The San Francisco call., April 03, 1898, Page 19, Image 19

About The San Francisco call. (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913

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CHASING SLAVERS
ON THE HIGH SEAS
Sharp Tricks the Spanish Deal
ers Played by Using the Stars
and Stripes to Conceal Their
Nefarious Trade.
SPAIN' has always been an enemy
of America!"
During the unpleasantness of
the past five weeks the forego
ing statement has been made by
large numbers of our Congress
men. Many of our people, however,
have been under the impression that
the utterance was largely "jingo
talk."
"But no truer statement was ever
made," said Captain Jackson of this city
a few days ago, when a group of weli
known men were discussing the situa
tion. "I have talked to a number of
men of American birth who have suf
fered at Spain's hands, and while ' I
fully believe every word they said, I
cannot, of course, swear to their state
ments. But that is not necessary, for
I have seen Spain's underhanded blows
at the United States and know posi-
OUR SHOT STRUCK HER SAILS AND CHECKED HER COURSE AND AT ONCE THE CREW BEGAN TO THROW THE
MANACLED SLAVES OVERBOARD.
lively that in regard to this country
the Castilian has on numerous occa
sions violated all laws of honor. This
seems a hard statement to make, but
I can prove it, although to do so it will
be necessary to go back about forty
Years.
"I refer to the days when the slave
traffic was at its height. It was then
that Spain permitted slavers and pi
raies to outfit in her ports and fly the
American flag in order to protect them
selves from English warships that were
Bailing the seas on the lookout for the
tiorrid traffickers in human flesh.
"This was a simple process, accord-
Ing to the Spanish way of reasoning,
where no thought ol" the violation of
treaties was allowed to cut any fig
ure. The prospective slaver purchased
his veßsel In the United States. Sho
was usually a schooner of fine lines and
large sail area, built more like a yacht
than any craft afloat at that time.
"After acquiring possession of his
purchase the owner took her to Ha
vana, still retaining the American pa
i irs and Bag under which she was sold
to him. Here a Spanish crew was
Bhipped and the vessel outfitted as a
Blaver. This was done with the full
knowledge <>f the Spanish maritime and
customs officials. in fact, these gen
tlemen, aided in the nelarious work
in spite of all the English and Ameri
can "flieials could do to prevent it.
"It was then the custom of these ves
p'-ls to proceed to Africa, where a cargo
'•f slaves was obtained, and then, flying
tli" Ktnr.« and stripes, attempt to get
back to Cuba. The Spanish Govern
ment never made a single attempt to
stop this traffic, although having full
knowledge of it, but on the other hand
accepted moneys from the owners or
tb" vessels.
"It was while aiding in the putting
down of slavery that I came to my
knowledge of Spanish villainy and
•treachery, and even after all these
years r,.> words can do it justice.
"It was about 1856. 1 was just 16 years
ol<l at the time, when I began a three
years' cruise along the west coast of
. Africa as a midshipman in the British
.-.-navy. The slave trade w.ts at its height
and England had a squadron of about
thirty vessels of various classes, en
gaged in putting it down.
"My vessel was the Antelope, a three
gun steam brig. She was able to mak«
good time, even under canvas alonr.
and when aided by her paddle wheels
could catch any sailing craft afloat in
those days.
"My three years on this vessel wer«
days of excitement and peril. As well
as "the perils of fighting we had to face
the terrible fevers that constantly
raged along the swampy shores of the
Bight of Benin. Our lives were a con
stant turmoil and the roaring of can
non and whizzing of bullets were com
monplace sounds to us. Dead and
wounded men were almost constantly
around us. Several men were killed
on the decks of our vessel, but hun
dreds of the horrid slavers were
stretched out on the decks of their
own. How the demons did fight as
long as they thought they had the ad
vantage. And how quickly they stop
ped and commenced butchering the
helpless cargo in the hold as soon as
things went against them.
