Well, so did I, and everybody else about there. We couldn't help but see them. Why, therefore, need he make so superfluous a remark? Then the other would say: "I CALL YOU." But I didn't hear him _call_. All he would do was, to lay his beans on the pile in the middle of the table, and soon they all spread out some pictures and dots that were printed on white pasteboard. Then _one man_ reaches out his hand and _draws_ over the beans to his side; and he smiles complacently, and all the others look beat and crabbed. And this they call a little game of _draw_. Charley Clark and Captain Westcott say 'tis a bad practice; _and they ought to know_. PROFANITY IN THE ARMY. It is astonishing how rapidly men in the service become profane. I never before appreciated the oft-quoted phrase, "He swears like a trooper." Young men whom I have noticed, in times gone by, for their urbanity and quiet demeanor, now use language unbecoming gentlemen upon any occasion. But here it is overlooked, because "_everybody does it_;" but, to my mind, "'Tis a custom more honored in the breach than the observance." Gambling, too! O, how they take to it! "O, it's just for pastime," says one. Yes; but it is a pastime that will grow and grow, and drag many a one to ruin. Among the many ways that the boys have of evading the law against it in camp is, going off into the woods and taking a "quiet game," as they term it. Chuck-a-luck, sweat-cloth, and every species of device for swindling are resorted to by the baser sort. CHAPTER XVII. Hard on the Sutler: Spiritualism Tried -- A Specimen of Southern Poetry -- Singular -- March to Nashville -- General Steadman Challenged by a Woman -- Nigger Question -- "Rebels Returning." HARD ON THE SUTLER--SPIRITUALISM TRIED. The officers of some regiments will drink--that is, they can be _induced_. There was a sutler, a great devotee to the modern science--if science it can be called--of spiritualism. The officers found this out, and determined to play upon his credulity. The quarter-master was quite a wag, and lent himself to the proposed fun. His large tent was prepared: holes were made in it, and long black threads attached to various articles in the apartment, and one or two persons stationed to play upon these strings. The party met as per agreement; every thing was arranged; the credulous sutler present. While enjoying the evening, the crowd were surprised to see things jumping around; a tumbler was jerked off a table, no one near it; clothing lifted up from the line running through the length of the tent. Some one suggested "spirits." All acknowledged the mystery, while some would, and others would not, accept the spiritual hypothesis as a correct solution. The matter must be tested, and the sutler was appointed chief interrogator. "If," said he, "there are really spirits, why can they not prove it, by knocking this candlestick from my hand?" "Why can't they?" echoed others.