The Smoky Hill and Republican union. [volume], April 23, 1864, Image 1

About The Smoky Hill and Republican union. [volume] (Junction City, Kan.) 1861-1864

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THE SMOKY HILL AND REPUBLICAN UNION.
""WE JOIN OURSELVES TO NO PARTY THAT DOES NOT CARRY THE FLAG, AND KEEP STEP TO THE MUSIC OF THE UNION."
Volumo III.
JUNCTION CITY, KANSAS, SATUEDAY, -AJPR3X. 23, 1864.
Number 23.
jjmoliji gill mibgrgulni fttnimt,
rCDLWnCD ETZET B.VTUBDAT JTOJUflSO AT
JOTOTIOM, DAVIS Co., KANSAS
TC. E. BAF.TLETT. - - - S. M. STRICKLER,
Proprietors.
TT1I. S. BLAEELT. - - - GEO. W. MAIITIX,
Editors and Publishers.
crn-u nc land office building.
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B3A72 BOYS ARE THEY.
Uovilj- fills the r.iin.
Wild art the breezes to-night ;
But 'neath the roof, the hours as they fly.
Are happy, and calm, and bright.
Gathering round our fireside,
Tho' it he summer time,
We sit ami talk of brothers abroad,
Forgi-tting the midnight chime.
Brave buys are lhe3.
Gone at their county's call.
Anil 3'et, and j'et. we cm not forjjet
That many brave hojs uiU3t fall.
Under the homestead roof.
Nestled so cozy and warm.
While soldiers sleep with little or nought
Tn shelu-r them from the storm,
Hi'Mini: on i-rnpjy couches.
Pillowed tut hillocks damp ;
Of martial fure Imw Utile we know,
Till brothers are in the camp.
Brave boys arc they, fcc.
Thinking no les of them,
Loving our country the more,
Wi- st-iit Ui.-m forth, to fight fr the flag
Their ft. titers lie fore them bore.
Though the great teir-drops started.
This vn our p.irtitiir trut
Gol lilesa you bo-s! 'Ve'll welcome you
Vriien r bels nre in the dust."
Brave boys are they, itc.
JInv the bright wing3 of love.
Guard them where er they roam ;
The time h-ts come when brothers must fight
And sister tr.ust pray t home.
Oh ! The iltvad field of battle!
Sjoh lie Btrown with graves'
If brothers fill, tln-n bury them where
Our banner in triumph waves.
Brave bc-s are thy, fcc.
AGE5 OF EMINENT MILITARY MEN.
Washington was in his forty fourth yeat
when he tfaumed command of the Revolu
tionary wmies, and n his fiftieth when be
took l'orktown. General Taj lor wan in
In f-ixty second year when the Mexican
war b',ri!i, tind in less than a year In; wen
the battles uf Palo Alt", Ilesaca de la Pal
ma, Monterey uml Hue Vista. He, ton,
was badly supported. The secessi m wai
has been conducted by elderly or middle
aged men. General L"e, whom the world
holds tn have displayed the most ability in
it, is about fifty-six. General Roscerans i.
forty four and General Giant forty-two.
Stonewall Jackson died at thirty-seven,
General Banks i.s fortv-eight, Goo. Hooker
forty-five. General Jeaureg:nd forty six,
General IJ-agg forty-nine, G.euernl lJurtiside
forty. General Giimore thirty-nine, General
Franklin fotty-om, General Magruder fifty
three, General Meade forty-eight, General
S-hinlcr Hamilton forty-two. Gen. Charles
S. Hamilton fotty, and General Foster forty.
Getiurul Lander, a inau of great promise,
died in bis fortieth year. General Stevens
at foity-five. General Sickles was in bis
forty-first j'car when lie was wounded at
Gelt). -burg, and General Reno was lliirty
peven whsu be died so bravely at South
Mountain. Gener;-! Pemberton lost Vicks
burg at forty-five, Geucral W. T. Sherman
forty-four.
General McCIellan was in bis thirty
fifth year when he assumed command at
Washington in 1301. General Lyon had
not completed the first month of his forty
third year when he fell at Wilson's Creek.
General McDowell was in his forty third
year when he failed at Dull Run, in conse
quence of the coming up of Joo Johuston,
who wa fifty-one.
