Pittston Gazette

              «r * *Zl°i\v;X.':?::C Oldest NewsmiDer id the Wvoming Valley PITTSTON, LUZERNE CO., PA., FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 1801. A Weekly Local and Family Journal. ™ | delignt a smile lit up bis face, and he shot out an oath and said: 'I guess you are right; I'll try it!" We became chummy at once, and he led me down to the farthest end of the f ward, and after some care selected two ! army blankets, and rolling them up, laid in an unoccupied corner. He told I ma that every blanket in the place was I in an indescribable state of filth,but this | did not shock ine; it certainly would i have surprised me if they were in any other condition. The nurse introduced ' me to a tall young man, Lieutenant Bell, who slept near where my blankets i were placed, but who, though evidently ' a very sick man, had strength enough to stand up. for he was looking disconsolately out of the window when we approached him. As Lieutenant Bell and myself were intimately associated from this time on, and particularly in the escape which 1 shall presently describe, 1 may be pardoned for giving more than a passing notice to one of the bravest and most original characters I ever met. He was at this time about twenty-five years of age, but a wound in the right breast, which haTi*-jt healed after seven months, and the hunger and disease gave him the appearance of a man of forty-five or more He was about six feet in height, lithe, and with a form that denoted great powers of endurance. The hair was long and dark, and the beard, of a warmer shade, was soft as silk. Ho had steady, bluish gray eyes, and the strong features of men of that cast usually found among the Scotch-Irish. At first Bell—he said his name was Tom Bell and not Thomas—was inclined to be distant, and he rather repelled my well meant advances, bnt 1 was neither angered nor discouraged, for 1 knew just how he felt. His speech at first seemed painfully slow, and he had the unmistakable accent of the East Tennessee and North Carolina mountaineer. with the same tendency to use words long since obsolete in the outside world, such as the old Saxon form "hit" for it, "yon" for yonder, and to add •uns" to the plural pronouns. He was, I think, the most accomplished and unconscions swearer 1 ever met, and curiously enough the man's nature was intensely religious: indeed, I never knew him to lie down for the night without first dropping on his knees and muttering ft prayer; still, he often confessed to me: "Ef the wah don't turn out jest 'bout light, my faith in the wisdom and goodness of an overruling Providence will be so shook np that hit won't be mighty good fo' much after." While 1 was trying to break the ice with Bell the hospital steward returned with four opium pills, which I was to take—one every night for the dysentery —and a battered tin can containing some scraj«d sweet potato and vinegar, which, he assnred ine, would "knock scurvy higher'n a kite." A spoonful every three hours was the prescribed dose, and as no spoon was to be had he suggested that I "gues3 at it," addiijg, "It won't hurt you if you take it all at once," and this 1 found to be the case, for Bell and I ate it for dessert after we had finished our pone of corn bread and thin soup that a-pnxium of luin. 1 he laugh came from a body of Confederate scouts, and the prodding was done with their bayonets. Bell told them he was CUi escaping Yankee, and his captors sent him on to Charleston, where he had been ever since. The prison authorities knew he was a mountain man, "and, doggone em, they made hit all the harder on that account, but they ain't nigh done with tne yet. I'm a gwine to live jest 60s to kinder even things up back there in the mountains of ole Buncombe, and the d—d sneak ez sold me out will larn hit was 'bout the worst trade he ever mixed up in since he was bo'n. The B.'lls ain't much on talk, but we 'uns's got powerful long mem'ries and ain't given to fohgittin friends noh foes; no, not, praise de Good Mastah, if hit takes fifty thousand million yeahs. Now you uns had bet tali watch out." from and wn» ivtmeu Dy a man who stood oft alHMttien feet to the left of the A PRISONER OF WAR 'When 'Ail over 1 think." And 1 spoke of the scurvy and dysentery, but out of respect for his feelings, which I was particularly anxious not to offend, I -said, nothing about the hunger He felt my pulse and dropped my hand. Another mau felt my pulse and looked at his watch—it was a fine gold one—in a professional way that seemed more like myself derided to stick together, and Ending an empty tent we crept in and were soon sound asleep, for we were very weak, and the trip, under the circumstances, would have taxed the powers of strong men. the distance, accompanied uy tne cracking of a whip and the continued shouting which the drivers of army mules and farm oxen consider so essential to progress. There was no telling by the voice whether the man was white or black, for the accent of the unedncated southern whites is much like that of the negro Indeed, ray friend Bell, who had all the Characteristic pride of the mountaineer and very naturally looked upon himself as vastly superior to the slave or the cracker, spoke much the same dialect, and with the same intonation and contempt for the final r's WANDERING liILL NYE. and without price by those who have been most -wonderfully unsuccessful except as suggesters. line. 'The guirds must set) that the prisoners are kept closed up!" Then every little while I got a letter in a female hand, breathing words of love. They have been coming for over five years now, and though, as heaven is my judge, I have never replied to one of them, they follow me over the Union wherever I go lecturing and tell of a tender heart that is throbbing for me, of a warm affection that has been inspired by the beautiful but rather idealized portraits made of me by the able but unscrupulous artist Oh, is it not a comfort to know one is beloved even by a stranger whose mind has slipped a cog? Is it not encouraging when life is overcast and one's manager or one's breakfast disagrees with one, to know that far away in some quaint retreat there is a heart that beats for one? This command came down the line from the man with the best lantern; then the order .March!" was given, and we started oft through mud so thick and tenacious that it threatened to pull our boots oil at every step It w;» not till we got away from the lights of the shabby little station that we realized how intensely dark it was. Before we had gone 3(H) yards the line had lost formation and prisoners and guards were struggling and staggering through the mud Although helped along by two friends, our rheumatic comrade finally came to a stop and said to the guard: HE SAUNTERS THROUGH OHIO AND PENNSYLVANIA. The Escape of Two Union Officers from Milien, Ga. When we awoke in the morning it was like a glimpse of Eden, eo great was the contrast between this camp and that loathsome jail in Charleston. There were a number of fine live oak trees in the inclosure. There were flowering shrubs here and there, evidently the remains of a fine garden that had once occupied this site. The tents were well set, surrounded by drains, and in good repair. The place was so very nice and clean, by comparison with our recent abode, as to stir ns to a realization of our tilth and rags. Then the guards were old soldiers, native Georgians, and 1 will add. with respectful emphasis, they were gentlemen. Findiay as a Gas Center—Doing Good to * Janitor in Meadville—A I*etter from By ALFBED E. OALHOUN (Late Majoi TJ. S. Volunteers). business. Sir Edwin Betraying Unrequited Affection and a Sunny Disposition. "Hut ont your tongueC" commanded the elderly doctor. 