"Upon our arrival at Sierra Leone,
the capital of British West Africa, in
January, 1857, we were met by the
commodore with several other vessels
of the squadron. They had arrived in
take on board their several 'prize
crews' that had been bringing v the
prizes captured at different points
along the coast. There were about
twenty slavers all waiting to be broken
up and their material sold for prize
money. Some of the pretty and swift
craft were more fit for yachts, and all
were of American build. No doubt
many could have been disposed of at
good prices, but, alas! their fate was
sealed, and they could never again sail
the seas, for a slave ship, once cap
tured by a British war vessel, had to
be broken up.
"Many an old tar would heave a sigh,
turn his quid of tobacco over and with
tears in his eyes say it seemed almost
a crime to destroy such beautiful craft,
but it had to be done, the stern law
must be obeyed in the interest of hu
manity to prevent any of these vessels
ever again being employed in the slave
trade.
"The thought come" to me that pos
sibly it may be that many erf the poor
sufferers in Cuba at this day are de
scendants of many poor Africans
brought from Africa about that period.
"The slave dealers could afford to lose
two vessels out of three and then make
large fortunes by the traffic. If v
dealer wanted one cargo of slaves he
sent three vessels instead of one, thus
allowing two for capture.
'This will gfve but a faint ideaof how
the traffic was carried on, and it was
ali done by the Spaniards from Cuba,
who sailed their vessels from Havana
under the stars and stripes.
"After our squadron pot to sea on
the search for slaves, my vessel, the
Antelope, was f,-ut a whole month be
fore we had anything to do. But then
our work began in earnest.
"It was early in the morning when
the cry of 'Sail ho!' from the mast
head brought us all on deck.
" 'She's a slaver," cried all the crew at
the same time. Every man jumped to
his place.
"But this craft did not give us much
trouble. She made an effort to escape,
THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, APRIL 3, 1898.
but the breeze was light and with our
engines we soon overhauled her. Her
captain saw that the game was up and
"We took the entire crew and
dumped them on the nearest land and
sent the schooner in charge of a prize
crew to where the slaves could be re
turned to their homes.
"Our next antagonist waa a terror.
We sighted her at about noon and a
few moments afterward saw the stars
and stripes flung to the breeze. But our
captain waa not fooled. He determined
to see what was on board the vessel,
and gave the sign for her to 'heave to.'
"No attention was paid to it, how
ever. Then the race began. A fine
breeze was blowing, and the schooner
almost got away from us. She fairly
flew over the water with all her can
vas set. Then we sent a shot after her,
and then another and another.
"These tores holes in the canvas and
Blackened her speed, so that we began
to gain on her.
"Seeing that escape was hopeless the
slaver's crew be —> to throw their cargo
overboard. Manacled men and women
were dragged from the vessel's hold
and tossed into the ocean, sinking from
sight almost ins'antly.
"Then we began a musket fire and
picked off some of the leaders. They
made an effort to return it, but their
aim was defective, and none of our
crew was hurt.
"When we did get alongside the ves
sel we were confronted by as hard a
looking crowd of men as I have ever
seen. Cutthroat was stamped on e^ery
one of their Spanish faces. When we
attempted to step on board the fight
began, and I tell you it was a hot one.
Bullets flew over all sides, and the
slavers attempted to board us. All of
them were blinded with liquor and
fought like demons.
"We rapidly thinned out their rp iks,
though, and soon her decks were cov
ered with dead men and running with
blood.
"We soon overpowered the slavers,
and then they ran for cover and
screamed for mercy. This crew was
treated as the others were and we
were ready for the next. We got this
in about three days.
"This time a beautiful schooner was
flying the American flag, and when
hailed answered that she was the
Jupiter of New Orleans, and beyond
that they gave us no satisfactip .. Our
captain, however, sent an officer to
board her and look over her papers.
He found tha,t she was on a trading
voyage, with twenty-one as villainous
looking a lot of dirty, unwashed, cut
throat Spaniards as you ever wanted
to see.
"After a long parley our captain con
cluded that the treaty between the
United States and Great Britain should
for once be violated, and he resolved to
break open the vessel's hatches. This
was done, and there, packed away on a
slave deck, were 120 men and women,
all huddling together from "sheer fear,'
having been previously intimidated to
silence by threats of being thrown
overboard.
