Cleveland daily leader. [volume] ([Cleveland, Ohio]) 1865-1873, 1866-02-21

he promised notices which he could not
write to no end of applicants. He
was to be seen at the theatre every
night, and he was the dashing es-
cort of the proprieter's wife, who
preferred his jaunty coat and highly-pol-
ished boots to the less elaborate wardrobe
of us writers. That this noble and fash
ionable creature could descend to writing
wrappers, and to waiting his turn with a
handbook in the long train of a sordid
teller, passed all speculation and aston
ishment. He made a sorry flag ofthe Office
boy, and advised US every day to beware
of cutting the files, as if that were the
one vice of authors. To him we stole,
with Inundated faces, and begged a tri
fling advance Of salary. He sternly re-
quested US not to encroach behind the II
ter-his own in~disputable domain-but
sometimes asked us to watch the Office
while he drank with a theatrical agent at
the nearest bar. He was an inveterate
gossip, and endowed with a damnable love
Of slipshod argument; the only oral cen
sor upon our compositions, he hailed US
with all the complaints made at his solicit
tation by irascible subscribers, and stood
in awe of the cashier only, who frequent
ly, to our deligh BIT and surprise, combed
him over, and drove him to us for sympa-
thy.
The foremG. was still our power behind
the throne; he left it out our copy on me-
chanical grounds, and put it in for our
modesty and sephistry. In his broad, hot
room, all faring with gas, he stood at q
fat stone like a surgeon, and took forms to
pieces and dissected huge columns of preg-
nant metal, and paid off the hands with
fabulous amounts of uncurrent bank bills.
His wife and he went thrice a year on
excursions to the seaside, and he was for
ever borrowing a dollar from somebody to
treat the lender and himself.
The s%hip-news man could be seen to-
wards the small hours, writing his highly
imaginative department, which showed
how the Sally Ann, Master Todd, arrived
leaky in Bombay harbor; and there were
stacks of newsboys asleep on the boilers,
fighting in their dreams for the possession
of a fragment of a many cornered blanket
These, like myself, went in'othe halcyon
land of Nod to the music of a crashing
press, and swarmed about at the dawn like
so many CAD flies about an Ok, to carry
lllO tue dNdkbLluR City IuS Il6lOIiC anu
the rubbish 1 had written.
And still they go, and still the great
press tolls along, and still am l its slave
and keeper, who sit here by the proud,
free sea, and feel like Sinbad, that to u
terrible old man 1 have sold my youth,
my convictions, my love, my lifel
The newspaper reporter was transformed
into "our special war correspondent in
the fall of 1861, and, wretchedly mounted,
passed yer Long Bridge, armed with a
pass from Stanton, and out to Hunters
Mills, where lay the Pennsylvania Re-
serves. Here is a description of his
FIRST NIGHT IN CAMP.
NY apartments consisted of a covered
wagon, already occupied by four team
sters, and a blanket which had evidently
been in close proximity to the hide of Il
horse. A man named "Coggle," being
nudged by the Colonel, and requested to
take other quarters, asked dolorously if it
was time to turn out, and roared "woa,'
as he had some consciousness of being
kicked. When 1 asked for a pillow the
Colonel laughed, and 1 had an intuition
that the man Google" WAS looking at me
in the derkness with intense disgust. The
Colonel said that he had once put a man
on double duty for placing his head on Il
SNOWFALL, and warned me satirically that
such luxuries were preposterous in the
field. He recommended me not to catch
cold if could help it, but said that people
in camp commonly caught several
colds at once, and added grimly
that if 1 wished to be shaved in the
morning, there was a man close by, who
had ground a sabre down to the nice edge
of a razor, and who could be made to ac-
commodate me. There were cracks in
the bottom of the wagon, through which
the cold came like knives, and was allot-
ted a space four feet in length, by three
feet in width.
Being six feet in height, my relation to
these Procrustean quarters was most en-
barrassing +; but 1 doubled up, gathering
ly, and laid my head on my arm. In q
short time l experienced a sensation akin
to that of being guillotined, ard sitting
bolt upright, found the teamsters in the
sOundest of Lethean conditions. As the
man next to me snored loudly, l adopted
bhO OAAllldhh IuCd VI LIahtbE a plllON VI
his thigh; which answered my best expec-
I was aroused after a while, BY
what 1 thought to be the violent hands of
this person, but which, to my great cha
grin, proved to be S., intent upon dividing
my place with me. Resistance was use
less. l submitted to martyrdom with due
but half resolved to go home
in the morning, and shun, for the future,
horrible romance of camps.
ALooK AT A GENERAL.
Before the wall tent in question stood a
broad-shouldered gentleman in shirt
sleeves and slippers, warming his back
hands at a fire. He was watching, |
through an aperture in the tent, tn move
nents Of a private who was cleaning his
1 noticed that he wore a seal ring,
md that he opened and shut his eyes very
He was, otherwise, a very re-
pectable and dignifed gentleman.
ais this General NJ Call 2" said l, a lit
lie discomposed. The gentleman looked
Lbstractedly into my eyes, opening and
huttinS his own several times, asif doubt
ul of his personality, and at last decided
hat he l1aS General Meal.
HAae lS II Ho edlu SldfSIy, DuL Will
ut the slightest curiosity.
81 have a letter for you, sir, 1 believe.
He put the letter behind his back, and
vent on warming his hands. Having
several times again, apparently
orgetting all about the matter, l ven
1red to add that the letter was merely
Introductory. He looked at it mechan-
who opened it?' he said.
"Letters of introduction are not com
lonly sealed, General"
Who are your" he asked, indiffer
ntly.
L told him that the contents of the let
,r would explain my errand but he had,
leantime, relapsed into abstractedness,
nd winked, and warmed his hands, for at
five minutes. At the end of that
me he read the letter very deliberately.
nd said that he was glad to see me in
amp. He intimated that if l was not
located, 1 could be provided with
and meals at headquarters. He stated, /
relation to my correspondence, that ali
tiers sent from the Reserve Corps, must, I
ithout any reservation, be submitted to
i'm in person. 1 was obliged to promise 5
'mplianee, but had gloomy f~crebodings t
lat the General would occupy a fortnight d
the examination of each letter. He in I
ted me to breakfast, proposed to make c