The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1885-03-20
THE TOWN TRAMP.

IThis letter was not received last week nti
Thursday-too late for publication.-Eds.
And no you have been to Washing
ton to see Cleveland inaugurated. And
you looked on and enjoyed it all, no
doubt. I don't suppose you were ex-
actly glad to see Tom Hendricks step
into the Vice-President's chair, hut
still you could stand by and see it and
not cry out. And you could stand
by and see Grover Cleveland led to a
seat that has been filled by Washing
ton and Adams and Lincoln and Gar
field, and not cry "shame"!
~
/ don't much wonder that you could
do these things, for you are young.
You don't know any thing about the
feelings that were pressed and ham,
mered and burnt through four years
of war, into the brain and heart of us
older men. Some of US, 1 know, seem
to have had all these feelings 4ubbed
out SO that they don't think of them
any mere, but as for me, the older 1
grow the deeper they get. wouldn't
have been in Washington the 4th of
March for any money. 1 couldn't
have stood it.
l have only been in Washington
twice. Once when our regiment
marched to the war, a thousand strong
in 1861, and once again in 1865 when
AGO of us came back-all that were left
of the thousand. Old Abe was proud
of our regiment, for there were good
many of his old friends and neighbors
in it, and when we passed him in the
last Grand Review, could see tears
in the old mans eyes. He was think
ing of the $40 brave fellows that would
never go home again.
x**
And talking about pageants, that
Grand Review was one that was worth
seeing. The parade you saw was fine
no doubt. There were snowy uniforms,
Of course, and clean bright flags and
banners and all that sort of thing.
But it was worth a thousand such, to
see the old and faded uniforms, the
shot-torn and smoky flags and the
weather stained and battle SCARED
faces of the men that bore them. The
show you saw meant nothing but the
celebration of party victory, and the
men that made it were out for holt
day. The Grand Review that 1
marched in meant victory where a
country was at stake. where bullets
were the ballots, and the men that
made it had carried their lives in their
hands as play thing.
~
When read of the quibblings in Con-
gress about the pensions that shall be
paid to disabled soldiers, sometimes
wonder if they ever thought for mo-
ment of what that army might have
done after the GRAND; Review if it had
wanted to. Suppose the soldiers had
decided that they would not disband
until Congress voted them a yearly
pension of 81. 900. 1t would have been
done. Suppose they had said, ave
have conquered the South, now divide
it among u.s." That would also have
been done. For Congress would have
had to obey them. They could have
sent corporal's guard and taken away
the whole body and run the machine
themselves if they had wanted to.
But they didn't want to, and that is
what makes me proud am an Amer
lean. The disbanding of that army
was the grandest thing in history. 1t
had risked everything and had sacri-
feed everything, but it asked nothing.
1t made a vagabond of me, and it
made my life a failure as far as any
thing for myself is concerned, but 1
would rather be what 1 am, having
once belonged to it, than to have dodg-
ed it and be sitting in the White
House to-day. 1t is worth a mans
life, and all the glory and honors it
may bring him, to know that he has
once done something that was really
worth doing. THE Town TRAMP.