"Immediately she was discovered to
be a slave vessel, as if by magic old
glory disappeared from the rigging,
and no papers were to be found on
board, as they had been burnt and the
liag sunk. She was a vessel without
a name, with a Spanish crew, six
American passengers on board and
bound nowhere.
"The American who but ten minutes
before was 'captain' quietly Informed
our officers that they had yet a hun
dred more slaves on shore, which they
were waiting to go for as soon as the
coast was clear of men-of-war. This
capture proved a valuable prize to us,
as she had on board about 3000 doub
loons to purchase cargoes for the two
other vessels. She was sent to Sierra
Leone with a prize crew, and the Amer
icans were cared for on board and sent
home, while the Spaniards we invaria
bly 'dumped' on the nearest beach, af
ter taking everything of value from
them.
"During the next six months we took
four Other prizes along this part of the
coast, all under similar conditions, and
about forty or fifty others were cap
tured by other cruisers. That will givs
you some idea of the magnitude of the
trade carried on by these Spaniards.
"Sometimes a naval commander
more careful and timid and somewhat
afraid of trouble would not force open
these vessels' hatches, and, protected
by the American Hag, the vessels would
sail away with their cargoes of human
beings, invariably to J>e landed at Ha
vana.
"Our next cruise was off and about
the Congo River, where a larger class
of vessel was required to carry off the
larger cargoes of slaves purchased from
the Portuguese slave dealers. The
methods adopted by them were similar,
but with the difference that the barks
were disguised as whalers instead of
traders, as the schooners were in
Benin.
"We took seven more valuable vessels
during our next year's cruise, and four
more off the northern division in the
third year, making a total of fifteen
vessels, containing 3745 slaves, all of
whom were sent to British West Afri
ca, liberated and taught trades.
"For each slave liberated the crews
of the men-of-war were paid as prize
money $25 per head, so we were recom
pensed for our hard service to the
amount of $93,000 head money besides
what the vessels themselves were sold
for, in all about $170,000.
"As our vessel was a fair average of
the cruisers, it will be seen that about
$4,000,000 was the amount spent by
Great Britain in three years, in addi
tion to the cost of her squadron, for
suppressing a traffic carried on by the
Spaniards.
LEARNING MUSIC
UNDER
MME. MARCHES!
ALTHOUGH the name of Matilda
Marchesi, the first vocal teacher
the day, is familiar to Amerl
"cans, yet little is known of her
personality and method. By
some she is described as a tyrant and
the terror of her pupils, while others
make the sweeping assertion that for
any voice except a soprano leggiero her
method is a failure.
Any of Marchesi's pupils can tell of
the patience she has with beginners and
her sympathy with nervousness, while
the best of her celebrated graduates
will show there is no voice she cannot
train.
Marches! was born in Frankfort, Ger
many, about seventy-four years ago.
After studying with Garcia she had a
successful career as a singer in all the
capitals of Europe. She married an
Italian nobleman, the Marquis de Cas
trone de la Rajata, who was himself a
singer of no small merit, his stage
name being Salvatore Marches!. His
wife and daughter have both taken this
name for professional use.
Marchesi's reputation as a teacher
was established 111 Vienna, where she
was for many years director of the
vocal department at the Conservatoire.
She has resided in Paris so long as to
have become almost enti-ely French.
Her beautifully appointed house in the
Rue Jouffroy is a rendezvous for the
celebrated musical people of all na
tions. The music room has been es
pecially arranged for 'he voice. It is
paneled in wood, has a parquet floor
and there are no draperies to interfere
with the sound. Nothing is wanting in
this room to complete the musical edu
cation of the , upils. Mmc Marchesi's
musical library 1b probably one of the
largest and ny valuable private col-
lections known and most of the works
have been dedicated and corrected by
the composers themselves. Every avail
able space in the room is filled with
autograph likenesses of all the cele
brated composers, singers and musi
cians past and present, while under a
glass case in a corner lies a silver
laurel wrea.th surrounded by the
decorations Marchesi has received from
various crowned 1 cads.
