Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1886-06-14

lnaI Jne cries came from TWO small bows
who had crawled under the stand and
who, strange to say, were not hurt any
to speak of.
Acknowledgements Smith, of Hi
nois, was introduced and showed HIM
self an experienced stump-speaker by
keeping the audience amused with gro
tesque illusions and anecdotes. He
also read poem which was not a very
good imitation of Win Carleton's style
and had very improbable basis of al
legged facts.
Capt. Hunt, of Sparta, was called on
and said he was a representative of
Sherman's bummers, who were gener-
ally thought to be terribly bad fellows,
as they were. But they were all prac-
tically brigadier generals, who COM
manded themselves and did it we'll
He said these camp-fres were necessary,
that the people might hear the soldiers
stories and correct the erroneous i'm
pressions they might gain by reading
history, that the war of the rebellion
was fought out entirely by few great
generals on each side. He said he came
around to meet some old comrades of
his in Grant County-comrades of the
25th Wisconsin, regiment which was
famous in the war and whose colonel,
Gov. Rusk, was famous all over the
United States Referring to the red
flag of anarchy, he asked the veterans
to stand by the old flag and not allow
any other flag to float in defiance of it.
DR.. Byers was called on for speech,
but evaded it by a ludicrous account of
a supposed fight, illustrated with John
Lanes hat as map.
Phil. Cheek, upon being called on,
said he was the only surviving private
of the late war. All the rest were
either dead or had become generals or
colonies at the least. He told an anec-
dote of sergeant who, when the regi-
ment was ordered to charge rebel
battery, proposed to raise a subscrip-
ton and buy the burned thing, promis-
ing to subscribe literally himself Any
man in the audience, the speaker
thought, would chip in under such cir
cumstances. He said he had given
much intelligent thought to the prob
lem of why the old soldiers were get
ting so bald-headed. Gle was consider
ably bald-headed himself) The SOL
diers when they went out had given
each of their best girls locks of their
hair and had sent more back in letters;
then they returned and married the
ladies, who had helped themselves to
their husbands hair by the handful
ever since.
He resented the imputation made by
few, that the soldiers went out from
mercenary motives. The man who
would say a soldier endured all his ter
rible hardships and dangers for S13 a
month Ga priyate's pay) had soul SO
small that it had more room to dance
on the point of a needle than bull
frog had to swim in Lake Michigan.
He severely blamed those who would
strew flowers before jeff Davis, the
man whom his own handwriting in the
archives of the rebel government showed
was responsible for the horrible hard
ships suffered by $4,000 Union prisoners
in rebel prisons.
Capt. Chosen, of Monroe, made a
few remarks and John Lane told a few
stories and the campfire was put. out
The people had provided sleeping ac-
commodations for the veterans, and
most of them retired to their cots before
IL o'clock. But scme of the boys,
mostly the militia, carried on the re-
union with so much enthusiasm as to
keep the town awake till the cannon
Numbered forth the sunrise salute. If
those young fellows had marched
through Georgia long ago on foot in
stead of in their minds, they might
have been willing to sleep and let others
sleep. But as the last two reunions
were carried on, the veterans were not
inclined to consider the militia an un-
mixed blessing at a reunion.
Nor was it particularly gratifying to
the veterans that the two principal or
ators on Thursday spoke at least word