Alter Ego: A Tale

by W. W. Walker

Shortly after the burial of the secretary-treasurer there came to Carsville a straight military-looking young man with an indifferent air, who procured employment at the foundry, and whom the minister noticed in the congregation, intercepting him at the close of the service to find out who he was and to welcome him. The person was Leonard Devoau, who had returned from Manchuria, where he had fought in the Russian army at Port Arthur and Mukden, escaping from the former to the latter disguised as a Chinaman, where he took part in the world's greatest battle. Mr. Devoau said that he was born at Ottawa, the capital of the Dominion, and always loved adventure, and it was this love that led him to enlist in the Russian army, and pass through the frightful scenes at the above places.

Mr. Melvin was much impressed by the bearing of the young stranger who had returned from Manchuria so recently, and invited him to the parsonage so that they might get better acquainted. During the course of the evening he asked his guest if he was fond of soldiering, and in reply was told that when he left Canada he was in love with the idea, and even after the awful experiences of Port Arthur, where he was often for hours together in a perfect hell of fire, he thought he would love a fair fight in the open, and accordingly broke for Mukden. He told the minister, however, that this great battle, including the retreat, was even worse than the siege, as in the former large bodies of them had frequently to face about and charge with the bayonet to press back the hordes of Japanese who were continually driving in upon them.

Mr. Devoau said: "When you think of the fact that we could never meet our enemies when we were not outnumbered from two to three to every one of our own men, you will concede that we never had a fair chance, but put them man to man and they could never withstand the Russians in a bayonet charge. The disparity in numbers is very evident from the fact that the Russians had only 300,000 infantry and 26,700 cavalry at Mukden, while opposed to this was a force of 650,000 men, or, for all practical purposes, just double the number. We fought them for nineteen days along a front one hundred miles in length, and were only then defeated by an accident, bringing off 1,300 guns out of 1,360, and a larger quantity of baggage, marching into headquarters, as the corps of General Linevitch actually did, with banners flying and bands playing as if they were just fresh from the parade ground. Marshal Oyama may go down in history as a great strategist, but in my humble judgment General Kuropatkin is greater. The general knew full well that if he had one more army corps he could have cut in two the long drawn out flanking force of his antagonist, crumpled it up, and turned their victory into a disastrous and decisive defeat. As it was, at the close of the war General Linevitch confronted the enemy with 1,000,000 men in arms, and they, unwilling to try conclusions when there was man for man, made a peace favorable to Russia on the whole. As corroboration of this I give you the word of the foreign military attaches to the Russian army."

As Mr. Melvin did not in his own home consider it in very good form to inquire into the past history of Mr. Devoau, he soon visited him at his lodgings and asked him concerning his life. He said, in answer to the question, that he had been brought up by Christian parents, who held that any deviation from the path of moral rectitude was an awful thing, and consequently he himself had never gotten astray morally; his besetting sin, he said, was a love for wild adventure by flood or field, and he was now perfectly satisfied and desired no more of that kind of thing. He had foolishly thought that there was much glory in war, but after seeing its hydraheaded hideousness, and himself testing its fearful hardships, he was prepared to denounce it as anti-Christian and barbarous, except in a defensive sense. Also concerning his education he had helped different members of his father's family in their studies, and had thus been prevented from entering upon a university course, though he had undergraduate standing.

The pastor of the tabernacle said he was surprised that with his standing he should enter a foundry, and work his way just as one would who had no earlier advantages, but the reply was a very rational one, for he said he and his brother had decided that when they had mastered every detail of the business, and had saved sufficient money to warrant it, they would start a foundry of their own. "While in the Russian army," he continued, "I discovered that the prospect for iron founders was brighter than for most classes."

The minister now asked his new friend if he would like to join the tabernacle, and at the same time gave him a hearty invitation, but he said he could not conscientiously join, but would attend the services. Mr. Melvin said, "Now I am not a bigot, and do not insist on every one doing as I do, and being what I am. How would you like to simply become a member of our Young People's Society, where we would help you and you could help us?" "I will do that," said Mr. Devoau.

The new acquisition to the Debating Club of Mount Zion Tabernacle proved a great drawing card, as it was well known at the foundry and all around that he possessed a fine moral character and could always be relied upon. Before asking him to connect himself with the society the minister had not only talked to him personally, but had also written to Ottawa, and asked concerning his past life, and found that he had told the truth, and that, as he himself said, "The worst things he had ever done, and that only since entering the army, was to smoke a cigar and play a game of cards without stakes."

The pastor and his officials, however, were soon to receive a rebuke when Mr. Devoau told them, after they had been praising him for his clean life, that if they had more of the loving Christ spirit instead of lauding him they would be out into the lanes and alleys, into the highways and byways, gathering in the lost and sinful rather than those who had always been moral. "It seems to me," he said, "the Church is more needed to foster and guide those who have had their garments stained with sin than those who without any credit to themselves, but to the instruction and coercion of puritanical parents, always kept themselves clean."

Mr. Melvin was so struck with the fact that the young man who had rebuked them possessed true worth that he invited him to relate his experiences during the war in an address, when the whole evening would be given up to him, and on which the tabernacle doors would be thrown open to the public. The invitation was accepted, the young ex-soldier announcing his intention of relating some of the incidents in connection with the storming of 203 Metre Hill, of which he was one of the defenders, and the assaults on the entrenchments at Mukden.