1 did so in good shape and turned about to the others that they might look at it. and 1 wondered the while if they could read in it or on it the gnawing huuger that was devouring me. ICopyright, 1801, by Edgar W. Nye.l Ox the Road in the Political) Month of November, f (.Copyright, 1891, by American Press Associ& Hon.] As the team was approaching us, we drew back into the swampy woods and Waited Soon we found that there were two men, for in the intervals of shouting at the oxen the driver was addressing a companion in about the same stentorian tones At leugth, and to our great relief , the oxen, drawing a heavy two wheeled cart on which were seated two colored men, came in view. The cart was turned at the owning to the pit and was loaded with picks, bars and shovels that had been housed in a little structure near by It is at this season that the bright red and blue three sheet posters of my mammoth aggregation called "The Twins of Genius" may be seen on the parched and chapped bill board of the one night stand, vying with the startling announcement that William McKinley, Jr., and Governor Campbell will speak on the same evening in the same town 011 the living issues of the day. Everywhere through the merry month of November in the middle states the delighted eye is greeted with these glowing statements regarding approaching enjoyment and entertainment for man and beast. The man is, of course, the one who thinks as we do; the beast is the voter on the other side. [CONTINUED. ] INTRODUCTION •When were you captured?" asked the man with the gold watch. "Last December," i replied 'Where have yon been? 'Principally in Libby." 'How lontf have yon 1 was captured near Cleveland, East Tennessee, immediately after the battle of Missionary Ridge, Nov. 30, 1863, and, with thirty-seven of lny men, was sent on to Richtnpnd by way of Atlanta. The enlisted men were taken to Belle Isle. And 1. with a number of other unfortnnato officers who had joined us at differem points on the way, was sent to the famous, or rather infamous. Lib by prison 'You can kill me if you want to, for it will kill me to go another hundred yards. I'm played out." The last sentence was rounded off with one of his fluent oaths, and was evidently intended for the enemy in Buncombe county. been feeling But the crowning glory of Camp Davidson was what Bell called "the fodder." The rations of corn bread, bacon, rice and sweet potatoes were not only good, but for the first time in long months they were ample. To ite sure we promptly devoured everything given to us, and we could have eaten twice as much with infinite relish, but I doubt if one ounce more wonld have been to onr advantage. 'Thar ain't no way to tote you as 1 see," said the perplexed guard. The following letter is given here because it is out of the usual run and has some quaint lines in it which the public ought not to be deprived of. So X take out names and dates and give.it below: bad?" If 1 had answered this question truthfully I should have replied, "Ever since the hour of my capture." but prudence ted me to reply "Since coming here." 'Can't you get a stretcher or an ambulance?" some one asked. Tom Bell's narration did me a great deal of good, for it was a capital story, full of vim and action, and with all the thrilling situations of a melodrama. And then his deliberate way of telling it, as if he were weighing his thoughts or trying to find words in which to express them, and his quaint phraseology and not unmusical voice gave an added charm to the telling. 'We ain't got no sich things in Mil len ez I ever heard on," said the guard. Oct. 0; lmi They questioned me still further, tapped nie over the brC*ist of my ragged shirt, then took iuy name, ago and rank, and went a way saying that a sergeant wonki come to see me after awhile. We had come to a halt, and meanwhile the others had gone on twenty or thirty yards, and the dim light from the swaying lanterns was not sufficient to enable us to see each other's forms. Since leaving tlie station Bell and 1 had walked holding each other's hands so as to be able to communicate without speaking when the time for action came. Bell pressed my hand and drew me away in the direction of the line, but before we had gone five paces he turned suddenly to the right, for in the distant left there were a few lights burning that indicated habitations A steady east wind and the swish of the rain prevented our being heard, if indeed the guard took any notice of our departure, which is doubtful. We crossed a ditch, knee deep with water, and were in the act of climbing a fence that rose above it, when the old man to the rear shouted out: Although we listened intently, it was impossible to learn anything as to our whereabouts from the talk of these two men. "Tom's gal, she ain't a doin right," was the burden of their conversation, and as they were evidently of one mind on this subject, it was curious to hear them agreeing with the force of affirmation that distinguishes a legislative debate. Edgar \V. Nye: Some day. if spared. 1 may write out the story .of my six months' residence in Li tifcy but as my experience after leaving that place is more personal, 1 think it will be found more interesting to the av- .Ml' DeabSuv-I (lou'J «;«it you to tvrite to me—not even in revenge—for I hoar from you each week through the press, and on my study table (or rather on the hull of a dismantled sewing machine) in a little room over the stair which my employer kindly allows me to share with his deed box and an old pistol left him by his father, and last loaded in 18(58, to keep down his insurance, and then deducts each week from my salary of six dollars $1.50 for U6e of same. I was so delightod with the promised success of this move that 1 took no interest for the rest of that morning in the messengers from Morris island, but stood in a position from which I could watch the gate by which the sergeant must enterThere was a stockade around Camp Davidson, and there was also the customary dead line, but 1 do not thi nk that ever a prisoner was shot there for stumbling beyond the prescribed limits, though in every other prison such home guard practice was the rule. erage reader When Grant began his advance on Richmond ra May. 1864. ther» were about 23.0(10 of our enlisted men in prison on Belle Isle and some 1,200 officers were confined in Libby All these prisoners were sent down to Andersonville and Macon (ia. before May 7 excepting a tew men who were held back sick in the nospitai*. or who had been captured in the battle of the Wilderness. After he had finished his story and 1 bad returned the confidence by telling him mine. I asked: "Have yon given up all thought of escane. Bell?" As I stated above, on this hull of a machine, in company with "Banyan's Pilgrim's Progress," "How to Get Rich on Two Dollars Per Week," and an intensely humorous book called "Salad for the Solitary," lies a recent number of the paper containing your love letter to Mr. Hamilton Aide, which, when I read, makes my blood patriotism till I fancy I can klmost see the national colors floating from /the bare, unused flagstaffs of this city. (Last ! week, by the way, a man near here did buy a i flag for his hotel—u U. S. flag, I may add—and sent his head Porter to fling it to the breoie from the housetop, which he innocently did, Union down, thereby causing great consternation among many. And as X read and reread It, this grand old country seems actually worth living in. Waiting till the wagon was loaded, we came out from oar hiding place and confronted the negroes. The phrase 'struck dumb" exactly expresses their state of mind on seeing us. Their eyes seemed actually to turn all white as they looked at us. At length 1 relieved their anxiety by calling out: In about an hour a young man with a book under his arm, a pencil behind his ear and the green chevron of a hospital steward on his sleeve came in, and walking to the middle of the yard, he refreshed his memory from the book and called my name. In an instant I was by hifTside, and looking me over, he asked "Given up all thought of hit?' he repeate 1 "By t-he great jumpin jingo! 