The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1884-04-25
BATTLE FOR LIFE.
The Story of Thomas n. Benton's
Successful Fight Against
Consumption.
TCrofut's Letter.


I once said to Mrs. Fremont that it was
fortunate she was the possessor of such prime
health, as it had enabled her to be of so much
help first to her father, then to her husband.
NO. you mistake me-" she replied. "Un-
fortunately have no secure health. I be-
long to .consumptive family and inherit
strong pulmonary tendencies. In fact, I
have bled at the lungs myself and saved my
life only by a fight of years"
As expressed much surprise, she said:
ayes; my father was man of tremendous
energy and resolution, and people generally
suppose him to have been robust. He never
was. He belonged to family of eight chill
dren, of whom five died of consumption be-
fore they were 81"
l asked her how Col. Benton got out of "the
line Of promotion"
"When he was years old his father died
of consumption, and when his brothers fol-
lowed. one after another, it set my father to
thinking. He was studying law in Tennessee,
practising, perhaps. by that time. The doc
tor told him that he had consumption of a
fatal variety, and must die. He rebelled
against this destiny, and said he never would
perish in that ignoble manner; he would die
on the battlefield. So he raised a company
lit was IN the war of 1912 and started with a
son. In the march from Memphis to New
Orleans he walked most of the way, lending
his horse to others. He marched il the
rain. He waded streams He lay down in
bis wet clothes and slept, and marched on.
He ate like bear. He gained in strength.
His hemorrhages diminished in number and
finally ceased altogether. He always at
tributed his escape to outdoor air and ex-
posure
"Well, after I was married, my life was
despaired of, too, and the doctor intimated
that my time had come. I quit civilized
life at once and went and joined the general
on the plains. That kept me alive undoubt-
edly
$50 it was with our youngest boy, Frank.
He went into law, and had much ambition in
its study, but suddenly the old symptoms
came upon him, and the doctor told him he
must quit the law office if he would live.
Reluctantly he took the hint and went into
the army, where he can live out of doors as
much as he likes"
L said that Col. Benton was such an inces-
SAINT and profound scholar along certain lines
that had supposed that his life must have
been mostly sedentary. especially during the
years when he was editor of The Missouri
Inquirer.
"He always kept up the habit of free ex-
ercise in the air" said Mrs. Fremont, "but it
male him comparatively strong, so that he
could pursue long studies. remember read
ing through to him in French, the sixteen
volumes of the Causes Celebres of France,
while he made an abstract of the cases"
reflected that. percLance, the multitude
nous duels that "Old Bullion" felt compelled
to fight in those good old days, when it was
considered the proper thing for any man to
kill an editor, must have given him good
deal of exercise, and may have had some in
fiuence in keeping him alive. asked Gen.
Fremont the other day if John Bigelow's al
lusion to his duels in the Campaign Life of
'56" repelled the Quakers from him, and he
said: "Not at all, am sure. The Quakers are
sensible people. When I gathered that fine
army of GO, 100 around me in Missouri, several
of the foremost young Quakers of Pennsyl-
vania Joined me, and put on the uniform and
took up the sword at the risk of expulsion
from their church. Probably some of them
actually were expelled"
"I remember" l said, "when we thought it
was rather hard for you to be relieved of
your command in Missouri for taking the
very same attitude Of hostility to slavery
that Lincoln himself was compelled shortly
to take"
II don't allow myself to talk much about
my old disappointments," said the general.