| Show I ANECDOTES OP SHELBY An Old Comrade Tells of the Famous Confederate Fighter Kansas City Star No man could ride with Jo Shelby for four years and be worth his salt at anything else said Major J F Stonestreet today V did i and ought to know I have not been worth killing since I Major Stonestreet was an associate of General Shelby in his boyhood and was with him through the war Perhaps Per-haps no man In Kansas City had amore a-more intimate acquaintance with the dead general Shelby was essentially military Major Stonestreet went on He loved the life Its dangers labors rough living and brilliant successes suited him down to the grou < 1 If he had been so placed that of his years could have been speit In war he would have been the happiest man on earth To him the sqldiers life was the happiest of lives the soldiers death the death of deaths He was fond of his men but he did not spare them In his four years of campaigning campaign-ing many very many of them were killed He was not sentimental about it They took their chances he used to say He exposed them to no dangers that he did not share himself He too took his chances He was morbidly sensitive about the conduct of his menthe more so that they bore the reputation of raiders which It must be confessed they earned Hard riding and fighting make a hard appetite and they were no respecters of other peoples pigs and poultry Once we were half starving in Arkansas Shelby and I rode down to the White river to water our horses A detachment of the troops was doing the same thing Just below us Among them was Dick Gentry now of Kansas City He was a gallant private and a good fellow Slung across hissaddle was a sack carefully tied and bleeding at one end What you got there demanded Shelby Been havin my clothes washed said Gentry Youd better get back to camp said the general or your clothes will bleed to death Gentry was put In the guardhouse That night a quarter of fresh pork found its way to Shelbys tent I havent an idea where this came from he said as he looked at it hungrily but go round to the guardhouse orderly order-ly and tell em to turn Gentry loose Theres no use in keeping a man shut up all of his life for a little laundry We were down In Texas continued Mr Stonestreet when we got the news of Lincolns assassination The men were on review and the Intelligence went down the line like a flash Some of them foolishly cheered Boys said General Shelby sitting A erect on his horse with one hand raised in air and his head bared this Is the heaviest blow yet dealt us Lin coins slaughter was the act of a madman mad-man If he had lived he would have been just and generous to the south MajorGeneral Holmes was in command com-mand of our cart of the transmissls sippl department He was a West pointer President Davis was a West pointer also and thought that no man could be a soldier unless he bore the hallmark of that academy Therefore There-fore he appointed Holmes who was a gentleman and wellrneanlng but stiff necked and dull Holmes sent for Shelby General he said when the cavalry leader appeared your men have been stealing and it must be stopped They are thieves Sir said Shelby whoever told you so lies I believe it is true said Holmes Why asked Shelby Because everybody says so Do you believe a thing when every body says so I doDo do-Do you know what everybody says about you I do not What do they say They say that you are a dd old fool and Shelby walked out What is more continued Mr Stone street Shelby was right Men cant fight and starve too General Shelby was a soldier only As a man of business he was a failure fail-ure Into business life he brought the same bold policies that distinguished > him in war times the same dash and the same recklessness and they wouldnt do He would lend money to anybody who asked for it taking no security and to have served In his command was an open road to his purse To the day of his death he was beset by hangerson who had known him in war time He seemed never to weary of them or to learn that they were leeches |