1 don't think of nothin else. W'y, 1 dream of hit Hit was hopin that this d—d place would give one a better show that made me play dead sick, and got them uns to send me heali. But you see what hit is—just death and snfferin and sufferin and death. We uns, 1 reckon, has seed lots of men a-lyin, without breathin, on the field, and I'll allow, when we ain't downright mad, hit's a mighty touchin sight. But, my God, to see the dead that's took out of heah every mawnin, hit cuts plum into the heart, and thar's no gittin uster hit. The heart and the stomach is bound to have thar own way," and 1 could feel that he shuddered as if he were cold. By climbing into the trees Bell and myself had a good view of Savannah, with the fine Pulaski monument risino' from a parallelogram of green in the center. Camp Davidson had tempting advantages for tunneling, and after being there four days a nninber of us had decided on one, when on tho afternoon of the fifth day we were again told to pack upas we were going on to Macon. I was one of those who had escaped through 'the great tunnel" from Libby the previous February, but 1 was recapture.! after being out four days and five nights during which time 1 had little or no sleep and suffered with the cold and for want of food On being taken back to Li bby 1 was placed with other recaptured officers in the cells under the prison and here 1 contracted a fever that kept me weak till the other prisoners were hurried south. 'Don't be afraid. lxD3's. we are friendst" " Wha— whatf' did yeh come fom, an who is yeh?" asked the man with the whip. 'Are you sick?" 1 am." 1 replied. We marched to the station in a drenching rain and were again crowded into box.cars, and to keep out the wet the doors were closed, making the air foul and as hot as an oven. Bell had concealed in his boot a caseknife, which he had appropriated at the workhouse, and as the train rollod out of Savannah he whispered to me: 'Officer of the guard! Officer of the guard !' •Well. I'm to take you to the hospital for awhile." " What's up back there?" came from the front. It amused me very often to hear the vigor with which Bell proclaimed himself "a Yankee." meaning, of conrse, a Union man. To the negro's question he replied And when Saturday night comes and I sit in my baro little room with only a big, round half dollar left for the coming week after paying my board and washwoman—and a big, round lump is in my throat—I read your letter and it helps me to forget that I left my home in Brockton, Mass., and fifteen dollars a week at making shoes, to come here and sell shoes to other men bccauso my sweetheart, who had seen the play "Alabama" and read Mrs. Bur- To the Roper hospital?" I asked. 'A prezner's done give out back heah," was the reply Without deigning a reply he motioned for me to follow him, and led me in the direction of the workhouse. We entered that forbidding looking building. It was connected with the jail, and was at this time full of prisoners, our boys, even more wretched than myself. The steward conducted me to a room in the southern part of the building on tho ground floor. It was covered with dirty cots, on which lay men, every one of whom looked as if he could never rise again. 'Halt!" came a shout from the advance. Then followed a torrent of oaths, both loud and fierce, as the man with the best lantern made his way back through the crowd. ■ / pi# "Wo uns is 'scapin Yankee soldiers, and we una want yon uns to help." "Goad Lor!" exclaimed the second man. "U you's Yankees, whar's yer SPKAK1NG TO THE JAMTOR. The guards announced, "Twelve o'clock and all's well!" before Tom Bell and I thought of going to sleep. It was daylight, and the flies had been at work for some time, when we got up and put on our boots and coats, then rushed to the window for a breath of air that had not in it the sickening odor of that charnel house. 'Tonight or u^ver!" When this letter, is printed the great question of future greatness or future shamo and degradation in Ohio will have been settled. Ohio will have then cast the die and crossed the Rubicon. Will she rise above the political horizon purified and ennobled, to take her place among the great sisterhood of progressive, prosperous and glorified states, or will she hang her head in sorrow and humiliation in the: ranks of the lost and undone, amid the bleaching wrecks and battered hulls of broken and stranded ship3 which line the bleak and forbidding shores of time? This will depend greatly on what paper you take. These words were on nly own tongue, and 1 was about to suggest that we use the knife to cut a hole in the bottom of the car, through which we could drop down to the track at some halting place and escajH* in the darkness, when my friend anticipated me by outlining the eame plan. Without waiting to see or hear more Bell and inyselt started off on a line at right angles to the approaching light The wind and rain favored us, as well as the loud talking of the men at the rear of the line and the angry imprecations of the officer In a minute we came to another fence, over which we clambered, and looking back we could see that the lanterns were still stationary Of the points ol the compass we had only the faintest notion, but we inferred from the position o! the train, which waa headed west when we left it, and the direction ta,kf ii since that wo were traveling "nigh "bout no'th." as Bell put it guns?" 1  MAt'/Aw w "We were prisoners and escaped from Milieu last night," I replied. Then, determined to leap into their good graces at a bound. 