The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1883-12-20
CAMP FIRES OF OLD,
AS Recalled After Twenty Years of
Peace.
[By cSlnraess John afcElyoy, Editor Toledo Biqae.l

[By C,1nrads John icElyey, Editor Toledo Biade.]
I.
social gathering of old soldiers we call a
Csmp-f fire. because that represents to our
memories and hearts the very brightest and
happiest of the experiences of our soldier life
What hours of unalloyed delight were those
campfire soeiables On the banks of the turbid
Rappahannock or the winding Tennessee, on
the sandy plains Of Georgia or beneath the pal
mettoes of the Carolinas They had q rounded
symmetry and completeness of enjoyment that
makes one almost willing to undergo again the
privations and hard5hips that led up to them,
for the sake of their repetition. Let us recall
one of the typically pleasant ones.
A march-it must be an advance and not
retreat-on a pleasant day, and just long
enough and hard enough to give what the boys
used TO cali good feeling of tiredness," has
ended in a fine camping ground, with fresh,
clean sward, and wood and water handy. From
sparkling fires of cedar logs and poplar rails
rise balsamic fragrance No perfume from
Araby the Blest ever ministered so deliciously
to the senses MS the odor from cedar log
campfire when it mingles in the nostrils of q
hungry soldier with the smell of broiling meat
and boiling coffee. And what marvellous coffee
it was that we used TO drink out of those black
ened tin cups It seems to me that the quality
OF coffee has fallen of terribly since the war.
1t doesn't take hold OF fellow and lift him up
as it used to. / have sought all over the land,
from Delmonicos high-priced hosiery in New
York TO the famous French Market IN New
Orleans for something even approaching in
goodness the strong, black, creamless liquid
that we used to brew at moments notice by a
rail-fire in the Cumberland Valley. But it has
all been in vain. The coffee-bean itself seems
to have lost its grip. Even when we put In all
the little touches that we used to it isn't the
same thing If we brown the coffee as we used
to- in a halfcanteen that we have just washed
our hands in, grind it by pounding it in
pocket between two stones, boil it in an old
oyster can, and sweeten it with sugar whose
good manners have been corrupted by evil com
munication in the haversach with the onions,
salt, soap, and fat pork-even then, with the
old recipe followed out to the minutest detail,
it lacks amazingly of being the superb stuff
that used TO fill body and soul with new life;
and the meat, too-whether it was beef or pork
or chickens that had incautiously roasted too
low-had flavor that is wholly absent nova
DAYS
1t must be owned that the appetizing quail
ties Of these viands came out most strongly on
the march. 1t was frequent thing, after we
had lain in camp for some time, for the coffee
10 become tasteless the meat maggotty or tough
and the bread Inoldy. You remember how we
used to lock for B. G. or the craekers,-but this
never happened on the march. A little prone
made OF thirty or forty miles over hills and
valleys, carrying ones bed and bedding and
bedroom, his groceries, nine-pound rife, and
forty rounds of cartridges had a tendency to
freshen up the rations like magic There was
never any worms in the meat nor mold on the
crackers that formed the supper after such a
ijaunt!
Doctors nowadays earnestly recommend an
hour of active open-air exercise for every
pound of food eaten. We all can remember
when we took sometimes twenty-five or thirty
hours Of very active open air exercise for every
pound of food we ate. The proportions were
something like Falstaff's famous tavern bill,
which had gallons of sack to one miserable PEN
nyworth of bread We did not fix these proper
tions, however, with reference to any dietetic
theory. That was generally done by circum-
stances over which we had no control aud our
misguided Southern brethren over whom
we had still less control
THE oLD-FAsHIoNED CAMPFIRE.
But / started out to speak of canp-fires. After
the march had ended, after the camp was estab-
Eslied, after the tolls and dangers of the day
were done. after the fires began to gleam
through the falling night like carbnncles on an
Ethiop's bosom, after the brier-wood pipes had
been filed with KinikinicA. fragrant as incense,
a measureiess peace, fathomiess serenity of
comfort settled down upon everyone like a
benson.
We sat around the fires on our blankets and
listened to songs that had an exalted suggest
iyeness and meaning that they never had at
any other time. We told old stories that were
as fascinating as the tales of the Arabian Nights
tothe Sultan Of the Indies. Sweethearts fathers,
mothers, brothers, sisters and acquaintance
were brought ont, described and discussed.
Seen through the light Of the campfire they
were all extraordinary people. Our sweet
hearts WONDERS hearty nd
our fathers remarkable for wisdom and strength,
our mothers for goodness and love and brothers,
sisters and kinsnnen all distinguished by the
possession Of unusual qualities of some kind
And those we did not like were Just as hateful
ugly and vicious as those whom we did like
were beautiful, wise and generous. There were
no half way people on our list. Like the little
her forehead, they were all very, very good or
else they were horri9.
Thon, as the fires burned down into masses
OF glowing emhers with towering heights of
I gold and far-rcaching vistas like the glorious
cloud world that lies around setting sun, we
gazed into their shining depths. and pictured
there, in the high c0l0rs Of sanguine youth the
happy future that awaited us in Gods coun-
try when the cruel war was over and Johnny
came marching home And then the silyery
voiced bugles would sound over the echoing
/ hills sweet-tongued summons to that happy
/ sleep which ever awaits on youth and health.
THE TIES OF coMRADEsHIP.
Those who did not share with US the hard
ships and sacrifices of the conflict, and the gen.
! Grafton which has grown up since the war, fail
/ 10 comprehend the bond which unites all old
soldiers Of honorable records knitting them to-
/ gether with tics that the passing years
strengthen rather than weaken. They cannot
understand why having belonged to the same
regiment should make men feel as brothers, as
cousins from having worn the same corps badge
and that there should be sentiment of kinshiu
| among all who followed the flag to the front
with gun and saber during those momentous
! years
! Many are even disposed to nnderrate the ex-
hibitions of interest by old soldiers In one
! another, and sheer at them as species ofmutual
! admiration and a clannishness based on an as
/ sumption of having seen and done some rather
unusual things. This is an unjust an almost
! cruel disparageInent OF relation that deserves
| all praise. 1T is not that soldiers regard them.
selves set apart and superior to the rest of
! the community-it is not that they seek spec
/ iai recognition and honor for services rendered
! the country. Soldiers are drawn to one another
and cling 10 one another through an influence
| that every one who has gone through the storm
and stress of battle has recognized and felt but
| TO which no one has as yet given a name
Superficial thinkers say it is merely the result
of association IN common dangers and common
triupphs, but that cannot be true. We see ne