Rensselaer Republican, Volume 14, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 September 1882 — Page 2

THE FIRST SUIT. A little old pair of pints, good lack; Embroidered 1n running Tines; ' 'With buttona of bras* both from and back; To mutch the trousers a tiny sack, All buttons and fancy lines. v A little white shirt with tusks and laoe, That went with the trousers too— I laughed till the tears ran down my face To think of me in so small a space, And hofttike a gourd I grew. It’s nearly twenty years ago That 1 wore this baby suit. So long that to-day I do not know If pride in my childish face did show As I touched the silk-worked fruit Nearly—ah, me! AH of twenty years 1 And it makes me feel so sad. That truly my eyes are filled with tears At thoughts of trials and hopes and fean Which came to that flttlfe lad. Poor little fellow! I wish that he Might have known what he knows to-daf 1 But, dear little boy, he couldn’t see That over a cloud on high might be— Perhaps ’twas the better way. Bor none could tell If the years to come Would saddened or Joyful be, Nor whether his wesry feet would rohm Prom the good and true he learned at home, And so it seems good to me. Bor the boy of him died out one dsy, A man grew up in the place, A very good man I dare not say, The boy was better—so fold away The clothes with their ruffled lace. At thought of the trials and hopes and fean Oh 1 I feel indeed foil sad, And truly my eyes are filled with tears, When I think a score of thrifty years Is gone with the little lad.

HOW HE WON HIS CROSS.

“Come, tell us, sergeant, how did you win voor cross?” This question was put np by one of & number of young soldiers who stood around Sergeant Manchot in the grounds of the Invalides. The person addressed was an old, one-armed man, who seemed to think that a certain air of fierce, unsmiling gravity most became a soldier of the empire; bat who, it was well known, hid one of the kindliest hearts under the outer form of stem severity. On being thus questioned, he took a well-used pipe from his mouth, slowly puffed out a column of smoke, 4 rew himself as erect as age would permit iim, and replied: “Won my oross? Yes, mon enfant, yon say right; in those days we had to win a cross—it was not given. It was worth winning, too. We didn’t, with the Emperor, gain glory by fighting against one another. There were no barricades then—no battles in the streets -of Paris. That great man, so wonderful in his genius, so indomitable in his courage, who always conquered, would not allow it; and let me tell you no one dared to do what he said he should not —he soon made short work.

“Ah! those were the days when we "knew what true freedom was. There were none of your Republicans, your Orleanists, your old or your new parties. We were all Frenchmen then—Frenchmen, do you hear me, my children ? It was against the enemies of la belle France we fought—against those who Rated the great nation because it was so glorious. , “ Yes, it was against them we Frenohmen always fought; and when traitors did not betray us we always conquered. They could never defeat him, the Emperor, by fair means. Ah, with what glory he covered France ! ” The old man’s eyes glistened with enthusiasm, and his face glowed. “But all this is changed now,” continued the old soldier in a mournful tone. “ France, shame upon her I does not care what her enemies dff. The Grand Army is no more. But you wish to know how I gained my cross. Well, I will tell you, for it will show you what a man the Emperor was.

“It was the 6th of November. For a long time our march had been full of glory. The enemy had fled before us, for whenever he tried to stand we defeated him. We had reached Moscow—that fatal city. We were to have wintered there. But what did these cowardly villains of Russia do ? Why, as you know, they burnt down their town.” ‘‘We were compelled to retreat; and a terrible march we had had, what with frost, snow and hunger. It was the 6th of November, I say. We had just fought the battle of Viazma, and won it of ' course. The Emperor, in his order of nths day, said we had annihilated the fchemy. Still we had to retreat, not before the Russians—no, we had crushed them, I tell you—but before the weather; it was terrible. Oh, what frost! It froze the very marrow in our bones. Oh, what snow ! It cut our skins ; it blinded ns; we sank in it to our knees as we marched. We had been en route since € o’clock, and it was now past noon. An awful march it was. The ground over which we passed was strewn with our dead and dying. Not that we saw much of the foe—no, those we had not killed knew too well what they would get if they .same near us. It was that terrible cold and the empty stomaohs that did lor us. When tliese made any fall behind the rascally Cossaoks, hanging all around us like a swarm of bees, either killed and plundered them, or, if they were at all able to walk, Btnpped them, and then, tying them to their horses, made them run at their sides till they dropped from cold, hunger and fatigue. “ Many of the officers and men in my company had thus perished. All were dispirited—no song, no shout, no joke, and, what was worse than all, no grumbling. The snllenness and recklessness of utter despair had taken hold of us. “ Our Captain was a terrible little man—not a braver one than he in the whole army. And then, you see, we were all brave. He did not stand more than so high” (pointing to his shoulder), “ but he would have his own way—he made us do it; if he said no, it was no ; if yes, then yes; he would not change.