General Keyes is fifty-three, General
Kelley fiftv-sevni, General King forty, and
General Pope forty-one. General A-S.
Johnson was fifty-nine when he was killed
at Shil.di. General Ilalleck is forty-eight,
General Longstrect is forty. The best of
the Southern cavalry lenders was Ashby
wh was killed at thirty-cight. General
Stuart Is twenty-nine.
On our side, General Stanley is thirty.
jGcur;il Pleasonton is forty, and General
Aerill about -thirty. General Phelps is
fifty-one, General Polk fifty-eight. General
S. Cooper sixty-eight. General J. Cooper
fifty-four, and General Blunt thirty-eight.
'1 he' list might bo uiueh extended, but
xery few young men could be found in it
cr.very few old men. The best of our
leaders nre tneti who have either passed
beyond middle life, or who may be said to
bo in tbe enjoyment of that stage of exist
ence. It is so, too, with tbe Rebels. If
tbo war docs not afford many facts in sup
port, of the position that old generals are
ery useful, neither docs it afford many to
tfctqttoted by those who hold that tbe hit
lory of herotHjn is tho history of youth,
DEATH OF THE WIDOW OF EX-PRESIDENT
HARBISON.
Tho venerable widow of ex-President
Harrison, residing at North Bend, Ohio,
died on Friday, aged 88 years. We trans
fer to our columns the following graceful
obituary from the Cincinnati Gazette:
A mother in Israel has departed another
of those pioneers are passing away nearly
all gone, and of whom it may soon be said,
"They are all gathered to their fathers."
Coming generations will reap the fruit of
their labors; but th.ir faces shall never be
seen more.
Mrs. Harrison wn,3 tbo only daughter of
John Cleves Sytnmes, the original purcha
ser of the Miami country. Shu was mar
ried to the Hon. Captain Harrison, who
commanded Fort Washington, soon aftei
the departure of General Wayne for the
Atlantic States, probably in 179G. She
had, therefore, been forty-five years married
when her husband, then President of the
United States, died, and twenty-three 3-ear
since, a widow. But Mrs. Harrison's life
comprehended vastly more than this. She
was with her husband as he passed through
all the stations of civil and military career.
She married him as Captain Harrison. She
saw him as General and Commander in
Chief, Member of Congress, Senator, Gov
ernor, and President. She was with him
iu prosperity aud adversity, for they were
compelled to see, in various ways, not a
little adversity. In this long career, Mfn
Harrison never fai.cd in any Christian duty.
Perhaps, her most distinct trait of chr.r
acter, in relation to that public life, in which
her husband and family were so much call
ed lo act, was her want of any love of show
or inordinate ambition. To all the allure
ments of public life, she was indifferent;
but quietly pursued the huiublc, discreet,
self-denying offices of a Christian woman.
In fact, Mrs. Harrison was a pious, devoted,
benevolent Christian; pursuing the duties
rf Christian life with exemplary fidelity.
Her character is summed up in one para
graph from Howe'd " Ohio." " She is
distinguished for her benevolence and her
piety ; and all who know her view her with
esteem aud affection, and her whole course
through life, in all. its relations, has been
characterized by those qualifications that
complete the character of an accomplished
matron."
When such a matron, who has seen bus
band, children and even grand children
descend before her to the grave, shall depart
full of grace, and leaving her fruits behind,
who shall lament? The Hged trunk hai
fallen, but the spirit has gone to God, who
gave it. Blessed are the dead who dio in
the Lord.
THE WIT OF SARCASM.
To be sarcastical is thought by some peo
pla a proof of ability. Such individuals
are like a pack of Chinese crackers thrown
into a crown, continually exploding in every
direction, but with greater noise than inju
ry. There ia more ill breeding than wit in
a sarcasm, and more ill-nature than either.
True wit does not consist in abuse, but in
profound wisdom, tersely espreased. Noth
ing, therefore, can bo further from wit than
sarcasm, and whore they go together, one is
pressed into the service, and is not a legiti
mate ally.
Nevertheless, we know many, mostl)
young persons, who set up for wits on the
score of sarcasm. They are usually very
conceited, or very foolish, or very unamiable
individuals; and by no means the terror to
others they imagine. Per.-ons of sense are
no more affected by their sarcasms than
mastiffs are by the yelp of a lap dog. A
real wit never condescends to reply to them.
