The Portland daily press., 1877-07-31
THE PRESS.
lFor the Press.l
The Big Gopher.


A AEuC StOfy Oh u Ma1ue SOAuAcEs
SIS it possible that you have such nights as
this in New England ?" said Kate our Balti-
more cousin, as we sat on the piazza under
the full moon of a perfect summer evening.
The soft air, laden with the heavy perfume
of June honeysuckle was aglow with firefies !;
the white balustrade and vine twined COL
umns and broad flight of garden steps
cleaned like marble in the moonlight. We
heard the gentle murmur of the stream rip
pling by and saw 1t rock our little boat.
moored among the lily pads and flag flowers.
Kate's warm, ease-lovlng nature was al.
ways repelled by what she called our 'sPuri-
tan materialism."
81 cannot resist this" she went on, 81
must acknowledge that there is something of
beauty and romance lurking among your
bleak hills. How this night charms every
sense; one might fancy ones self in the days
of the good Haroun al Raschid and under an
Arabian sky. If now, we only had Scheh-
erazade to entertain us! An account of cousin
Franks last sale, or the success of aunt Ra-
chefs last baking would CRATE shockingly on
the loVeliness of such an evening. How can
these people exist, Mary, with SO little of TO.
nance in their lives?"
"The romance of every ones life lies with
in herself" remarked Aunt Rachel quietly
"One could not see it even in Bagdad without
Scheherazade's eyes. dare say the bulbul
and the lotus, If looked at prosaicaIy would
be no fairer than the whip-poorwill you hear
now in the distance, or the pond lilies in our
own stream there, whose buds have alread
started from the slime in search of sunlight"
My cousin looked embarrassed, for Kate
was far too well bred to say rude thing to
the kind though somewhat formal aunt who
entertained her so Hospitality each summer in
her cool northern home.
eff the Colonel would only CALL" said,
skate might hear adventures to rival Snbad' s
and with more immediate interest. Per-
haps she would acknowledge then, that the
pine woods of Maine have their charm as
well as the spice groves of Arabia."s
As spoke there emerged from the shrub
berry and advanced up path on which the
elms drew clear shadows, tall, broad shoul-
dered man, with port almost majestic, and
kindly, honest face.
Aunt Rachel introduced him: "Our friend
Colonel B." The rest were old friends
He greeted Kate with dignifed ease; self
poised man, neither obtrusive nor shrinking,
relying on his own integrity as a passport
everywhere.
I'VE were just wishing for you to tell US
your experience in the war;" said aunt Ra-
chel, ''for my niece here, thinks our North
ern lives have no romance"
s'Tell her about your imprisonment
B." said Frank, "and your getting away.
The rebels called him the big Gopher cous
in Kate, on account of his propensity to
dig"
"Really,," answered the Colonel modestly,
s'it seems hardly worth while; many others
have had experiences so much more remark
able. To be sure, at the time what happened
was of Importance to us, and sometimes, in
looking back, almost wonder if it really was
true, and how could have lendured
what did but seldom talk of it. Indeed
some might hardly believe me, might think
that exaggerated. Besides the war has al
blown over now, everything is as it used to
be, and people feel little interest in soldiers
life."
1.-THE more shame to u.s." exclaimed
warmly, that so much heroism should be for
gotten; that men who offered their lives for
their country are now passed lightly over by
the towards who grew rich in their vacant
places or out of their necessities. We are
not true enough to the memories of those
who suffered and those who fell"
"Were you in rebel prison?" asked
Kate.
II was," said the Colonel with long
breath as If even now, the acknowledgment
gave him sense of shame. s'I was taken
prisoner on the 28th of June, 1884, and
never escaped until the 1st of November
guarded too by boys and old men two thous-
and of US by six hundred in one prison Why
could have gone around the lines and dis
armed them one by one, myself; and the
whole two thousand submitted to that dis
grace for the want of concerted plan of ac-
tion, and from cowardice too, believe. War,
Miss DOrsay, serves to draw out the best
and the worst of mems passions. If you will
believe it, have seen men in the ranks un-
der fire stop to quarrel because one hit the
other accidentally with his musket.
"Yes, there was so much want of harmony,
30 much jealousy and blindnes to their own
good that we never could organize an escape
until we reached Savannah, but were dragged
about from Libby to Macon, from Macon to
Savannah-and there did not escape after
also from there we were taken to Charles
ton and then to Columbia before we got
away"
"Oh, how much you must have suffered,
and how long the time musr have seemed
when you thought of home," exclaimed Kate
whose ready sympathy already encouraged
the narrator.
eyes," the Colonel answered, "we suffered
of course. have seen man, apparently
well and strong, sit down beside his tent,
and die-just from sheer homesckness."
I thought the look of pity on the Cooneps
face, was mingled with contempt as he said
this. With aperfectly healthy organization,
strong, resolute and courageous, how could he
conceive of homesickness or despair?
'But the time never seemed long to me-"
he went on, "except when was kept con-
fined fifteen days in dungeon, for was al
ways busy. I had had some experience in
organizing and directing in the course
of my life, spent amongt he5 lumber
men lin Maine, and as soen as
one plan for escape was thwarted, I made
new one. We meant to get away on our
Quincy from Macon to Savannah. We were
taken in box cars, nnder rebel guard, one
hundred men TO car, with not more than
twenty guards, though they were armed of
course. We had only at certain signal, to
spring upon them, seize their muskets and
overpower them. 1t could have been done
easily enough. At worst if each rebel had
killed his man there would have been but
twenty of us lost out of every one hundred,
and enough left to fight our way through and
ioin our gunboats in the river. hut the cow.