ON THE STUMP.

Marlborough Express, Volume XXI, Issue 240, 30 October 1885, Page 3

ON THE STUMP.

An old clipping from the Cairo Daraocrat of June, 18G3, tells the following story : Among the paroled rebel soldiers who came up on the Lady Gay on Tuesday was a man a little over seven feet m height. He started out with the Missouri troops at the commencement of the. war, stuck to them until the "dog was dead," and never received a scratch. Soon after he was mustered into the rebel service the regiment to which he belonged appeared before the colonel on dress parade, and the colonel, who prided himself on the fine appearance and good size of his men, cast his eye along the line with a smilo of self-satis-faction untill they rested on the towering form of the tall Missourian, when he knit his brows and called out m fiercely thunder tones, " Get off that stump, you impertinent scoundrel, or I'll order you under arrest." The soldiers looked at each other, wondering what the colonel meant, but no one moved. Finding his authority treated with disrespect he fairly boiled with rage, and advancing to the big soldier he exclaimed : "What m the devil are you standing on ? " The soldier respectfully replied : " On my feet, colonel." The colonel was completely taken back as ho surveyed this tall specimen with amazement ; he mumbled an apology for his rude remarks and hastened away, leaving his men convulsed with laughter. "Get off that stump " became a by- word with the Missouri rebels, and it will no doubt live as long as the long Missourian.