Newspaper Page Text
F
I
Sir
,t
P.
H
IK r
I BR
jJlwtiMlliipiwilliiwii' WWWPWmMiwww
. u-"e"
f
V
&h
as:
J JfflmtMit MonrtmJ tkvahd to ttit gotiiers, Msifors, and gtmimtcrn of the gttifed gtuteg, and tie imsiniciwn of ilw Simula &jrcU.
ii . .i ii -- - - ! iii . j. , p- n ' ' I I I
Ht, Fubllslifil ly Tlio
JUHOHAL TRIBUNE COMPANY
VoLf , No. 4. WASHINGTON, D. 0., APRIL, 1881.
A7'rTCarfvrw"F ' v ""j' " y MMir,..ti.iW,WiT, v V" - t j- -- -.-- .
TERM S, FIFTY CENTS PER fEAE,
Spocimon Copies scat Free en Kequast.
Darby and Hia Joan.
s pile folloirlng old poem is always now.
-tga ftro unknown.
Ita author and oxaot
. r
1
When Darby ar tho setting sun,
110 swung hift cytho and lMtno ho run,
Sat down, dnuik off Ids pint, and said: '
"My work is done, I'll go to 10(1."
"Sty "work Js doiio," retorted Joan:
""My -work 1s dono, yonr ooitet&ut tone ;
But lwnJesK woman ne'er can Bay
113' work is done, 'till Judgment Day."
v JToroDavTty hwi'd and rooked Ids head.
To answer what his Joan lmd Raid;
Jlut air in vain, lisr olaok kept on;
sYqb, woman's work is never done.
" You mon can sleon all nijrht. but wo
Must toiJL" " WIiopo fault is thatt " quoth ho.
' I know your moaning," Joan rtuuiou,
' "Iut, fe)r. my tongue shall no'or ho tied j
ii 'will xb on and let you know
What work wo women have to do.
"JTlrsfc, in tho morning, though ato feel
AS aiek a drunkards when they roOl
Yce, feol Bueli imlu through baok and head
As would ooulluo yon juon to bed,
"Wo wield tho brush and ply tho broom,
"We air tho Iwds ami right thft room ;
Tho oow must next bo milked, ami thon
"Wo get tho breakfast for the men. . i
"Ere this is done, with whimpering cries
And briskly ulr. the children liso;
Tlieso niusr bo dressed and dosed with rae
And fed, nnd all beeause of yon.
" Wo-inust"hore Darby rose and Joratchod hlsliad4
And fantj retreated tor tho bed;
AnlVgrnmbllng this as on ho run :
'Zounds 5 woman's elaok is never dose."
At early dawn, ero Phoebus rose,
Old Joan resumed her talo of woes;
. Safd Darby, "Thus I'll end the strife;
Bo you tho man and I tho wife
"Take you tho seytho and mow. while I
yill all jour boasted cares -mpnly." , ,
' ' Content," quoth Joan, ' givo lrio my stint;' v
Thftj Darby (lid, and out sho wencJ " -
O "niarby rose and seized the broom,
Jit a whined the dirt around tho room ;
Tvgft having done, he scarce lcnqw how,
VtoQ tXL to milk the brlndlo com.
Tho brludle, oow did whisk her tall ",
IU Darbj 's eves, and klok tho pall ;
Tho clown, perplexed with grief and pal,
Bwore he'd ne'er try to milk again.
Then, turning round, lu sad amaie,
ilo saw his cottage lu a blazer
J?or, as ho ohauovd to brush tho room
In careless haste, ho flred the broom.
Tho tire at.longth subdued, io swore
SCho broom, and ho should meet no more.
Pressed by lulafortunp and perplexed,
-Darby prepared for breakfast next;
fliut what to gee ho scarcely kuuvr.
Tm bread wiw spent, the butter too. , ,
lWlth hands bedaubed in pato aud flour.
Old Darby labored full an hour; ' x
...But, lui'kloss wight, he could not make
Tho hrotul tako form of loaf or cake.
As every door wide open stood,
,In mujlUHl tho sow in quest of food,
And, stumbling onwai d, with her snout
O'ersec tho eliurji tho cream ran out,
, As Darby turned tho sow to beat, ?
Thosjtppery oroaui betrayed his foot,:
He eauat tho broad-trough in his fall,
' And down t'oano Darby, trough and all.
