AS WILL be recalled, it was from the lips of His Honour, Judge Priest,
that I heard the story relating to those little scars upon the legs of
Mr. Herman Felsburg. It was from the same source that I gleaned certain
details concerning the manner of Mr. Felsburg's enlistment and services
as a private soldier in the Army of the Confederate States of America;
and it is these facts that make up the narrative I would now relate.
As Judge Priest gave them to me, with occasional interruptions by old
Doctor Lake, so now do I propose giving them to you.
This tale I heard at a rally in the midst of one of the Bryan campaigns,
back in those good days before the automobile and the attached cuff came
in, while Bryan campaigns were still fashionable in the nation. It could
not have been the third Bryan campaign, and I am pretty sure it was not
the first one; so it must have been the second one. On second thought,
I am certain it was the second one--when the candidate's hair was still
almost as long in front as behind.
By reason of the free-silver split four years earlier, and bitter
dissensions within the party organization subsequently, our state had
fallen into the doubtful column; wherefore, campaigns took on even a
more hectic and feverish aspect than before. Of course there was no
doubt about our own district. Whatever might betide, she was safe
and sound--a Democratic Rock of Ages. “Solid as Gibraltar!” John C.
Breckinridge called her once; and, taking the name, a Gibraltar she
remained forever after, piling up a plurality on which the faithful
might mount and stand, even as on a watch-tower of the outer
battlements, to observe the struggle for those debatable counties to
the eastward and the northward of us. It was not a question whether
she would give a majority for the ticket, but a question of how big a
majority she would give. Come to think about it, that was not much of
a question, either. We had sincere voters and competent compilers of
election returns down our way then; and still have, for that matter.
Nevertheless and notwithstanding, it was to be remembered that, four
years before, the bulk of the state's votes in the Electoral College,
for the first time in history, had been recorded for a Republican
nominee; and so, with a possibility of a recurrence of this catastrophe
staring us in the face, the rally that was held on that fine Indian
summery day at Cold Springs, five miles out from town on the road to
Maxon's Mills, assumed a scope and an importance beyond the rallies of
earlier and less uncertain times. It was felt that by precept and deed
the Stalwarts should set an example for all wavering brethren above the
river. So there was a parade through town in the morning and burgoo
and a barbecue in the woods at noon, and in the afternoon a feast of
oratory, with Congressman Dabney Prentiss to preside and a United States
Senator from down across the line in Tennessee to deliver the principal
address. There was forethought in the shaping of the programme thus:
those who came to feast would remain to hear.
Time waits on no man, but has an accommodating way of checking up
occasionally, while the seed pod of reminiscence sprouts beneath the
warm, rich humus of a fellow's memory; and, because time does do just
this, I yet can visualise, with sufficient clarity for my present
purposes, some of the things which happened that day. Again is my blood
quickened by sweet strains of music as Dean's Brass Band swings up
Franklin Street, leading the procession of the forenoon.
Without serious mental strain I re-create the picture of the prominent
guests riding in open carriages with members of the reception committee
and, behind them, the Young Men's Democratic Marching Club going afoot,
four hundred strong.
I see a big four-horse wagon, used ordinarily for such prosaic purpose
as moving household goods, but now with bunting and flags converted into
a tableau car, and bearing pretty girls, badged and labelled with the
names of the several states of the Union. And the prettiest, stateliest
girl of all stands for Kentucky. At her side is a little dark girl who
represents the Philippines, and accordingly she wears upon her wrists a
dangling doubled loop of ironmongery. This hardware is very new and very
shiny, and its links jangle effectively as the pageant moves onward,
thereby causing the captive sister to smile a gratified smile not
altogether in keeping with the lorn state of servitude here typified by
these trace-chain manacles of hers.
It seems a long time--doesn't it?--since Expansion was a cardinal issue
and Imperialism a war cry, and we were deeply concerning ourselves with
the fate and future of the little brown brother, and warmly debating
among ourselves whether we should continue to hold him as a more or less
unwilling ward of the nation or turn him and his islands loose to fend
for themselves. But really, when we cast up the tally of the intervening
years, it isn't so very long ago after all. It is as though this might
have happened yesterday, isn't it?
So it is with me--abiding as one of those yesterdays that stand out from
the ruck and run of yesterdays. Perhaps that is why I can almost taste
the dust which is winnowed up from beneath the hoofs of the teams and
the turning wheels as the crowds stream off out the gravel turnpike,
bound for Cold Springs. Nearly everybody of consequence, politically or
socially, joins in that hurrying pilgrimage. Like palmers of old, Judge
Priest and Commonwealth's Attorney Flournoy and Sheriff Giles Birdsong
and all our district and county and city officials attend, to attest
by their presence the faith that is in them. I attend, too; but in the
capacity of scribe. I go to report the doings for the _Daily Evening
News_. I am the principal reporter and, by the same token, one-half of
the local staff of that dependable journal, the remaining half being its
editor in chief.
Time in its flight continuing to turn backward, we are now at Cold
Springs. Mint-master Jack Frost has been busy there these last few
nights, so that the leaves of the hickories are changing from summer's
long green to swatches of the crisp yellow-backed currency of October.
