Cowan

“ The preacher might feel no eager desire to aid Cowan after the rough treatment received, but fear would compel him to speak, and there was no love in his heart for either of us which would restrain his lips. Our only safety therefore lay in having him completely in our power. ”

“ Scenting a sensation, I hurried along the wooded trace at a dog trot, and when I came in sight of the cabin there was Mrs. Cowan sitting on the step, holding in her long but motherly arms something bundled up in nettle linen, while Tom stood sheepishly by, staring at it.
“Shucks,” Mrs. Cowan was saying loudly, “I reckon ye're as little use to-day as Swein Poulsson,—standin' there on one foot. Ye anger me—just grinning at it like a fool—and yer own doin'. Have ye forgot how to talk?” ”

“ And they fought like fiends, driven by Cowan's voice, and pressed remorselessly forward by the cavalrymen behind. I saw him once, a blood spot on his cheek, and I fired over the heads of those between us, but though he fell, he came to his feet again and was swept to one side by the rush of men. I saw all this, and no more; it was like a flash on the screen —and then everything became an indistinct blur. They were upon us, jammed in the narrow doorways, each man fighting for life. I used gun and revolver, fist and stock ”

“ For Sam had installed a linotype, and Wilbur Cowan had patiently mastered its distracting intricacies. Dave Cowan had informally reappeared one day, still attired with decreasing elegance below the waist—his cloth-topped shoes but little more than distressing memories—and announced that he was now an able operator of this wondrous machine; and the harried editor of the Advance, stung to enterprise by flitting wastrels who tarried at his case only long enough to learn the name of the next town, had sought relief in machinery, even if it did take bread from the mouths of honest typesetters. ”

“ It was enough, as relief came in the form of two of Howard’s scouts, Captain S. G. Fisher and J. W. Redington. The latter said, “Who in hell are you?”
“I’m George Cowan of Radersburg.”
“You don’t say! We’ve come to bury you.”
They rendered first aid, provided food, and left Cowan by a roaring fire with the assurance that the main force would gather him up within two days. Mr. Fee has deftly described the abrupt termination of that hard earned felicity:
Cowan ate enough to keep himself alive and lay down in silent joy to sleep the night through. ”

“ Get what is coming to you! Nobody will bring it on a platter; you've got to step up and grab it. When you have an impulse, think it over. If it looks like the real goods, obey it. Get me? Obey it! Nobody will bite you. Think all you like, but for heaven's sake, act!" [Pg 139]
It was for such talks that Mr. Cowan was famous. Even Horace Nimms forgot his impending fall as the efficiency expert extraordinary declaimed the gospel of action and boldness.
But when the meeting was over, silent misery came into the heart of the little cashier and like an automaton he stumbled into the Subway. ”

“ Besides, he has some sort of a drag with someone. Cowan thinks he is a great flyer. He is, too. Knows more about both the technical and practical side of the game than any of the others. That’s what’s wrong with him. He is so self-satisfied, so arrogant, and so cocksure of every word he utters and every movement he makes. He is the coldest fish I ever met. He reminds me of someone–but I can’t remember who it is. Sometimes I think he is–Listen! What’s that?”
McGee’s question went unanswered as the shrill blasts of the air raid siren shattered the peace of the village with its frenzied warning. ”

“ He confided impressively to this boy that when the last paper was printed the bronze eagle would flap its wings three times and scream as a signal for beer to be brought from Vielhaber's. The boy widened eyes of utter belief upon him, and Wilbur Cowan once more felt all his years. But he was still lamentably indecisive about his future, and when a new printer looked in upon the Advance he stepped aside. Whatever he was going to make of himself it wouldn't be someone who had to sit down indoors. He would be slave to no linotype until they were kept in the open. ”

“ Mr. Cowan defended his amendment and his position. "When the time comes," said he, "I am a Radical, too, along with my fellow Senators here. By what warrant do they suppose that I am not interested in the progress of the race? If the thing is to be bettered, I want to better it."
Mr. Morrill replied to the speech of Mr. Cowan. "Does any suppose," said Mr. Morrill, "that he is at all in earnest or sincere in a single sentiment he has uttered on this subject? I do not imagine he believes that any one here is idle enough for a moment to suppose so. ”