fe called him Oapt Tetu, and, my faith! was a good name, for he was obstinate. f

“He had been a stout, red-faced man; but now, how changed I—thin, pale ana haggard. Nothing could, however, drive away his look of firmness. He was hardly able to keep np with us; but he was determined not to give in as long as he had life, and so on and still on he crawled. He had wrapped his shoeless ► feet in his handkerchiefs, which were now deeply stained with the blood *that dozed from his wounds. Two or three times I had offered him my arm for his support, bnt he had refuted it angrily. “ ‘ What!’ said he, *do jpn think I can’t walk as well as another? Am I a child ? Every one needs all his strength for himself.’ “At last he told me if I dared to both* er him with my offers to assist him he would have me punished severely. 8o what could I do ?—he always meant what he said. But, obstinate as he was, he could not hold out any longer. With a faint cry of, * Ah, it is all over with me! Yive l’Empereur !’ he fell on the snow. “ ‘AU over, my Captain ? oh, no, not while Corporal Manohot is here 1’ “‘Why, who is that? Is that you, Manchot? You are not with your regiment, how is that ? Leave me; my battles are all fought. But stay; here, take my cross and my purse, there is not much in it. I wish for her sake there was more, but the Emperor will not forget her when you reach France. Ah, la belle Franoe! I shall not see yon agaiml Go to Voroppe, near Grenoble ; there you will find an old woman 82 years of age; it is Madame Marlen, my mother. Kiss her for me on both cheeks, give her the purse and cross, and tell her how I died. Yive la France! Vive 1’ Empereur! Now go—join your company, Adieu—go.’ “ ‘ Not unless I take you with me. Come.’ ‘“Come! How can I come? Fool that you are, doß*t you see I cannot walk, or do you think I should be lying here?’ ‘“Nevertheless, come.’ With that I lifted him on my shonlder. “‘What are you 4 oin ß? Pat me down, I tell you; put me down.’ “ ‘ Put you down? What! to lie and die on the snow, or to be murdered by those thieves of Cossacks ahd then stripped? Oh, no, Captain, I shall not do that; yon need not ask me.’ “ ‘ Impudent rasoal that you are ! I do not ask you, I order you; disobey me at your peril.' “ ‘Excuse me, Captain, yon need not trouble yourself to speak. See, you can do nothing—you are too weak to struggle.’ “ ‘ What! am I not to beobeyed ? Ah I if I survive this day you shall suffer for it. By the word of Capt. Tetu you shall.’ “‘Survive! Why not? Of course you shall I’ll carry you safe. Survive! ma foi 1 And L Corporal Manohot, here!’ “ 4 Villain! lay m 9 down, I say. What? you won’t. Oh, you know you would not dare to treat me so if I was strong; bnt, alas! lam weak, and yon take a base advantage of me.’ “ ‘ Well, Captain, let me have my own way now; when you are strong again I will obey you, as 1 have always done.’ ‘“Rascal that you are !’ “All this while I was trudging on as well as I could, and that was very badly. It was hard enough to walk when I had only myself to carry, bnt with the Captain on my shoulders it was a little more difficult. My company was now out of sight; it was of no use trying to overtake them—that was Impossible. All around me stretched an immense, treeless, snow-covered plain. Nothing was to be seen upon its wild waste but the black patches and the little mounds which showed where the dead and dying were. In the far distance, against the snow-laden horizon, I could see a few moving specks, which I soon discovered were a number of Cossacks; who, at a gallop, were swiftly drawing nearer to me.