On the snake fence, which separates the flanks of the woodland from the
cleared lands beyond, the trumpet vine and the creeper blaze in clumps
so red that one almost wonders the dried rails do not catch fire too.
The smells of fall are in the air--of com in the shock; of bruised
winesaps dropping, dead ripe, from the orchard trees; of fox grapes
turning purple in the vine canopies away up in the tops of the trees.
From the fringes of the grove come the sounds of the stamping of horses'
feet and the restless swishing of horses' tails. Off in quiet places
a hundred flat flasks have been uncorked; in each thicket rendezvous
fore-thoughted citizens are extending the hospitalities of the occasion
to such as forgot to freight their hip pockets before journeying hither.
There have been two fights and one runaway.
And now it is noon time; and now it is half an hour past it, and
the county committee, with the aid of the only known Republicans
present--all these latter being of African descent and all, or nearly
all, camp cooks of high repute in Red Gravel County--is about to play
host to the multitude.
In retrospect I smell the burgoo a-cooking, and sympathetically my
mouth waters. Do you know burgoo? If not your education has been sadly
neglected--most woefully neglected. It is a glorified gumbo, made in
copper caldrons over open fires; and it contains red meats and white
meats, and ducks and chickens, and young squirrels, and squabs, and all
the fresh green vegetables in season. And into it with prodigal black
hands the cooks put plenty of tomatoes for color and potatoes for body
and red peppers for seasoning and onions for flavour. And all these
having stewed together for hours and hours, they merge anon into a
harmonious and fragrant whole. So now the product is dipped up in
ladles and bestowed upon the assemblage in tin cups, to be drunk after a
fashion said to have been approved of by Old Hickory Jackson himself.
A Jeffersonian simplicity likewise governs the serving out of the
barbecued meats, following afterward. You eat with the tools Nature has
given you, and the back of your hand is your napkin. And when everybody
is as full of victuals as a good Democrat should be--which is another
way of saying so full he cannot hold another bite or another sup--the
band plays and the speaking starts on a plank platform under a brush
arbour, with the audience sitting or standing--but mostly sitting--on a
fragrant thick matting of faded wild grasses and fallen red and yellow
leaves.
The programme of events having progressed to this point, I found my
professional duties over for the day. The two principal speeches were
already in type at the _Daily Evening News_ office, advance copies
having been furnished by Congressman Prentiss and the visiting Senator
from Tennessee, the authors of the same. By special messenger I had
transmitted brief dispatches touching on the complete and unqualified
success of the burgoo, the barbecue, the two fist fights and the
runaway.
Returning from the fringes of the woodland, after confiding my scribbled
advices to our courier, my way led me under the shoulder of the bluff
above Cold Springs. There, right where the water came seeping out
through the bank of tawny gravel, I came upon a picture which is one
of the pictures that have endured in reasonably vivid colours on the
background of my mind.
The bole of an uptorn gum tree spanned a half-moon depression at the
verge of the spring. Upon the butt end of the log, where an upended
snag of root made a natural rest for his broad back, was perched Judge
Priest. His plump legs hugged the rounded trunk. In one hand he held a
pint flask and in the other a tin cup, which lately must have contained
burgoo. A short distance down the tree from him sat old Doctor Lake,
without any bottle, but with the twin to Judge Priest's tin cup poised
accurately upon one of his bony knees.
Behind these two, snugly screening them in, was a wall of green and
yellow grape leaves. Through the vines the sunlight filtered in, to make
a mellow flood about them. Through the leaves, also, came distantly
the sound of the present speaker's voice and, at frequent intervals,
cheering. There was to be heard a gentle tinkling of cracked ice. A
persuasive odour of corn distillations perfumed the languid air. All
through the glade nuts were dropping from the hickories, with sharp
little reports. It was a picture, all right enough!
My feet made rustlings in the leaves. Judge Priest squinted over his
glasses to see who the intruder upon their woodland privacy might be.
“Why, howdy, son!” he hailed. “How's everything with you?”
He didn't offer to share his store of refreshment with me. I never knew
him to give a very young man a drink or to accept a drink from such a
one. Doctor Lake raised his cup to stir its contents and nodded in my
direction over it.
“The big speech of the day has just got started good, gentlemen,” I
said. “Didn't you-all know it?”
“Yes; we knowed it,” answered the old Judge; “in fact, we heared the
beginnin' of it. That's one reason why me and Lew Lake come on away. The
other reason was that Lew run acrost a little patch of late mint down
here by the spring. So we slipped off frum the crowd and come on down
here to sort of take things nice and easy till it gits time to be
startin' back toward the city.”
“Why, I thought he was a mighty fine speaker, from what I heard right
after Mr. Prentiss introduced him,” I said.
“He's all of that,” assented the old Judge; “he's a regular
Cicero--seems to know this here oratory business frum who laid the rail.
He don't never jest plain ast somebody to do somethin'. He adjures 'em
by the altars of their Sunny Southland, and he beseeches 'em by the
memories of their sires; but he don't ast 'em. And I took notice, durin'
the few minutes I lingered on--spellbound, ez you mout say, by the
witchery of his voice--that when he gits holt of a good long word it
ain't a word no more. He runs her as a serial and every syllable is a
separate chapter.
