The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-10-19
HuMoR OF LIFE IN LIBRY.
Chaplain McCabe's Reoollections Of One
Phase of Prison Life.

From the Washington Post
Few people have thought up TO date
that there was much of a bright side 20
life in Libby Prison, but those who lis
tened to Chaplain McCabe's lecture on
that subject at the Metropolitan church
last night, came away with an altered inn
preston. The lecture had in it good deal
of laughter, but quite as much that was
pathetic, and appealed strongly to the
feelings of the old army men who made
up a large part of the audience, fo- the
lecturer was interrupted time and again
with applause that sounded STRANGELY un-
der the usually solemnly silent arches OF
the church
1t was a sort of pot pourri OF the war
and a chaplain's experiences therein. The
speaker told how he with party of other
chaplains and surgeons were captured
after the first bloody meeting of the fed
eral and confederate troops before Ear
Tvs victory was retrieved by the historic
ride of Sheridan. I'VE represented to Gen,
Early that we were chaplains and sur
geons left behind to care for the
wounded" said the speaker, and the
rough old general said, yes. you preach
ers have done more than any other class
of people in the country to bring on inns
war, now you've been talking on to Rich
mond, and ] guess we'll give you chance
to get there
1T was no use to tell him that we want
| ed to get to Richmond, but would rather
| go in other company. We We're shipped
| off and the first thing they did on arriv-
| ing at the Hotel Libbey' was to register
| us in a large book on the ground floor
| and then to sarch us for valuables. Any
| thing that was no good was returned TO
| us, but everything of value was taken
| | had $50, more money than / had ever
/ no Of ir1p in n1W life The reason
was that it did not belong to me. 1t was
/ the money that / was to have carried
| north to the mothers and wives OF sol
| diers that | knew. / told the man when
| he took it away from me that 1t was not
mine I know it, said he, and stuffed it
in his pocket To be sure, 1 was given
receipt for it and had 1t returned when /
was released. but it was in confederate
| notes at a ratio of to L.
| The speaker went on to tell of the time
! they had in prison, of the singing and
| debating societies, the law classes they
| started after getting some books, and OF
some of the graduates from that class,
who were now practicing before some of
/ the highest courts of the country. at
was the only time. / ever saw forty law
yers in prison together" said the chap
lain. 81 don't mean to say that 1t was not
the first time that there were forty law
yers that deserved to be In prison together
DuI II WAS the Ollly AiAhN CHCA AANSAN "
the fact being accomplished"
The soldier prisoners had great times
together, celebrating Fourth of July with
a flag made of three old shirts cut up and
| seWed together. One of the shirts was
| blue, another was red and the third had
been white once upon time, but not
then The flag was hauled down in the
i midst of their celebration by the prison
! guard, but they had the satisfaction of
! finding out a few weeks afterward that
| Grant had hauled down the confederate
| flag at Nicksburg almost at the same hour.
If a man had money 1t was comparative
w easy to get out of prison., for ten dol
lars the speaker said, would bride any OF
the guards. But the trouble after getting
out was the bloodhounds. The prisoner
| finally got a prescription from an old coli
ored man for discouTaging the blood
hounds. 1t was to put large pile of ca
venue pepper or ones trail, and when the
dog came along with his nose to the
ground and shifted that pepper he lost all
interest in every issue of the war for two
d weeks afterward.
! Some of the men cut out of the prison
by a tunnel underneath, and Chaplain No
Cabe said that the last time he was in
Chicago he went through the old Libbey
prison as it had been reconstructed there
The guide took him into the cellar and
showed him the very hole that the men
escaped through" and the chaplain said
it was the first time he knew that Chicago
| ingenuity could transport a hole clear
from Richmond TO Chicago intact.
The conclusion of the story was the
final exchange, after the speaker had
barely pulled through an eight weeks
siege of typhoid and the joyous homo
coming to wife and loved ones, that was
so different from the fate Of many tina,
had shared with him the hospitality oil
those grim old prison walls.