Temptation Resisted
Wrong has seldom looked more like right than in the case of a soldier whose story was told in an American paper.
He was in the General Hospital in Washington with a wounded foot, and still far from healed, when he heard that his wife was very ill and wanted to see him. He obtained a furlough and the necessary transportation papers, which would permit his journey home. On the way home his papers were stolen from his pocket, so that he became liable to be seized as a deserter, and was, besides, without sufficient money for continuing his journey. As he got out of the train at Philadelphia with a very sad heart, he trod on something which, when picked up, he found to be a wrapper containing the furlough and transportation papers of another man. A comrade, who knew his distress, promptly advised him to use them as his own. “You found them,” he said. “None of the conductors know your name; it is your only chance of getting home at all. You are a fool if you don’t.” But the man had Christian principles, and he remembered, too, that the sick wife whom he was so anxious to see had said to him when he started for the war, “Let me hear that you are killed, or that you have died by the way, rather than let me hear that you have ever done what is wrong. I am willing to give you up for your country, only don’t lose your principles.”
He thought, too, of his praying mother; and he felt he dared not go home and look them in the face unless he went in an honest way. So he said to his comrade, “Never! never will I go home under a false name.” Then he hobbled round, sought out the owner, and gave him his papers, and went thence to the rooms of the Sanitary Commission and told his troubles. Friends were found who telegraphed to Washington to get word that a furlough and transportation paper had been furnished him, so that the adjutant general could give him a certificate to this effect. The relief agent gave him ten dollars and tickets to different hotels, where he could be taken kind care of along the way without cost. And thus he reached his own home in comfort and with a good conscience.
He was in the General Hospital in Washington with a wounded foot, and still far from healed, when he heard that his wife was very ill and wanted to see him. He obtained a furlough and the necessary transportation papers, which would permit his journey home. On the way home his papers were stolen from his pocket, so that he became liable to be seized as a deserter, and was, besides, without sufficient money for continuing his journey. As he got out of the train at Philadelphia with a very sad heart, he trod on something which, when picked up, he found to be a wrapper containing the furlough and transportation papers of another man. A comrade, who knew his distress, promptly advised him to use them as his own. “You found them,” he said. “None of the conductors know your name; it is your only chance of getting home at all. You are a fool if you don’t.” But the man had Christian principles, and he remembered, too, that the sick wife whom he was so anxious to see had said to him when he started for the war, “Let me hear that you are killed, or that you have died by the way, rather than let me hear that you have ever done what is wrong. I am willing to give you up for your country, only don’t lose your principles.”
He thought, too, of his praying mother; and he felt he dared not go home and look them in the face unless he went in an honest way. So he said to his comrade, “Never! never will I go home under a false name.” Then he hobbled round, sought out the owner, and gave him his papers, and went thence to the rooms of the Sanitary Commission and told his troubles. Friends were found who telegraphed to Washington to get word that a furlough and transportation paper had been furnished him, so that the adjutant general could give him a certificate to this effect. The relief agent gave him ten dollars and tickets to different hotels, where he could be taken kind care of along the way without cost. And thus he reached his own home in comfort and with a good conscience.