1 added: "Our people will soon be along with guns, and you will all be freo. Now we are tired and hungry, and we want yon to help us." "The nurse will fix you a place to sleep in this ward," said the steward, with a wave of the hand, "and after a while I'll fetch you in some medicine.'" He hurried out of the place, as I wished 1 could have done; and looking about me I realized that I had "juiuped out of the frying pan into the fire." "Five this morning; there were seven yesterday," replied Math in answer to Bell's" question as to the number of deaths. What mattered it? The sooner it was over the better, for, even if at once attended with the greatest care, it is doubtful if one in ten of the men on that floor could have pulled through. As it was, there seemed not the faintest hope for the strongest of them. Boon after this yellow fever was added to the other' hon ors of the Charleston prisons, but Black Jack showed great impartiality, for he carried off a number of the prison officers as well as the Yankees. The car floor waa far from sound, so that under the cover of our one blanket, though there waa no light inside, wo cut away one end of a board close to the middle of the car, and then we whispered the aecret to our friends and eagerly awaited the next stop of the train. The fear and doubt vanished from the f;u-es of the men, and they at once expressed a willingness to do everything in their power They told us that Millen, ten miles to the west, was in Burke county, and that we were now on the Lamar place, in Scriven county, and about eighteen miles from Sylvania, the county seat, and "a right smart long day's drive from de Savannah ribbah, jes' 'lnnit eaCt." Their master "had done gone to de wall, but young J.lassa Bert was home sick," and there were four white ladies at the house. CHAPTER 1. FROM THK CHARLESTON JAIL TO THE Findlav, O., is essentially a gas town, as every one knows. I spoke ' 'iere four years ago to a crowded house, consisting of the gentleman who introduced me to the audience and a bright young janitor to whom the chairman in a few well chosen words introduced me. I spoke feelingly to the janitor, and I am told that he went away a better man. WOKKHOCSE. CHAPTER 11 WK MAKE A BREAK FOR LIBERTY. AIDED We were in no condition to decide on a plan If not already missed from the line, our escape would certainly be detected when the prisoners were counted again, as they invariably were every time they entered the prison, and then pursuit would be made. Our one object was to put as great a distance as possible between ourselves and Millen in the few hours left before daylight. With this understanding, we 6tarted off again aftei a few minutes' halt, but all hope of rapid progress was checked by Ending ourselves in a dense wood with a particularly thick and stubborn undergrowth(| mf\. BY NIGHT AND RAIN evening. The workhouse hospital was wretched when the sunlight strained in through the window bars, but if possible it was etill worse at night A few lean candles fastened to the walls in tin cans, that made them drip and burn "out of plumb," as Lk'll put it, served to reveal the spectral figures lying without a moan and with scarcely a sign of life along the floor After 9 o'clock the guards outside began their half hourly cry of "All's well," a signal that 1 had grown very familiar with in Libby, but here it sounded even more like a mockery■ '-Dyg About the middle of May 1, with 9 number of other officers and enlisted meta—the latter strong, hearty young fellows fresh from Grant's army—was sent toXJharleston in charge of a young lieutCeuaut named Lewis. , i may add toat av story is true in every particular, and that though there are a great many "Ts" scattered through it. which is inevitable in a personal narrative, that I am not at all eager to figure as a hero Still 1 think 1 can honestly say that, like the tens of thousands of conscientious men who fought on both Hides, 1 tried to do my duty as a eoldier. though 1 was not yet old enough to vote I WAS AGAIN CAPTURED. FIQHTISG THE STOVE, ton Harrison's "Fleur de Hundred," said she coald never be mine till 1 had made a home for her in the "land of flowers," and who, three weeks after my departure, transferred her affections to a baking powder drummer. lk«, the man with the whip, and evidently the man with the head, finally laid dowu this programme: There was no danger that any white man would come out tQ the "gypsum pit," as he willed the quarry, so he advised that we spend the day there, and he promised to send us out provisions as soon as it could be done with safety "We can't do nnftiti else twel uight," he said, "and twnl dat time comes I'll put in some powalifnl licks a-prayin. But trust in de Lor of Ho«ts. mastahs, dats de strongest holt yotis hez got now." After being a week in the workhouse 1 asked to be returned to the jailyard, Bell j.lining his application with mine, and this request was granted twenty minutes after it was made. We had a purpose in wishing to return to the jaiL Of course we wanted to get out of that abominable hospital, but the day before one of the guards, a man with a heart in him, placed a paper on the point of his bayonet and pushed it up to the window where 1 was standing. Inside the paper there was a loaf of white bread and a piece of boiled bacon, which was shared with the men lying near. The paper was of that date, the 10th of June, and it contained an item saying that as the jail was getting packed uncomfortably it had been decided to send a lot of the Yankees on to Camp Oglethorpe, at Ma con, Ga. In the course of the evening a violent hailstorm broke loose over Findlay, O., and as there was a low tin roof over the Stage, I could not hear a word that I said. So I did not enjoj' the entertainment so much as usual. I went to my hotel wondering if I had made myself clear to the janitor, and as I wrote my press notice for the morning paper I said to myself: "Have I made a stride in the right direction? Have I purified and enuobled this janitor who has been placed within the sound of my voice?" And wh?n I have read your weekly letter tho world seems brighter, my mother's little letters seem hopeful and helpful as she meant them to be, the flea I sleep with seems gentler, the people on the streets seem to grow genial and cordial, the resources of this great land seem easier of attainment, and I go to sleep happier and hopeful for the future because I have my mother and you. Truly yours. Soon the faint glow of the lanterns died out behind us, and it was only by keeping our hands extended that we could make any headway. The woods were as dark as the bottomless pit in the Mammoth cave, and the opposing trees compelled so many detours from what was intended to be a straight line that we soon lost all idea of direction and were not at all sure that we were not drifting back on our own trail. Yet the intense impulse to be moving, the overwhelming desire to get out of reach and our determination to die rather than be recaptured gave us a fictitious strength and a tireless energy. Sib Edwin Arnold, Jr., Saponica Center, La. The foregoing letter would show that Sir Edwin, although he has been basely deserted for a baking powder man who parts his hair on the back of his neck and drapes it over the top of his head, has a bright and snnny nature which is worth more than al! that earth can give. I would rather have a sunny disposition with everything that heart could wish than to be wealthy with a pained look on my face and a soul that had to have a paper weight on it every time a breeze sprang tip. The night was nearly as hot as the day, the air being heavy with a suggestion of sulphur in it, for some shells had exploded near by that evening. Bell and myself had become quite good friends by the time 9 o'clock came, so we made one bed of our blankets and lay down side by side, using our boots and coats for a pillow. In this position Bell became more communicative and told me his very remarkable story. Briefly, it was this: He was born in the western Dart of Buncombe county, in the mountains of North Carolina, as his father and grandfather had been before him. All the men in that section were "right straight up and down, no-mistake Andrew Jackson Democrats, and some of we uns didn't never own no slaves and didn't want to." They were opposed to secession, and "didn't want no new flag so long's the old one was a-flyin somew'eres iu God's breeze." Many of these North Carolinians fled into east