The Douglas independent. [volume] (Roseburg, Or.) 187?-1885, 1884-06-28
AN ARMY EXPERIENCE.
How an Old Veteran Escaped Ami
hiIation and Lived to Impart
Warning to Others.
National Tribune of washington.

A pleasing occurrence which has just
come to our notice in connection with the
New York state meeting of the Grand
Army of the Republic is so unusual in
many respects that we venture to repro
produce it for the benefit of our readers.
Captain Alfred Rensom, of New York,
while pacing in the lobby of the
armory, previous to one of the meet
ings, suddenly stopped and scanned
the face of gentleman who was in
earnest conversation with one of the
Grand Army officers. 1t seemed to him
that he had seen that face before, partially
obscured by the smoke of battle, and yet
could not be the same pale, and death-like
visage, which he SO dimly remembered.
But the recollection, like Banquo's ghost,
would not sdown" at command and
haunted him the entire day. On the day
following he again saw the same counteR-
anee, and ventured to speak to its owner,
The. instant the two veterans heard each
others voices that instant they recognized
and called each other by name. Their
faces and forms had changed, but their
voices were the same. The man whom
Captain Rensom had recognized was Mr..
w. K. Sage, of st. Johns, Mich. veteran
of the Twenty third New York Light Ar
tillery and both members of Burnside's fa-
nous expedition to North Carolina. After
Cu0 uTSC STG0UiASb were OfOI, Sdptctll
Rensom said
'sIt hardly seems possible, Sage, to see
you in this condition, for thought you
must have been dead long ago"
Eyes, do not doubt it, for, if | am not
mistaken, when we last met / was occupy
ing couch in the hospital, victim of
Yellow Jack in its worst form"
81 remember. The war seems to have
caused more misery since its close than
Ixxy1o yUao 5Y1r "a N.
tain. 81 meet old comrades frequently
who are suffering terribly, not so much
from old wounds as from the malarial poi.
sons which ruined their constitutions"
81 think so myself. When the war
closed I returned home and at times ]
would feel well, but every few weeks that
confounded .all-gone' feeling would come
upon me again. My nervous system,
| which was shattered in the service, failed
me entirely and produced one of the worst
| possible cases of nervous dyspepsia. Most
of the time had no appetite; then again
| | would become ravenously hungry, but
the minute I sat down to eat I ioathed
food My skin was dry and parched, my
| flesh loose and flabby. / could hold moth
ing on my stomach for days at time, and
what little did eat failed to assimilate.
was easily fatigued: my mind was de
pressed; | was cross and irritable anC
many night my heart would pam me Sc
could not sleep, and when did l hae
horrid dreams and frightful Nightmares
| OF course, these things came on one BY
one, each worse than the other. My breath
was foul, my tongue was coated, my teetf
decayed. had terrific headaches which
would leave my nervous system com
pletely shattered. In fact my existence
since the war, has been a living death
from which / have often prayed for re
lease"
"Couldn't the old surgeon do you an,
goods"
81 wrote him and he treated me, bu
like every ether doctor, failed. They al
said my nerve was gone and without tha
to build upon I could not get well. Whe1
/ was at my worst, piles of the severes
nature came upon me. Then my live,
gave out and without the use of cathar
tics could not move my bowels at all
My blood got like stream of fire ant
seemed literally to burn me alive"
"Well you might better have died IL
battle, quick, and without ceremony. -.
sHow many times have wished | hat
died the day we captured Newberne. ~.
"And yet you are now the picture O.
health"
'And the picture is taken from life.
am in perfect condition. My nerve tont
is restored; my stomach reinvigorated; my
flesh is hard and healthy; in fact | have
new blood, new energy and new lease
of life wholly as the result of using War
ner's Tippecanoe. This remarkable pre-
paration, which / consider the finest toni,
and stomach restorer in the world, ha:
overcome all the evil influences of mala
ria, all the poison of the army, all traces
of dyspepsia, all mal-assimilation of food
and indeed made new man of me"
The Captain remained silent for awhil,
evidently musiRg over his recollections o
the past. When he again raised his heat
| he said:
''It would be godsend if all the veter
ans who have suffered so intensely ane
also all others in the land who are endur
ing so much misery could know of you
experience, Sage, and the way by whicl
you have been restored"
And that is why the above conversation
is recounted.