Marchesi divides her pupils into four
classes, each one of which meets three
times a week. The two highest are
known as the opera and concert classes,
indicating for which branch the pupils
are preparing. Monsieur Mangin, a
conductor of the Grand Opera, is accom
panist of the opera class and keeps
Marchesi in touch with all cuts and
changes in the productions - ' the
opera. Monsieur Leroux, brother of the
well-known composer, acts as accom
panist to the concert class. The begin
ners' class Marchesi calls her 'kitchen"
where she prepares voices. There are
several small auditions given for the
various classes at her residence during
the term, and occasionally the opera
class gives in costume a series of scenes
from different operas at some small
theater. On these occasions they are
usually assisted by some of the male
singers from the opera. An audition in
which most of the pupils appear is held
at the Salle Erard shortly before the
term closes.
If Mme. Marchesi had not made her
name famous as a teacher her remark
able personality would probably have
asserted Itself in some other way. On
meeting her one would never suppose
her to be 74 years old. Indeed, she pos
sesses an amount of energy and a ca
pacity for work that many a younger
person might envy.
She rises at 6 o'clock, and besides her
four classes, of about ten girls each, she
has many private pupils. She is very
vivacious and has a keen appreciation
of a good joke, besides never being at a
loss for an answer herself. A gentle
man whose curiosity got the better of
his tact once asked her her age, a point
on which she is sensitive. She an
swered, "I am 28 — and the rest." There
are but few of her pupils who do not
look forward to their lessons, for while
never forgetting the subiect in hand,
music, she is sure to have raised a
laugh more than once before the class
is finished. But it is not to be supposed
because Marchesi possesses a fund of
good spirits that her life has been an
easy or altogether happy one. Of nine
children, she has only one living,
Blanche, who is at present in London,
adding to the reputation she has al
ready made in Paris. Madame Blanche
Marchesi does not possess a large voice,
but it has been so beautifully trained,
her production is so perfect and her
diction and style so pure, that she has
established herself among the foremost
artists of the day. Gounod said to Mar
chesi, after hearing her daughter sing,
"Madame, that is your chef-d'oeuvre."
Madame Blanche Marchesi has been
married twice, first to an Austrian
nobleman, from whom she was di
vorced, and the second time to Baron
Cacamisi, an Italian.
Among the famous singers who are
pupils of Madame Marchesi may be
mentioned Grauss, Gerster, Melba and
Calve. The best-known Americans
who have studied with* her are Eames,
Nevada and Mrs. Vanderveer Green,
while San Francisco has been repre
sented by Sibyl Sanderso\i. Frances
Saville, who claims that city as her
birthplace, and Mrs. Gertrude Child,
Thomas Esther Palliser and Ada Cross
ley, two of the best known English
concert singers, complete the list.
It is to be regretted that the arrange
ments Marchesi was making last fall
for a lecture tour in America were not
completed. She would have addressed
her audiences in English, as she adds
to her other talents that of being a
linguist. She speaks eight languages,
three of which she teaches her pupils
to sing— French, German and Italian.
The majority of Marehesl's pupils are
American and as few of them speak
French with any degree of fluency it
is not an uncommon thing to hear Mar
chesi speaking four languages at dif
ferent times in an afternoon. G. B.
BABIES
ON
THE BATTLEFIELD.
A FEW days ago an Afridi's baby
had a pec-.lar experience on the
battlefield. On an Afridl being
shot it was discovered that he
had been carrying a baby, and
the British troops could not leave this
on the ground with the dead man. Of
course . i provision had been made for
such an emergency, but still the sol
diers were quite equal to the occasion
and ca !ed the . ttle stranger with
them on the march. Later on when re
turning, they k" it n m the spot where
they originally found it, and this was
done in full vie. of many of the enemy
in the hope that it would soon be hand
ed over to its other. This little crea
ture had thas had an experience which
will often be referred to in after life.
A somewhat similar thing occurred
during the Russo-Turkish war. While
the soldiers of a Turkish regi: ent were
marching from Plevna up< n Constanti
nople they fei. n with a female infant
which had been deserted The men
took charge of the little lonely child,
and she grew up as the daughter of the
regiment. The most romantic part of
the story, however, remains to be told,
for this Turkish foundling was married
two or three years ago to an officer in
Russia, when her military foster pa
rents provided her with a handsome
dowry.
