St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-09-22
TOPICAL TALK.

ering. have been having at
Chattanooga this week.
They have done more in one week to
break down the barriers of seetionalism
and to unity American sentiment than
the politicians could accomplish in half
a century. AS Gov. GORDON expressed.
it, they were there to unite in final and Z
eternal sculpture of sectional hostility,
and they accomplished it. Without re-
gard to whether they had worn the blue
or the gray. not one of the $4,000 veter-
ans who camped on Chickamauga's
famous field last week questioned the
patriotism of another. Once they had
been arrayed against each other in a.
sectional strife for which they weref
not individually responsible. They had
tested each others manhood on many Al
bloody field, and are not ashamed:
now to embrace as brethren. LII
the men who fought the battles of the
war can meet in brotherly love, what,
right have the politicians to keep alive
the fires of sectional disc0rd? Among
the distinguished figures at the Chicka-
manga gathering Gen. ROsECRANs and
uONs hClO tAO hOob NOhoPiSo
Gus. "OLD Rosy" was familiar per-
sonage to the soldiers of the Union
army, and the laurels he won while in
command of the Western troops Orna-
ment the brightest pages of our national
history. At the breaking out of the
civil war JOHN B. GORDON was young
lawyer, who had just begun the practice
of mis- profession in an inland Georgia
town. He was elected captain of
company of Georgia volunteers, en-
listed in the Confederate army, and was
ordered to Virginia for service. He
rose by successive promotions for gal
lantry on the field of battle from the
rank of captain to that of lieutenant
general. and although less than
thirty years Of age, he was LEES
leading corps commander at the
time of the surrender at Appomattox.
He was subsequently elected to the
United States senate from Georgia, de-
feating ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS in
the senatorial contest, and now is the
governor of Georgia. He is one Of the
best representatives of the New
South" and his patriotic speech at
Chickamauga last Friday struck re-
sponslve chord in the American heart.
Gen. GoRDoN's wife was his insepara-
bic companion in all of his campaigns.
She was very proud of her young hus-
band, and ambitious to have him win
military renown. She lived in camp
with him, sharing the life of soldier,
often sleeping ON the bare ground with
no canopy but the stars, eating hard
tack and salt pork with a genuine rel
ish, and On the march invariably rode
by his side, mounted on her spirited
chestnut thoroughbred. She was IA
miliarly known to the boys in gray as
"Capt. SALLY GORDON" and there
wasn't one of LEES gray-jackets but
would have died for her.
Those Eiec- The certainty that
we are now to have.
tricaI Street electrical motive pow
er on our street rail-
Railway way lines has stimu-
lated an n terest
Lines. among our people to
know something of the
practical operations of an electrical
line. Riding on the wings of lightning
being comparatively new discovery, Il
most persons have nothing more than a
theoretical knowledge of how it is done.
There is popular apprehension that
the streets will be diSfigured by line
of unSightly poles, such as are used by
the telegraph companies. On the con-
trary, small steel poles, not exceeding 4
six inches in thickness at the base, will
be used, and these are to be ornamented
so as to give them a really attractive APP
pearance. | will digress just here far
enough to suggest that if the proper eff
fort were made the telegraph and tele-
phone companies might be Induced to
substitute these ornamental steel poles
for those horribly ugly wooden Spars that
make our streets hideous. Another point
that | have heard discussed in cOnnec-
ton with electrical lines relates to the
danger of riding on them during thun-
der storm. Ladies who are in the habit
of burying their faces in feather pillow
during thunder storm will not enjoy
this suggestion. 1t is a subject of con-
troversy among the local savants
whether the steel poles strung with
wires connecting with the passenger
train will act as conductors or insulators.
1t will be time enough to solve this prob
lem after the lines are built. If we can
get the electrical cars to going most OF
our people are willing to take chances
on the stray lightning that may be lying
around in the clouds above Us.
The Younger 1t has been seldom
that the death of con-