Cush

“ We saw Cushi start to bear his tidings to the king. We watched Ahimaaz swift on his track. We marked the king's anxious waiting, and the fixed gaze of the watchman on the city walls. We strained in the long strain of the runners. We fainted with the fears of a father's heart. We saw Ahimaaz outrun his rival yet falter in his message. And we heard the blow upon David's heart of Cushi's stroke. "And the king said unto Cushi, Is the young man Absalom safe? And Cushi answered, The enemies of my lord the king, and all that rise against thee to do thee hurt, be as that young man is." ”

“ Many heroes are referred to as fearless, but that man is reckoned brave who knows the full extent of the danger facing him, and yet does not hesitate to meet it; but Cushing was a youth who really seemed to love danger for its own sake, and never flinched while death was on every hand, but went unhesitatingly forward, when it would have been no reflection upon his courage had he turned about and run. ”

“ The careening of the ram deviated the aim just enough to prevent the crew from being blown to fragments, but confident that not a man could escape, the Confederates twice called upon their assailants to surrender, and several did so, but Cushing was not among them. With the same marvelous coolness he had displayed from the first he took off his coat and shoes, flung his sword and revolver aside and shouted:
"Every man save himself!" ”

“ Parson Cushing 's a good farmer himself. He can turn in and plow or hoe or mow, and do as good a day's work as I can, if he does know Latin and Greek; and he and Mis' Cushing they come over and visit 'round 'mong us quite as sociable as with them town-hill folks. I'm jest a waitin' to hear him give it to them air 'Piscopals next Sunday. He'll sarve out the Democrats—the doctor will. ”

“ It is not that he is more jealous or suspicious of man's approach than other bird; for never shall we suffer ourselves to believe that any tribe of the descendants of the Dove that brought to the Ark the olive tidings of reappearing earth, can in their hearts hate or fear the race of the children of man. But Nature has made the Cushat a lover of the still forest-gloom; and therefore, when his lonesome haunts are disturbed or intruded on, he flies to some yet profounder, some more central solitude, and folds his wing in the hermitage of a Yew, sown in the time of the ancient Britons. ”

“ When, however, the Civil War began, he volunteered into the navy, was rated acting master’s mate, and became a midshipman in October 1861, and a lieutenant in July 1862, serving in the North Atlantic blockading squadron. The work of blockade, and of harassing the Confederates on the coast and the rivers of the Atlantic seaboard, called for much service in boats, and entailed a great deal of exposure. Cushing was distinguished by his readiness to volunteer, his indefatigability, and by his good fortune, the reward of vigilance and intelligence. ”

“ The waters laid thee at his doore Ere yet the early dawn was clear: Thy pretty bairns in fast embrace, The lifted sun shone on thy face, Downe drifted to thy dwelling-place.
That flow strewed wrecks about the grass, That ebbe swept out the flocks to sea,— fatal ebbe and flow, alas! To manye more than myne and mee; But each will mourne his own (she sayth) And sweeter woman ne'er drew breath Than my sonne's wife, Elizabeth.
I shall never hear her more By the reedy Lindis shore, "Cusha! Cusha! Cusha!" calling, Ere the early dews be falling; I shall never hear her song, "Cusha! Cusha!" ”

“ Cushing as the most learned man living." His habit was one of constant acquirement. He was what I should call "a Northern man with Southern principles," an expression which originated in 1835, and was first applied to Martin Van Buren. I have heard Cushing defend slavery with great eloquence and although, like him, I was born and bred in the North, I regarded that institution, in some respects, as far less iniquitous than the infamous opium trade which so enriched British and American merchants, and of which I saw so much during my life in China. ”

“ As if the branch on which he had been sitting were broken, away then went the crashing Cushat through the intermingling sprays. The free flapping of his wings was soon heard in the air above the tree-tops, and ere we could recover from our almost bitter amazement, the creature was murmuring to his mate on her shallow nest—a far-off murmur, solitary and profound—to reach unto which, through the tangled mazes of the forest, would have required a separate sense, instinct, or faculty, which we did not possess. ”