“Oh, no; I ain't got a word to say ag'inst the distinguished gentleman's
style of delivery. I only wisht I had his gift of melodious expression.
I reckin ef I did, I'd talk in public part of the day and sing the rest
of the time. But the p'int is, son, that me and Lew Lake have heared
consid'able of that particular brand of oratory in our day, and after a
little spell of listenin' we decided betwixt ourselves that we favoured
the quiet of the sylvan dell to the heat and dust of the forum. So here
we are, ez you behold us.
“One speech mere or less won't make much difference in the gineral
results, noways, I reckin. Down here in the pennyrile country we'll all
vote the regular ticket the same ez we always do; and the Republikans
will vote their ticket, bein' the stubborn unreasonable creatures that
they are; and then our boys'll hold back the returns to see how many
Democrat votes are needed, and up in the mountains the Republikans
will hold them back to see how many Republikan votes are needed--and
that'll be the whole upshot of it, onless the corrupt scoundrels should
succeed in outcounting the party of the people.
“Of course there's a great crisis hoverin' over our country at present.
There's a crisis hoverin' every four years, regular--to hear the orators
tell it. But I've took notice that, after the votin' is over, the
crisis always goes back in its hole to stay till the next presidential
election, and the country remains reasonably safe, no matter which side
gits in; though I admit it's purty hard to convince the feller who's
already got a government job, or hopes to git one, that the whole nation
won't plumb go to thunder onless his crowd wins.”
“Still, Billy,” put in Doctor Lake, “there was a time when all these
high-sounding phrases about duty and patriotism meant more to us than
they do now--back in the spring and summer of Sixty-one--eh?”
Behind the Judge's spectacle lenses sparks of reminiscence burned in his
faded blue eyes. He lifted his cup ceremoniously and Doctor Lake lifted
his, and I knew they were drinking to the memory of olden days.
“Now you're shoutin'!” Judge Priest assented. “Say, Lew, do you call to
mind them speeches Hector Dallas used to utter 'way back yonder, when
Sumter was bein' fired on and the Yankee Government was callin' fur
troops to put down the Rebellion, ez they seen fit to term it? Heck
Dallas was our champion homegrown orator in those times,” he vouchsafed
in an aside for my better enlightenment. “Somethin' about that young
feller yonder, that's speakin' so brilliantly and so fluently now, puts
me right smartly in mind of him. Heck was plenty copious with language
himself. When it come to burnin' words he was jest the same ez one of
these here volcanoes. Remember, don't you, Lew, how willin' Heck was to
bleed and die fur his native land?”
“But he didn't,” stated Doctor Lake grimly.
“Well--since you mention it--not to any noticeable extent,” said Judge
Priest. “Leastwise, any bleedin' that he done was done internally, frum
the strain of utterin' all them fiery remarks.” Again he included me
with a gesture. “You see, son, Heck didn't go off to the war with the
rest of us. Nearly everybody else did--this town was purty near emptied
of young fellers of a suitable courtin' age after we'd gone down to Camp
Boone to begin drillin'. But Hecky didn't go.
“Ez I recollect, he felt called upon to put out first fur Richmond
to give President Davis and the Cabinet the benefit of his advice or
somethin'; and aimed to join us later. But he didn't--somehow, somethin'
always kept inter-ferin' with his ambition to bleed and die, until after
a while it seemed like he jest got discouraged and quit tryin'. When we
got back home, four years later--sech ez was left of us--Heck had done
been entirely reconstructed and was fixin' to run fur office on the
Black Radical ticket.”
“The cat had to jump mighty brisk to beat Hector,” said Doctor Lake; “or
else, when she landed on the other side, she'd find him already there,
wanning a place for her. I've known a good many like Hector--and some of
them prospered fairly well--while they lasted.”
“Well, the spring of Sixty-one was a stirrin' period, and I reckin
oratory helped along right smartly at the start,” said Judge Priest;
“though, to be sure, later on it came to pass that the boys who could go
hongry and ragged, and still keep on fightin' the Yankees, were the ones
that really counted.
“Take Meriwether Grider now: He went in as our company commander and he
come out with the marks of a brigadier on his coat collar; but I'll bet
you a ginger cookie Meriwether Grider never said a hundred words on a
stretch in his life without he was cussin' out some feller fur not doin'
his duty. Meriwether certainly learned to cuss mighty well fur a man
whose early trainin' had been so turribly neglected in that respect.”
“Recall how Meriwether Grider behaved the night we organised Company B?”
inquired Doctor Lake.
“Jest the same ez ef it was yistiddy!” assented Judge Priest.
He half turned his chubby body so as to face me. By now I was sitting
on the log between them. I had scented a story and I craved mightily
to hear it, though I never dreamed that some day I should be writing it
out.
“You see, boy, it was like this: Upstate the sentiment was purty evenly
divided betwixt stayin' in the Union and goin' out of it; but down here,
in Red Gravel County, practically everybody was set one way--so much one
way that they took to callin' our town Little Charleston, and spoke of
this here Congressional District as the South Carolina of the West. Ez
state after state went out, the feelin' got warmer and warmer; but the
leaders of public opinion, all except Heck Dallas, counselled holdin'
off till the legislature could act. Heck, he was for crossin' over
into Illinois some nice pleasant dark night and killin' off the
Abolitionists, though at that time of speakin' there weren't many more
Abolitionists livin' on that side of the river than there were on this.