Tennessee, and, uniting with the Union men there, they fought their way to Kentucky and joined the Union army. It is not generally known that every southern state. South Carolina excepted, had white irfilitary organizations in the Union army. The First North Carolina did excellent service in the fall campaign with Burnside in 1863 and subsequently, and the Second North Carolina was authorized by the president, and men were commissioned and sent into the Blue Ridge to recruit it from the hardy mountaineers who had stubbornly refused to voluateer or to be drafted into the Confederate army. Bell had been a sergeant in the Second East Tennessee, but as he was peculiarly well qualified to help recruit the proposed regiment he was commissioned first lieutenant and sent on that mission. To guard against being regarded as a spy if captured, he wore the Federal uniform, and once on the ground he took no pains to hide his purpose or to conceal his wntiments. tie was meeting with good success and was in of filling his complement by t he end of Decern tier, when rashly he ventured too far to the east. He was betrayed by a man he thought his friend and captured one morning while he was in the act of dressing, and when he did not think there was a uniformed Confederate within miles, llo was charged with being a spy, and with his arms bound behind him was forced at the point of a rifle to march toAsheville, thirty miles away. Here he was brought before a court, and after a mockery of a trial was found guilty and sentenced to be hanged on the following Friday, which gave him three days' grace. On the night preceding the day set for his execution he escaped with the connivance of a guard, but instead of making his way directly back he thought it more prudent to keep along the foothills to the east of the Blue Ridge till he reached the head waters of the Savannah, when ho would turn west into Ten- After being out for a week he was wounded and recaptured by a party who were out hunting deserters and taken to Augusta. Here he gave his correct name and his old regiment, and he was sent on to Richmond. When at Branchville he escaped again, and this time he determined to make his way to the sea, in the hope of falling in with some of Foster's command or reaching one of the gunboats then operating along 'An you'll send we uns some grub,'" suggested Bell, adding as an incentive, •I'm so doggone hungry 1 could eat a umle and chC:.se the ridah." Since then Findlay has grown from 4,000 people to 20.000, and from the good work done with that gentle janitor has sprung up an audience that would have swelled the heart of Frank Sanger. it would really take as long to tell of the incidents that occurred between Richmond and Charleston, as it did to make the trip—forty-eight hoars. SUTHI.N A-l'RODDLN OF" HIM. I thought Hospital No. 10 at Richi:i Dud the most wretched and hope des' oyiog place 1 had ever been in, and it certainly was up to that time, bnt it was as a palace to a morgue compared with t ie workhonse in Charleston. The hospital ward must have been the filthiest, most stifling and malodorous apartment in the building, for it would tax the ire . of Dante himself to concern of anything worse. There were ir u bars to the windows, but had they I' •. n thrown wide open and the sick j ?" -ioners told that they were free to de[ i' t, 1 doubt if five men out of about a L i idred that were lying and dying along t: grimy floor would have had strength t:: ugh to crawl through. WE SAW AN OLD WHITE BEAKDED NEGRO. [TO BE CONTINUED.] Like every railroad within the Confederate lines in the summer of 1864, that leading west from Savannah was in a very bad state and the rolling stock was quite in keeping with the roadbed. Ten miles an hour was considered good speed for a passenger train, but, as prisoners were carried in freight cars, and on a freight schedule or on no schedule at all, delays on sidings were frequent, and a knowledge of the distance to be traveled gave no idea of the time when one might expect to reach his destination. It was about 2 o'clock in the afternoon of June 21 when we left Savannah, and the officer in charge of the guards, Lieutenant Grimes, of the Thirty-second Georgia, told ns that heexpected to get to Macon, about 190 miles away, the next day at noon Time heals over a wound quicker than one would think. At Charleston we were confined in the jailyard where we were under the fire ot our uwu batteries stationed on Morris island and not an hour of the day, and frequently ot the night, passed that we did not hear the whirr and explosion of the shells sent into the city by (General liilniore s famous "Swamp angeL" Self Appreciating MusieiaiiM. We were puzzled by another paragraph. which stated that 600 Yankees were coming on from Macon, and that the fair grounds were being fixed up so to accommodate any number of prisoners Bell and 1 wanted, if any prisoners were sent away, to be among the number, and we made up our minds, if forwarded to Macon, to escape before reaching there or to "die a-tryin." Possibly the observation of some «.! my friends will confirm my own, that the quality of those terrible street instruments, the piano organs, as they are called, has deteriorated while that of the street bands has improved. I hope soon to find that the former have disappeared, while the latter I do not hesitate to encourage. Indeed, 1 have a suspicion that among these roving minstrels might be found, if we could penetrate their disguise, some of those who delight high priced audiences in the winter season with chamber music and other delicacies of sound. The orchestral of the last season certainly have disappeared; why is it incredible that, deprived of their winter occupation, they may have adopted this humble calling for the summer? Some of them do not lack the distinctive artistic spirit. Findlay now lias gas wdls which make the old Karg well look tame. Though a few years ago the Karg was the wonder of the world, now, by the side of recent discoveries, she looks like the dim light in which my young and trusting heart was won by one to whom I afterward gave my hand in marriage, together with my worldly goods, consisting of the good will of a newspaper which was pretty generally disliked. At length the woods fell away about us and the nndergrowth was less annoying We were evidently in a clearing, and the deep baying of a dog in the distance suggested that we were near a human habitation. On this trip I learned how deceptive the ears are and how difficult it is to tell of the direction from which sound comes if we are not expecting it from a certain quarter, or if the eyes cannot supplement the bearing. The tent in which 1 was quartered in the jailyard was directly in the noonday shadow of a permanent gallows, on which many men had been hanged, but neither the sight nor the dismal creaking at niglrt brought horrible suggestions to my mind It would have been very difficult to tncease. through the imagination the awful reality of our situation. Crisg Cross. The third morning after my return from the poorhouse two officers, accompanied by a guard of about twenty men, entered the jailyard, a very unusual proceeding at 8 o'clock in the forenoon. The prisoners were assembled—that is, those who were tented in the yard—and were told to step forward when their names were called. Among the sixty names were Bell's and mine. When the list was finished we were told to pack up, and were informed that we were going to be