The National tribune., 1886-01-07
by REGIMENTS Or POSTS.

will be greatly enhanced by the journey
being made in congenial companionship.
The average time required for the trip, in
cluding excursions TO various points of inter-
est, will be not far from SO days. Old SOL
diers need not he told how wise it is 10
provide that those who shall spend such a
length of time together be harmonious in
tastes and character.
This is being taken into account in form
ing parties in Posts, which Will keep together
during the entire trip and rely on each other
for society in the long journey across the
plains and the mountains. They will be all
the time in the same car-in many instances
have whole car for themselves, and will
take care of any of their number who may
become i'll. Groups from Posts give much
promise of harmonious association, for the
individuals composing them will generally
be well acquainted with and adapted to one
another.
There is another way Of organizing, which
will commend itself still more strongly to
very many. That is by corps, brigades, regi-
ments, batteries or companies. To the sur
viyors of many old organizations with splen-
did records, nothing could be more attractive
than the prospect of gathering together once
more all who yet live of their old compan-
ions of the march and battle, and in their
company making the great journey through
the wonderland that lies between the Missis-
sippi and the Pacific. What reunion that
radeships would revive and strengthen in
the days and nights of journeying together,
eating together, sleeping together, seeing to-
gether the picturesque sights, and in COM
pairing the experiences of the war and the
years since the war! Every man would come
home a hundredfold more attached to his
comrades than ever before, and the wives
and children of all would be knit together
ID bonds as enduring as those of kinship.
We know that these survivors are now
scattered over the whole country, and it
looks like an almost impossible task to col
lect them together. It would be hopeless
task were there no such paper as The Ma
TIoNAL TRIBUNE going to soldiers homes
in every County and almost every Township
in the country, and read by every group of
men who wore the blue. BY its agency all
those who were in the same regiment or
brigade or corps, and who are going to the
Encampment, can be brought into the same
car for the greater part Of the journey.
Let us take, for example, the goo survivors
of some regiment that went from the interior
of New York or Pennsylvania-say about
Harrisburg in the latter State. Probably 75
of them still live in the towns and country
in the immediate neighborhood of Harris
burg. Of the remaining 125 probably 10 are
in Ohio, 5 each in Indiana, Illinois, Iowa,
Missouri and Nebraska, % in Kansas, % in
Dakota, and the remaining 40 are scattered
from Maine to California.
The survivors around Harrisburg meet
together and decide to go as a regiment.
This determination is announced in THE
NATIONAL TRIBUNE, and their comrades
throughout the length and breadth of the
land are Immediately apprised Of the fact,
and are seized with desire to go with their
old companions. A correspondence ensues,
the route is selected, the day of departure
fixed, and the train designated. Then the
schedule of the railroad will show the time
at which the train will be at any given point.
The members of the regiment who are in
business in New York and Boston will run
over TO Harrisburg and start with their COM
rades. At Pittsburg those who live there
and in the adjoining Counties of Ohio and
Pennsylvania will come on board, to be
joined at Columbus by the Ohio comrades,
at indianapolis by those living in Indiana,
at St. Louis by the Illinois and Missouri
comrades, at Kansas City by another squad,
at Omaha by the Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska
and Dakota boys, and so on. In this way
each regiment or other organization will
pick up its members all the way across the
continent, and reunion viii be held such
as will be impossible in any other way, for
comrades will be brought together who have
been living in the Far West ever since they
were mustered out, and who have been
unable to attend the regimental reunions
because Of the distance and the expense.
THE NATIONAL TRIBUNE will do all in
its power to aid in bringing about these
reunions, and we invite all comrades to use
its columns freely for the purpose of making
such announcements as we have suggested.
TRYING ANOTHER TACK.
The New York Times which " is so Eng
Iish, you know" can always be relied on
to oppose anything that promises to be of
benefit to ex-soldiers Suggestions to liberal
ize the pension system excite it to contorsive
spasms, and ii was dreadfully exercised over
the determined insistence last year that the
right of soldiers to legal preference iu