We have known many such sarcastic per
sons in our experience, and always found
they cured themselves of this childish hab
it as soon as they grew up, or if they did
not, they remained children in the control
of their tempers to the end of their career.
It is a mean sort of revenge that seeks to
gall another person's feelings by sarcasm.
We frequently hear young persons at a
party making sarcastic remarks on those
who enter. There is here, perhaps, not so
much ill will as ill breeding, not so much
spleen tit others as a desire to display our
selves. It is a sort of verbal harlequinisni
cot up to raise a laugh. The would be wits
in this case are like tbe monkey in a red
coat at the menagerie, who rides the ring
and plays bis antics to amuse children ra
ther thau people of sense. When young
gentlemen arc the actors, they are generally
forward conceited slips of boys cultivating
moustaches, and stretching themselves up
in company to appear like men. But when
young ladies are the offenders, they will
frequently be found not very pretty, or not
very amiable looking; and though they
usually attract hearers, they make few fast
friends, for every one ia fearful lest they
should turn out shrews. We may be amus
ed at seeing a crowd run from a chaser, but
we have no fancy, to be .chased ourselves.
One enjoys tbe fun of beholding others take
up nettles, but be is very careful nut to
touch the sting. Hence the wisdom of tbe
common saying, that sarck"ic women are
seldom married. Though willing enough
to laugh at others, men do not care to be
made butts themselves. Moreover, a long
practice in this habit, gives a person in
sensibly a splenetic mind, so that what was
taken up to give test to conversation, is too
apt to end in spoiling the temper. Tart
ness wonld seem to be infectious. People
grow soar and sarcastic together.
REVOLUTIONARY ANECDOTE.
It was a fine Sabbath morning, in tbe
year 1777, that the inhabitants of a little
parish iu tbe State of Vermont,, and on the
borders of New Hampshire, assembled in
tbeir accustomed place of wor-hip. The
cares of that fearful and long-toberemem-bered
summer has imprinted an unusual
serious look upon the rough though not
unpleasant countenances of the male mem
bers of that little congregation. The rugged
features relaxed, however, as they entered
that hallowed place, aud felt the genial in
fluence of a summer's sun, whose rays illu
minated the sanctuary, and played upon tbe
desk and upon the countcnauce of him who
ministered there. He was a venerable man,
and his whitened locks and toite'ring frame
evinced that he had numbered three score
and ten years. Opening the sacred volume
the minister was about to commence the
services of the morning, when a messenger
almost breathless, rushed into the chuich
exclaiming, 'The enemy are marching upon
our Western counties!" The man looked
around upon his congregation and announc
ed his text : " lie that bath a garment let
him sell it and buy a sword." After a few
preliminary remarks, he added: ' Go up,
my friends, I beseech you, to the help of
your neighbors against tho mighty. Ad
vance into the field of battle, for God will
muster the host of war. Religion is too
much interested in the success of this da)
not to lend your influence. As for myself,
age sits heavily upon me, and I cannot go
with you; ueither have I representatives of
my family to send. My daughters my
daughters cannot draw the sword, nor han
dle the musket in defence of their country,
but they can use the boe so that when the
toil-worn soldier returns from the field of
battle ho may not suffer for the necessaries
of life." The venerable pastor bowed
his head in devotion. When he again
looked around, his audience was gone. One
iy one they had silently left the house of
God, and ere the sun bad that day set, the
male inhabitants of that little pariah, who
were able to bear arms, were on their way
to meet the enemies of their country on the
field of Bennington.
M0SE IN ELYSIUM.
A letter from the Army of the Potomac
has the following good thing :
A few days ago two soldiers were sen
tenced, for some trivial offence, to ten days
in the guard house, but tbey were taken
out occasionally to do police duty about
camp. Doing police duty, you must know,
is not in the army what it is in the city,
consists in going about under guard and
cleansing up the camp. These soldiers
were put to cleaning away the mud from
the front of the Colonel's quarters. They
were from a New York city regiment, and,
to judge from their dialect, might have
been named Mose and Sykesy. At any
rate I shall call them so in the recital.