Tho,Qhldrou wakened by the olattQi,?
Btort up aud ory, Law. what's tho matter t "
Old Jowlcf barketl aud Tabby meowod,
And hapless Darby bawled aloud :
Koturn, my Joan, a3 heretofore,
'I'll'nlay the-housewife's port no more,"
Blued now by sad experience taught?,
Compared with tiilno my work is naught
"IToiiooforthiw buslnos vails I'll take,
Content, the soy the, the plow, tho rake,
Audmvermoro trauggross tbo lino
Our fates have marked whilst thou art mlaa.
'When, Joan, return as heretofore,
Pl!,yojcthlno (xopt soul no Inoro;
Lot Qftoh his proper task attend,
Porgivo the past and atrlvo to mend."
Tho story of Major Atwdro is familiar tattoo readers of
English history in every part of the world. For ono hun
dred years his untimely end has been read and discussed,
often with throbbing hearts and eyes brimming with
tears, and yet the iutcresfc felt in that gallant officer i3
apparently as great now as on Hie iirst day of October,
1780, when he was led to execution by command of Gen.
George Washington himself. Military authorities on both
sides of tho Atlautic have almost univei sally conceded the
ropriety of tho action taken by Washington in that
matter; but there have been many of his admirers then
and since whoso levercnco fur that illustrious patriot
would have "been greater if he had mitigated in some
legitimate way tho soverit' of that painful sentence. Few,
indeed, of his contemporaries, who at that time debated
so warmly tho merits or tho demerits of that course, could
have dreamed that eighty three yeais afterwards or t.
be more precise, oh the 9th day of June, 1803 a lineal
descondaut of Mrs. Georgo Washington should have per
ished in tho same ignominious waj, under ''ircumstauces
which present, to tho least, a series of lemarkablo coinci
dences; yet such is the fact, and Col. William Orion Wil
liams was tho chief conspirator, acror, aud victim iu the
awful tragedy, taking vith him in tho ciimo and its pun
ishment a cousin named Walter G. Peter, also of Geoigc
towu, in tho Dit-tr'ct of Cohuubit.
Col. Williams was tho son of Oapfc. William G. Williams,
who was for twenty-two ymrs a well-known officer of the
Topographical Eugiueeis of tho United Slates Army, nnd
who was mortally mounded at the battle of Monterey,
dining the Mexican war, on the 21st day of September,
1840. Capt. Williams vas born in the city of Philudel
phia, of English parents. y whom he was taken to Eng
land and for a time sent to school at Exeter, but having 4
a strong desire to return to America, his father brought
him back aud placed him in an educational institution in
Kentucky. Hero the outh developed such strong mili
tary aspirations that an appointment to a cadetship at
West Point was scoured for him in the year 1818. As an
engineer ollicor ho had served iu the Cherokee country;
at. Charleston, O. C; on the Niagaia frontier, aud in other
localities within the limits of tho United States. Many
years before his death ho had married Miss Columbia
Poter, a daughter of Thomas Peter, who was in tho eaily
part of tho present century a prominent citizen of Gcoige
town. a largo property owner in the District of Columbia,
and ono of tho intimate personal friends of Georgo Wash
ington. Thomas Peter had married Martha. Parke Custis,
who was a graudohild of Mrs. Georgo "Washington, and
long resided in Georgetown, vhere. in tho year 1SU4, he
liilt- 4lr nlrl trinneisiti mak nnnn i?nr3 lrr "T"ivs FTfWirirviri MtA
UtlllU UMU '1V1 UUIUOIUU 4.1W1T UVUUJMUU UT J-klU IVVUUyU) MUX i
widow of Commodore Boyerly Kennou, an officer in the
United States navy, who, among others, was killed on
board tho Princeton by the explosion of a gun in 18-54.
Ono of tho fmits of tho marriage of Capt. Williams ftd
Miss Peter was a son, born on tho 7th day of July, 1S39,
named William Orton Williams, who became the leading
actor in tho deplorable train of events about to bo l elated".
Mrs. Williams and Mi Kennou were also the fcistera of
G. W. P. Custis, the former owner of the Arlington estate
and the father of Mrs. Robert E. Leo.
Y It will thus bo seon that W. O. Williams was the direct
and lineal
DESCENDANT OV HliS, (QKOItGB WASH1NQTON.
