Theodore Winthrop

“ Only the great chiefs were in toggery of old uniforms, blossoming into brass buttons wherever a button could bourgeon. And only the great chiefs resembled frowzy scare-crows. The women, melancholy, as the abused women of barbarians always are, were slouching about at slave work. All greeted Ruby as s friend, with sonorous grunts.
Society, even of Sioux, dwelling under buffalo hide foolscaps, was humane after our journey. The barracks of Laramie, lonely outpost on a bleak plain, were fairly beautiful in their home-like homeliness. Man without a roof is mere chaos. ”

“ Life means something to him. Well, Nature nominates such men to get into scrapes for other people; she gets them wounded, and drains them of their blood. Lying on their backs is good for them, and so is feeling weak. They take in more emotion than they can assimilate while they are wide awake. ”

“ We carried Brent in. As we crossed the veranda, I saw Miss Clitheroe’s meeting with her father. He received her almost peevishly.
We laid the wounded man in Ruby’s hospital bed. Evidently a fine fellow, Ruby; and, what was to the point, fond of John Brent.
Dr. Pathie shook his head.
So surgeons are wont to do when they study sick men. It is a tacit recognition of the dark negative upon which they are to turn the glimmer of their positive, — a recognition of the mystery of being. They are to experiment upon life, and their chief facts are certain vaguish theories why some men die. ”