The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1910-08-06

British Officer.
Over a miserable road in western
Virginia the long wagon train of Cen
Braddock was creeping one day in
1855. The horses were jaded, the army
was making little progress and the
heat was intense. An impatient Off
Ger rode up to one of the teamsters, a
tall, raw-boned youth of nineteen, and,
after roundly cursing teamsters i'll
general, accused him of some minor
offense. Maybe the youth had scant
respect for this particular officer or
little knowledge of the Difference due
to one who wore the uniform of the
king, for he merely flirted his long
whip over the backs of the horses and
smiled CONTEMPORARY. The officer,
in a fury, struck him with the fiat of
his sword, and then, as the teamster
threw down his reins and started to
attack him, summoned some soldiers
and put him under arrest.
There was hasty trial and that
evening the youth was stripped and
tied to a tree. He had been senten-
ced to receive 500 lashes. One man
welded the rawhide whip until his
arm tired. Then another relieved
him. Never did the teamster whim-
per. Welts rose upon his muscular
back, and then came the blood Long
before the ordeal ended his back was
all torn by the cruel lash. When he
was unbound he sank to the earth
from exhaustion. But it was not long
before he revived, and then, with a
grim smile, he went to seek such rest
as could come to his sore, hurt body.
Possibly it was balm to his spirit If
not to his wounds the next day when
the officer went to him and apologized.
He had learned the teamster was not
the one guilty of the offense that had
been charged.
There must have been something of
the gentleman in that British officer,
or he never would have apologized to
an humble teamster. Who he was
history does not tell. He went to
death soon after, like all the British
officers in that ill-starred expedition.
But the man he wronged, the teamster
sentenced to receive the SOC. lashes,
history does tell about, for he became
General Daniel Morgan, who was one
of the brilliant figures in the war Of
independence.
Often around the camp fire in the
dark days of the revolution he told
the story of that flashing, and he al
ways closed his narrative with the
grim statement that the drummer mis-
counted and King George was in
debted to him one lash. 81 know when
the drummer did it," the general
would say, 81 was promised 500 and
they only gave me 400. If ever
meet the king I'll tell him about it."
There was not much polish to Da-
MEL Morgan. He was born in Hunter
don county, N. ]. He was of Welsh
and Irish stock, and his parents were
wretchedly poor. When he was u
small child the family moved to FIRE.
derrick country Va, and there, in that
northern nook of the old state, he was
reared. AS a day laborer he earned
a living before he was out of his
teens. Then he became drover and
a teamster. He drank and he gam
bled and he fought. But although he
drank heavily, and always was willing
to gamble with cards or dice, and al
though he engaged in dozens of fist
fights, he was prudent. He had great
belief in his luck, and reputation of
being absolutely fearless, but in his
old age he used to declare he was
mighty frightened many a time.
But he had something that is great
er and better than fearlessness. That
is, logged resolution. He showed it
as a 10y, and he showed it as a man.
III the WllutSl pCllOh VI MS III NA'''
time between his twentieth and thir-
tieth years-he never would accept
defeat. The village of Berrytown,
near which he lived, got to be known
as Battletown from the number of
furious fights in which he and the
people thereabout engaged.
Morgan was noted the country round
for his pugilistic ability. He was beat
en- in several encounters, but he al
ways went after his conqueror again,
and always wound up by being vic
torious. 1t did not seen to matter how
hard he drank, how much he gam
bled or how often he fought, he al
ways made progress. The scars on
his back were not the only wounds he
brought from the French and Indian
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