The Statesmen Snowbound | Page 4

kindly
personality that endeared him to us all. Thurlow was a great man, and
the State of Kentucky will no doubt erect a fitting memorial."
"Yes," said Mr. Ridley, "I suppose they will. They ought to. It may be
some consolation to the family anyhow. But it is an empty sort of thing,
after all, when you come to think of it. A man's life and actions are his
best monument; those who loved him will never forget him, his
enemies will be sorry they spoke, and there will be something more
than appropriate cut on his tombstone--that's certainly all a man should
want. What's the use of waiting for a fellow to die before immortalizing
him in marble or bronze? It is small satisfaction to him personally.
Why not put up a statue while he is living, and let him have the
pleasure of walking past it with his wife and children on a fine Sunday
afternoon when all the folks are out?"
"There is a rich vein of truth in what you say, Sammy," said Senator

Bull; "but you are alive and well, and it is almost impossible for you to
take a dead man's view of the situation."
"I don't know but what you are right, Senator," observed Mr. Ridley
thoughtfully, and the group relapsed into silence.
"You are a Southern man, I believe, Mr. Ridley," said Representative
Van Rensselaer a few minutes later, as they touched glasses.
"I was one, sir, very much of one; that's why I am limping around now.
I was in the Confederate Army, up to the fall of sixty-three, and then I
was taken prisoner."
"So you have had a taste of Union prisons, eh?" asked Senator Baker,
who spoke feelingly--his "Recollections of Johnson's Island" had just
made its appearance.
"Just a leetle might of a taste, Senator; nothing like your experience,
though. You see, it was this way with me. I was captured by a pretty
good sort of a fellow--a big, husky, soft-hearted chap who wouldn't
hurt a flea. That's him over there," pointing to Senator Bull, "and he has
held me prisoner ever since. He ran up against me at Chickamauga."
"Well?" said Senator Baker expectantly.
"Tell them the whole story, Sammy," said Senator Bull, as several of
the party drew their chairs up closer to the private secretary; "tell them
the whole story; it will kill time, anyway."
"Yes," continued Mr. Ridley, "I was taken prisoner, and it all came of
my foolishness and scorn for the enemy. We boys of the --th Arkansas
thought any Johnny Reb could whip five Yanks, and it made us kind of
careless-like, I reckon. I was a raw country lad when the war broke out,
as tough a specimen as ever Jefferson County turned loose on the
unsuspecting public, but I wasn't much worse than the rest of the boys
who loafed around Todd's livery stable swapping lies, chawing tobacco,
and setting the nation to rights. We were all full of fight when the
Sumter news came, and anxious to get in it; and I saw a heap of it, too,

before I made the acquaintance of Nathan Bull.
"There was some lively skirmishing on the morning of September
twentieth, sixty-three, before the armies got together in earnest. It was
real comical to see the boys tearing up their love-letters and
playing-cards just before going into battle. The roads and fields were
speckled with the scraps just like a snowfall on the stage, as I reckon all
of you have seen in plays like 'Alone in London,' and the 'Banker's
Daughter.' It was in one of those preliminary set-tos that somehow my
company strayed away, and left me up in the woods with a bullet in my
leg. I was looking around for some place where I could lie down and
nurse myself a bit, and at the same time keep clear of the shells and
other things flying around. The air was full of them--making a noise
like 'Whar-izz-yer?' 'Whar-izz-yer?' Haven't you often heard that sound,
Senator? Some poor devil hears it once too often, every now and then,
doesn't he?
"It was very hot and dusty, and I was plumb crazy for water. Somehow
I managed to work my way out to a big clear space on the side of the
hill. The brush and weeds were up to your neck. At the foot of the hill
was a piece of marshy land where there had once been a spring. It had
long since dried up, but there were patches of greenish water here and
there. I threw myself on the ground, and my, how good that
nasty-looking water tasted! Then I bathed my face and hands in it. I
heard a man over to my right shout out that