The National tribune., 1883-10-04
DAYS IN WONDERLAND
Conclusion of the Story---Ineidental
Notes and Comments.
TOLEDO, O., August, 1883.

We have left the mountains far behind, and
the outcroppings of the everlasting hills. which,
as you leave ManitOu, put on strange shapes of
disnantled fortresses and ruined castles. We
out upon verdant sweep Of evergreen slopes
and ragged buttes, are told by a fellow passen-
ger VINO has travelled, that this picturesque
spot resembles Scotland. We pass Denver,
crouching like a lion at the foot of the atfiuent
ranges in whose giant embraces turks the
prey which whets but never satiates his royal
appetite. We recross the great plains, where is
to be tested the experiment of Artesian wells
for irrigation purposes for which Congress last
winter appropriated $4,000. Then, crossing
the Missouri River at Omaha, we traverse the
rich and fertile pTairies of Iowa and Missouri,
teeming with corn aud grain, until, at st.
Louis, we bridge the Mississippi and feel that
once again we are in a country whose poSsibili-
ties we understand and whose scenes are no
longer strange and awful
At Omaha we met General o. o. Howard,
commanding that division. with residence at
the beautiful fort overlooking the Missouri
River General Howard is very silvery now,
but his eye is as bright and clear blue, and
his face as kindly and as full of holy calm as
before he faced the perils of a four years war,
or the fiercer, crueer stabs of the political as
sassin. Brave man That he is, he has escaped
them both, though with the loss ofan arm in the
conflicts of war and the loss of a portion of his
somewhat too affluent confidence in human
nature, particularly of the political sort, in the
conflicts with hate.
GENERAL HOWARD AT ATLANTA.
No commander in the armies of the Union
was more trusted and beloved than General o.
o. Howard or wider known for his personal
bravery and courage on the field of battle. He
was one of the few general officers who appear
ed occasionally on the skirmish lines to satisfy
himself of the condition of affairs at the front
The fact of his presence there, whenever
known, filled the boys with enthusiasm, aud,
as in the case of Fighting Joe Hooker" en-
deared him to the army in the way that the
successful planning of q dozen campaigns could
not have done.
General Isaac R. Sherwood of Toledo, Ohio,
who, as lieutenant colonel of the One Hundred
and Eleventh o. V. l., commanded his regi-
ment through the Atlanta campaign, and was
in nearly all OF the thirty battles in which that
regiment engaged, tells the following anecdote
of General Howard's personal bravery:
1t was on the 21st of June 1864, at the battle
of Peach Tree Creek in front of Atlanta, and
the One Hundred aud Eleventh occupied an
advanced position on the front Hne which
they had just taken, and which the enemy was
trying to recover. The bullets were flying
thick and fast. General Howard and an officer
of his staff rode up, moving towards the right,
made some inquiries, and began to take obser-
vations. General Howard was scanning the
field with his glass, when q bullet came WhiZ-
| zing by. striking him on the foot.
We'll, an arm gone, and now leg,' the
General remarked to his aid as he rode away,
as complacently as though he had accomplished
just what he came out to do.
Upon examination it was found that the
| bullet had passed between the sole of his boot
and the upper, just grazing the foot as it shot
| along And to this day General Howard walks
| on two legs.
wAIFs OF TRAVEL.
| Having few hours to wait at the ST. Louis
depot on hot midsummer day, we spent the
| time going from party of emigrants to
| another, as they sat with infinite patience wait
| ing for their train TO go out. There they were,
| Germans Irish, Russians. Swedes, Poles q mix
ture OF all nationalties, who seek the free land:
! of the mighty West, not excepting the poor
| people of our own country, who leave the already
pre-emptod homeSteads Of the older States tx
! find place large enough for their sons aud
daughters to grow and expand in intelligence
| independence, and wealth
| Among these was party of Hungarian Jews
| whose faces haunt me yet, so full were they OF
+! the pathos and patience that come Of centuries
| upon centuries of oppression and persecution
And yet there WAS high intelligence and al
opulence of intellect that in France might have
| in America an August Belmont or Judah P
| Benjamin. They carried their food, consisting
| of hard black loaves and some dried fish, In
long tow sacks, tied with strings, the bags being
thrown over their shoulders when they passed
from place to place. And yet miserably poor a.
they were, and worn with long and weary travel
these sorry creatures had found those whose lo
was more pitiable than their own and were
ready to share their dry crusts with them ant
| such protection as was theirs to give There
were thin, famished boy, SO eInaeiated that thu
flesh seemed to cling to his bones, and littl,
girl with long yellow hair and pinkish whit,
! flesh, who seemed to look into the salloW darl
faces of the aliens from over the seas as con
fdingly as though she had found her owl
father and mother and friends. The children
were little waits, lost in travel, just how no
body knew, not even the good people who haC
| them in charge. In language even, they hat
naught in common with their protectors. In
| deed, no one seemed able to understand tn,
| little creatures, not even the interpreter, wh
came in and tried TO learn something of thei
destination.
AN EX-CoNFEDERATE FAMILY.
The sight of very beautiful face among
group of rosy y-cheeked, well-clad, but very dirt,
children, of all sizes and ages below sixteen
attracted our attention. Ii was the face of
woman. evidently the mother, though her fac
seemed as young as that of the big, overgrowl
girl who sat by her side, dandling q very muss,
but plucky and good natured baby of three o
four months, the twin of another the woman
held to her breast. The woman was beaut,
of the Irish type, regular EyaGgeline, witt
her low brow, from which the wavy dark hair
black as ravens wing, was loosely drawn to
low Grecian knot in the back. Her feature
were fine, her eyes dark and lustrous and he
cheeks q deep blush-red-that royal tinge tina
no art can simulate and no painter reproduce
Here was a raTa auis whose acquaintance wa
too good to be lost. Approaching her throug
her children, that open Sesame" to mother
heart, we soon learned that, instead of Irsh, sh
was true daughter of the soil
"No, / am not Irish; all my kinsfolk liv
down in Tennessee" she said in that peculia
drawl so characteristic of the people of tn
South. "We've been five days long the way
goin' out to Council Bluffs, Iowa; got heaps
kin a'out there"
And are these your children2 Why, 20
look as young as any of them"
s'Yaes, thee all mine-nine of them. Blu
I've had ten. My third little boy we had t
bury. / wish you could We seen him. He wa
the prettiest of all of them, and that good" an
the mothers face was clouded for a moment
"You have had a long, hard journey, bu
you are nearly at the end of it. Hope you wi
like it in the North"
Yes, l hope SO too I've never been ava
from my kin before. But down there in Chat
tanooga, when the twins were very sick an W
thought they were a-goin' to die-you see
had stripped them and changed their clothe
all over an they got chilled, an the doctor sal
/ mustn't do it again till we got through. al
| hot tbau are dirty hut vn