They had worked well, and finally seated
themselves on a log to await the arrival of
tbe sergeant of the guard to relieve them,
when the following conversation took place:
Mose Saay, Sykesy, what you gocn to
do when yer three years is up ? Goin to
be a vet ? Saay ?
Sykesy Not if I know myself I aint.
No ! I'm goin' to be a citizen, I am. I'm
g iiu' back to New York and am goin' to
lay off and take comfort, bum around the
engine bouse, and run wid der machine.
Mose Well, I tell yer what I'm a goin'
to do. I've jest been thinking the matter
all over, and got the whole thing fixed.
In the first place, I'm goin' home to New
York, and as soon as I get my discharge
I'm goin' to take a good bath and get this
Virginia sacred soil off me. Then I'm
goin' to have my head shampood, my hair
cut and combed forward and 'iled, and then
I'm goin' to some up-town clothing store,
and buy me a suit of togs. I'm a goin' to
get a gallus suit too black breeches, red
shirt, black silk choker; stove-pipe bat,
with black bombazine around it, and a pair
of them shiny leather butes. Then I'm
goin' up to Deltuonico's place and am goin'
to have all he has on bis dinner ticket, you
bet. What ? No ! I guess I won't have
to break my teeth off gnawing hard tack.
After I have had my dinner, I will call for
a bottle of wine and a cigar and all tbe
New York papers, and then I'll just set
down, perch my feet up on tbo table, drink
my wine, smoke my cigar, read tbe news,
and wonder why the Army of the Potomac
don't move.
" Putting your foot in if," it seems
a term of legitimate origin. According to
tbo "Asiatic Researches," a very curious
mode of trying tbe title to land is practised
in Hindoostan. Two holes are dug in the
disputed spot, in each of which the lawyer
on cither side put one of tbeir legs, and
there remain till one of them is tired, or
complains of being slung by insects in
which case bis client is defeated. In our
country it is generally the client, and not
the lawyer, who " puts his foot in it."
1 At a fancy dress ball in Pari.
France, recently, a lady was seen in a very
low-necked dress, wide floating and waving
an abundaace of green guaze. She was
politely asked by a gentleman what aha per
sonated. "The' sea; Monseiur." "At
low tide, theC, adam." The lady Wusbed
aad tbe geattaDiB smiled.
FORT PILLOW TAKEN WOMEN AND CHIL
DREN MASSACRED.
Our worst fears are realized. What we
anticipated yesterday, is true to-day. Our
brave boys at Fort Pillow have been mur
dered by Forrest and ht3 outlaws.
Tbe 12th was tbe day of the assault.
Forrest bad under htm some six thousand
men. coon alter the attack commenced,
be sent in a fltg of truce, demanding its
surrender. Major Booth, with only six
hundred men, refused.
The fight was resumed, and continued
for some time. Then came a parley and
another flag of truce. Tbe demand of sur
render was again refused. Fighting ;s
again renewed and kept up until 3 P. M.,
when Major Booth fell. Then came anoth
er assault, and the telegraph reports :
When Major Booth was killed, the rebels
followed up their last flag of truco iu
swarms, overpowering their forces and com
pelling tbeir surrender. Immediately upon
tbe surrender ensued a scene which baffles
description. Up to that time comparatively
few of our men were killed, but insatiate as
fiends, and blood-thirsty as devils incarnate,
(he Confederates began an indiscriminate
butchery of whites and blacks, and even
those of both colors who were wounded.
The black soldiers became demoralized
and rushed to the rear of their white offi
cers, and having all thrown down their
arms, they were defenceless. Both white
and colored were either bayonetted or
sabred even the dead bodies wero horribly
mutilated. Children of seven or eight
years, and several negro women, were killed
in cold blood.
This all occurred after tbe surrender.
Wounded soldiers, unable to speak, threw
up their arms, were shot down, and their
bodies in many instances rolled remorse
lessly, down the high bank into the river.
Dead and wcunded negroes were piled up
in huts and burned. Several cttizons who
had joined our forces for protection, were
killed or wounded.
When it came to collecting the survivors
it was found that out of 600, all that could
be found was about 200. The most of
these were killed after the surrender.
Among our dead commanding officers,
are Captain Bradford, of the 13tb 'lennes
see Cavalry ; Lieut. Barr, Lieut. J. C.
