The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, December 29, 1901, Page 9

Major Sayres' Battery Copyright, 1501, by Robert Howard Russell. HICH books that a-way served the Old Cattleman, is, story books, is plumb onfre- quent in Wolfville” He was y curiously examining Steven- s “Treasure Island,” which he bad ken from my hand. “The nearest ap- ach to a Wolfville cirk-lati library h I recalls a copy of ‘H nson t last long, as one mpson Jeaves it lay- e while he enters the purpose a burro eet smeliy oves of it an’ tharupon le lot. do we do for amcosements? ce hall-not to dance, of h ies bein’ for younger an’ less dignified sports. We goes over ore to give our countenance an’ ents to Hs , who runs sai mighty proper i Hamilton, oe,” &z at me when Texas T 'T © : I gets ae- as a aide r tesembl " & now vere skrim- wcoln people . has their as they zzle, they 1ha blank hailf mile all rebs s hack a now to ong it up among all this field rifie in k =0 he's between this don’t go off none k throws her norely doés vams antelopes. » run. HHe velocity of * ‘Slx brass guns,’ esays the major, an’ I don't feel his gray eye beams with the recollection, an' he speaks of 'em like they was ‘Six brass guns, they ‘We captured 'em from the I'm put in commang. ed some successes, es the day when I'm as sat- 7 proud as when I rge of them six brass rer to every one of ‘em. dlong to get actlon—we're ana at the time—that m over by the Mis sippi an’ goes prowlin’ ‘round ontil ¥ pulls a riot with a little lasts two hours val outfit an’ piles the old Miss ples down: to the ground. nothin’ an’ can’t make it out. “‘While I'm reevolvin’ this yere phe- nomenon of me wiltin’ that asway in my tryin’ to form ‘some opinions thar's a explosion like forty For a instant I reck- onsg that somehow we-all has opened up ano inadvertent, an’ that from now on Loosiana can boast a Hecla of her But it ain't no volcano. which with about one Them enthoo- ** ‘Nacherally, hoes recovers our compo: chase plenty rapid. As the Yank { I runs onto him in the first two hundred As I comes up, I've got my six- shooter in my hand hira, sort o’ p'intin’ between the for gen'ral results; but when it comes to onhookin’ that weepon, 1 jest i It's too much like m rank is stampediz hopes in them behalfs entirely fulfilled. It's about 4 o'clock one evenin’ when we caroms on about three brigades of Yanks. Thar's mebby twelve thousand of us rebs an’ all of fourteen thousand of them Lin- coln people. guns we-all plenty strong an’ over with s The battle opens u; old sugar plantation, an’ a while we settles down to It's that day I has them dreams of mine realized in full. six guns with that ain't time for a second drink before T & o warmest attent one of them h: Which she’s as soen as absolootely ag'in military law. By every roole of the game that Yank's my captif; fyin’ all restraint he goes caperm’ plumb free. allops along about four foot to begins to feel a heap he'pless I says, I'm too tender to beautiful women. I puts the 1 My Lattery T've witnes said Yanlks keepin' him company on t a-way I reflects tha we're on a while, the fivin he ain’t got a ammunition thousand rounds is standin’ rds to my r'ar. f anks done blows up the whole outfit with one of them “ Jt's strictl lets my battery out. ““I'm that hes h her inde alix on him to sur hauls a couple of ger an’ the an from eve >e gunboat. It sinks that nz the thing, however, whic! The thick smoke o that he’s he rore a scandal the w nd cartridges left of me an’ Them Yanks likely they're lifted s guns plump off the some roodimen(s of don’t turn or twist none he'll have quit- ted Southern territory by the I'm so puffed up with this yere exploit, a pigeon looks all sunk in an’ plumb consumptif compared to me. “ *“Thar’s one feacher of this dooel with that old gunboat which displeases me, Old Butler's got Noo Orleans at the time, an’ among other things he's cditin’ them Nbo Orleans papers a lot. I reads in one of 'em a month later about me sinkin’ that scow. barb'rous villain an’ shoots up that boat after it surrenders an’ old Butler allows he’ll hang me some the moment ever he gets them remarkable eyes of his onto me. 1 don’'t care none at the time much, only I resents this yere charge. fires a shot-at that