collar.
And large gilt buttons-size of a dol
With tails that the country-folk called
'swailcr.'
He wore IA PREDETERMINED. beil-crown.
| ed hat.
White as the locks on which II sat
Never had such sight been seen.
| For 40 years on the village green,
1 Since old John Burns was a country
| beau,
And went to the 'quiltings' long ago.
Close at his elbows all that day,
Veterans of the Peninsula.
Sunburnt and bearded, charged away,
And stripplings, downy of lip and chin
/ Clerks that the Home Guard mustered
i in
Glanced. as they passed. at the hat he
Then at the rife his right hand bore:
And hailed him, from out their youth
| full lore,
With scraps of a slang repertoire:
How are you. White Hat?' Put her
thru ~ ~ -
4 Your heads level and Bully for you,
Called him Daddy" begged he'd dis
1 close TX
The name of the tailor who made his
u clothes,
And what was the value he set on
/ those;
4 While Burns. unmindful of jeer and
/ scott
Stood there picking the rebels off
his 1Or flo hnI
I crown hat,
And the swallow-tails they were laugh-,i
4 ing at.
"'Twas but a moment for that respect
l Which clothes all courage their voices
i checked s6-e-1rF 70
I And something the widest could un.
l derstand
4 Spake in the old mans strong. right
Il hand,
And his corded throat, and the lurking
frown So az sIig,
OF his eyebrows under his old bell
i crown; 7-r-
! Until. as they gazed, there erept an
Thru the ranks in Whispers, and some
4 men saw,
In the antique vestments and long white
Il hair, 5.. -.
The Past of the Nation in battle there:
That the CLEAN of his old white hat
i afar, . q. aIBs
Like the crested plume of the brave
Navarro, aT7
That day was their orifiamme of war.
$50 ragged the battle. You know the
rest;
How the rebels, beaten and backward
, pressed,
Broke at the final charge and ran.
At which John Burns-a practical
Shouldered his rifle, unbent his brows.
And then went back to his bees and
THAT is the story of old John Burns:
This is the moral the reader learns:
In fighting the battle the questions
| whether
You'll show a hat that's white, or a
/ feather." &ssss A
(To be continued.l 49,.