sent on to Macon. If you stick a stick across a stick Or stick a cross across a stick Or cross a stick aoross a stick Or stick a cross across a cross Or cross a cross across a stick Or cross a cross across a cross Or stick a cross stick across a stick Or stick a crossed stick across a crossed stick The gas which, fornjs in the earth in and about Ohio would indicate a very unsettled state of affairs in that region. Outside, the air was intensely hot; re was not a breath moving. A live . in the distance, with its gray festoon Spanish moss, looked particularly : ereal and as still as death. The i about the buildiug moved in a vy, listless way and "toted" their res as if they were burdens. Through I * windows there was not an inspiring nag insight but the blue expanse of I am getting accustomed to the use of natural gas now, having been in the gas region and competing with it, as I may say, successfully for two weeks, so that at my hotel yesterday I lighted my own gas stove. I put a newspaper in the stove and then I slowly turned on the gas, having first ignited the paper. I had lighted the paper, which was one of the New York Sunday papers, by the way, and while I was turning on the gas the blaze went out. This left the stove full of unemployed gas, though I could not see it, being a little nearsighted anyway. So when I did light it successfully there came a pleasing little surprise in the way of an explosion, which filled the air full of special Sunday articles from the paper end drove my hotel pillow into the inkstand out of sight. After being in the jailyard about ten days an enlisted man who looked like a living skeleton, for he had been in this wretched place for four months, advised uie to -play" sick and get sent to the Roper Hospital v "We uns ain't got no use for no dog; we uns ain't lost any," was Bell's comment as the barking continued, without at all indicating the direction from which it came After some minutes we decided that the dog was off to the left—what we supposed was the west—so we kept straight ahead, crossing a fenceless field and coming to another wood, which we entered at once. We left Camp Davidson in a driving rain, which poured down, almost without cessation, for twenty-four hours. Although close to the hole which Bell had cut in the bottom of the car and over which he lay, I went to sleep, as I have known weary veteran soldiers to1 do when lying down under fire. It was near midnight when I was aroused by the stopping of the train and the beating of the rain on the roof. Bell's whisper and his hand on my arm assured me that he was near and dispelled drowsiness. We supposed the train had come to a stop for wood and water, and as it was dark inside and out, and all the conditions we were hoping for seemed to be at hand, we were about to drop through the hole to the track, when the door at the side was thrown violently open and a man appeared, holding a lantern above his head. For instance, a friend of mine who thinkl much of himself as a musician, and whe shares my preference for a comfortable residence in town at this season, was appealed to through his open window ,by the leader of one of these bands the other even ing, but refused to encourage the performance. He waved away the applicant, say ing, "We make music here ourselves.'' Then spoke the street bandit, with courtesy In his tone and all the assurance of a master in his words, "Ah! but not bo Root Boston Post. Or cross a crossed stick across a cross Or cross a crossed stick across a stick Or cross a crossed stick across a crossed stick. Wou'd that be an acrostic? —Christian Union. it did not require much ability as an actor to play sick, for if 1 had been in my own noine I stiould have been in bed with at least two doctors in attendance. But as the Roper hospital was represented by my friend to be a "perfect paradise in comparison with the jailyard, 1 determined to exhaust every effort to get sent tberp on which a white cloud rested like As we had been moving in the lightest kind of marching order since our capture there was but little packing to do, but every fortunate owner of a blanket rolled it up and slung it over his shoulder. We were marched out and down through the heart of the C;ity to the station. On the way we afforded a great deal of amusement to some of the white women still left in the city. They came out from their shrubbery surrounded villas to the street, and in strident voices made comments on the appearance of the "Lincoln hirelings." We certainly were what Bell called "a d—d sorry lookin crowd and no gittin round hit," and it is not to be wondered at that these southern dames contrasted us unfavorably with the good looking officers and well fed guards who had us in charge. They firmly believed, as they pointed out to their childreu "the wretches who had come down to spill the best blood of the south," that in dress and appearance we were a very fair sample of the whole northern army. Of course we took no notice of these women, but it should be said to the credit of our guards that they tried to stop tlicm, and in a number of cases used language more forcible than polite, but without having the slightest effect. I do not sing for Maidens. They are roses L'Envol. an anchored ship. In the ward, everyth::iir animate but the flies aDDeared to be nearing dissolution Beelzebub, the Blowing along the pathway I pursue; No sweeter things the wondrous world discloses.By this time the rain had ceased, but as we were thoroughly soaked and the trees still dripped and the undergrowth kept us in a constant shower bath, this did not make much ditterence. The daylight, for which our eyes had been hungering, at length came, enabling us to avoid the trees, and revealing to each the lean, anxieus face of the other. Like all the Tennessee mountaineers whom 1 have met. Bell had much of the stoicism, or it may be philosophy, which we attribute to the Indian. In the most trying situations he uever became excited, though after an actual danger was over he would become nervous in speaking of it. and go back to it again and again like a child who has had an unusual experience. god of flies, might have made his headquarters in the ward of that workhouse and felt entirely at home. They darkened the air, and their vicious buzzing and more vicious bites were torturing to the nerves. And they are tender as the morning dew. Blessed be maids and children: day and night Their holy scent is with me as I write. 1 do not sing for Schoolboys or Schoolmen. 1 asked my comrade if he was sure the hospital was better than the jail, and he replied ' Business Concern* and Corporations. To give them ease I have no languid theme When, weary with the wear of book and pen. The most notable feature in industrial finance during the last year or two ha« been the turning of so many targe com mercial and manufacturing establishments into great stock companies, the shares ol which are put upon the market just as the shares of railroad companies or municipal or state bonds are. Since English capital ists turned the large brewing interests in the United States into corporations of this kind their example has been followed by great dry goods establishments, several great grocers, and, more lately, several large printing establishments in New York have followed the same policy. This growth of industrial capitalization has caused the organization, both in Europe and in this country, of companies to promote such plans, and it is expected that  of these industrial properties will play a larger and larger part on our stock exchanges.They seek their trim poetic Academe; Nor can I sing them amorous ditties, bred Of too much Ovid on an empty head. Hut what impressed me most forcibly was t!:e fact that the men lying on the floor, except in a few cases where some eneixy remained, did not seem to heed this insect plague It was not that they had become apathetic through habit. Familiarity with suffering does not deaden p."i:i, indeed, where sensation remains it is i;iore apt to intensify it, but these men v.