Show THE SrORY OF A VETERAN Last night fashionable saloon on Kearney a rs two aisninguisbed looking militi oi u ware recounting I their numerous campAijna at Sacramento I Sacra-mento and Sun Bruno woe t a man with one sieve of his coat empty lounged up to the bar As he did so he touched the eibow of onefpf the bullionbound warriois and at once apologized to the finroe military glare fastened on him Beg pardon said he but Im always kind ot careleta + when r + ny of the boys in blue are round I used to be one myself Tbe warriors in blue and gold did not deign to respond but the stranger stran-ger was not on the alert for any obvious obv-ious blights I 103 this arm he continued at Vicksburg And this coughJ1 he added aa he shook on a spasm I got in the same place Rather a poor recompense wasnt it asked one of the militiamen Couldnt yau get anything better toYecstJ said the wreck of humanity with a touch ol genuine pride I got tbie too and he threw back the lapel lap-el of his rusty coat to exhibit a small medal As he unclasped it and handed it over for inspection he said I got it for being tae best dressed boidier in the Thirteenth Army Corps at Milhkens Bend before the capture of Vioksburg We bad been slashing around Vickaburg a whole month and for a change had gone up the White River and taken Arkansas Post with 5000 rebs When we got back to Vickeburg again we were a pretty lookingcrowd We were stationed sta-tioned in swampy timber ground that every shower used to make a slough of and the fellows were mud all over The day before Grant took command at Millikens Bend we bad orders to fix up for the occasion and it was given out that the beat dressed man in each regiment would get a medal We all weut to work scrubbing and polishing but it WAS no use A fellow fel-low could ac mb the mud out of his clothes and it he washed it out the minute they got half dry they looked as bad aa ever Most of the fellows gave it up for a bud job but Id made up my mind I wad a going to get the medal I Lad a pretty good uniform and after Id sewed it up on the elbows and tacked the skirt of the coat up it looked good enough only for the mud It was about as good as any other uniform in the corps but of course that wouldnt amount to nothing I wanted it to look better What do you think I did Bought a new one I suppose said the barkeeper The verteran smiled I went down and stood up to my chin in the Yazoo for an hour before parade Id burnished up all the buttons and blackened my shoes with a piece of burned leather and pork fat when I walked up with my wet suit I just paralyzed the crowd I looked as if Id come out of a bandbox when I stuck on my shoe and cap and threw my musket over my shoul der And you got the medal said one of the militiamen handing back the trophy Yes I got it and more too I got the rheumatiz and pneumonia It was in January you know and it set into in-to blow from the west and before the parade was over I was most froze to death To finish me the Colonel was so tickled with my appearance thatI was detailed for orderly duty at I headquarters and had to march around for four hours until the I icicles were hanging out of my elbowa and coattails and do you know what Grant said after the parade What He remarked with considerable feeling Its a long time between drinksJH The barkeeper shaved three glasses over the mahogany and the militiamen militia-men both put their hands in their pockets to pay Yesgentlemen said the veteran as he wiped his grizzly mustache on his coatsleeve and edged toward the door I got the medal and dont you forget it II I shouldnt wonder said the barkeeper bar-keeper as the veteran flitted throuch the doorway if that fellow isnt an eighteencarat fraud and lost his arm in n sawmill You do him an injustice I astute you said a thoughtful but dilapidated dilapi-dated person bending over the lunch counter recognize him as an individual in-dividual who hart a limb shot ofl in I Virginia City while robbing a woodpile I wood-pile San Francisco Chronicle |