The National tribune., 1882-03-04
PECK'S REGRETS.

AT recent Campfire given by w. II. Sargent
Post, No. 90 G. A. R., of GAINESVILLE Wisconsin,
comrade Thomas T. Croft read the following
letter of regrets from one of the invited guests
who was unable 10 attend. Though written in
humorous vein, there is yet pathos in the
sentiments expressed that can but touch the
heart of every soldier of the Twenty years ago."
TOMUEL CROFT, Esq.-lfy Beautiful Dreamer ::
Your invitation to me to be present at your bean
banquet is received, and 1 regret to say that a
previous engagement will prevent me from TAX
ing you by the hand, ON that occasion, and lead
ing you through green pastures and beside still
waters. Do you think l want to get all the
beans in this country? l am not hog Tom.
know when have got enough beans. That last
painful of beans at the Milwaukee Camp fire
fixed me, and have not looked bean square in
the face since. [ don't know what it is but
there is something in beans that makes men
sociable and reckless. Beware of beans, Tom as
you value your future happiness. Look not
upon the bean when it is baked and giveth it's
color In the pan, for at last it swelleth like an
accOrdeon, and biteth like cucumber
But [ would like to be there, Thomas and take
the old soldiers by the hands, and look into the
OF Father Times penciings on the faces of the
boys, Who twenty years ago. were as full of vi
tally and as kitteny as any man that ever kept
step to the rafting of a canteen against car
fridge box. Boys, do you realize that you are
getting old? When you enlisted twenty wears
ago the Government was glad to welcome YOU to
the ranks but if you should go to a recruiting
officer to-day he would say, My friend, you are
too old" You would feel like kicking the re-
cruiting officer, but he would be right You
could not stand the marching, the laying under
the fences, sleeping in the mud and living on
army ratons. 1t is hard to realize it, but if an
other war were to break out, your little baby,
that you left in it's mothers arms twenty years
ago, Growing at the hand me down" blue uni
form in which you were disguised, would be the
chap the Government would want Boys, you
are rapidly becoming old back numbers ~
though you feel young enough to stub around
home, you are exempt" now. Do you realize
that the little baby girl that clung to you as you
said good by, twenty years ago, with tears in
your eyes as big as glass paper weight or an
editors diamond pin, is now woman, married,
and that another baby is trying to utter the
word grandpa" when you come in putting on
your youthful airs? 1t is pleasant now to chase
the festive bean around the home campfire, and
talk of the nights when you slept on the ground,
in pup tent, or on some battle field, with your
wet and muddy pantaloons legs frozen as stiff as
dried Goldfish, while you dreamed that every
star that was looking down from above was the
eye of dear one at home reckoning you to
Hold the Fort" and hurry up and get through
with the COMPOUNDED fooishness and come home.
You can laugh now as you think how you
got up in the morning after such nights rest,
looking as though you had been drawn through
brush fence and swearing because the niger
was afraid to come up with the camp kettle of
coffee. You who are left have right to be happy,
but in the midst of your bean banquet let me
ask you to stand up with your tin cup of black
Coffee and drink to "The Boys who never got
home" the brave fellows who never returned to
meet the loved ones they parted with twenty
years ago Let us hope that the great congress
above removed the disabilities " of the boys who
left vacancies in their regiments, and that the
few chickens they took in the way of business
from the enemy will not be entered up against
them on the Big Book, but that the Provost
Guard on duty at the gates of the New Jerusalem
will Present Arms" to them and tell the boys
that they are welcome to the best there is, and
that when we all get in our work here, and are
ready to join our regiment in heaven, that the
fellows that we buried years ago may stand on
the parapet as we come struggling in, and give
us the old soldiers welcome with three times
three" with Tiger. And we shall say to them
"All right, comrades, we would have been here
H.
Yours truly, GEO W. PECK.