Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1886-06-06


Any man win be conservative enough so
long as be has anything 30 conserve; but
when once ne finds MS own pockets empty
lac very soon discovers that the framework
OF society needs reconstruction, and that
property must be transferred" Il. e.
from MS present posses.ors 10 bimseli.)
Queer a. our postmaster looks he i man
Of some intelligence, and has seen not
| few strange places In his time. Yesterday
afternoon, when we were In the little snug
| gerry over which my " brother man Of let.
| tersv presides, printed notice canght my
| eyes which was not without interest under
| existing circumstances, for II announced
the entrance Of the Congo Free State into
! the Postal Union and the dispatch OF let
| ters 10 and from 1t ut the rate OF
| Ad. Is centsl the hall ounce, cents for
| pOslal-cards, and 2 for newspapers.
| fsncy," SAID she old man, noticing our
/ study OF the placard, " the Congo's good
Geal different now from what II was In my
| tine" Have YOU been there, them"
asked I. not little surprised TO discover
an African veteran among these quiet stay
! ai-home villagers; "that's just where Mrs.
| Kcr aud arc going next month, and where
| we should have gone last summer, for that
| matter, il we hadn't been wrecked on the
way" "Wrcckedi" echoed the old fellow,
| with an appreciatige grin; "sye, that's
| many q mans luck nowadays. I've been
| pretty near il my self once and again, j can
| Tell you. As for the Congo, bad 9s much
! Of il az / wanted, and something over in
| the old day IS OF 1861, when lay of the mouth
| OF it for seven months on end"
| But what on earth were YOU doing
! there all That timef' inquired |. "Look'
| Ing out 10 catch some Of them Portieee
1 L., rt llta
| bottom OF all the mischief that goes on ont
| there, blast 'em. Whenever you sec the
| Por;igce flag flSing anywhere along that
coast tou may take your oath there's some
| viltuny afloat."
| "AEd ] hope YOU caught the rascals,"
| $40 /. rc,ollcclir & al that Stanley told me
| la,t November abort the rufiianiy kdnlp-
| pers Ct Angola. Yes. we Iptched two or
| thT,e of ZEN, sure enough: but it took .
| precious long time to do il, and we were
| oIi mortal tired Of the place long afore our
| tine was up. The best fun was when we
| were sent up the river i'm our boats 10 get
wood and WGtcr. for Then we could 90
ashore and stretch our les n Bit, and try
our hands at shooting game, and have
| yalaver with some Of the native kings.
| Queer customers they were, them black
kings, and no mistake; but s'pose you've
seen plenty Of 'Cm yourself, for thlt mat
| ter"
"YCs, we saw good many Of them on
the KrOo coast after we were wrecked;
| Mrs. Ker skctched three Of them in one
| morning." cave, they're worth sketch
ing, the old Guy Fawkeses-reg'lar figures
| OF fun rs ever ! saw. There was one old
| rogue there IN my time (Klng Slmbo JambO,
| or some stitch heathenisn name,) that was
| alwavs a-cOming down 10 lis 10 see II he
could find anything TO his liking; and
| there were precious few things that
wtun't TO his liking, can promise you.
| when once he got his claws on 'em. Stitch
| hoy for rum | never saw in all my life;
| b'li,ye bed ha' drunk whole cask at
| one 60, il you'd gwen II 20 him. But next
! 10 rum there was nothing he liked so well
| as old cans and meat-tins, though what use
| they could be TO him when he'd get 'em I'll
| be whipped il ! can tell. Mays the time
that myself have gone up and got lOg OF
| wood from him as big as that" (lnd the
| ancient mariner held out his hands wide
| apart in ilustra.iOn) " in return for two
empty meat-cans that were not worth 81"
Z" But YOU didn't get very far mp the
! Congo. | SUPPOSED" "No, we didn't. nor
anybody else, neither, not in Them days.
| You sec, this was long before Muster STAN
| ley came, and nobody knowed anything
| about the river then, except just the eighty
| miles from the sea up - the missionary STA
| ton at Embomma. We Just knew that It
was the Congo, but where IL came from, or
what il did on the way we didn't know
| no more than the man i'm the moon. We
could tell, though, that it must be good.
big river. for 10 came out with such rush
| that It made a current Of SIX or seven
knots an hour. all told, and the earth that
It brought down stained tue sea as brown
rs beer for hundreds and hundreds OF
| yards"
Nv wandering friend, the postmaster, Is
| not the only traveller in this neighborhooi.
| Barely two miles away from our door, in
IN old-fashioned farmhouse on the wooded
slope Of Leilh Hill, lives man whom
last saw in his Office under the shadow OF
the kremlin during one of my flying visits
! TO Moscow. The clergyman Of our village,
who is now quietly established in a snug
| little English yiclrage half buried in over
| shadOWing trees has heard the tigers roar
at midnight in the jungles Of Bengal, and
| has seen the broad. smooth stream Of
| the Gauges mirroring the towers
| and temples Of ancient Benares. More
| than one OF the strapping fellows in dark
blue who tenant the county police-station
two doors below our cottage have an
| stride suggestive Of their having faced i'm
| their time worse dangers than n drunken
| piowman, runaway horse. or some risky
| young Jack iIOTner" OF bull My
present landlord, too, whom ! can see
! a. / write. working away painfully 4h
| his spade In a field on the other side Of
! The road. is a veteran If the Seventeenth
| lanccrs, on the wall OF whose tiny parior
| hangs a medal inscribed with names which
! are household words 10 every Englshman.
Alma, Balaklaya, 1nkerman, Seba>to-
| pol" TmIty.twO years ago, when his
| iron. gray hair was black and his weather
beaten visage round and rudy, be trench
cd earihwOrks under "a hail OF Russian
shells and round shot upon the fatal
plateau that faced the destroying batteries
Of the Redan, and rode in the ranks OF the
immortal "SiX hundred " who went so
iearessly 20 their doom down the "valey
Of death " at BalaklaYa on that terrible
autumn afternoon IN October, 1854.
ON a clear, bright morning in the later
autumn, while the memory Of the great
conflict was still fresh, ] tramped along the
Balaklaya Valley IN company with Hep
worth Dixon, wishing 20 follow as closely
as possible 10y actual observation the details
Of the famous charge. At first sight. IN
deed, the spot showed little trace Of what
had been. Mans rayage is transient a
himself, and on the field OF slaughter
where so many hundreds OF brave men
had died in vain the grass grew fresh
and Creep, and the sheep fed peacefully on
the rich heritage that covered twelve hun-
dred cOrpScs, and the sun shone brightly
overhead, and the BIRDS carOlcd Derrily
around us, and the butterflies lowered re.
joicingly on the warm, dreamy air, "a il
neither sight nor sound OF war had dis
turbed that beautiful valley since the
world began. But rs | glanced down
ward there looked up at me through
one OF the riffs made in the
soft earth by the summer rains, white
and bare and ghastly, human skull, eleven
down to the very eve-sockets by the deep,
straight cash that showed where an Eng
fish sabre had gone home through helmet
md through head. One stride beyond it
few spliutered bones. evidently shattered
by eannon-ball told that the slayer had
fallen with the slain. And there the brave
men lie side by side, sleeping their last
sleep together in brotherly wise. TIL the
voice OF Him who makes wars 10 cease
throughout all the world shall call them to
the peace that enduTeth forever.
Louis XIV.