The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-05-24
MINOR MENTION.
tingencie.

tingencies
MINOR MENTION.
ME-. w. H. SMITHS interesting sketch of the
Eleventh Indiana Regiment says he does not
know why it was the last in the number of the
six 'three months" regiments when it was the
first organized. The reason was probably, that
it was the only regiment with special drill and
uniform those of the French zouaves) and the
other Ave. following the usual methods of drill and
dress, were continued in the line Of the FIVE
Mexican war regiments, leaving the zouaves to
the last number. In fact, for good while, it
was better known as the '.zouaves," or sLew
Wallace's regiment" then as the Eleventh
Indiana" though the last, in time, became the
sole name. The zouave drill had been made
rather conspicuous year or so before the war,
by the company organized at Charlottesville, by
Captain Wallace He had always had a
"hankering' for military lfe and had served a
hard year, with little advantage, as lieutenant
of the Indianapolis company, Capt John Nc
Dougal, in the Mexican war, guarding the mill
tary depot at the mouth Of the Rio Grande, and
had shown astill earlier inclination to fiction,
in which he has since made himself so eminent
by half completing a novel of the G.. P. r.
James order, called the 'Man at Arms of the
Thirteenth Century" His apprenticeship to
"Bellona" and the muses." did him little service
till long afterwards. In the meantime 1848, he
served a short time in the editorial business as
one of the editors of Freesoil paper, support
ing Van Buren, and the Buffalo ticket and then
served a regular apprenticeship to the law,
or, more classically. to ''Themis" removing
soon after to Charlottesville. From this digres
sion we return to our sheep" as Rabelais says,
and remark that short time before the war
broke out, the Charlottesville company com
pany from Terre Haute and one or two from this
city, with still another from some ether city,
formed weeks encampment here, lived in tents
and conducted the whole affair on a strictly
military principle, with Captain Wallace as com.
mander Of the battalion or regiment, or what
ever it was. When the war broke out these
companies were still in existence, and all at
once joined in forming the "zouave' regiment,
or Eleventh Indiana, with Wallace, of course,
as colonel The preceding military .encamp-
ment had made the zouave uniform. and drill by
bugle call, popular, and thus induced its adop-
ton by the regiment
A CALIFORNIA woman has just had cheerful
experience with the bones of her lamented
husband, who died and was buried in the Boston
cemetery thirty years ago. The widow went to
the far West soon after his DEATH and the grief
she felt, which was, of course, great, was miti-
gated by time, and perhaps other sources of con-
ISOLATION, until she became peaceful and happy,
and, in fact, ceased to dwell upon the memory
of the departed. Within the past year. how
ever she has developed mediumistic powers,
and during the exercise of these she was sur
prised by communication from the spirit of her
exact. The spirit of the Boston man, in
Decd might be said to have haunted her
so numerous were his visits and persistent his de-
mands Nothing would satisfy him but that she
should 90 back to Boston, gather up his bones
and cremate them. Finally yielding to his i'm
portunites, she made the journey, procured the
services of an undertaken and dug for the re-
mains. Owing to lapse of time, these were found
to be in somewhat dilapidated condition, but she
recognized the skull, which she took into her
own hands, having promised the visiting shade
that she would personally superintend the burn.
ing Of that once proud organ. To the skull were
added few more bones, and the lady departed
happy. But only for brief hour. That same
day at dinner the husbands spirit called upon
her again, and announced with displeasure that
she had failed to gather all the remains and
that he desired her to return and Sc
cure the missing relics not forgetting his whisk-
ers, which must be there, and of which.
as she was aware he had been very vain when
alive. Once more she went with the under
taker, the tomb was opened, and with her own
fingers she sifted the dust, being at length re-
warded by a handful more of remains" nclud-
ing the missing beard. Again she piled the fire
in the furnace, and would have gathered the
ashes as keepsake, but for the difficulty of
separating them from the fuel, and, therefore,
left hem to be carried off by the ash man. If
she hears no more from the departed in regard
to his troublesome body, she will go West once
more but ghost who is so whimsical cannot be
depended upon. and she makes no definite plans
Her experience is calculated to deter other
widows from experimenting with spiritualism.
A RECENT paragraph among the current
items of the press says that Sir w. Gull related
before committee of the House of Lords case
of spontaneous combustion, corroboratirg the
plausibility of the incident introduced by Dickens
in BLEAK House." 1t is probably unknown to
any of the present readers of the Journal that
a case of what was thought spontaneous COM
bustion, at Columbus, in this State, in 1857 or
thereabouts was reported in the Journal, and
quoted by Dickens in the preface Of
later edition of the story, or, it
may have been in a paper in one Or the
other of his monthlies Household Words or
"Ail the Year Round The Journals account
was coD;od in full and tho locality of the affair