“ Cowan's gang was to the south, their headquarters somewhere in Monroe County. No doubt the range of mountains we must cross would prove the rendezvous of other bands no less dangerous, but we would be safer with any of them than in the hands of Cowan. Besides that upper country was occasionally patrolled by troops, and the guerrillas would be less aggressive in consequence. It would be comparatively easy to avoid the soldiers, for we would not attempt to travel by daylight.
The water began to shallow, and we drew in under the shadows of the wooded bank. ”

“ There was a roar of laughter, and this was my introduction to Terence McCann and Swein Poulsson. The fort being crowded, we were put into a cabin with Terence and Cowan and Cowan's wife—a tall, gaunt woman with a sharp tongue and a kind heart—and her four brats, “All hugemsmug together,” as Cowan said. And that night we supped upon dried buffalo meat and boiled nettle-tops, for of such was the fare in Harrodstown that summer.
“Tom McChesney kept his faith.” One other man was to keep his faith with the little community—George Rogers Clark. ”

“ Some time had elapsed since Wilbur Cowan definitely knew that he would never go to war because of the mother of Lyman Teaford's infant son. He began to believe, however, that he would relish a bit of fighting for its own sake. Winona reasoned with him as she would have reasoned with certain high personages on the other side of the water, and perhaps with as little success. ”

“ Walter Camp, by the way, was the referee.
"There never was a fairer player than Cowan, and such a misfortune as losing him by disqualification for any act on the field was never dreamt of by the Princeton men. The trouble was that Terry mistook an accident for a deliberate act. Holden was skirting Princeton's left end when Cowan made a lunge to reach him. Holden's deceptive pace was nearly too much for even such a star as Cowan, whose hands slipped from the Harvard captain's waist down to below his knees until the ankles were touched. ”

“ Wilbur Cowan sat in a carven chair near a corner of the beautiful desk, hitching it forward to rest his arms on the desk's top. He was newly appraising this white-faced brother.
"Whining!" he suddenly snapped. "Get up and boast that you're outlaws, going to keel the Government off its pins. Then you get the gaff, and the first thing you do is whine for help from that same Government! You say it's rotten, but you expect it to watch over you while you knock it down. If you're going to be an outlaw, take an outlaw's chance. Don't squeal when you get caught. ”

“ Now I know why that fellow has always acted like he was answerable to no one but himself. And I thought him yellow! And next I thought he was a spy. Well, I was right about that–but the wrong way around. I take my hat off to him! It takes nerve to fill his job.”
“It does indeed!” Cowan agreed fervently. “Perhaps you recall how I bawled him out for cutting formation over Vitry that day when we were on our way up for our first action? And how I sent him over the lines on a mission to locate von Herzmann’s Circus?”
McGee nodded. “I certainly do remember it. You sure said plenty!” ”

“ Dave Cowan ate his bread and cheese with relish and invoked another stein of beer from Minna, who vindictively flung her jest at him again as she brought it.
The Wilbur twin had eaten his apple cake and was now eating the cookies, taking care to drop no crumbs on the sanded floor. After many cookies dusk fell and he heard the church bells ring for evening worship. But no one heeded them. The game drew to an excited finish, while Dave Cowan, his pipe lighted, mused absently and from time to time quoted bits of verse softly to himself:
Enchanted ports we, too, shall touch ”

“ A wastrel printer had the night before been stricken with the wanderlust, deciding at five-thirty to take the six-fifty-eight for other fields of endeavour, and Wilbur Cowan had graciously consented to bridge a possible gap.
He strolled into the dusty, disordered office and eased the worry from Sam Pickering's furrowed brow by attacking the linotype in spirited fashion. That week he ran off the two editions of the paper. A spotted small boy sat across the press bed from him to ink the forms. ”