“ ‘Ah ! then it is over with us, Captain,’ said I; but he made no answer; he was insensible. ‘ Well,’ said I to myself, ‘ I am not going to die, nor to let him neither, without a good hard struggle for it; that would not become a soldier of the empire. No; if they come near me it will cost some of those vile Cossaoks dear ; they shall know what a Frenchman can do; I will stop that abominable hurrah of one or two of them, or my name is not Manchot.’ “ I had not much time to think, for they drew quickly nearer, with that wild, wretched yell of theirs. Call them soldiers! Bah 1 nasty, dirty, savagelooking fellows ; with their bony, ragged, ugly little horses. Why, they were only fit to "kill the wounded and the dying—to injure and plunder those who could not help themselves—not to fight against Frencnmen. “ Well, but what was Itodo ? I laid the Captain down, and covered him over with the snow as well as I could. Then, seeing a number of corpses lying together in a heap, I went and laid down among them, pretending that I too was dead. “The better to hide myself, I turned over a body, and was horrified to find it was that of an old oomrade of mine, who had fought by my side on the glorious field of Austerlitz, Sergeant Subra. A braver and better soldier there was not in the whole Grand Army. At any other time I should have been much grieved, but now all my thoughts were taken up with how was Ito escape the enemy. So I crept as well as I could under the corpse of the sergeant. The Cossacks were on us. Never did I think myself so near death as then. They galloped right over us, and in doing so the hoof of one of the horses came down upon me, and mashed my left arm. Ah 1

my children, yon may be sure it was not easy for me to keep from calling ont—: the agony van very great To keep in the cry that seemed to force itself from my heart, I almost bit my lips through. Well, having done what mischief they cftild on horseback, they passed on—those murdering, thieving villains.

“I then ventured to look up from my hiding-place. Stkll, as I thought at first, were gone. I was glad of this, for what can one man, with a broken arm, do against a hundred with two arms and on horseback? As I cautiously looked around, still lying where I had hid—for I was too old a soldier to betray myself until I knew that the whole coast was clear—l saw that one of the enemy still remained behind—a big, ugly scoundrel, who, dismounted and leading his horse, was at this time bent on the plunder of an officer. At this sight my anger made me forget mv pjvin. I felt hurt that so pitiful a villain should have it in his power to injnxb a brave man. “‘Ah 1’ I said to myself softly, ‘if I, Corporal Manchot, can help it, yon shall never boast of what you are now doing.* So I seized a musket with my right hand, loaded it and prepared to take aim. In doing this I made some noise which alarmed the thief; he started, listened, rose from his knees and looked around, bnt saw nothing. Not satisfied with that, he walked round the heap where I lay, at only a few yards’ distance. You may think I did not make any noise # then. I even breathed as lightly as I could. He saw—he heard nothing, so, with his confidence restored, he went baek to finish the work. With that I lifted my musket—bnt if yon ever should try to lift your mnsket to your shoulder to take aim with your left arm shattered you will find it a very awkward thing to do. “My instinct—the instinct of a veteran, see you—told me that, so I did not try, bnt iested my musket on the body of a dead comrade and took aim—very good, yon may be sore, for my life deE ended on it—fired—when bang;! his attics were all over, as the Captain had said to himself; he leaped np, flung out his arms and fell dead.

“ This raised my spirits—it somehow seemed a good omen to me {hat I should escape. But how? Ah! I did not see that. I returned to where I had buried the Captain in the snow—dug him outtried all I could to lift him again on my shonlder, but could not do it because of my broken arm. While I was endeavoring to raise him, my pulling him about revived him—he opened his eyes and saw me leaning over him. At first he did not understand how thinks were, but soon, recollecting himself, he said with as strong a voice as he oonld, though that was very weak: “ * What, corporal, you here still! Am I then not to be obeyed ? Did I not tell you to leave me and join your cornmany ? Why, if these things are allowed, there will soon be no discipline in the army! If I live yon shall be soundly punished—you shall, on the word of Capt. Tetu.’