Allerstonu, Lieut. Wilson, Lieut. Revel,
and Major Booth.
The following were taken prisoners :
Lieut. D. N. Logan, 13th Tennessee Cav
alry ; Captain John C. Young, 24th Mis
souri, acring as Provost Marshal ; Captain
J. R. Boston, 13th Tennessee Cavalry.
Mnjor Bradford was captured, but it is said
to have escaped. It is feared that he has
been killed.
The steamer Platte Valley came up at
balf past three, was hailed by tbe rebels
under a flag of truce, and men were sent
ashore to bury tbe dead and bring on board
such wounded as had not been killed.
Fifty-seven were taken on, including eight
colored men. Eight died on the passage.
The steamer discharged her suffering cargo
at Mound City Hospital.
Of those known to be wounded in tbe
6th Regular Heavy Artillery are Lieut.
Libberts, of company A, Capt. J. A. Porter,
and Adj. Looting.
Six guns wero taken by the rebels. A
large lot of valuable stores were destroyed
or carried away. The intention of the
rebels seemed to be to evacuate Fort Pillow
aud go on toward Memphis.
DESERT OF SAHARA.
In tlie Wilderness shall Waters brealc out.
Perhaps no more hopeless enterprise could
be undertaken than to attempt to reclaim
the great Afiican desert of Sahara, where
no rain ever falls, and there are but occa
sional oases to give relief to tbe weary and
fainting caravans that traverse it. Modern
science, however, laughs at Eeeming impos
sibilities. Skillful engineers in tbe French
army iu Algiers proposed to sink Artesian
wells at different points, with the strong
confidence that thus water could be reached
and forced to the surface. In 1860, five
Artesiao wells had been opened, around
which, as vegetation thrives luxuriantly,
thirty thousand palm trees and one thous
and fruit trees were planted, and two
thriving villages established. At the depth
of a little over five hundred feet, an under
ground river or lake was struck, and from
two of them live fish have been thrown np,
showing that there was a large body of
water underneath. Tbo French govern
ment by this means hopes to make the route
across the desert to Timbuctoo fertile and
fit for travelers, and thus to bring the whole
overland travel and commerce through Al
geria, which will be one of tbe greatest
feats of modern scientific enterprise.
BA When Cornelius Vaoderbilt was a
young man, bis mother gave bin $50 of
her savings to buy a small sail-boaf, and be
engaged in the business of transporting
market gardening from fetaten Island to
New York City. When the wind was not
favorable he would work his way over the
shoals by poshing the boat along by poles,
putting his own shoulder to tbe pole, and
was ? ery sure to get his freight into 'mar
ket in season. This energy always gave
him command of fall freights, and he accu
mulated money. After a while he began
to baild and ran steamboat; and he is bow
reputed to be worth more than niaeteea
millions of dollars, after making the Gov
rameat a present, as a free gift, of a
ttatwiip that eoat 1800,000 !
SOLDIERS AFTER THE WAR.
Macaulay, in the portion of bis history
relating to tbe state of English society at
tbe close of the great Revolhtion, touches
on a subject curiously paralied in our own
times. Speaking of the fear that were
then entertained as to the result of disband
ing Cromwell's array, and throwing its un
ruly elements back into society, be says :
" The troops were now to be disbanded1.
Fifty thousand men, accustomed to the pro
fession of arms, were at once thrown on tbe
world, and experience seemed to warrant
the belief that this change would produce
much misery and crime that the discharg
ed veterans would be seen begging in every
street, or would be driven by hunger to
pillage. But no such result followed. In
a few mouths there remained not a trace in
dicating that the most formidable army in
the world had just been absorbed into the
mejfc of tbe community. The royalists
themselves confessed that, in every depart
ment of honest industry, tbe discarded war
riors prospered beyond other men ; that
nono wis charged with any theft or robbery;
that none was heard tonsk alms ; and that,
if a baker, a mason or a wagoner attracted
uotice by his dilgence and sobriety, be was,
in all probability, one of Oliver's old sol
diers." Precisely tbe same gloomy prognostica
tions in regard to our own armies used t
be rife, and are still indulged in by an oc
casional foreign or domestic Maworni. But
they will be just as much and as happily
disappointed as were the apprehensions re
gatding Cromwell's men; fur not only are
(he same causes operative with us, to work
the quiet absorption of the military elc
inetits into the body politic, but there are
new and peculiar influences making in the
same direction.
