San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1923-08-26
By ALBERT MARTIN.

Copyright, by the San Antonio Light
New Orleans, La. Aug. 25.-A
first class fighting man is dying
dying in bed in New Orleans
and not with his boots on" as such
q fighting man would like 70 die.
General Lee Christmas, first sol
der of fortune" and the "Clay" OF
the late Richard Harding Davis fam
Gus novel of adventure. is nearing the
end of the trail. His mind is as
keen and as active as ever. but ma
ture is exacting its toll at last from
a body that has withstood for 60
years such hardships and injuries as
the corporal beings of few men ever
were called upon to endure.
A blood TRANSMISSION in June STAYED
off approaching dissolution at that
time and il appeared that this hardy
hero of fact and fiction might regain
his health to live out his allotted
span until the physicians discovered
recently that he was seriously af-
flicted with an intestinal ailment un-
common even to the tropics. The
only remedy for the ailment is n
serum made at a government hospital
in Porto Rico. Several treatments
of this serum were called for and by
its use they hoped to prolong the life
of the noted warrior.
30 Knows Death Near.
But at best the serum is only q
palliative and Christmas knows it as
well as his physicians. Within the
last few days he has told friends
who are constantly at his bedside men
who fought and bled with him in his
younger days that he knew death
was not far off. He was not afraid
to meet the end, he said, and his
only concern was for the future of
his wife and little son.
Men who have known Christmas all
the best years of his life. smile at
the suggestion that the general"
could be afraid of anything-even a
slowly creeping death. They have
seen him face a hail OF bullets with
out batting an eye; they have seen
him enter room filled with armed
and threatening enemies with a
weapon no more deadly than a riding
whip; they have seen him lead his
soldiers through swamp, supposed
iy impassable, to grapple hand to hand
with foes OF super numbers who were
pouring murderous fire upon them
from the farther bank.
Christmas was locomotive engineer
in his younger days and might be
yet but for the strange turn of fate
which transformed him into a Cen
trail American revolutionist. literally
overnight. The writer met General
Christmas for the first time at Porto
Cortez in Spanish Honduras early in
February, 1911. after he had fought
the victorious battle Of La Ceba in
which the swamp incident occurred
and which encompassed the over
Throw OF President Davilla and the
elevation Of Manuel Bonilla to the
presidency. From the generals own
lips he heard how Christmas happen
ed TO become a revolutionist.
Ran Engine Through Them.
II was an engineer on the Honduras
railroad running 40 miles into the
interior back in 1897" said the gen.
eral. Zone night had brought a
trainload of bananas into port to be
loaded on the waiting ship SO she
could get away Lefore dawn. I had
9ust turned in about 8 o'clock when
there was a knock on my door and
i got up to find a crowd of excited
natives. all armed. demanding that
/ get in my clothes and take them
to the end of the island and across
the trestle so they could make an
attack at dawn on the Quartet, or
government garrison, that Law Just
at the other side of the mainland.
protested that / didn't want to get
mixed up in any of their revolutions.
but they threatened to shoot me un-
less I went along with them and the
cold barrels Of a couple of rifles