The Cass County Republican. [volume] (Dowagiac, Mich.) 18??-1880, 1864-03-24

Hugh Miller, and home they come la-
den with specimens that would enrich
a cabinet. l have in my possession
the most exquisite of soil buds JUST
ready to open, beautiful shells, rare
minerals, collected by these rough and
dashing naturalists. If you think the
rank and file have no taste for the
beautiful, it is time you remembered Of
what material our armies are made.
Nothing will catch soldiers eye
quicker than patch of velvet moss,
or fresh little flower, and many a. let.
ter leaves the camp enriched with fa-
ded souvenirs of these expeditions. I
said that nothing will catch an old
campaigner's eye quicker than flower,
butI was wrong,-a dirty, ragged baby
will. / have seen thirteen dollar man
expend dollar for trinkets TO hang
about the dingy neck of an urchin that
at home and three years ago he
would not have touched with the tongs.
Do you say, it is for the mothers sake z
You have only to see the bedraggIed,,
coarse, lank, tobacco-chewing dam-is
it wicked for me to use that word in
such fashion ?-to abandon that idea,
like a founding, to. the tender inerciea
of the first doorstep. eQar bar ab
COFFEE IN THE ARMY. eJ sdi
Some wise man proposed in Con-
gress, you remember, the substitution
of tea for coffee in the army, and told
the people that the soldiers would well
come the change. A tolerably fair
specimen of theoretical, stay-at-home
wisdom, but not worth Sabbath days
journey of the Queen of Sheba to look
at. Why, coffee is their true aqua vi-
fl1-their solace and mainstay. When.
boy cannot drink his coffee you may,
be sure he has done drinking altogether.
/
On march, no sooner is halt oro
dered than little fires begin to twinkle
along the line they make coffee in FIVE
minutes, drink it in three, take a drill
at hard cracker and are refreshed.
Our comrades from "der Rhine" will
squat phlegmatically anywhere, even
in line of battle. No sooner has the
storm swept to some other part of the,
field than the kettles begin to boil, and
amid stray bullets and shattered shell
they take great swollows of heart and
coffee together. 1t is Rhine wine, the
soul of Gambrinus, "Switzer," and
"Limberg," in one. - ~ q
HOW THE SOLDIERS SLEEP. osEn
You would, l think, wonder to sec
men lie right down in the dusty road,
under the full noon sun of Tennessee
and Alabama, and fall asleep in a
minute. / have passed hundreds of
such sleepers. A dry spot is good
mattress the flaps of q blanket quite
a downy pillow. You would wonder,
think, to see whole army corps, 90
| have, without the shred of tent TO
bless themselves with, lying anywhere
and everywhere in all-night rain and
not growl.. snor grumble. / was
curious to see whether the pluck and
good nature were washed, out of them,
and SO I made. my way out of the
snug dry quarters am ashamed to say
| occupied, at five in the morning, TO
see what water had done with them.
Nothing Each soaked blanket hatched
out as Jolly fellow as you wish to see
muddy, dripping, half-houndered,
forth they came, wringing themselves
out as they went, with the look Of .
troop of "wet down" roosters in full
rain storm, pumage at half mast, but
hearts trumps every time. If they
swore-and some did-it was with q
laugh the sleepy fires were stirred up
then the-ooffee, and they were az
good as new. "Blood is thicker than
water"
ne 1;ttto box, ~