Last year a man died at Birmingham
who had through life the satisfaction
of knowing that his birthplace was of
a unique character, inasmuch as he was
born on the battlefield of Waterloo. He
was the descendant of a family of sol
diers, and his father, who was with the
Ninety-seventh Cameron Highlanders,
was killed in the memorable engage
ment at Hougemont. The soldier's
wife had followed her husband out, and
thus it happened amid the dta and roar
of battle. Although born under such
circumstances, he did not develop into
a soldier, but, becoming a railway
guard, frequently had the honor of
acting in that capacity to the Queen's
train.
Another romantic story is told in con
nection with the American Civil War.
After one of the battles a baby clothed
in fine apparel was found among the
dead and wounded, and as no one came
forward to claim it, the opinion was
formed that its parents had perished in
the strife. Of course, it was impossible
to say whether it belonged to the
Northern or Southern side, but ulti
mately a Southern soldier and his wife
took the child and cared for her as if
she had been their own. She grew into
a handsome and cultured young lady,
and in course of time married Thomas
E. Watson, farmer and lawyer. This
gentleman was the Populist nominee
for the American Vice-Presidency some
time ago.
Another incident of a baby on the
battlefield is also furnished by
America. It was at the time of the
Revolution, during the invasion of
Charleston, when the country north of
Coopers River was ravaged by Colonel
Tarleton and the British. Some of the
men reached the plantation of a Mr.
Robert Gibbes at night, and after kill
ing the cattl and shooting down the
negroes proceeded to shell the house.
Mr. Gibbes was unfortunatery a help
less cripple, but his eldest daughter, a
girl of 13. with the help of the servants,
carried him and a younger si to a
place of safety.
After doing this, she discovered that
the baby, a boy 2 years of age, had
been left behind. By this time, how
ever, the house was in flames, shells
were failing thick around ". and the
field was full of soldiers. Still she de
termined to save the baby and ran
toward the house, but was caught by
a soldier. "Where are you going?" he
demand d, and when she replied, "For
our baby," the soldiers stopped firing.
When she entered the house Its de
struction was so far completed that the
walls began to crumble and the flames
shot up through the roof. It is said
that when she reappeared a moment
later with a white bundle in her arms,
the soldiers cheered her loudly as she
ran to the spot where her father had
been placed. The heroic prlrl was badly
burned, but she recovered; while the
baby whose life she had thus saved
afterward became the gallant Lieu
tenant-Colonel Penwick.
"When Columbus discovered South Amer
ica, near the mouth of the Orinoco, the
Spaniards found an Indian villape built
over the water on piles. As it reminded
them of Venice, they called it Venezuela,
or "Little Venice."
HOW TO SUCCEED
AS AN INVENTOR
Dogged Perseverance Is the First
Requirement, Then Keep Your
Mind Free and Active in Your
Particular Field.
BY THOMAS A. EDISON.
F you want a recipe for how to sue-
Iceed as an inventor I can give it
to you in a very few words, and it
will do for any other business in
which you might wish to engage.
First, find out if there is a real need
for the thing which you wan* to in
vent. Then start in thinking about it.
Get up at 6 o'clock the first morning
and work until 2 o'clock the next morn
ing. Keep on doing this until some
thing in your line develops itself. If
it don't do so pretty soon, you had bet
ter shorten your sleeping hours and
work a little harder while you are
awake. If you follow that rule, you
can succeed as an inventor, or as any
thing else, for that matter. It was the
following of just such a rule that led
to the invention of the electric light,
the phonograph and the kinetoscope.
I believe that any person, even of the
most limited capacity, could become an
inventor by sheer hard work. You can
do almost anything if you keep at it
long enough. Of course, the man with
a natural aptitude would get there
first, but the other plodder would
eventually gain his point. The con
stant brooding on the one thing is sure
to develop new ideas concerning it,
and these, in their turn, suggest others,
and soon the completed idea stands
out before you. Above all things a man
must not give up, once he has out
lined his plan of action. A ball roll
ing down hill is sure to reach the bot
tom ultimately, no matter how many
obstacles stand in the way. It is this
principle which finally levels moun
tains. So, once fairly on your way,
don't stop because of some seemingly
impassable obstacle in front of you.
