The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1893-07-12
CHAPTER ".
The Eiraf Rattle.

The First Battle.
at Cedar Dell had quite a long and
wearisome march to reach the river.
1t seemed so to them then. but months
later would not have been considered
so long. however. 1t was not devoid of
amusement, though barren of any strik-
ing incidents. When they reached the
river many of them for the first time
beheld a stream of water so large, and
as there is always something charming
and fascinating about a river, so was
the broad, siIvery flood more than inter
esting TO them for several reasons. First
II was the dividing line between patriot
ism and treason. On this side all hearts
beat loyal to the government, on that
side. all was rebellion Here the stars
and stripes fioated defiant, there the
stars and bars waved in the breeze.
Here union songs wrent the air, on that
side rebel yell' shook the very sky.
The two conditions obtaining on differ
ent sides Of this dividing line was
strong proof of the fact that. after all,
we are only what circumstances let us
be, and that Sentiment CONTROLS thous-
and while philosophy rules but one, and,
furthermore, an evidence that we often
imagine we are insulted when nobody
but ourselves dreamed of offense, and
after our qUarrels and fights, we not
intrequently discover that we could
nave settled the trouble much better
before the conflict than after it.
Wounds are deeper after many strokes
than before one. Scars of war are very
hard TO forget and ages do not efface
them.
viii Ireland ever cease to quarrel
France ever forget Waterloo? Or En-
gland Bunker hill?
So with misguided conflict between
the kipsmen on the different sides of
Mason and Dixon's line. the roar of the
battles, the bursting of the shells. the
cheers of the Victors. the groans of the
dying from Bull Run TO Appomattox.
will echo from North to South. from East
TO West. through every political cam
patgn, at every great meeting. in the
halls Of congress or the lowest hoVel for
the next hundred years. Every monu-
ment erected to the valor and fidelity Of
the soldiers on either side will throw
shadow in some direction whence curses
will float back. Little did this squad of
men think, as they stood upon the bank
Of the river waiting for a coming steam
boat TO carry them to the battle fields,
that the closing of the war would be but
the opening of political malice and in
trigue, fostered by two great sectional
parties, one in the North and the other
in the South. whose leaders and office
seekers would untiringly labor day and
night, year I'm and year out. to keep up
the sectional hate and prevent a brother
ly love from sealing the nation once
more as one and all that they might get
an Office and live off of the government.
a n
his country as he who perpetuates the
hate and animoSities of war that he
might draw a revenue from the treas
ury of the nation As the cloud Of
smoke cleared from Appomattox. how
blessed. how thrice blessed il would
have been if the black wings of human
hate that Swallowed north and south
could have melted into the sunlight of
love and peace. While we have but two
sectional parties, so long as there is no
great national party that will take an
equal interest i'm every section of the
country, so long will this political hate
go on.
While standing by the river thinking
first of home and then Of the pros
pective battlefields, looking up the
river, listening for the coming steamer,
that they momentarily expected to see
coming round the bend-but
"Hark." said the corporal, isn't that
her whistler"
Then could be heard, from far up the
river, that characteristic steamboat
echo that seems nearly as loud several
miles away as when the listener is on
deck. A deep, semi-mournful. trem-
ulous below that suggests some monster
or Infatuated animal who is capable of
Shaking the hills down with his terrible
voice. Beginning with a low, half-mur-
mer, between a pur and a hum, and
growing louder and louder as more
whistles grouped around the one great
whistle, all together standing above the
upper deck, near the tunnels The
younger men of the company, and sew
eral of the older ones as well, had never
heard such a sound before. and
could have as easily been led
to think it the roar of the
battle as an escape of rushing steam
When that was still nothing more of
the boat could be heard. Long they
waited and watched as the shadows from
the west heightened their black forms,
and widened their proportions. to shut
the sunlight from off the fair. bright
bosom of the broad flowing stream. Now
the highest peak of the opposite hill
throws it's apex shadow on the glisten-
ing waves and slowly starts to cross to
the eastern shore as it had done for
hundreds Of thousands of summers be-
fore, as the eastern hills would call back
every morning. Time repeating the adj
vance and retreat of time. Now sunlight
flames in the eastern sky. and the
shadows Of the eastern hills hang over
the river like a veil on the bright face OF
joy. and slowly as the sun climbs the
FURNISHED sky, the shadows withdraw
steadily, inch by inch. from the western
shore until the veil is lifted and hid away
under the brow of the hill from whence
it foated out. In midday the river
laughs on under the sun, at high twelve,
and at eventide another shadow steals
out from the hill as the one in the morn
ing had stolen back. This is life. Sun
shine and shadow. Between two eterni-
ties. the past and the future. both cast
ing rays of light to be shut out by gloom
and darkness from their tops and in the
valleys below. The river of life flows on
nor stops for sunshine shadows, nor
rests beneath clouds, nor tarries where
starlight falls. IT'S on and on forever,
sweeping toward the distant ocean whose
countless pillows swallow it up. and it's
infinite journey, though unseen, in the
fathomless bosom, is eternally on. As
all rivers forever flow to the sea and
rise in a vapor-like Spirit-mist to fall
upon the earth, and call forth the blush
ing flowers to bloom in their time, so all
life drifts back to the great unmeasured
sea of eternity, to again, perhaps. arise,
and fall down like drops here
and there TO again be gathered to the
channel that bears them to the bosom
that holds all life.
AS the sun sank low the shadowed
side of the hills became wrapped in
darker green. more somber Here and
there where the last rays of the sun
stole between the dividing boughs of the
trees or pierced the valley that led TO
the water; the river was touched with