THREE NEW STATES.
Do our readers realize that tbe coming
anniversary of our Independence is to wit
ness tbe reception into the Union of three
new States? It is oven so. A writer in
the Chicago Journal says:
On and after the 4tb day of next July,
three new Stars are to be added to tbe Flag
of the Union Colorado, Nebraska and Ne
vada having been received into tbe sister,
hood of States. JQuder V ancient regime,
the admission of a new State was attended
with great and prolonged political agonies,
and a Free State could not be received un
less accompanied by one which had slavery.
Yet those three new-comers were not kept
many hours in tbe House before tbe "ena
bling act," which opens tbe national portals
to them, wa3 passed, and a proposition to
strike out tbe anti-slavery proviso was de
feated by a vote of 87 to 18 ! Could there
be any better evidence of the utter "demor
alization " of the once potent Democratic
party, than is shown by this demonstration
that onty eighteen members of the House
of Representatives thought that the new
States should not be insured against slave
ry ? What an advance from tbe days of
that bitter conflict which was commenced
prior to the admission of Maioo and Mis
souri, and i now being terminated on
bloody battle fields !
--- m
Toe Power op Silence. A good wo
man in New Jersey was sadly annoyed by
a termagant neighbor who often visited her
and provoked a quarrel. She at last sought
the counsel of her pastor, who added sound
common eenso to bis other good qualities.
Having heard tbe story of her wrongs, he
advised her to seat herself quietly in the
chimney corner, when next visited, take the
tongs in bands, look steadily into tbe fire,
and whenever a harsh word came from ner
neighbor's lips, gently snap the tongs with
out uttering a word. A day or two after
wards the woman came again to her pastor
with a bright and smiling face, to commu
nicate tho effect of tbis new antidote for
.scolding. Her troubler bad visited her,
and as usual, commenced her tirade. Snap
went the tongs. Another volley. Snap.
Another still. Snap. " Why don't you
speak ?" said tbe termagant, more enraged.
Snap. " Do speak ; I shall split if you
don't," and away she went, cured of her
malady by the ungic of silence. It is hard
woik fighting a Quaker. It is poor work
scolding a deaf man, it is profitless beating
the air. One-sided controyersies do not
last long, and generally end in victory to
the silent party.
Squire 0 , in his old age, took
to himself a young and enterprising wife,
who, immediately after being installed an
mistress of the household, set herself to
accomplish ,he Herculean task of "putting
things to rights." Old CJ was absent
daring the scouring process, and on bis re
turn, judge of his dismay upon discovering
that bis lovely reformer bad erased from the
wall, all his " book accounts," where they
bad bea ciphered for years past. Her
pride at her achievemeat was, therefore,
dampened by his exclamation that she had
ruined him, for those were his charges
against bis customers. She encouraged him
however, to attempt to commit them to the
wall from his memory. After his long and
laborious iask was completed, evideutly
with great satisfaction to himself, she veu
tared timidly to ask him if be thoaght be
had got them all dowa. He replied, verj
slowly and deliberately. " No, I don't think
I have oaita all : bat thea I thiak I
got ttea agaiist betur folks T
SCHUYLKR COLFAX.
Tho Washington correspondent of tha
New York Independent gives the following
interesting sketch of the present Spealcr uf
the House of Representatives:
Mr Colfax is about forty years of agt
and wa.-, born in the city of New Yoik.
His grandfather, Gen. William Colfax, of
New Jersey, commanded Washington' Life
Guards through tbe Revolutionary War,
and was as intimate companion of .the Fa
ther of bis Country during the closing ypvrs
of the war. silting daily at his table. Mta
Colfax, whosa pleasint face and roanneti
are familiar to all who have fn queued the
Colfax receptions this winter, frequently
wears a begemmed belt buckle, worn by
Washington during the Revolution, and pre
sented by him to .Mr. Colfux's grandfather.
After tho war was over. Gen. Collax mar
ried Miss Hester Schuyler, ooiimii of Gen.
