Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 May 1896 — The Man of the Musket. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

The Man of the Musket.

Soldiers, pass on. from this rage of renown. This ant-hill, commotion and strife. Pass by where the marbles and bronzes look down With their fast frozen gestures of life. Oh, out to the nameless who He ’neath the gloom Of the pitying cypress and pine; Your man is the man of the sword and the plume. But the man of the musket Is mine. I knew him! By all that Is noble, I knew

This commonplace hero I name! I’ve camped with him, marched with him fought with him, too, In the swirl of the fierce battle-flame! Laughed with him, cried with him, taken-a pant Of his canteen and blanket, and known That the throb of this chivalrous prairie boy's heart Was an answering stroke of my own. I knew bim, I tell you! And, also, I knew When be fell on the battle-swept ridge, That the poor battered body that lay there In blue Was only a plank la the bridge Over which some should pass to a fame That shall shine while the high stars shall shine! Your hero Is known by an echoing name, But the man of the musket is mine. 1 knew him! All through him the good and the bad Kan together and equally free; But I judge as I trust Christ will judge the brave lad. For death made him noble to me! In the cyclone of war. In the battle’s eclipse, Life shook out Its lingering sands. And he died with the names that he loved on his lips. His musket still grasped In Ills hands! Up close to the flag my soldier went down. In the salient front of the line; You may take for your heroes the men of renown, -,v,.[-, But the man of the musket is mine!