The Russellville Democrat., 1893-09-14
AT TIE FAIR.
Something About Arkanssns at Chicago
 and What They are Doing.
COL. JOHN GEORGE RYAN.
Saturday Was Notable Day at tho Great Fair--An Account of the
 Proceedings.

WORLDS FAIR, Sept. 11.-[Spe- cial --Chas. Green, register of the land office at Harrison, is visiting the fair. He attended the encamp- ment at Indianapolis. His wife, who has been visiting relatives in. Iowa, joined him in Chicago.
 w. D. Cobb, editor of The Jones boro Sun, arrived Friday and will remain about ten days. His wife accompanies him.
 Mir. and Mrs. Hugh Heiskell, of Memphis, Tenn, were prominent visitors at the Arkansas 1s,sss. ing one day last week. Mrs. Heiskeil is daughter of Justice l.. c. c. Lamar
 Misses Mary and Nina Morgan, daughters of Senator Morgan, of Alabama, were pleasant callers as their headquarters, the Arkansas building, last Friday.
 All are glad to see the face of Professor James Mitchell among us again. He will remain ten days or two weeks, and says that this time he has come to see the fair.
 Readers of The Pine Bluff Press Eagle have noticed many excellent Worlds Fair letters written by "Nayr." Only last week splendid letter appeared descriptive of our exhibits at the fair, and your correspondent at once de- cided that it must have been written by some zealous Ar kansan. Much to his surprise did he learn that to a Chicago man be- longs the credit, and afterward he had the pleasure of meeting him in the person of John George Ryan, attorney at law, Mr. Ryan is an old man, of strong intellect, and, as revealed in pleasant conversation, has an intensely interesting history. He is a former resident of Arkansas, being pioneer newspaper man of Pine Bluff, but he left the state soon after the Brooks Baxter affair in 1874, and has since resided in Chicago. As he will te remembered by many old citizens of the state, a brief resume of his history may prove of interest to your readers.
 At tender age he enlisted in the Federal service at the beginning of the late war in the Eighteenth Ar kanass. At the close of the war he had become colonel of the Sixteenth Confederate cavalry, and while at Memphis, with his parole of honor on his person, he was arrested and taken to Washington in chains. Not until he got to Baltimore did he as- certain the cause of his arrest. There he discovered through the daily papers that he was supposed to be John H. Surratt, son of the Mrs. Surratt who was hung for com plicity in the assassination of Lin- coin; that he was one of the con- spirators and was being taken to Washington to be executed. It. was with difficulty that the guards restrained the mob from lynching him. At Wash ington he was incarceratad iD the old Capitol, part of the time in the dungeon or in the sweat box, where had 1t not been for the kindness of the guards, he must have died from exposure and foul air. He tells narrowing tale of his experience there, and shows scars where he was bitten by rats while asleep. From Washington he was taken to Vicksburg in heavy chains and under close surveillance. There in the November following, 1871, he was taken before Gen. Slocum, who ordered him to be released without trial or investigation of any kind. In the x-,antime the real Surratt had fled to Egypt, and after several years of hiding was cap tured and brought back to the United States. Mr. Ryan was present at the trial, and the daily papers said that the "mysteri- ous prisoner" was in the audience to see the man who looked like him, and that they were near enough alike to be taken for brothers. This probably accounts for the persecu- ton to which he was subjected, and for which he now has claim before congress for $l00,000, with a good prospect of success. The story of his life would fill volume, and he has often been importuned to have his biography placed before the pub lie. He is brother of Gen. w A. c. Ryan, who won distinction as Union soldier, and after the close of the war espoused the cause of Cuban independence, from 1869 to 1873, and was one of the fifty-three foully murdered by the Spanish authorities at Santiago.
 Saturday was notable day at the Worlds Fair. One of the notable events was the dedication of the new liberty bell. An immense crowd surged around the new covenant of peace, in which were cast priceless relics of contests for liberty in many lands. After short speeches by President T. w. Palmer and others, the first stroke was struck by veterans daughter from California. Then fifty strokes were given, one for each state and territory, and one for universal peace. Each