- re either powerless to resist or the greater agony of disease and hunger had made them indifferent. The flies sv. trmed about some of the gaunt faces i i rose in little clouds when the head v s moved, but only to settle down • Y ou bet it is Why, it's a regular np and down heaven compared with this internal hole To be sure it ain't out of the range of shells, bat we don't mind them no more, bat it gives you a new of green woods to the west and blue water to the east.'' One should be very careful in lighting the gas stove, or he may burn off his whiskers and thus become maimed for life. I do not sing aloud in measured tone Of those fair paths the easy-souled pursue; Nor do I sing for alone. Meadville, Pa,, is a very thrifty and picturesque town in the western part of the state, where I had the pleasure of spending the Sabbath. It is a very busy town, and inhabited by a thriving and most courteous and kindly, people. I sing for Dives and the Devil too. Ah! would the feeble song 1 sing might swell As high as Heaven, and as deep as Uelll 'Views are all very fine," 1 replied, 'but they don't appease hunger. What advantages has this hospital in the way of extra grub?" •Guards, turn out here!" he shouted. The two guards, who had been sleeping, one at cach end of the car, crept over the recumbent prisoners and got out through the door that was open. With the voice of one in authority and blessed with good I ungs, the same man called in: I sing of the stained outcast at Love's feet- Love, with his wild eyes on the evening light) I sing of sad lives trampled down like wheat Under the heel of Lust, in Love's despite; I glean behind those wretched shapes re see In the cold harvest fields of Infamy. It was here, I think, that I heard about an absentminded consumptive who lubricated his buggy all summer with cod liver oil and dcsed himself with Frazer's axle grease. When I saw him he was improving rapidly. 'Fine'' exclaimed my informant. "It is in charge of the sistere of charity, the noblest lot of women you ever saw, and all the rooms and blankets are clean, and if you play it nharp you can get white bread and meat and milk, and all that Sill yon can't rest Ah. if 1 was back here again i wouldn't leave unless they earned me away on a stretcher." And th- rnmi shook his head and compressed his lips arf if he were chiding himself for neglected opportunities. There was no resisting this tantalizing picture ot abundant food and luxurious surroundings I nad played sick with great success in Libby. and I determined to enact the same role again Nor did it require acting If it were not that 1 As we stood there in the woods, sad, hungry, weary and undecided on everything but one. Bell drew a long breath and delivered himself something after this fashion. I sing of deathbeds (let no man rejoice Till that last piteous touch of all is given!); I sing of Death and Life with equal voice. Heaven watching Hell, and Hell illumed by Heaven. I have gone deep, far down the infernal stair— And seen the spirits congregating there. •The prisoners must get out here!" "Is thi3 Macon?" some one asked. 'No; it's Millen," said the man. "But ain't we going on to Camp Ogle- Here, m at Richmond, the nurses in the prison hospitals were our own men, and the most robust looked little stronger than the poor patients on the floor. One of these men, a young (ieraxan, with sad blue eyes and an expression of indescribable melancholy on his pinched and rather handsome face, touched me on the shoulder, after the hospital steward had gone out, and asked: "We utis planned an planned an planned to git away from the Rebs till hit seemed ezif w# una moutgit heartbroke. Now, thar was that hole in the keer, hit seemed nothin could be safer'n that; but along came a cuss an jerked the hull caboodle out, au then it looked doggone blue fo' we una. That you uns must allow." Mr. Burbank, who goes with mo in order to give an air of mirth and humor to our show, aa air which it sadly needs at times, I thiak, is takiug cod liver oil too. It is in a new form. The oil is concealed in a flexible capsule about the size This movement has an incidental bearing in the direction of co-operation. For instance, the employees and the customers of a large mercantile concern are usually given the preference when the stock is sold, and thus they become practically partners in the business. Thus far, too, these ventures have proved unusually successful.— Forum. 1 sing of Hope, that all the lost may hear; "Not that I'm aware of; I reckon we can care for you here." Then, in an authoritative voice: "Come, hurry up! I don't want to stand here all night." thorpe?" I sing of Light, that all may feel its ray; I sing of Souls, that no one man may fear; I sing of God, that some perchance may pray. Angels in hosts have praised him loud and long. But Lucifer's shall lie the harvest song. At the station we were put into box cars that were comparatively clean. In other cars there were other prisoners just brought down from the north, but we had no opportunity of communicating with them at that time. When we started from the jail it was evidently the intention of the authorities to send us to Macon by way of Columbia, Augusta and Atlanta, but Sherman's operations in Georgia compelled them to change the route at the last moment, and we were sent on to Savannah. Bell and myself were the last men to leave the car, but fortunately the hole in the bottom escaped the notice of the man with the lantern. As soon as the prisoners were out we were formed by fours, my companion and myself bringing up the rear with another prisoner, wtio was suffering from inflammatory rheumatism and who moved with much pain and difficulty. Somebody near the head of the line called out. of a thirty cent watermelon. Now and then he asks me to join him in a social capsule, but so far I have uot allowed the habit to fasten itself upon me. The capsule i3 of the shape and consistency of a hen's ess that has not as vet h'd the shell put on it. Possibly the reader has seen the Plymouth Rock roe in that condition. The patient throws back his head, tosses this cold, dank mass against his palate, and with a sinuous movement of the neck, as an ostrich would swallow a door knob or a drowned colt, he takes his cod liver oil capsule. Oh, hush a space the sounds of voices light Mixed to the music of a lover's lute. Stranger than dream, so luminously bright. The eyes are dazzled and the mouth is mate, Eits Lucifer singing to sweeten care. Twining immnrtelle* in his hoary hairl -Robert Buchanan. 