Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1883-07-12

Mudd, Arnold, Spangler and O'Loughlin.
They were supposed to be terrible fellows,
ready to cut all our throats any time at a
moments notice. DR.. Mudd was the cen
trail figure. He was fair-haired man Of
good size and rather prepossessing appear
ance. His one all-absorbing thought was
that he was the victim of great injustice,
and whenever he could gain a listening ear,
into it he always poured his griefs. He was
did good service there, till in an evil day he
attempted to escape by secreting himself on
board steamer. OF course he was found,
sent back in disgrace, and afterward kept
in solitary confinement Arnold was
young man, not more than tWenty-fOur or
twenty-five, handsome, highly educated, re-
fined and retiring in his manners. He said
little, never complained, but felt his dis
grace most keenly. He was kept as clerk
in the provost marshal's office, and many a
descriptive or muster roll, in his beautiful
handwriting, wentto Washington. He had
the ability, and ought to-day to be taking
good care Of himself somewhere. Spangler,
the carpenter at Ford's theater, was IA
jolly German, and to all appearances, as hap
py there as mortal man ever is. How well
| remember his portly form, bustling about
at his work, the happiest looking man in the
fort. Lastly was poor 'Loughlin, an Irish
man, think shoemaker by trade. He
had left a family in Washington, and could
not bear up under his punishment. He
dropped from the day he reached the place,
and died soon after | left. | have to-day a
letter from Mudd and one from Arnold,
written after had left the service, asking
my aid in procuring some mitigation OF
their punishment. While l did not pity
them as did the more than $50 soldiers
sent there for the most trifing breaches of
military law, can still see how they were
all, perhaps, more unfortunate than criminal.
HOME OF THE BLUE CRANE.-Mr. John
l.. Dunlap has returned from hunting eX-
pedition in Spencer county, Ky. The only
trophy he brought back with him was gi-
gantic blue crane, which measured five feet
from tip to tip, and was exactly six feet in
height. Mr.. Dunlap tells a very curious
story of Il resort of these cranes. About two
miles from Taylorsville is an island in
Sayre's creek whose area is perhaps ten
acres.
The island is favorite haunt of these
peculiar birds, who annually resort therefor
the purpose of rearing their young. Not
withstanding the fact that the crane is a
wading bird it builds it's nest in the tallest
trees it can find. The island is not cleared
up, but is covered with gigantic sycamores
towering eighty or ninety feet in height,
and the loftiest Of these are selected by them
for their nests. One Of the trees has twenty
eight nests upon its topmost branches, and
another has twelve. The nests are rude,
ugly structures, built in a slovenly manner
of sticks, leaves and twigs, and are guarded
jealousy by the birds throughout the breed
ing season.
The cranes have been in the habit Of re-
sorting to this island for term of years be-
yond the memory of the oldest inhabitant.
Here they have been left undisturbed until
it has become royal domain on which
nothing else of the feathered tribe dare in
trude. The silence of centuries broods over
the primeval forests, unbroken save by the
tapping Of their wings, or it may be the
chance shot of the wandering sportsman.
The stream for miles around is frequented
by focks of the birds who here seem to lose,
at least for time, their solitary instincts,
and become sociable and gregarious. They
leave annually about the first of September,
returning the 1st of April, and have been
doing so for years and years. Their number
upon the island is almost incredible, and old
citizens of that country say it must be fully
1000, perhaps much more.-LouisriHe Cou-
1ier-.JOunal.