What you want may be just beyond
your nose, though you do not see it.
I once had that fact forcibly pre
sented to me. I was working^on an in
vention and finally reached a point
when I could go no further. The thing
lacked something, but, try as I might,
I could not tell what it was. Finally I
got angry at it and threw the whole
business out of the window. After
ward I thought how foolish the action
was and I went out and gathered up
the wreck. In putting it together again
I saw just what was needed. Repair
ing the broken portions suggested it,
and it was so simple that I wondered
I had not seen it before. Now that lit
tle addition to the apparatus could
have been ascertained by a little
thoughtful experimentation. I suppose
I found it out quicker because of the
"accident," but that does not alter the
moral of the incident.
How do I go about inventing- a con
trivance? Well, that is hard to say.
Everything requires different treat
ment. First, as 1 said, I find out if
there is a real need for the thing. Then
I go at it and attack it in every way I
can think out. This multiplied attack
soon simmers down, until I get what
might be called a composite idea —
something which is a combination of
all I have thought before, or else the
one feasible idea which really seems to
discount all the rest. Having once got
started on what I think is the right
track I keep up the pace until the goal
is reached.
The only thing, therefore, I can say
to the young inventor is to go and do
likewise. There is one piece of advice
I can giw, however. When a man
starts in to invent let him do so with
his mind free from all knowledge of
what' has been done already in the par
ticular field he is investigating.
For instance, if I am about to work
out something- I never read up on it,
nor do I inquire what has been done on
it by other inventors. Knowledge of
this kind is almost certain to prove a
snag in the path of the inventor. He
gets, into the rut made by his prede
cessors and stops off where they have
stopped. On the other hand, if he goes
in a direction of his own. there are no
ruts ahead of him: nothing, in fact, to
obstruct his progress. I have several
times made inventions in *his manner;
then when I had completed them I have
read up on the subject. I found my
own ideas were entirely original, but at
the same time the ideas of the other
fellows were so good U" to a certain
point that I should have been tempted
to have followed in their footsteps if I
had done any previous reading up.
Of course the question of natural ap
titude enters into the matter, and with
out it no man can become a star;
nevertheless, it is an auxiliary attain
ment; dogged perseverance is really the
quality most to be desired. Dogged
perseverance is the keystone of success.
In the arts, such as painting, music,
poetry and so forth, a very special tem
perament may be required, but in the
workshop of science men of the san
guine, "sandy' kind come out ahead.
The man who keeps at one thing and
never minds the clock is always sure to
do something. He may miss many so
cial engagements, of course, but hia
success is assured.
What line of invention is most profit
able?
That depends on what is meant by
the term "profitable." If an invention
is of great public utility it is seldom
personally profitable to the inventor.
If, on the other hand, it is a money
maker for the inventor, then the ben
efit to the general public is apt to be
limited. This is the fault of our mod
ern patent office practice. Inventors
are afraid to engage in large opera
tions which would have to be pro
tected by patents, because our laws, as
they now stand, give every opportun
ity to sharks to go in and infringe the
riprhts of the legitimate owners, em
ploying eminent legal assistance mean
while to cause a stay in any lawsuits
instituted by the rightful inventor. I
have inveighed against this condition.
before now. It is a serious discour
agement to all great public inventions
and it is a point which should be heed
ed by all who intend bringing out any.
invention.
So, then, as things stand, if a man
wishes to make money from his inven
tions, he had better devise some little
thin-g that costs but a trifle to man
ufacture. He will be sure to get
fleeced if he does not. Then, when ha
brings the contrivance before the pub
lic, let him steer clear of the patent of
fice, but manipulate the sale of his ar
ticle so that no one can compete with
him. His "trade secret," as it is called,
will be more valuable to him than any
patent office papers, and it will cost
him nothing to produce it.