'Are you an officer, sir, or a private?" i acknowledged the entire accuracy of this statement. Dietetic Treatment of Epliepiy. "Well, my friend," 1 replied, "if 1 was back/in our lines 1 should say 'an officer. But here there is no rank. We are all soldiers, and good ones, 1 hope, though a bit poor and helpless at present.""Wa al, then thar was the rain," continned Bell, "to most men that wouldn't a' looked eucouragin, but hit's the very best thing could 'a' happened fo we uns, coz hit won't gin the dogs no show." On my expressing surprise, be explained: 'The wet ground won't hold scent, and hit's been purty much 'bout like wadin through a crick since we uns lit out; so thar'll be no dogs out this mawnin, an hit's a comfort to think o' that." Whether the theory of the explosion of nitrogen in the brain substance as the cause of the epileptic seizure be true or not, certain it is, according to John Ferguson, that the malady is aggravated in patients subjected to a nitrogenous diet. This fact seems to have been confirmed by clinical experience and actual experimentation. Ferguson, therefore, acting on the strength of such a fact, has subjected his epileptics to a strict vegetable diet, and has even dispensed with the use of drugs. This method has given, in his hands, excellent results, especially In well marked cases. In these cases a nonnitrogenous vegetable diet alone has rendered better service than the bromides, without restriction in diet, «ays The Therapeutic Gazette. kept mad right straight along when 1 . wasn't asleep I should have dropped down from sheer weakness, for the pains ami exnaustion or aysentery ana incipient scurvy were added to the ever present tortures of hunger As a matter of form, for 1 never saw Optimism I'm no reformer; for I see more light Than darkness in the world: mine eyes are quick "Ah, sir, if it was only being treated like soldiers," he said with a sigh, "that would not be so bad; that is what we enlisted for; but to be treated like dogs, to die like dogs and to be buried like To catch the first dim radiance of the dawu. And slow to mite the cloud that threatens storm. nessee. In each car there were two guards, and as the day was very hot the doors were left open, and about these all crowded who could, to get a breath of cool air and a glimpse of the low, Bwampy country over which that road is built. We had some corn bread served to us at the station before starting, and twice in the course of the day one of the guards took advantage of the wooding stops to bring in some tepid water, and this was all we had till the following 'How far are we to inarch, captain?" 'It's a right smart walk for a night like this." was the unsatisfactory response.them administering any medicine, two | o,r three doctors, all in Confederate uni- Morni came in every morning and made a tour of tUe yard and the prison. The next morning 1 waited near the jail door till they came down and then, with much of the desperation of Oliver Twist when, impelled by the same feeling, he held up his empty bowl and asked for •more." 1 placed myself in front of the doctors and saluted. Delight me so, slight thought 1 give its thorn; And the sweet music of the lark's clear song Stays longer with ine than the nighthawk'scry. Even in this great throe of pain called Life The fragrance and the beauty of the rose Cod liver oil is not the most appetizing thing I can think of anyway, but in this new form it seems to me too much like swallowing some of the campaign statistics which I have heard secretly. dogs!' 'Tonight, if we uns is shot fo' hit!" whispered Bell, and he emphasized his words by a grip on my arm. I understood his allusion to bloodhounds and instinctively I looked about for a club The light on the clouds gave us the compass points, and told us that we had been traveling east instead of north. We pushed on again, and kept on till the sun began to cast shadows, and we were brought to a halt on the banks of a swollen creek that flowed south to the Ogeechee, as we subsequently learned. We kept up the creek till we came to a phospnate quarry on the edge of a marsh, and the corduroy road leading out of this place told that it had been recently worked. "Don't lose heart, comrade. Keep a stiff upper lip Better times are coming. If we can't manage to escape to our people. depend on it they will come for us after a bit. But don'i give up. If swearing comforts yon at all—I know it has been a great satisfaction to me at times — why swear in all the languages you are master of; or if you think praying is a better hold, and no doubt it is, pray for all you are worth, but don't ask God to forgive your enemies—that would be a little too much—till this war is over, and then we won't have any enemies." 1 find a rapture linked with each despair. The guard at the rear of the line, evidently of the "home" variety, was a tall, gaunt man of sixty, with a dejected air, a slouehy walk and an utter lack of interest in the count of the prisoners that was made as soon as we left the cars. There were five lanterns along the line, and excepting that carried by the man who seemed to have taken command, they were all circular, tin affairs with perforations, through which the light of the tallow dip within strained. When the line was formed the nearest of these lanterns was about thirty feet to our Well worth the price of Anguish More good than evil in humanity. I detect I presume that every one who writes pieces for publication receives more or less in the way of correspondence pro or con, and a good deal of it is evidently the work of indolent or morbid minds, but now and then a letter that is not only gratifying, but full of ideas, relieves the monotony. Love lights more fires than hate extinguishe* And men grow better as the world grows old. -Ella Wheeler Wilcox. Reward of Bravery. Patrick McX is a great admirer of personal bravery, and never fails to Insist that men of intrepidity are entitled to great favors and privileges. that coast. Hard luck still pursued him. He waa in the swamps for two weeks, and one night, overcome by fatigue, he lay down to sleep on a hummock. This waa within twenty miles of Pocotaligo, then held by our troops. He was "puttin in his best licks a-sleepin," for he was "right smart petered out," when he was awakened by a loud laugh and "suthin Truth. "Well sir,' said an elderly doctor, wAose f,tee indicated that the milk of human kindness In his heart had turned sour before or soon after the breaking out of the war "what do you want?" Great truths are portions of the soul of man; Great souls are portions of Eternity; Each drop of blood that e'er through trus heart ran With lofty message, ran for thee and me; Kor God's law, since the starry song began. It was midnight when we crossed the river and were marched up the bluff and into Camp Davidson, a stockade prison in the eastern section of the city. Here we found a number of prisoners, though not enough to use all the comfortable tents that had been erected. Bell and morning He was told the story of a murderer who had died bravely on the gallows, taking the whole matter with smiles and gay words. My own correspondence in that direction is a most kaleidoscopic one, ranging all the way from the wobbly vaporiugs of a rancid mind up to the magnificent suerirestions offered me without monev Hath been, and still forevermoro must be. That every deed which shall outlast Time'* span '1 want to go to the hospital," I said. •Sick, sir?* "An sure," said Patrick, "whin a man has died on the gallows as brave as that, the giver'ment should pardhon him on the spot for his bravery!"—Youth's CompanionMust goad the soul to be erect and free. -James Russell Lowell, •'Xea, doctor." 1 laid my hands on young Muth's shoulders as 1 spoke, and to my great While we were debating what to do next we heard the rumble of wheels in