Phillip Schuyler, and from this source
comes the given name of Schuyler. In
lb 12 Gen. Colfax commanded at Sandy
Hook, and bad the rank uf Hrigudier Gen
eral. Schuyler Colfax's father was teller
in the Mechanic's Bmk of New York at
the age of thirty, aud about that time mar
ried the present Mrs. Mathews, who was
but fifteen years old. Four months after
the death of his father, Schuyler Colfax
was born, inheriting nothing from his father
but his name. He obtained all his educa
tion in the common schools of New Yoik
and tbe high school then kept iu Crosby
street. At ten years he left school alto
gether, and at thirteen emigrated to Indi-
ina, with bis mother and her second hus
band, Mr. Mathews, who are now a part of
I'Ir. Lolfax s family in Washington. Mr.
Colfax has lived in but two counties the
county of New York, and St. Joseph county.
Indiana. At twenty-one he established the
Register, at South Bend, which ho Mill
publishes. At the end of the first year he
was $1,375 in debt, but in a few years it
becauie a productive property aud then
was burned out, with but little insurance.
Mr. Colfax began anew, and was more suc
cessful. His political course i.s known to
all and I need not refer to it here. When
first uominated to the State Senate of Indi
ana, he declined, because he could not afford
to leave his business. Mr. Colfax was nev
er a plaintiff or defendant in a court of jus
tice, never drank liquor or wine, but is aa
excessive.smoker. He has banished liquor
from the House wing of the Capitol, ia
spite of many protests against it. Sinoa
the war broke out he has given, though a
poor man, nearly $3,000 to sick and woun
ded soldiers, aad to encourage volunteering.
"Mr. Colfax has a tdigbt figure, gray
eyes and brown hair, and though he has
been iu Congress many years, he still looks
yougn. Ills district lias already intiuiateu
to bim that they will uut permit htm to re
tire at the close of the present Congress."
CHANGES WROUGHT BY THE WAR.
In "Cudjo's Cavrt," a war novel by J.T.
Trowbridge, well known as a contributor to
the Atlantic Monthly, we find the following
paragraph :
"How many a beloved 'good for-anthing'
bns gone from our streets and G resides, to
reappear in a virion of glory ! The school
fellows not their comrades ; the mother
knows not her own son. The stripling,
whoso outgoing and incoming were so fa
miliar to us impulsive, fun loving, a little
vain, a little selfi-h, apt to be cross when
supper was not read, apt to come late and
make you cross when 6upper was ready and
waiting who ever guessed what nobleness '
was in him f His country called, and he
rose up a patriot. The fatigues of marches,
tbe hardships of camp and bivouac, tba
hard fare, the injustice that must be sub
mitted to, all the terrible trials of the body's
strength and the fcoul's patient endurance
these be bore with the superb buoyancy
of spirit that denotes the here. Who was
it that caught up the colors and rushed for
ward with theui into the thick of the ban?,
after the fifth man who had attempted it
had been shot down 7 Not the village
loafer, who used to go about tbe streets
dressed so shabbily ? Yes, the name, lie
fell, covered with wounds and glory. The
rusty and seemingly useless instrument we
saw hang so long idle on the walls of socie
ty, none dreauied to be a trumpet of s nor
ous note nntil tbe soul came and blew a
blast. And what has become of that
white-gloved, perfumed, handsome cousin of
yours, devoted to his pleasures, weary evea
of those to whom life, with all its luxur
ies, had become a bore ? He fell on the
trenches at Wagner.
" He bad distinguished himself by his
daring, his hardihood, hit fiery love of lib
erty. When the nation's alarm bat, his
manhood stood erect ; be shook himself;
all his past frivolities were no more ibia
dost to the mane of this young lion. The)
war baa developed th lateral heroins, iaotar
young men, and taught as what is humani
ty in oar fellow is ia oarselves. Becaata it
has called iato actual I tbis genermdtj aad
courage, if for no oTfler cause, let aa forgive
its cruelty, though the chair of the beloved
one be .vacant, the bed unsjppt in, and the
band cold that penned the letters ia that
sacred drawer, which eaaaot evea tsoir fca
opened without grief."
J0 Aa avarieioas man "eat Wrst" it
said to make a practise of-alwaya tiding ia
:be last seat of a railway traki, la save tba
interest en his fare aatil the seaJaaiac gats
'round to kits.