“ This persistency of his displeased me, so I replied to Mm more sharply than I should : * “ ‘Ma foi ! Captain, if you are going to be so obstinate, Manchot will imitate you, or he is not a corporal in the Grand Army. If you stay here, he stays too, so say no more about it; what I have said I will do.’ “He looked offended, but said nothing—poor fellow, for he soon became insensible again. Night was now fast coming on, so I went and gathered as many cloaks a 9 I could—alas ! there was no scarcity of them—and wrapped him in them. “Then I sought for something to eat. “It was well I had finished off the Cossack, for I found on him a flask of brandy, which he had evidently taken from one of our officers, and some bread. “ Returning to the Captain, I poured a little spirits down his throat, which revived him ; I then made him eat and drink, and took some bread and brandy myself. It was now dark, and there was nothiag for me to do but wait till morning, to see what that would bring forth. I knew the rear-guard of the army was not past, and had some hopes that we might be pioked up by them. “ Never shall I forget the fearful horrors of that night. It never ceased to Bnow. The cold seemed to pierce into one’s very vitals, and freeze up the marrow in our bones, and the blood in the heart. Nothing was to be heard but the growling of the wolves and the gnashing of their jaws, as thev gorged themselves on the plentiful banquet which lay around. I felt the frost was gradually mastering me, and that it would soon numb all my limbs. I was certain I could ndt hold out muoh longer, so, recalling the few simple old prayers which I had learnt from the good cure when I was a boy, I fell on my knees and repeated them. This seemed to give me new strength.

“Depend upon it, children, there is nothing will so revive a man as prayer. What, young wiseacre, you are sneering at that, are you? You think I am very foolish, do yon? Well, wait till you have gone through as much as I have, and faced death and danger as often, and perhaps you will think as I do. By the time I had finished my prayers, morn* ing began to dawn. Tne snow had ceased for a little. Through the dimness of the early dawn I saw a group of French officers at a distance. To draw their attention I shouted as loudly as I could, and jumped up. They drew near. “ * Halloa! how is this? Why are you n °t with the army ?’ said a short, de-terpained-looking man, dressed in a light gtay overcoat lined with fur. “Yes, young hope of your country, it was the Emperor! and Ido not expect France will ever give you such a General to fight under. It was the Emperor,

but I did not know ii He was the last man I should have expected to see there, bo I replied: “‘Why am loot with the army} Look hero,’ pointing to the Captain and my arm, ‘with this more, and this less, how oould I be? I wish with all my heart I was there instead of here. * “ ‘Sire.’ Ah! then I knew it was the Emperor, that bravest of the brave, that truest of the true, that wisest of the wise. I did not know what to do or say, so I gave him the salute as well as my benumbed and stiffened limbs would allow. ‘ Sire,’ said one of the suit, * I saw this man yesterday carrying an offioer on his back.’ v *“ Is it so, corporal ?’ ‘“Sire, my General, what oonld I do? The Captain could not walk; he fell down. Was Ito leave him to die, or to be murdered by those oowards of Cossacks ? I know it was wrong, and I did it in spite of his orders—he was very angry with me; but I oonld not help it, so I tried to carry him. The Cossacks rode over me and broke my arm; I could do no more. Pardon me, Sire,’

•“The Emperor smiled; yes, my children, he smiled (here the veteran’s eyes glowed with honest pride at the remembrance) —he smiled at me, Corporal Manohot, and, taking a huge pinch of snuff, said:

