The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1890-02-27

was no one IN lne car Wnen entered " 7,
Ut soon after leaving Wheeling station
party of five m.n came in and seated
themselves close to where sat. looked
hem over and readily come to the con .
,usinn that they were not only out and
ut Snutherners in sentiment, but weIs
a delegation of representative men
bound on some sort of political business
Why? Because they were smart looking
and appeared cultured, refined, in fact
,eemed like public men, they acted like
iuen having one idea in common; their
sarb was of Southern color and style;
md they eyed me as if half suspicion,
f my political status The more
bought of it the more l was strt Myth
ned in my belief, and, although dete't
uplicity, my military experiences III
Ieedful strategy had left an easy door to
uy conscience to masquerade as an ex
and find out what cOuld
# the purposes of this mysterious dele
cation. My clothes were Southern
enough, and l was tolerably familiar
with the manners and customs of the
South. So l just lay low and waited
he development of events. did MOI
have to wait long.
Pretty soon the gentleman who sa
nearest to me cOurteOusly asked me wht
was and where l was from. gave
aim a name that suited me, told him
was from Texas and had served as lieu
.enant under Sibley. As l knew al
about the rebel General Sibley had nj
trouble in making my companion think
| was what pretended to be. Thence
forth everything was lovely. We al
once became pretty bulge, and continued
so all the rest of the journey. l let then
do the talking and l listened. Now anc
then l put in a word. l told them who
at the North ought to have been hanged
before the war. l said Horace Greeley
had done more to stir up strife than any
other man, and that the South would al
ways cherish a bitter hatred agains
him.
This woke them up, and they let ou
the whole thing. My theory that the!
were delegation of prominent citizens
representing various sections of tn,
South and bound on secret political Ell
rand. proved correct,
"To begin with, they confided to mt
the interesting bit of intelligence that /,
was confidently expected to get ex Presi
dent Davis out of prison on bail.
"Good! l exclaimed. But how in
the world can it be done? or course, in
order to have the mavement of any
force it must be headed by some proml-
nent Union man in the North, anO
where can such man be found p
"'He's found already said the CHIEF
spokesman OF the company. 1t is none
other than Horace Greedy
You don't say
Eyes. Mr.. Greeley has promised t.
be first b0ndsman for Mr.. Davis on bal
bond of 800,
ITO say that was thunderstruck is a
tame figure of speech. Mind you, this
was little more than year before the
thing actually took place. before thu
North had the least inkliDg of it.
managed to suppress my emotion and
continued my inquiries.
"'But what about Andy Johnson?'said
|. You know how hard he's been on
us fellows, eatening us with black
seats" the halter" and other revenge
full things
"'l beg of you not to borrow any
trouble on that score. President John
son is all right. Two Of us have ALREADY
had an interview with him. and our pres
ent mission is 10 the Executive Mansion
to call on the President on this very bail
Yes, President johnson is with
us in this movement, and in due course
of time Mr. Davis will be liberated. Blu
everything must be kept quiet for
awhile, for if the Northern people find
it out President Davis will surely b
hanged
Their tongues continued to run on
ard everything run along smoothly he
tween us. question whether they
would have been so free in their talk had
they not loosened their tongues some.
what with potations from their TASKS
"Well, at last we reached Harper
Ferry; then across the broad Potomac,
which 30 many brave fellows had
never more to return, ana
presently the train rolled into the depo
st Washington.
my Southern friends and | took AZ
to Wizards hotel. AS we
,lighted from the bus whom should
see standing on the hotel steps. 10 my
Joy full surprise, but two of my old mil
airy friends and brother officers. They
were Colonel NeG Wynknop of the old
California column and Adjutant Gen
eral Bene4min Cutler of California. Col.
saw me- first and, dutfing his
nat, exclaimed Cutler, here IL Captain
Hill ~
You'd better believe there was some
hearty handwriting and mutual con-
MI tinno I q naonaI Ula a
my late travelling associates-and you
lught to have seen them. | doubt if
here was ever a greater transformation
'cene on the mimic stage. A more crest
allen, more angry looking set of fell
ows it would be bard to find. The off
GERS uniforms and our mutual greetings
gut together had betrayed my geograpb-
cal and political status. They stood
trsnsfixed by the revelations,
hen passed by us up the steps into the
Iotel, and as they passed, one of them
vas heard 10 exclaim as he shook his
list /:
Hes Id Yankee spy =
"Things turned out according to pro-
l observed.
Precisely. l visited my old home in
Naples; then located down in Virginia
md went into milling business, from
which l was obliged to retire, and out of
he State. by reason OF the Ku Klux
<lan, who burned up my mills and
hereby sunk my invested capital. But
while l was there the news came one
lav-iU was the 18th of May, 1S67-that
Jeff Davis, after two years confinement.
vas bailed out in the sum of 800 900,
Horace Greeley heading the list of his
nearly all the rest Of whom
we're VIrRinians, including 30 noted a
JniOnist as John M. Bolts. "-NelC York
Press.