Bridge.

BY AMBROSE BIERCE.

Among living American writers of short stories, Ambrose
Bierce is un-excelled in strength and fine simplicity. Born
in 1842, he served during the Civil War, and was brevetted
major for distinguished services. He went to California in
1866, and his name became familiar to readers of Pacific
Coast journals. His contributions, however, quickly won a
hearing throughout the country and in England, whither he
went in 1872, remaining for a few years and writing for
English periodicals. Later he returned to California, and
more recently he removed to Washington.

The keenest, most incisive, most telling contemporary
criticism was found in the column he used to contribute to
the San Francisco _Examiner_, "Prattle: A Transient Record
of Individual Opinion." Of his verse, at least one poem,
"The Passing Show," is deserving of a permanent place in
literature. More verse, more fiction, would be welcome from
his pen. He has produced less than those who read the
following story will wish, for the reason, perhaps, that he
has freely given so much of his time to teaching others how
to write.

It is natural, considering the experiences through which he
passed at the time of life in which conscious impressions
are most vivid, that Mr. Bierce should turn frequently to
the incidents of war. The very restraint of his style makes
his war pictures the more impressive--adds to their potency
as arguments for peace. "An Occurrence at Owl Creek
Bridge"[A] is Mr. Bierce at his best. Powerful, grim,
pathetic, it dips deep into the well of the human soul.

A man stood upon a railroad bridge in northern Alabama, looking down into
the swift waters twenty feet below. The man's hands were behind his back,
the wrists bound with a cord. A rope loosely encircled his neck. It was
attached to a stout cross-timber above his head, and the slack fell to the
level of his knees. Some loose boards laid upon the sleepers supporting
the metals of the railway supplied a footing for him, and his
executioners--two private soldiers of the Federal army, directed by a
sergeant, who in civil life may have been a deputy sheriff. At a short
remove upon the same temporary platform was an officer in the uniform of
his rank, armed. He was a captain. A sentinel at each end of the bridge
stood with his rifle in the position known a