“ Hector Cowan the great tackle, Dick Hodge the strategist, Sam Hodge, Bob Speer, and I think Irvine; men all, who as McCready Sykes said, "Feared God and no one else." Hector Cowan is considered one of the best tackles that ever wore the Orange and Black jersey. While rough, he was never a dirty player.
In a game with Wesleyan, his opponent cried out angrily, "Keep your hands for pounding on your Bible, don't be sticking them in my face." ”

“ It's that miserable idiot Tom Cowan that's to blame; he's been filling your head with nonsense; telling you that you are so good that you don't have to practise, and that Mills doesn't dare drop you, and lots of poppycock of that kind. Now, I'll tell you, chum, that the best thing to do is to go honestly to work and do your best."
Paul was deeply insulted by this plain speaking, and very promptly took himself off up-stairs to Cowan's room. Of late he spent a good deal of his time there and Neil was getting worried. ”

“ Cowan seemed so unduly disturbed over so remote a prospect that McGee found himself again doubting the Major’s courage.
“I do. Why, look at our strength! The Boche prefers to have the numerical superiority on his side.”
“But you’d take up combat formation, of course?”
136“Yes, and in echelon, one flight above another by a margin of three thousand feet. Then, if the beggar wants to jump on that sort of buzz saw, let him come–and welcome.”
“There will be time enough to welcome him when we reach our new base–all present or accounted for,” Cowan replied. ”

“ During much of this Dave Cowan had been musing in a lively manner upon the other's supposition that he should have laid out a future for himself. He was amused at the notion. Of course he had laid out a future, but not the sort a Whipple would lay out. He was already living his future and found it good. Yet he felt the genuine good will of the old man, and sought words to reject his offer gracefully. He must not put it so bluntly as he had to Judge Penniman. The old man would not be able to understand that no bribe within human reach would tempt him to remain in Newbern Center ”

“ They might even unite their forces, impelled as they were by the same desire, and thus become truly formidable. Personal hatred of me, and the wish to regain possession of Noreen, would animate and control both Anse Cowan and the angry, humiliated lieutenant. While neither would likely confess his purpose to the other, yet their mutual interests would naturally suggest an alliance. And there was no war feud between the two which would necessarily prevent their cooperation. Indeed, the troopers would gladly welcome any excuse which would bring Cowan's gang of outlaws into closer connection. ”

“ In 1891 he passed the Staff College with distinction, and after holding several staff appointments he became deputy assistant quartermaster-general in the movements branch of the War Office to supervise the transport of troops to Egypt. He was promoted major in 1898 and lieutenant-colonel in 1900. So well did Cowans perform his duties that he was retained at the War Office through the South African War in spite of his efforts to be employed on active service. ”

“ I doubt whether any other Princeton man was ever more able to make ground whenever he tried, although Cowan was not in any particular a showy player. For some reason or other, Cowan seems to have had a reputation for rough play, which shows how untrue traditions can be handed down. I never played against or with a finer and steadier player, or one more free from the remotest desire to play roughly for the sake of roughness itself."
When Heffelfinger's last game had been played there appeared in a newspaper of November 26th, 1888, a farewell to Heffelfinger. [Pg 122]
Good-by Heff! ”

“ They were glad to part with the tribe and retrace their course. Within a half hour, two of the white men, Arnold and Dingee, abandoned their horses and ducked into the forest. Hidden Indian scouts were obviously expecting just such behavior. A few minutes later seventy-five braves swooped upon Cowan’s party, demanding the missing members. Cowan could only plead ignorance. Whereupon, Charley said, “You will have to come back.” The little band again turned eastward with leaden spirits.
174
Angry Indians were milling around on all sides, each waiting for the other to start an attack. ”

“ On the Coquille River, which, with Coos River, they discovered, they were near being confronted by a village of Indians, but avoided them, and were in hiding two days, with only some berries for food. Arrived at the Cowan River, the natives assisted them to cross, and on the eighth day they reached the settlements on the Umpqua.
The "Seagull" on her next trip to Portland called at Port Orford and landed forty men, who, finding the place deserted, and evidences of a struggle manifest, believed the first party to be all killed, and so reported. ”