Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 March 1884 — “Play Katie Darling.” [ARTICLE]

“ Play Katie Darling.”

Grim as war is, it lias its jokes which are no less amusing than those of peace. The authors of “Blue and Gray” tell a humorous story of Private C-, who, though a brave Soldier of the Seventh Virginia Cavalry, would not face the fire of his comrades’ badinage. He was detailed by the regimental surgeon to carry on the march the doctor’s medicine Chest, a box eighteen inches long, ten inches in width and two-thirds of a foot deep, made of mahogany and covered with stout leather. While the regiment was passing through a Virginia village, a little negro spied the mag with the chest. “Mister, O mister!” ho shouted, “please play Katie Darling on yer organ.” Shouts of langhter followed the negro’s request, and as soon as the regiment halted C. asked to be relieved of a duty that impressed negroes with the idea that he was an organ grinder.