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Show IV. War Veteran Balked at Southern Tone. Recalled Mean Trick Rebels Played Upon Him Years Ago. Gen. Jack Hayes Relates an. Incident That Stirred His Wrath to j m High Pitch, WASHINGTON. July 9. Brl.-Gen. "Jack" Hayes, retired, was seated with a friend on the lawn In front o his home one evening when a street pianist came along and began his repertoire. It was n fair instrument, and the- old soldier liked the music so much that he tossed tho man a piece of silver. The Italian picked up the money, arranged the side clutch, and then "Dixie" filled the "block. Gen. Hayes grot up from his chair without a word, walked Into his house, through the hall and to tho back yard, -where he remained until the street pian-v pian-v 1st had gone down the street and out of the section. Then the General came out on tbe lawn again and took the- chair ibesldc his friend, v.'ithout raying any-thing. any-thing. The friend, however, was cu- "General," he satd, "I never knew be-Tore be-Tore tha,t you were one of those preju-diced preju-diced persons. What was your Idea in galloping away when that Dago began to unwind 'Dixie?' What's the matter with 'Dixie?' Why, I've heard it tu-H. tu-H. multuously cheered In theaters In Bos- , ton and New York." Hade a Bad Break Onco "That's all right, too," replied Gen. Hayes, chewing on lvis cigar. "The per-bons per-bons who cheered 'Dixie' in theaters In Boston and New York never got auch a tami)eding through Dixie as I did. Pre-Judice Pre-Judice nothing. I'm not prejudiced agalnirt. or sore on anybody. But I made a bad break onco in connection with that 'Dixie-' air, so that I've never been able to listen to it since without getting np and walking as far away from the t sound af 1 could get. H' "I was an aide on the staff of Gen. ICilpatrick when he wus tearing up the Hf railroads around Slacon. The Johnnies were never fur away from ua while we -were doing that work. Thy hoTered Around our front, watching pi-occedlngs. They thought that they were not uu-merlcally uu-merlcally strong -enough to makft it worth our while to go after them. They H, Just watched ua from their distance in j: front, making no attempt to botlver the Hi "One day- Gen. Kllpatrlck summoned l' Hi H! ' me I was In charge of a part of the track destroying to ask me how the Job was proceedlns. He wanted quicker progress made. " 'Take one of the mounted bandB down to the place where the men are working,' said Gen. Kllpatrlck to me. 'The boys always work faster when there's music around.' The Tune Worked Out Wrong. "I got one of the mounted bands and took it down to where our gang was pulling up the ties and rails. The leader asked me what kind of music I wanted. I told him to go ahead with some of the patriotic airs. He swung off with 'Hall, Columbia.' 'The Star Spangled Banner,' 'My Country, etc. The men worked like Trojans under the inspiration of the music. I could see the Johnnies massed among the trees, but they hadn't fired a shot. They were evidently obeying orders or-ders not to. I rather appreciated the Immunity from the Are of sharpshooters which they gave us, and In a sort of bravado you've got to remember that I was a lot younger then than I am now I turned to the band leader and said to him: " 'Those "rebs" are treating us pretty white. Suppose you just reward the poor devils by giving them "Dixie." ' "Well, the leader gave them the word and the band began to pump 'Dixie.' " At this point Gen. Hayes brought his teeth down hard on his cigar and remained re-mained silent for a minute. "Well?" inquired his friend. "Oh, nothing," resumed the old soldier, sol-dier, "except that that band hadn't played more than six bars of 'Dixie' before be-fore the ground under our feet shook with the blustedest rebel yell nny of, us had ever heard, and In a minute and a half those Johnnies were on top of us and whipping hell out of us!" |