Gen. Washington himself left no children. With Wil
liams was associated a cousin, Walter Gibson Peter a
grandson of Major Gecgo Peter, tho brother of Thomas
May, 1801, and sent him to Governor's Island, near tho
city of New York, whore he was kept iu confinement for
several weeks, until any information lie might have had
in regard to army movements would have been useless to
the confedrato authorities, when ho was released. Shortly
after, on the 10th day of June, he resigned his commission
in the United States Army aud went south. Ilo was im
mediately commissioned as a colonel of artillery and
assigned to duty with Bishop General Polk, then com
manding m Western Kentucky, with headquarters at
Columbus. Hero the ardent and impulsive temperament
of Col. Williams, combined with a haughty and over
bearing maunei, which was intensified by the strictest
ideas of discipline, new and distasteful to tho volunteer
soldiery of the West, involved him in a difficulty withta
private which resulted in the death of the soldier. Thi
aflair made Col. Williams unpopular in Gen. Polk's com-
maud, aud although he behaved with great
COURAGE AND GALLANTJIT
at tho battle of Shiloh some months afterwards, ho w&
transfer! ed to the statF of Gen. Bragg, then in command
of the conft-derate forces in Tennessee, where he remained
until the first day of Juuo, 18G3. Tho campaign, during
whi h weio fought tho battles of Fort Donelson, Shiloh,
and Corinth, with mauy minor engagements, had ended
in the summer of 1802 by tho retieat of Gen. Buell'g
aimy of United States troops across tho States of Ten
nessee and Kentucky to the Ohio River. The friends of
the Southern coufedeiacy were greatly elated, aud thos
of the Union were equally depressed. Gen, Rosecran
assumed command of tho Army of tho Cumber.and, re
cruited its depleted ranks and marched south to .Nashville,
Tennessee, in the latter part of tho same year. Th
flower of the Southern army, under General Bragg, was
assembled at Murfreesboro', about thirty miles southeast
of Nashville. Both sides had made extraordinary effort
for a conflict, which was expected to be decisive in it
character. Gen. Ros-ecnms advanced and delivered battle
on the last day of December, 1862, At the close of that
day the advantages weio most decidedly with the confed
erate troops. Massing his forces upon the right
wing of the Union army, which was at that time weak
ened by too great an extension, Geu. Bragg fell upon itv
crushing it completely, and driving it back with terrible
loss upon the rear of the center and left. Gen. Rosecran
nevertheless held his ground, although almost entirely
surrounded by the enemy, who was then greatly superior
in the number and efficiency of his cavalry. On tho 2
day of January, 1863, when tho conflict was renewed,
Gen. Bragg was driven back with great slaughter, and at
the close of the engagement retired in a southerly direc
tion to repair his losses nnd recruit his shattered com
mand. Notwithstanding the iuunenso efforts put forth
by botb parties the battle of Murfreesboro', or Ston
River, as it is sometimes called, was indecisive. The
national troops retained possession of tho field, but it wa
by u piecarious tenure. Their line of commuuicjitioB:
with tho rear, every milo of which required protection,
was more than two hundred miles in length. About tea
thousand men on each side were killed, wounded, cap
tured or otheiwiso placed bors du combat. The confed
erate army had sullenly retired some thirty miles south,
and the whole of tho surrounding country was vexed with
tho mcursious ot his cavalry.
Sucli was tho situation in military point of view when
Col. Williams conceived tho daring and treachoious en
terprise which he shortly afterwards undertook. FnH. of
AN AMERICAN ANDRE.
How a Groat-Graiidson of Martha WaBbingtoB.
was' Haogod during the Civil. War as a Spy.