That was merely Heck's way of expressin' his convictions.
“In spite of his desires, we kept on waitin'. But when word come from
Frankfort that the legislature, by a mighty clost vote, had voted down
the Secession Ordinance and had declared fur armed neutrality--which was
in the nature of a joke, seein' ez everybody in the state who was old
enough to tote a fusee was already armed and couldn't be a neutral--why,
down in this neck of the woods we didn't wait no longer.
“Out of the front window of his printin' office old Colonel Noble
h'isted the first Confederate flag seen in these parts; and that night,
at the old market house, there was the biggest mass meetin' that ever
had been held in this here town up to then. A few young fellers had
already slid down acrost the border into Tennessee to enlist, and a few
more were already oyer in Virginia, wearin' the grey; but everybody else
that was anybody was there.
“Right away Heck took the platform. They'd a had to lock it up
somewheres to keep him frum takin' it. He was up on one of them market
benches, wavin' his arms and spoutin' about the mudsills and the nigger
lovers, and jest darin' the accursed invader to put one heel upon the
sacred soil of the grand old Commonwealth--not both his heels, but
ary one of 'em--when all of a sudden Meriwether Grider leaned over and
kissed his wife--he hadn't been married but a little more'n a year
and they had a baby about three weeks old at home. And then he stepped
forward and climbed up on the bench and sort of shoved Heck to one side,
and called out that there'd been enough talk, and that it was about time
for action; and said, ef somebody had a piece of paper handy, he'd like
mightily to put his name down as a volunteer fur the Southern Army. And
in another second every woman there was cheerin' with one side of her
mouth and cryin' with the other.
“And Colonel Noble had fetched his flag up and was wavin' it with both
hands; and old Doctor Hendrickson, the Presbyterian preacher, had made a
prayer--a heap shorter one than whut he ginerally made--and had yanked
a little pocket Testament out frum under his coattails fur the boys to
take the oath on. And in less'n no time Heck Dallas was back down in the
crowd, in considerable danger of being trampled to death in the rush of
young fellers to git up there and sign their names to the roll.”
Doctor Lake slid off the log and stood up, with his black hat crumpled
in one gnarled old hand. In the emotion of the moment he forgot his
grammar: “You remember, Billy--don't you?--how you and me and Peter J.
Galloway and little Gil Nicholas went up together to sign?”
“I ain't exactly liable to furgit it, ever,” said Judge Priest. “That
was the night I jest natchelly walked off and left my little law office
flat on its back. I'd been advertisin' myself to practise law fur about
a year, but whut I'd mainly practised up to that time was economy--that
and checkers and old sledge, to help pass away the time. No, suh;
I didn't leave no clients behind me, clamourin' fur my professional
services. Clients were something I'd heared a lot of talk about, but
hadn't met face to face. All I had to do when I quit was jest to put out
the fire and shut the door, and come on away.”
“And the last one of all to sign that night was Herman Felsburg,” stated
Doctor Lake, as though desirous of rounding out a recital.
“Yes--that's right too, Lew,” agreed the old Judge. “Herman was the very
last one. I remember how some of the crowd begun snickerin' when
he come stumpin' up on them crooketty little laigs of hisn; but the
snickerin' died out when Meriwether Grider grabbed Herman's hand and
shook it, and Doctor Hendrickson held out the Book fur him to swear on
it to be true and faithful to the cause of the Southern Confederacy. A
person don't snicker so very well that's got a lump in his throat at the
moment.
“You see, son, Herman was a kind of town joke them days,” stated
Judge Priest, again digressing for my benefit. “There weren't many
furreign-born people in this section back yonder in Sixty-one. Ef a
feller come along that was frum Greece or Italy or Spain, or somewheres
else down that way, we jest called him a Dago, dry-so--and let it go at
that. But ef he hailed from Germany or Holland or Russia, or anywhere in
Northern Europe, he was a Dutchman to us.
“There were just two exceptions to the rule: An Irishman was an
Irishman, of course; and a Jew was a Jew. We had a few Irish families
in town, like the Galloways and the Hallorans; and there was one Jewish
family livin' here--the Liebers; but they'd all been born in this
country and didn't speak nothin' but English, and, exceptin' that old
man Lieber used to close up his hide-and-pelt store of a Sad'day, instid
of Sunday, it never occurred to anybody that the Liebers practised a
different religion frum the run of folks.
“Herman had been here about a year, off and on. He didn't seem to know
nobody, and he didn't have any friends. He wasn't more'n nineteen years
old--or maybe twenty; and he was shy and awkward and homely. He used to
go out through the county with a pack on his back, sellin' gimcracks
to country people. He could make change all right--I reckin he jest
natchelly inherited that ez a gift--and he was smart enough at drivin'
a bargain; but somehow it seemed like he jest couldn't learn to talk
English, or to understand it, neither, exceptin' when the subject was
business. Understand, that was thirty-odd years back; but sometimes,
even now, when old Herman gits excited, you'd think, to hear him, that
he didn't know much English yit. His language matches the shape of his
laigs then.”
