The Orpheus C. Kerr Papers, Series 1Newell, R. H. (Robert Henry)
History
The Orpheus C. Kerr Papers, Series 1
Newell, R. H. (Robert Henry)
United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Fiction
These printed forms suit the case of any soldier, my boy; but I didn't
entirely fill this one up.
Samyule was conversing with the chaplain about his Federal soul, when a
tall, shabby chap made a dash for the bedside, and says he to Samyule:
"I'm agent for the great American publishing house of Rushem & Jinks,
and desire to know if you have anything that could be issued in
book-form after your lamented departure. We could make a handsome 12mo
book," says the shabby chap, persuadingly, "of your literary remains.
Works of a Union Martyr--Eloquent Writings of a Hero--Should be in
every American Library--Take it home to your wife--Twenty editions
ordered in advance of publication--Half-calf, $1.--Send in your
orders."
Samyule looked thoughtfully at the publishing chap, and says he:
"I never wrote anything in my life."
"Oh!" says the shabby chap, pleasantly, "anything will do--your early
poems in the weekly journals--anything."
"But," says Samyule, regretfully, "I never wrote a line to a newspaper
in all my life."
"What!" says the publishing chap, almost in a shriek--"never wrote a
line to a newspaper? Gentleman," says the chap, looking toward us,
suspiciously, "this man can't be an American." And he departed hastily.
Believing, my boy, that there would be no more interruptions, Samyule
went on dying; but I was called from his bedside by a long-haired chap
from New York. Says the chap to me:
"My name is Brown--Brown's Patent Hair-Dye, 25 cents a bottle. Of
course," says the hirsute chap, affably, "a monument will be erected to
the memory of our departed hero. An Italian marble shaft, standing on a
pedestal of four panels. Now," says the hairy chap, insinuatingly, "I
will give ten thousand dollars to have my advertisement put on the
panel next to the name of the lamented deceased. We can get up
something neat and appropriate, thus:
[Illustration:
WE MUST ALL DIE;
BUT
BROWN'S DYE IS THE BEST]
"There!" says the enterprising chap, smilingly, "that would be very
neat and moral, besides doing much good to an American fellow-being."
I made no reply, my boy; but I told Samyule about it, and it excited
him so that he regained his health.
"If I can't die," says the lamented Samyule, "without some advertising
cuss's making money by it, I'll defer my visit to glory until next
season."
And he got well, my boy--he got well.
I was talking to the chaplain about Samyule's illness, and says the
chaplain:
"I am happy to say, my fellow-sinner, that when our beloved Samyule was
at the most dangerous crisis, he gave the most convincing proof of
realizing his critical condition."
"How?" says I, skeptically.
"Why," says the chaplain, with a Christian look, "when I told our
beloved Samyule that there could be little hope of his recovery, and
asked him if his spiritual adviser could do anything to make his
passage easier, he pressed my hand fervently, and besought me to see
that he was buried _with a fan in his hand_."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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