“ ‘ It is well, very well, my brave fel low ’ —that to me, yes, to me who now stand before yon —‘ it is well, very well, my brave fellow ’ —those were his very words; as I heard them, I forgot my cold, my hanger and the pain of my arm. “ ‘ See here, this is for you ’ —with that he opened his coat, took from his breast the cross, and pinned it on mine. Oh, what joy! what ecstasy! what pride ! Decorated ! and with the Emperor’s own oross! “He then called to Davoust, and ordered that I and the still-insensible Captain should be carried forward in his own wagon.. So I escaped from the horrors of that retreatr bom Russia—but not from the punishment the Captain had threatened me with. As soon as he found that he and I were safe with our regiment, he plaoed me under arrest for fourteen days, for what, he said, had been a gross breach of discipline. Ah! be always fulfilled his promise, did Capt Tetu—die is a General now. “ What he had done to me was told the Emperor. I have heard he was muoh amused; he ordered my release, at the same time raising me to the rank of Sergeant. That, mea enfanta, is how I won my cross. The ribbon I wear here, where every one may see it; the oross lies next my heart, where it shall always be in life and in death.”—CaaaelVa Magazine.

French Detectives.

An agent de change who had in his custody a great number of bonds and other valuable documents belonging to his clientele was robbed of a number of shore certificates stolen from the safe in his offico. The value of these articles was considerable, amounting to close upon 300,000 francs (£12,000). As in France all scrip is payable au porteur (to bearer), it is much more easy to dispose of this sort of property ttm-n it would be in England, where a formal transfer has to be made. In the present case, the plundered party did not want to make the affair public for two reasons. In the first place he was convinced that the robber was his own son, who had absconded from Paris a day or two before; and, in the second, the fact of his having lost the documents would, in all probability, have greatly injured his credit on the Bourse. He went to the prefecture de, police , saw one o£ the chiefs, and a few hours later an agent secret was sent to his office. He related his story, saying at the same time that he suspected his son to have been the principal actor in the affair. In return, without a moment’s hesitation, he was told the name of a firm in Paris whose chief business was to deal in stolen property of the kind. He was, moreover, informed a few hours later that some days previously his son had been seen more than once in the office of this firm; and that it was more than likely the bonds were in their possession. The police agent went to the suspected offioe and, with money advanced him by the plundered man, transacted some stock or share buying and selling. He returned there again and again, each time doing some business which gave the firm a certain profit. This went on until he had gained a sort of footing with the suspected parties. He then asked them to purchase for him a few thousand francs’ worth of the kind of bonds that his employer had lost. This was done. The numbers on the scrip given him corresponded with those whioh the agent de change had shown him when he first commenced the inquiry. His work was then plain enough. The head of the firm was accused of having in his possession documents which had been stolen, knowing them to have been so. By making a olean breast of the matter, and by restoring all he had bought from the son of the agent de change (for which he hod paid about a fourth of their marketable value), he escaped with a year’s imprisonment. In England the affair would have been impossible. But the question remains whether it is not better to fight rogues with their own weapons than to allow them from motives, whioh are correct in themselves, to go scot free. There can be little doubt that, in the present state of the world, when so many men live by preying on others, it is very necessary to keep some sort of supervision over scoundrels, or it will be very difficult for honest people to come by their own.— Macmillan’s Magazme. - { Life is not so short but that there is always time enough for courtesy. Selfcommand is the main elegance.—Emerson.

The Chameleon.