I nodded understanding, Mr. Felsburg's conversational eccentricities
being a constant fount of material for the town humourists of my own
generation. The Judge went on: “Well, anyway, he signed up that night,
along with all the rest of us. And after that, fur a few days, so many
things was happenin' that I sort of forgot about him; and I reckin
nearly everybody else did too. It seemed like the whole town sort of
went crazy fur a spell, whut with the first company, which was our
company, electin' its officers, and the County Battery formin', and
a troop of cavalry organisin', and the older men enrollin' fur home
defence, and a lot of big-moth fellers standin' round on street comers
lowin as how it was goin' to be only a ninety-day picnic, anyway, and
that any Southern man could whip five Yankees--and so forth and so on.
“And then we'd go home at night and find our mothers and sisters settin'
round a coal-oil lamp, makin' our new grey uniforms, and sewin' a tear
in with every stitch. And every feller's sweetheart was makin' him a
silk sash to wear round his waist. I could git a sash round my waist
then, but I s'pose if I felt called on to wear one now I'd have to hire
old man Dillon, the mattress maker, to make one fur me out of a roll of
bedtickin.” And the speaker glanced downward toward the bulge of his
girth.
“My mother kept telling me that it would kill her for me to go--and that
she'd kill me if I didn't go,” interpolated Doctor Lake.
“I reckin no set of men on this earth ever went out to fight with the
right sort of spirit in 'em onless their womenfolk stood behind 'em,
biddin' 'em to go,” said the old Judge. “That's the way it was with us,
anyway--I know that much. Well then, right on top of everything else,
along come the big ball they gave us at the Richland House the night
before we left fur Camp Boone to be mustered in, regular fashion. There
wasn't any absentees there that night--not a single solitary one. They'd
'a' had to tie me hand and foot to keep me frum comin' there to show off
my new grey suit and my red-striped sash and all my brass buttons.
“Fur oncet, social lines didn't count. That night the best families
mixed with all the other families that was mebbe jest as good, but
didn't know it. Peter Galloway's old daddy drove a dray down on the
levee and his mother took in washin', but before the ball broke up I
seen old Mrs. Galloway with both her arms round Mrs. Governor Trimble,
and Mrs. Governor Trimble had her arms round Mrs. Galloway, and both of
'em cryin' together, the way women like to do. The Trimbles were sending
three sons; but old Mrs. Galloway was givin' up Peter, and he was all
the boy she had.
“We danced till purty near sunup, stoppin' only oncet, and then jest
long enough fur 'em to present Captain Meriwether Grider with his new
gold-mounted sword. You remember, Lew, we buried that sword in the same
coffin with him fifteen years later?
“About four o'clock in the mornin', when the first of the daylight was
beginnin' to leak in at the winders, the nigger string band in the corner
struck up Home, Sweet Home! We took partners, but that was one dance
which never was finished.
“All of a sudden that sassy little red-headed Janie Thornbury stopped
dead-still out in the middle of the floor, and she flung both arms
round the neck of Garrett Hinton, that she was engaged to marry, but
didn't--on account of her marryin' somebody else while Garry was off
soldierin'--and, before everybody, she kissed him right smack on the
mouth!
“And then, in less'n no time at all, every feller in the company had his
arms round his sweetheart or his sister, or mebbe his mother, and kisses
were goin' off all over that old ball room like paper bags a-bustin'.
I fergit now-who 'twas I kissed; but, to the best of my recollection, I
jest browsed round and done quite a passel of promiscuous kissin'.”
“I'll never forget the one I kissed!” broke in Doctor Lake. “With the
exception of the ensuing four years, I've been kissing the same girl
ever since. She hefts a little more than she did then--those times you
could mighty near lock a gold bracelet round her waist, and many's the
time I spanned it with my two hands--and she's considerably older; but
her kisses still taste mighty sweet to me!”
“Go 'way, Lew Lake!” protested Judge Priest gallantly. “Miss Mamie
Ellen is jest ez young ez ever she was; and she's sweeter, too, because
there's more of her to be sweet. I drink to her!”
Two tin cups rose in swinging circles; and I knew these old men were
toasting a certain matron of my acquaintance who weighed two hundred
and fifty if she weighed a pound, and had white hair and sizable
grandchildren.
“And so then”--Judge Priest was resuming his narration--“and so then,
after a spell, the epidemic of kissin' began to sorter die down, though
I reckin some of the boys would 'a' been willin' to keep it up plumb
till breakfast time. I mind how I was standin' off to one side, fixin'
to make my farewells to Miss Sally Machen, when out of the tail of my
off eye I seen little Herman Felsburg, over on the other side of the
ballroom, lookin' powerful forlorn and lonesome and neglected.
“Doubtless he'd been there all night, without a soul to dance with him,
even ef he'd knowed how, or a soul to speak with him, even ef he could
have understood whut they said to' him. Doubtless he wasn't exactly whut
you'd call happy. Jest about then Miss Sally Machen must 'a' seen him
too; and the same thought that had jest come to me must 'a' come to her
too. “'It's a shame!' she said--jest like that--under her voice. And in
another minute she was walkin' acrost the floor toward Herman.
