Omaha daily bee., 1888-12-03

were you ever down at zuni?" "No,
| there are no beaver thar" "But, jim,
! there are some things in this world be-
| sides beaver. / was down there last
| winter and saw great trees with limbs
| and bark or, all turned into stone. y
"Oh,' rejoined jim, "thcms called
| petrifactions; come with me TO the Vel
| lOwstOnc next summer and | Will show
| you pctriied trees a-grOwing, with
| pctrifcd birds singing pctrificd songs"
! Now. IL so happens that | have been to
| the Yellowstone, have seen the pctriiicd
| tree 'a-grOwing,' but not the petrifcd
| birds or pctriicd songs. The geyscrs
| of the Yellowstone at intervals eject hot
water supersaturated with carbonate of
| lime and geyscritc to n height of hun
! dred aud fity-fcct. This water is car
ricd by mist, latcrally by the wind two
| or three hundred feet suturatiug grow
| ing trees, gradually converting that
side to stone, while the off side has liv
ing branches. So Jim Bridgcr's story
was not all lie, only partly so. Mr..
Tiffany, of Union Square, is at this mo-
ment working up the petriiied trees OF
Huni and of the Little Colorado into eN-
quisite ornaments
General Sherman furnishes this de-
lightful apology for the exaggeraton of
soldiers yarns:
Fasus in uuo falsus in omnibus, is
good enough doctrine for the courts,
but not the camp fire. Does any one
question the truth of Gil Bias or Don
Quixote? Are not Pickwick papers lit.
orally true? Or what American will
permit bloody Britishcr to dispute the
entire truth of Rip Van Wrinkle, or the
Legend of the Sleepy Hollow? AS we'll
doubt that Tam O'Shantor saw the dance
of the witches, and had close call
with his Maggie" at tho bridge of
Ayr. The camp fire of the Grand Army
of the Republic is only continuation
of what occurred during the war, add
ing wit and romance to relieve the
great mental strain, when each soldier
realized that the next day might be his
last-he did rot dread death, but mang
ling, wounds, the hospital and captivity
were ever present to his mind, sleep
ing or waking. These fears and appre-
tensions are now far in the past, and
no wonder the soldiers of lS6l-5 meet
again at their camp-fircs to swap lies"
and should they eXaggerate their own
powers and deeds of vaIor, [ know that
a sweet angel will blot out the SIM"
Then comes the illustration.
81 was seated at my table in st. Louis,
when | became conscious that man in
EOuH IL SdIDs Will IL uuJ,
was addressing me. He gra5ped my
hand Familiarity, called me Uncle Billy,
was delighted to see me in apparent
good health and inquired about the
family, and finally announced that he
was dead broke and must raise S26. so
somehow to get his trunk out of pawn
and to reach his home in Ohio. | natur-
ally inquired what claim he had on me.
Oh, of course, he was one OF my boys;
he had been n lieutenant in the -th
Ohio cavalry, had fought with me at
Chattanooga, Knoxville, Atlanta, etc,
and being perfect stranger in St.
Louis had come to me as his ''uncle.n
He did not remove his hat, which made
me suspicious, still he gave correct date
and place for every event OF his regiment
from Iuka, Miss, to Raleigh, N. G. AT
last he trippcd. Don't you remember,
general he said, 1.-THE grand day at
Washington when we passed the presi-
dent in review; that was glorious day
-" Yes, my good SIR said |, Il left
the -th Ohio at Raleigh with Kilpat-
rick" With hat still on, he pondered
some minutes, and then. with beaming
face: ''Uncle Billy, it was not all a lie;
[ confess I lied some, but | was in truth
a lieutenant in the -th Ohio cavalry,
and have since the war been out on the
plains as q teamster, and have told the
story SO often that believed it myself;
the story is true up to Raleigh, but aftor
that it is fiction. The Cheyennes
jumped our train near Fort Wallace.
got the mules, burned the wagons, and
left me on the ground scalped and dead.
The soldiers came out from the fort,
took me into the hospital, where | was
kindly and skillfully treated, and got
well, but the scalp is gone" With that
he removed his hat, bowed his head,
and the 'hair was gone"
This was the reason why in my pres
ence he had not stood hat in hand in
the presence of his superior officer as he
[ had been to Fort Wallace about the
time when that train was Jumped"
and General A. j. Smith also happened
to be near by at that time, confirmed
the general fact. So that among us we
raised the $26.5O to get his trunk out of
pawn, and buy a ticket to his home in
Ohio. l have completely forgiven him,
and have never seen him since,
Nevertheless, for this very reason
believe in modern ''campfres." They
afford opportunities for wit ana
humor, they prick the bubbles of
the boastful, and stamp us genuine
the pure gold of heroic action aud of
patient endurance. No man can, to-day.
go TO campfire Of any Grand Army
post and successfully boast Of deeds not
genuine without certain exposure.
Brothers reared under the Same roof
know and love each other well, but
day or week, on year OF war comrade-
ship in the same company BELTS aknowl-
edge of character not possible else
where. In peace we must accept man
on his own word. Not so in war; the
truth is then revealed. as it were, by
the lightning's flash. In the twinkling
of an eye we segregate the true from
the false, the brave from the timid, the |
earnest from the doubtful.
Sharp Tricks OF Reporters.
New York Sun: The newspaper COR |
respondent at Naples who gained n posi- |
tiOn behind the chair of Emperor Will |