v Tho facta related iu tho following narrative would
doubtless have been published sovoral years ago but for
ttho efforts oC the War Department in Washington City
to suppress them, and to keep tho ouloiftl papors looked
up in its archives, which contain a history of tho arrest,
irml, and execution as spies, of Col. William Orton Wil
iisuiis and Lieut. Walter G. Peter, of tho confederate
army, in tho month of June, 1803. This action m regard
Peterwho Was bom on the 17th of Ootober, 1842, and a desire to distinguish himself in somo bold and dashiner
, , .. ,-, , . . , . , ,, i ,i f " j i virit .,"--!- ir i "-'
'Wiio, wuen ruey were ooys logemwr, mm jurmuu iur u u
liains a most devoted and romantic attachment. In per
sonal graces and accomplishments William Orton Williams
boro great rcsomblance to his father, Captain Williams,
and was possessed of a genius very much like that of
Major Andre. Alter completing ins studies, he was em
ployed for a ttmo in tho service of the coast survey, hut
his great ambition was to becomo a soldier, and through
tho assistance of friends ho obtained a commission as lieu
louant in tho 2d cavalry regiment of tho United States
Army. Shortly after ho was appointed an aido on tho
staff of Gon,- Wiutleld Scott, then Gommandor-iu-Chiof of
tho xVrmy, with headqimrteis at "Wasliiugton City. Tins
was iu tho early part of tho year 1801, and tho ominous
tbroatonuigs in the southorn horizon all eady indicated tho
outbreak which culminated in the war of tho rebellion.
Col Robert E. Lee was Gen. Scott's chief of staff, aud
was also on duty at tho War Department iu Washington.
As iu tho case of Major Andre, so iu that of Lieut, Wil
liams, a lovo affair was, indirectly at least, tho cause of
tho course of events which ended so disastrously for both
and which led both to death on tho scaffold. Lieutanant
Williams was passionately devoted to a daughter of Col. J
Robert E. Leo, who was then residing at Arlington;
hue on duty at Washington ho made trequont vi9its to
tln young lady, both beforo and after Col. Leo resigned
his commission as an oillcor of tho United States Army.
These visits came to tho knowledge of General Scott aud
Assist. Ad.iutant Goueral Townsoud, who wore naturally
apprehousive that, in those critical times, especially in tho
mouths of April and May, 1801, Liovit. Wilhains might
car
actor
movement: knowiuc from his exnerionco in "Washington
how business was conducted aud orders issued at the War
Department, ho undertook to render a brilliant service to
the cause of secession by entering the lines of the Union
troops aud ota iing such information as might lead to a
maguificent success for the confederates. As Forb Granger
was so desirable an acquisition, ho iuduced his cousin,
Lieut. Peter, then serving on the staff of Gen. Wheeler,,
to join him. Having completed their preparations, Co
Williams and Lieut. Peter,
DISGUISED IN FEDEHAIi USItfORMB,
and mounted on fino horses, with forged orders, letters
aud passes in their pockets, approached the entrance to
Fort Gnuigor aud domauded admission at a late hour in
the afternoon of Juno 8, 1808. Their coming occasioned
some surprise, as skirmishing had been Khjg, on con
stantly for several days iu almost every dlreotiou, and the
fort was practically invested by tho enemy. However, as
they w"oro Foderal uniforms, aud presented orders In reg
ular form from tho Secretary of War and from tho head
quarters of tho Army of tho Cumberland at Murfrees
boro, they were admitted, and upon their entrance they
presented tho following papers, all of which weio forgor
ios. Thoy read as follows :
41 Waii Dai'AimtKNT, Adjutant General's Office
Washington, D. C, May 35th, 1803. -Extract Special Or
ders Nq. MO.
"IY. Colonel Lawrence W. Auton, cavalry, United
and Acting Special Inspector Goueral, fo
rv narasa tho Potomno information of a valuable char- States army,
or to tho consmmtors in Virginia. Thev ordered him. ! iiereby relieved from duty along tho lino of the Potomac.
.-.' ' . . . .' . . . - -- - . .---- t -.-.. . - . . . . r,. . ..,., " i . - ii. . . j ... ....I 2..
to tnoso records has uoen taison out or deference to the j tuorofore, to discontinue these visits, lio pronilauU to do no win lmmeuuuoiy proceuu io cue west, una miuuuy u
feelings and wishes of relatives and friend, but now that) so, but the loniptatiou was too great and ho continued to j speot tho Department of the Ohio and tho 'Department
eighteen years have elapsed siticp tho event occurred, it is j make clandestine visits to Arlington. This fact again i of tho Cumberland,' in accordance with special mspec
not unseemly to toll a sad story, for it toaoho a valu-l oomiug to tho kuowledgo of tho otHoera above mentioned, tor's, instructions Nos, 70, 83 and 140, furnished him from
ble, patriotio loow. thoy ordered his arrest in tho early part of tho mouth of I this office and that of the Paymaster Qenoral.
1
4
i
J
I
m
ji
v WM
?'
., if
r
v