“I remember jest how she looked. Why, ef I was an artist I could draw a
picture of her right now! She was the handsomest girl in town, and the
proudest and the stateliest--tall and slender and dark, with great big
black eyes, and a skin like one of these here magnolia buds--and she was
well off in her own name; and she belonged to a leadin' family. Four or
five boys were beauin' her, and it was a question which one of 'em she'd
marry. Sometimes, Lew, I think they don't raise very many girls like
Miss Sally Machen any more.
“Well, she kept right on goin' till she came to where Herman was
scrouged up ag'inst the wall. She didn't say a word to him, but she
took him by the hand and led him right out into the middle of the floor,
where everybody could see; and then she put those white arms of hers
round his neck, with the gold bracelets on her wrists jinglin', and she
bent down to him--she had to bend down, bein' a whole head taller than
whut he was--and she kissed him on the lips; not a sweetheartin' kiss,
but the way his own mother might 'a' kissed him good-bye, ef he'd had a
mother and she'd been there.
“Some few started in to laugh, but stopped off short; and some started
to cheer, but didn't do that, neither. We-all jest stood and watched
them two. Herman's face tum't ez red ez blood; and he looked up at her
sideways and started to smile that funny little smile of hisn--he had
one front tooth missin', and that made it funnier still. But then his
face got serious, and frum clear halfway acrost the hall I could see his
eyes were wet. He backed off frum her and bowed purty near to the ground
before her. And frum the way he done it I knowed he was somethin' more
than jest a little, strange Jew pedlar in a strange land. You have to
have the makin's of a gentleman in you to bow like that. You mout learn
it in time, with diligent practice, but it comes a sight easier ef
you're born with it in you.”
From his flat flask the old Judge toned up the contents of their julep
cups. Then, with pauses, during which he took delicate but prolonged
sips, he spoke on in the rambling, contemplative fashion that was as
much a part of him as his trick of ungrammatical speech or his high bald
forehead was, or his wagging white chin-beard:
“Well, purty soon after that we were all down yonder at old Camp Boone,
and chiefly engaged, in our leisure hours--which we had blamed few
leisure hours, at that--in figurin' out the difference between talkin'
about soldierin' and braggin' about it, and actually doin' of it. There
wasn't no more dancin' of quadrilles with purty girls then. We done our
grand right-and-left with knapsacks on our backs and blisters on our
feet. Many and many a feller that had signed up to be a hero made the
distressin' discovery what he'd really j'ined on to.
“All this time little old Herman was doin' his share like a major. Long
before he could make out the words of command, he'd picked up the manual
of arms, jest frum watchin' the others in the same awkward squad with
him. He was peart enough that-a-way. Where he was slow was learnin' how
to talk' so ez you could make out whut he was aimin' to say. It seemed
like that was the only slow thing about him.
“Natchelly the boys poked a heap of fun at him. They kept prankin' with
him constantly. But he taken it all in good part and grinned back at
'em, and never seemed to lose his holt on his temper. You jest couldn't
help likin' him--only he did cut such funny mon-keyshines with the
Queen's English when he tried to talk!
“Because he was so good-natured, some of the boys took it into their
heads, I reckin, that he didn't have no real grit; or mebbe they thought
he wasn't spunky because he was a Jew. That's a delusion which a good
many suffer frum that don't know his race.
“I remember one night, about three weeks or a month after we went into
camp, Herman was put on post. The sergeant mighty near lost his mind,
and did lose his disposition, drillin' the countersign and the password
into Herman's skull. So a couple of boys out of the Calloway County
company--they called themselves the Blood River Tigers, and were a purty
wild and devilish lot of young colts ginerally--they took it into their
heads that after it got good and dark they'd slip down to the lines and
sneak up on Herman, unbeknownst to him, and give him a good skeer,
and mebbe take his piece away from him--sort of play hoss with him,
ginerally. So, 'long about 'leven o'clock they set out to do so.”
He paused and looked at Doctor Lake, grinning. I couldn't hold in.
“What happened?” I asked.
“Oh, nothin' much,” said Judge Priest--“exceptin' that presently
there was a loud report and consider'ble many loud cries; and when
the corporal of the guard got there with a squad, one of them Calloway
County boys was layin' on the ground with a hole through his right
shoulder, and the other was layin' alongside of him right smartly
clubbed up with the butt end of a rifle. And Herman was standin' over
'em, jabberin' in German--he'd forgot whut little English he knowed. But
you could tell frum the way he carried on that he was jest double-dog
darin' 'em to move an inch. I don't believe in my whole life I ever seen
two fellers that looked so out of the notion of playin' practical jokes
as them two Blood River Tigers did. They were plumb sick of Herman,
too--you could tell that frum a mere glance at 'em ez we toted 'em in
and sent for the surgeon to patch 'em up.
“So, after that, the desire to prank with Private Felsburg when he was
on duty sort of languished away. Then, when Herman took down sick with
camp measles, and laid there day after day in the hospital tent under
an old ragged bedquilt, mighty sick, but never complainin'--only jest
grinnin' his gratitude when anybody done a kind turn fur him--we knowed
he was gritty in more ways than one. And there wasn't a man in Company
B but whut would have fit any feller that ever tried ag'in to impose on
him.