gunboat after it gives up: I ain’t so opulent of amm’nition as all that. As time goes on, however, thar's a day comin’ when I'm goin' to take them determinations of old Butler to hang me more to heart. “ ‘Followin’ the gunboat episode I'm more locoed than ever to get that six- gun battery into a fight. gents In bloo does snoot me up give you-all a idee top of ‘em. The Yankees slams away at me for twenty minutes; they dis- mounts two of my guns: creases forty when they gets plant cotton where my batter that plowed up. “‘It’s in the midst of the baile an’ I'm standin’ near my number one gun. Thar's a man comes up with a cartridge. A piece of a shell t'ars him open an’ he falls onto the gun, limp as a towel, an’ then onto I orders a party named Wil- Something comes flyin’ down outen the heavens above like, smites Willlams on top of the head, an’ I orders up another. soomes the responsiblilities of this p'sition jest in time to get a rifle bullet through the jaw. He lives, though; after the war. ‘“‘As thar’s no more men for this place, teps for’ard myse'f. minute when all at once I sort ¢’ crip- they kills or fter makin’ a compleie rouna-up of - a~way 1 begins to Yank, an’ at last [ n racin’ along alone. them six b Which thar's trooth in the theor I comes within it e of clubs of goin’ plumb off my hoss still that e ckin’ along if anything I begins to losc my that a-way of loads outen my off a coup! six-shooter into the air. cellent effect. made at the dropped at the time when my ammuni- tion wagons enters into the ‘sperit of the 'casion like I describes. one of my men comes gropin’ along down to me in the smoke. “+“Be you hurt, Major?” he T don’t know, is that you better investigate a whole lot Tt says that I'm a ¥rom the jump that sound I can see them two shots put ten miies more run into him He keeps up that gallop ontil he's out of sight, an’ I never after feasts my I goes on with them 'or- n’ that's the end. *“Which I regyards your conduct, ma- jor, as plumb hoomane,’ says Dan Boggs, 3 glass plitely. ‘I approves of it, As I lays thar * I reorganizes—for at the time I nearly makes that dive outen the stirrups I pulls up my hoss to a stop. once more takes oot of this locoed party. prey fair enough, only he’s tao ob: As 1 closes on him 1 starts for the second time to drill . but I can't make the landin’. 0 young: my heart ain't hard enouch So T rides along by him for a bit, an’ for the sccond time su'gests that he surren- This Yank ignores me; he keeps o om where the ground. to the place. eves on him. T shore never to admit it. ‘He t'ars open my coat. blood on my shirt. then the othe: dollar gold pieces. He lifts one arm an’ they're sound as twenty- Then T lifts up my left laig; I've got on high hossman boots, “‘“Pull off this I sees bim r najor meets Dan's attentions in After a mo- f them cannon: t you all got a battery final, ma- says Laoright. the sperit they iright speak: » proposed. moccasin,” I'm not thar *“*Which sech conduct baffles me. Final 1 has my Ile pulls her off an’ thar’s nothin’ the matter thar. I breaks out into = profuse sweat; gents, I'm plumb scared speechless. I begins to fear ¥ plugged at all; that I've fainted away on a fleld of battle an’ doo to become the scoff an’ scandle of two armie I never feels so weak an’ sick in my 1 “‘I've jest one c! trembles as T plays | Loct. I win; about a q out. Talk of reprievin cd to death! left an’ shorely up my right art of blood runs ks who's sen- emotio That twenty other w cabin off ‘to one side. docters sizin’ up my la quainted ‘with ‘em. ¢ “Joe,” sa3 got to cut it off. 'But I votes ‘“no I'm too young to talk about gof a laig, So they it up as well as ever the warnin’ me meanwhile that I've got abo one chance in a score to beat the game. Then they imparts a plece of news that's a mighty sight wo hem casooal- ’s a couple of I'm well ac- Y, “we've Gin'ral ¢ tious allos riences. At's the t in the away. mules smel iz —a big pond she is—an’ tery nev over it's ¥ ; an’ an’ two guns before terry fi *he hist'ry of gyards with adve yere major. time to sweet that a-wa sto me in.review s ever more ha than that ca Tl T streak of to frame; all An' yet, oo years, the mw refreshin explorin’ exped which never rec leavin Continued on Page Fifteen.