“ CHAPTER XXVIII. A Man Devoid of Fear—William Barker Cushing—Some of His Exploits—The Blowing Up of the Albemarle—His Sad Death.
If ever man lived who knew not the meaning of fear, he was William Barker Cushing, born in Wisconsin in 1842. He entered the Naval Academy in 1857, remained four years, received his appointment from the State of New York, but claiming Pennsylvania as his residence. ”

“ Cushing didn’t seem to be in any particular hurry about starting, and I soon learned that he intended taking his ease about it, as he wanted to let the Indians be thrown off their guard completely and imagine that the whites were not following their trail. Let them once suspect that a party was in pursuit, and they would surely break up their trail and scatter like quail, and no one then could hope to do anything with them. ”

“ Cushing and I enjoy it immensely. We know them well enough now to be as funny as we like without having them stare. They are nice when you know them, but you've GOT to know them first. I had a great dinner at Farrar's. All the ecclesiastical lights of England in knee-breeches were there, and the American Minister and Phillips Brooks. It was quite novel and fun. Lots of love. I have all the money I want.
DICK.
With Cust properly elected, Richard and I returned to the Albany and settled down to enjoy London from many angles. ”

“ The guards seemed to spring to life everywhere, more dogs barked, alarm rattles were sprung, wood was thrown on the fires which flamed up, soldiers seized their weapons and rushed to their places under the sharp commands of their officers.
Cushing now called to the engineer to go ahead under full speed. At the same moment, he cut the towline and ordered the men on the cutter to return and capture the guard near the Southfield. The launch was tearing through the water straight for the ram, when, for the first time, Cushing became aware of the boom of logs which inclosed it. ”

“ I find, to be sure, the following penetrating touches from a companion who had always that quality, and who says of Miss Cushman, in her diary: “She is very large, looks like an elderly man, with gray hair and very red [358] cheeks—full of action and gesture—acts a dog just as well as a man or woman. She seems large-hearted, kind, and very bright and quick—looks in splendid health. ”

“ No man has contributed more to our [Pg xi] understanding of the doctrine of orenda as believed and practised by the Amerindian tribes than Cushing himself. In other publications he has elaborately discussed this doctrine, and in his lectures he was wont to show how forms and decorations of implements and utensils have orenda for their motive.
When one of the ancients—that is, one of the gods—of the Iroquois was planning the streams of earth by his orenda or magical power, he determined to have them run up one side and down the other ”

“ Mills (whose genius could make even Pegasus look wooden, in whatever material) flies at higher game, and will be content with nothing short of a general. Mr. Cushing advises extreme measures. He counsels us to sell our real estate and stocks, and to leave a country where no man's reputation with posterity is safe, being merely as clay in the hands of the sculptor. ”

“ Cushing, an American jurist and diplomatist (1800-1879) .
Cushman, Charlotte, an American actress, born in Boston; represented, among other characters, Lady Macbeth, Rosalind, Meg Merilees, and Romeo (1810-1876) .
Custine, Count de, a French general, born at Metz; seized and occupied Mayence, 1792; was forced out of it by the Prussians and obliged to retreat; was called to account and sent to the guillotine; "unsuccessfulness," his crime; "had fought in America; was a proud, brave man, and his fortune led him hither" (1746-1793)
Cüstrin, a strong little town, 68 or 70 m. ”

“ Thinke ye best of all, and bear with patience what is wanting, and ye Lord guid us all. Your loving freind, ROBART CUSHMAN. London June 10. Ano: 1620.
IV THE LETTER OF ROBERT CUSHMAN TO THE LEYDEN LEADERS (Probably written at London, Saturday, June 10/20, 1620.)
Brethern, I understand by letters & passagess yt have come to me, that ther are great discontents, & dislike of my proceedings amongst you. Sorie I am to hear it, yet contente to beare it, as not doubting but yt partly by writing, and more principally by word when we shall come togeather, I shall satisfie any reasonable man. ”

“ Just two or three sweet chords, that seemed
An echo of thy tone,—
The cushat's song was on the wind
And mingled with thine own. ”

