The Middleburgh post. [volume] (Middleburgh, Snyder Co., Pa.) 1883-1916, 1893-06-15

'ShNNi 'iuO WI Jul 4Npl Nlltl IL bhN,
waving gently over this ono.time
dwelling place of death aud terror |!
Peace aud sunshine lie upon the
building like Il benediction. Hatred,
rancor, and the tumult of passion
are gone we are standing in the
greatest and freest of modern cities.
where the world is gathering to its
supromest festival of brotherhood .
Before us Stands Il great milestone
in the progress of human liberty,
Il monument TO the birth of peace.
About us lie the fragments. as it
were, of the battered gate through
which we entered the present era.
they are instinct with instructive in
terest.
Here lies II slab of steel from the
rebel war-ship Merrimac here n
mass of iron plates from water
battery on the Potomac. with great
holes tore through it by cannon balls
and 250 pound solid shotimbedded
in its centre here lies huge tor
pedo, picked up in Mobile Bay by
Farragut, and here is an enormous
chain, which was stretched across the
Hudson River ut West Point in l77s,
by Gen. Putnam, to prevent the
British ships from ascending the
river. The links of it are two feet
long and weigh $50 pounds each. It
is II remarkable relic of that early
epoch, a strange chip from the storm
buffeted bridge humanity was then
building toward larger liberty.
We lift the latch of the battered
door of Libby and enter. 1t is n
repository of strange and historic
things. Here upon the right is n
full length portrait of Major Thomas
r. TufL1f, soAsm.sr 2anS % NC Si.s prisr
on from 81 TO 'G5 before us stands
the famous table upon which Gen
erals Graut and Lee drew up the
papers for the surrender Of the Con
federate army at Appomattox. Upon
the table lies the original manu-
script of Gen. Lees farewell address
to his army, and mn orginial battle
field order written by Gen. Grant.
Near by is great rick of project
lies. illustrating the progress of in
yention in death-dealing missiles :
canister, chain-shot, shell and soil Il
shot, some of the latter of enor-
nous size and weight. The large
room is crowded with cases of his
toric documents aud war relies, the
walls are covered with portraits Of
eminent generals and statesmen.
Guides, themselves once prisoners in
this modern Bastile, shows the Wis
itor about and explain the innumer-
able interesting features.
The twelve great rooms are filled
with notable and priceless memen-
toes of the past. Over 300 portraits
of famous men adorn the walls, to-
gether with more than 1000 other
pictures of war scenes and events
which were factors in the making
of history. Here the visitor may
stand by the fire place through
which 109 Union officers made their
escape from tho prison in 1864, one
of the boldest and mostin genious
escapes in the whole history of war.
Here is the bed upon which the i'm
mortal Lincoln breathed his last,
the chair in which John Hancock sat,
when he signed the Declaration of
Independence, chair from the
home of Thomas Jefferson, and one
from the residence of Jefferson
Davis. Here is the original portrait
of Columbus, painted by Sir An
tonic Moro, at court of Spain, in 43,
and purchased by Mr.. Gunther, in
London, for $4,000 Here are the
stove, goose and shears used by
President Johnson while working as
tailor on the bench, life mask of
Lincoln and death mask of Grant,
the original will of John Brown, and
the suit of clothes worn by Wash
ington at his second Inauguration.
One might fill page after page with
names of the rare and historic OBJ
jects which make this the greatest
of all museums. It's value and ex-
tent may perhaps be better illustra-
ted by the statement that is quite
impossible to view it all in one day,
and that several visits are necessary
to grasp its detail and magnitude.
The removal of Libby Prison to
Chicago at first excited censure from
certain sentimentalists. But this