“He was sick a good while. He was up and round ag'in, though, in time to
do his sheer in the first fight we were in--which was at Belmont, over
acrost the Mississippi River frum Columbus--in the fall o' that year. I
seem to recall that, ez we went into action and got into fire, a strange
pair of laigs took to tremblin' mightily inside the pair of pants I was
wearin' at the time; and most of my vital organs moved up into my throat
and interfered some with my breathin'.
“In fact I made a number of very interestin' discoveries in the openin'
stages of that there fight. One was that I wasn't never goin' to be
entirely reconciled to the idea of bein' killed on the field of battle;
and another was that, though I loved my native land and would die fur
her if necessary--only hopin' it wouldn't be necessary to go so fur ez
all that--still, ef I lived to git out of this particular war I wasn't
goin' to love another native land ez long ez I lived.”
“Shucks, William!” snorted Doctor Lake. “Try that on somebody else, but
don't try to come such stuff on me. Why, I was right alongside of you
when we went into that charge, and you never faltered!”
“Lew,” stated Judge Priest, “you might ez well know the truth. I've been
waitin' fur nearly forty years to make this confession. The fact of the
matter was, I was so skeered I didn't dare to stop goin' ahead. I knowed
ef ever I did slow up, and give myself a chance to think, I'd never quit
runnin' the other way until I was out in the Gulf of Mexico, swimmin'.
“And yit another thing I found out that day was that the feller back
home who told me one Southerner could whip five Yankees, single-handed,
made a triflin' error in his calculations; or else the Yankees he had
in mind when he uttered the said remark was a different breed frum
the bunch we tackled that day in the backskirts of the thrivin' little
community of Belmont, Missoury. But the most important thing of all the
things I discovered was about Herman Felsburg--only that come later.
“In the early stages of that little battle the Federals sort of shoved
us back a few pegs; but about three o'clock in the evenin' the tide
swung the other way, and shortly thereafter their commandin' general
remembered some pressin' business back in Cairo, Illinois, that needed
attendin' to right away, and he started back there to do so, takin' whut
was left of his army along with him. So we claimed it ez a victory for
us, which it was.
“Along toward dusk, when the fightin' had died down, our company was
layin' alongside a country road jest outside the town, purty well
tuckered out, and cut up some. We were all tellin' each other how brave
we'd been, when along down the road toward us come a file of prisoners,
under guard, lookin' mighty forlorn and low-sperrited. They was the
first prisoners any of us had ever seen; so we jumped up from where
we was stretched out and crowded up round 'em, pokin' fun at 'em. The
guards halted 'em to let 'em rest and we had a good chance to exchange
the compliments of the season with 'em. Eight in the front rank of the
blue-bellies was one big furreign-lookin' feller, with no hat on, and
a head of light yaller hair. He ripped out somethin' in German--a cuss
word, I take it. Doubtless he was tellin' us to go plum' to hell. Well,
suh, at that, Herman jumped like he'd been stung by one of these here
yaller jackets. I reckin he was homesick, anyway, fur the sound of his
own language.
“He walked over and begun jabberin' in Dutch with the big sandy-haired
Yank, and the Yank jabbered back; and they talked together mighty
industrious until the prisoners moved on--about fifteen minutes, I
should say, offhanded. And ez we went back to lay down ag'in I took
notice that Herman had the funniest look on his face that ever I seen on
almost any human face. And he kept scratchin' his head, like there was
somethin' on his mind, troublin' him, that he jest simply couldn't
make out noway. But he didn't say nothin' to nobody then--jest kept on
scratchin' and studyin'.
“In fact, he held in till nearly ten o'clock that night. We made camp
right there on the edge of the battleground. I was fixin' to turn in
when Herman got up frum where he'd been squattin', over by a log fire,
lookin' in the flames; and he come over to me and teched me on the
shoulder. “'Pilly Briest,' he says in that curious way of hisn, 'I should
like to speak mit you. Please, you gecomin' mit me.'
“So I got up and follered him. He led me off into a little thicket-like
and we set down side by side on a log, same ez we three are set-tin'
here now. There was a full moon that night, ridin' high, and no clouds
in the sky; and even there in the shadders everythin' was purty nigh ez
bright ez day.
“'Well, old hoss,' I says, 'whut seems to be on your mind?'
“I ain't goin' to try very hard to imitate his accent--you-all kin
imagine it fur yourselves. 'And he says to me he's feared he's made a
big mistake.'
“'Whut kind of a mistake?' I says.
“'Ven I j'ined dis army,' he says--or words to that effect.
“'How so?' I says.
“And then he starts in to tell me, talkin' ez fast ez his tongue kin
wag, and makin' gestures with both his hands, like a boy tryin' to learn
to swim dog-fashion. And after a little, by piecin' together ez much of
his talk ez I kin ketch, I begin to make out whut he's drivin' at; and
the shock is so great I come mighty near failin' right smack off that
log backward.