“ Forth to the river side went the priests. "We carry no pricking quills," said they, raising their hands all weaponless, "and, O, Black-banded father, we seek your aid; for look now, the mother-maidens of seed whose substance is the food alike of thy people and our people, have fled away whither neither our grandfather the Eagle, nor yet his younger brother the Falcon, can trace them; and we pray thee to aid us or give us counsel of guidance."
"Ka! ka!" cried the Raven. "Nay, now; much too hungry am I to go abroad fasting on business for ye and thy kind. Ye are stingy! ”

“ The sight gladdened and strengthened him; but alas! the Elk kept his distance as he turned again toward the hiding-place of his brother animals. On and on the Sha'-la-k'o followed him, until he came to the edge of a great cañon, and peering over the brink discovered the hiding-place of all the game animals of the world.
"Aha! so here you all are," said he. "I'll hasten back to my father, Pá-u-ti-wa,* who hungers for flesh, alas! and grows weak." And like the wind the Shá'-la-k'o returned to Kó-thlu-ël-lon-ne. ”

“ The point where Custer reached the river, on the opposite side of which was the village, was broken into choppy ravines, and the Indians, crossing from Reno, got between the two commands, and as Custer could not return, he fell back over the broken ground with his tired men and tired horses (they had ridden about 70 miles with but few halts) and became, I am afraid, an easy prey to the enemy. Their wild, savage yells, overwhelming numbers, and frightening war paraphernalia, made it as much as each trooper could do to take care of his horse, thus endangering his own safety and efficiency. ”

“ Custer had returned from his expedition and the miners flocked back to the gulches about Deadwood. Buffalo-hunters were fast destroying the great north and south herds, and Red Cloud beheld the encroachments with a heavy heart. The death-knell of his people’s freedom and prosperity on the Plains was sounded in the noise of the train, the blast in the mine, and the hum in the town. Civilization was advancing, savagery must die! He could not go to war himself, he must look after his people on the reservations; but he sent many of his best warriors to join Crazy Horse and American Horse. ”

“ The charm of his life is broken, for Custer has fallen; a bullet cleaves a pathway through his side, and as he falters another strikes his noble breast. Like a strong oak stricken by the lightning's bolt, shivering the mighty trunk and bending its withering branches down close to the earth, so fell Custer; but, like the reacting branches, he rises partly up again, and striking out like a fatally wounded giant he lays three more Indians dead and breaks his mighty sword on the musket of a fourth ”

“ Whilst in this persuasion they still tarried there, lo! again, after long wanderings through many valleys, the peoples of Corn and the Seed found them there, through seeing of their smoke, and in the near valley to the eastward found they as well the peoples of the Corn and the Seed, dwelling in their great round towns, the smoke whereof wanderers had also erstwhile been. So they said to them, "Ye are our younger brothers! At Mátsaki, here at the Middle, let us dwell in peace as one people, others of our kinds around about us, yet with us!" ”

“ Chu-Chu's features suggested a Spanish or possibly Basque origin, with high cheek bones, red-lipped mouth, the upper lip dropping to a point in the middle, and suggesting to me the beak of a snapping turtle, while his nose was long and acquisitive—a nose like the late King Leopold's.
Another thing in my favour was the fact that there was little danger of my being drawn into imprudence by such a hatred as Chu-Chu must have felt for me. There are certain human beings who are affected by the sight of an enemy just as you might expect a wild bull to be. ”

“ Undoubtedly he ought to have done this; but with his native impetuosity, his reckless daring, his confidence in his own regiment, which had never failed him, and his love of public approval, Custer could no more help charging this Indian camp, than he could help charging just so many buffaloes. He had never learned to spell the word 'defeat;' he knew nothing but success, and if he had met the Indians on the open plains, success would undoubtedly have been his; for no body of Indians could stand the charge of the 7th Cavalry when it swept over the Plains like a whirlwind. ”

“ Another people honor those dead. The Sioux Indians look upon General Custer as a god because of his bravery. His memory is honored and loved among them, and they call him the “Evening Star.”
In Lives of Famous Indian Chiefs, N. B. Wood says that there were two survivors of Custer’s last stand, Curley, the Crow scout, who put on a Sioux blanket and escaped, and the horse Comanche, the famous war horse of Captain Keogh. He was found bleeding from seven wounds, and was carried back by soldiers on a litter of blankets and poles. ”