Among the tree lizards, or those which rarely crawl an the ground and never enter the water, the chameleon is the most noticeable. This singular reptile ha# long been famous tor its power of changing its color, a property, however, which has been greatly exaggerated. Although all lizards are torpid, some of them are quite capable of great activity at oertain seasons, but the chameleon as sluggish in the extreme, being the very sloth among reptiles. When it moves along the branch on which it is clinging the reptile first raises one foot very slowly indeed, and will sometimes remain with its foot in air for a considerable time, as if it had gone to sleep in the interim. It then pats the foot slowly forward, and takes a good grasp of the branch. Having satisfied itself that it is firmly secured it leisurely unwinds its tail, which has been tightly twisted around the branch, shifts it a little forward, coils it around again, and then rests for a while. With the same slow precaution each foot is lifted forward and advanced, the movement being only a little faster than the hourhand of a watch. The chameleon’s food consists of insects, mostly of flies, and, like many other reptiles, it is able to go for months without food, a fact which gives rise to the belief that the chameleon lived on the air. To jndge by externals, there never was an animal less fitted than Ike chameleon for capturing anything as active as a fly, and yet we shall see that the lizard is well equipped for this purpose. The tongue is the instrument by which the fly is captured, being first deliberately aimed, like a billiard player aiming a stroke with his one, and then darted ont with singular velocity. This member is very muscular and is furnished at the tip with a kind of viscid secretion whioh causes the fly to adhere to it. Its mouth is well furnished with teeth, which are set firmly into its jaw, and enable it to braise the insects after getting them into its month by means ol tiie tongue. The eyes have a most singular appearance, and are worked quite independently of each other, one rolling backward, while the other is directed forward or upward. There is not the least spark of expression in the eye of the chameleon, which looks about as intellectual as a green pea with a dot of ink upon it. In speaking of the changes of color in the chameleon, Mr. Wood, thewriter on natuial history, says : “ I kept a chameleon for a long time, and earefnlly watched 'its changes of color. Its primary hue was gray-black, bat other colors were constantly passing over its body. Sometimes it would be striped like a zebra with light yellow, or covered with circular yellow spots. Sometimes it was all ehestnnt and black like a leopard, and sometimes it was brilliant green. Sometimes it would be grey, covered with black spots; and once, when it was sitting on a branch, it took the hne of the autumnal leaves so exactly that it could scarcely be distinguished from them.”

As Sensible as Most Duels.

Sheep’s-head, although hardly a flattering epithet or term of endearment, is not regarded between man and man in this country as an insult of so deep a dye that the stain inflicted upon the honor of a gentleman to whom thin compound noun may happen to be addressed can only be washed out in blood. That such, however, is the view taken of its German equivalent, “Schafskopf,’’ in the Fatherland, is conclusively demonstrated in the following lamentable occurrence : -In the ancient city of Oldenburg, one Heir Jansen, an elderly barrister, called upon an acquaintance, the upper story of whose dwelling was occupied by an infantry Lieutenant named Fischer, the proprietor of a handsome pointer, upon which he had sportively bestowed the name of Shafskopf. The dog was lying stretched on the doorstep as Jansen came up to the door, and at that very moment the Lieutenant, thrusting his head out of his secondstory window, shouted at the top of his voice : “Sheep’s-head, come up, will you?” Jansen took the summons to himself, and, instead of entering the house, waited by the door until Fischer made his appearance, when, exclaiming; “Sheep’s-head yourself,” he lent the Lieutenant a hearty box on the ear. Fischer, who was in mufti, retorted with a walking-stick, and the result of this misunderstanding was a hostile meeting. Jansen fired first, inflicting a slight flesh wound upon his adversary, whereupon Fischer, in no way ruffled by his hurt, stretched the too-hasty advocate dead upon the ground with a bullet through his heart.— London Telegraph.

Giving Lessons in Politeness.

Hon. W. J. Hendricks, of Frankfort, Ky., tells the following: He was sitting in his office at Flemingsburg one day, when his collored ®fflce-boy came shufflingin with his hat on, singing, “Dar’s one mo’ ribber to cross.” He was impressed by the boy’s want of politeness, and said to him, “Look’ee here, sir, that’s no way to enter my office. You need a lesson in behavior. Now you take a seat in my chair, and act just as if you were proprietor—just as I do, and I will go out and come in just as you should do,’’whereupon he laid down hi« cigar and went out the door. In a moment he returned, and there sat Jim with his feet pitched up on the table, a copy of the revised statutes of the United States open in his lap and the half smoked cigar in his mouth, and his hat cocked down over one eye. The aesthetic teacher entered quietly with his hat in his hand, but had not fairly gotten in the room before Jim looked up and said: “Jack, you d—d rascal, pick up dat spittoon, clean it quick, and den come in heah, sah, and black my boots—do you heah?” Jim was kicked out, but very shortly afterwards reinstated.