“Here's the way the thing stands with him: That night at the old market
house, when the company is bein' formed, he happens along and sees a
crowd, and drops in to find out, ef he kin, whut's afoot. Presently he
makes out that there's a war startin' up ag'inst somebody or other, and,
sence he's made up his mind he's goin' to live in America always and
make it his country, he decides it's his bounden duty to fight fur his
country. So he jest up and signs, along with the rest of us.
“Of course from that time on he hears a lot of talk about the Yankee
invader and the Northern vandal; but he figgers it that the enemy
comes frum somewhere 'way up North--Canada or Greenland, or the Arctic
regions, or the North Pole, or some of them other furreign districts up
in that gineral vicinity. And not fur a minute--not till he talked with
the big Dutch prisoner that day--had it ever dawned on him fur a single
minute that a Yankee mout possibly be an American, too.
“When he stops I sets and looks at him a minute, takin' it all in; and
he looks back. Finally I says:
“'And so you went and enlisted, thinkin' you was goin' to fight fur the
United States of America, and you're jest findin' out now that all these
weeks you've been organism' yourself to fight ag'inst her? Is that it?'
“And he says, 'Yes, that's it.' And I says: 'Well, I wisht I might
be dam'!' And he says, well, he wishes he might be dam' too, or in
substance expresses sech a sentiment. And fur another spell we two
merely continues to set there lookin' one another in the face.
“After a little I asts him whut he's aimin' to do about it; and he says
he ain't decided yit in his own mind. And then I says:
“'Well, Herman, it's purty tough on you, anyway you take it. I don't
rightly know all the rules o' this here war business yit, myself; but I
reckin ef it was made clear to the higher authorities that you was sort
of drug into this affair under false pretenses, ez it were, why,
mebbe they mout muster you out and give you an honourable
discharge--providin', of course, you pledged yourself not to take up
arms fur the other side, which, in a way of speakin', would make you a
deserter. We-all know you ain't no coward, and we'll all testify to it
ef our testimony is needed. I reckon the rest of the boys'll understand
your position in the matter; in fact, I'll undertake to make 'em
understand.'
“He asts me then: 'Whut iss false pretenses?'”
And I explains to him the best I kin; and he thinks that p'int over fur
a minute or two. Then he looks up at me sideways frum under the brim of
his cap, and I kin see by the moonlight he's blushin' ez red ez a beet,
and grinnin' that shy little snaggle-teethed grin of hisn.
“'Pilly,' he says, 'mebbe so you remember dot young lady vot put her
arms round me dot night--de von vot gif to me a kiss fur kindness? She
iss on de Deexie side--yes?--no?'
“And I says to him: 'You kin bet your sweet life she is!'”
“'All right!' he says. 'I am much lonesome dot night--and she kiss me!
All right, den. I fights fur her! I sticks mit Deexie!' And when he says
that he makes a salute, and I notice he's quit grinnin'.”
“And did he stick?” I asked.
Before he answered, the old Judge drained his tin cup to the bottom.
“Did he stick? Huh! Four long hard bitter years he stuck--that's all!
Boy, you mout not think it, to see old Herman waddlin' acrost that Oak
Hall Clothin' Store to sell some young buck from the country a pair of
twenty-five-cent galluses or a celluloid collar; but I'm here to tell
you he's one of the stickin'est white men that ever drawed the breath of
life. Lew Lake, here, will tell you the same thing. Mebbe it's because
he is sech a good sticker that he's one of the wealthiest men in this
county to-day. I only wisht I had to spend on sweetenin' drams whut he
lays-'by every year. But I don't begrudge it to him.”
Through the grove ran an especially loud outburst of cheering, and on
top of it we heard the scuffling of many yeomen feet. Judge Priest slid
off the log and stood up and stretched his pudgy legs.
“That must mean the speakin's over and the rally's breakin' up,” he
said. “Come along, son, and ride on back to town with us in my old
buggy. I reckin there's room fur you to scrouge in between me and Doctor
Lake, ef you'll make yourself small.”
The October sun, slanting low, made long stippled lanes between the tree
trunks, so that we waded waist-deep in a golden haze as we made for the
place where Judge Priest's Mittie May was tethered to a sapling. The old
white mare recognised her master from afar, and whinnied a greeting
to him, and I was moved to ask another question. To me that tale stood
uncompleted:
“Judge, what ever became of that young lady who kissed him that night at
the Richland House?”
“Oh, her? She died a long, long time ago--before you was born. Her folks
lost their money on account of the war, and she married a feller that
wasn't much account; they moved out to Arkansaw and the marriage turned
out bad, and she died when her first baby was born. There ain't none
of her family livin' here now--they've purty much all died out too. But
they shipped her body back here, and she's buried out in Ellum Grove
Cemetery, in the old Machen lot.
“Some of these days, when you are out there in the cemetery foolin'
round, with nothin' much else to do, you look for her grave--you kin
find it. Bein' a Christian woman, she had a Christian burial and she's
restin' in a Christian buryin' ground; but, in strict confidence,
I'll tell you this much more while we're on the subject: It wasn't no
Christian that privately paid the bill fur the tombstone that marks the
place where she's sleepin'. I wonder ef you could figger out who it was
that did pay fur it? I'll give you two guesses.
“And say, listen, sonny: your first guess will be the right one.”