After all, however, I suppose the real
Simon Pure inventor is not apt to be a
shrewd business man, and therefore the
thing he wants to know principally is
how to lay down any absolute rule.
The history of great inventions shows
that accident has been responsible for
many initial ideas. This, however, is
not always the case, nor should it be
so. Given a small amount of aptitude
and a large amount of application, any
man can enter the business of invent
ing and make a living — scant at first,
but mo-re lucrative as he goes along.
Thore are not many who realize what
this "large amount of application"
really means; the getting up very
early, the staying up very late and the
sticking at it. meanwhile, with a vim
that never can recognize failure. Men
of this kind fire sure to succeed.
Probably mi'lions of persons are dab
bling to-day in mechanical invention
of some nature, but the most of It is
too- spasmodic to count for much in the
long run. They do not keep at it
enough. If a business man were to
noelect the routine end of his daily
T .vnrk, if he were to pn to his office one
day or two days in the week and then
put the r^st off until next Monday, or
until some other time when the spirit
moved him, he would soon have to as-
sign.
It is just so with invention. You
have to pursue It as a business, and
even more steadily than the ordinary
business.
OLD GLORY OVER
The
BLUE AND THE GRAY
A PERSONAL friend told me the
following incident as a part of
the experience of a search party
over ground which had be«n
fought over three times during
three of the six days in the Wilderness.
"For three days we were fighting all
the time," he said, "now up and now
down, till toward the third evening a
lot of us were detailed to go over a mis
erable excuse for a farm where the
struggle had been the hardest, to Bee If 1
there were any wounded men left un«
cared for.
"As we came out of a strip of woods,
where the leaves and broken limbs of
trees covered the ground almost from,
sight, we were close to the blackened
remains of a house, and a little way on,
to our left we saw two pairs of up
turned feet in a deserted cattle shed. In.
a moment we stood looking into the
faces of a dead Confederate and a dy
ing Union soldier lying side by side, the
cold hand in gray scarcely colder than
the one in blue which held it, and, cov
ering both, was the strangest Old Glory
ever made.
"The living eyes were wistfully raised
to mine, and I read in the trembling of
the chin a feeble attempt to speak. We
gave him brandy, soaked bits of hard
tack in more and gradually fed him.
The stamp of death was upon his face
and its chill was creeping toward his
heart. I knelt and put my ear close to
his lips.
" 'This is my friend, now,' he whis
pered. 'No more Johnny Reb, but true
Old Glory man— same as you and me.
Put us in same graye — side by side, and
this flag over our faces.'
"Noticing my look of inquiry fixed
upon the flag, he continued in. half
breaths and with many a halt that
might mean death:
" "We were hit almost alike — and sure
to die. Got in here and waited. Next
day a Reb, wounded in the neck, gave
us water. 'Nother day — and nobody
came. Johnny said, 'It's all up with,
both of us, comrade — an' I reckon taps
has sounded for me. Don't you think
I might be buried vith you, under the
Union flag — if only we had one? My
father fought for it in Mexico. Say—
can't we make one? I've these for
stars.' And he showed some brass caps,
such as they used to cover screws in,
bedsteads once. 'And there's that roll
of bandages we found in here. Your
blood an' mine will make the red
stripes — '
" ' 'And my blouse will make the
blue field,' I said, 'and I've a needle and
thread.'
" ' 'Where's your hand. Union?' he
said.
" ' 'S — o. Guess I'm off — but you'll
make the flag— and — and — maybe when
Gabriel blows his horn and the dead
come out of their graves — you'll let me
keep hold of your hand, and you'll say,
'This is my friend. Lord. We fought
each other once, but we lay in one
grave under Old Glory. You know Old
Glory, Lord. And please forgive our
sins — especially Johnny's.' '
" 'And so I made the flag — an' him a
lying dead beside me — not fine, as you
see— but Old Glory all the same. You'll
put it over our faces when you bury us
side by side, won't you, comrades? — an*
me a-holding his hand."
"And his look of happiness as we all
said 'Yea' changed Instantly to the
peace of death.
HESTER A. BENEDICT. ,
19