The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1894-07-06

/ officials do not forbid A little farther on
/ and to the left is the beautiful farm and
country house which was long the home
| of Clark Mills, the artist. Not far beyond
that, but a little off the road, is the ia
nous dueling ground where so many great
men have been shot at and not hurt and
where occurred the shocking Graves-C illey
| tragedy. At that point the country slopes
rapidly to the north, and that part of the
eastern branch of the Potomac which may
/ be called u creek comes in from the west.
Just north of it lies the truly quaint old
southern hamlet of Bladensburg, and just
! south of it-pardon the egotism-is where
my honored grandfather was to have fit,
bled and died, but with the rest of the
/ militia he made good time TO the rear and
! lived to tell me the story 40 years later.
! Just across the Bladensburg bridge and
/ to the left dozen fearfully dilapidated
/ tents held all that was left of Frye's in
( dustrials,' while south of the bridge a
/ broad gravel way leads up TO 'Stegmaiers"
as it is called, wayside hotel, with lager
| beer hall attachment and fine array OF
| sheds and stables From the back fence q
fiat gravelly tract stretches away to the
creek, which is well lined with timber and
partly in the edge of the timber, but ex-
tending well out into the field in a rude
square, was the ridiculous looking camp
which has received 50 much more attention
than it deserves. After two hours inSpec-
ton and very free tax with the men |
feel bound to say that they were superior
to what had imagined. The first thing
to strike stranger was the extremely
composite character of the lot. They GER
tainly did not number more than 800, and
this number was slowly decreasing but
among them were some men of real ability
in various lines, a few remarkably well
read and very many whose appearance in
dictated nothing worse than a sort OF sheep
faced innocence About one in ten, ]
should say, was a regular tramp, perhaps
ono in five mere boy. All the rest ex-
cept the few intelligent ones named were
men who seemed to carry an appearance
of vague discomfort and hOpelesSness. The
general impression made upon me was
that they were men who had never formed
any set purpose in life or had been bitterly
disappointed at the start and had never
tried again.
There were few old bell tents, like
those used in the army at the beginning of
the war, few of the dog tents which
came in later, many mere booths made of
ten cloth, bedclothes, wagon covers and
anything else that would patch together,
several ''shacks'' of brush and boards like
those used by the Indians of the northwest
and half a dozen good limitations of the
Indian "tepee' or ''wickiup." In front
Of most of them the men had arranged
nice little plots of sand and gravel, in
which they had worked names and mot
toes with white stone or shells. In the
kettles which were boiling for the noon
meal were fearfully scrawny looking lower
joints of beef and mutton, and there was
one small pile of extremely ancient look
ing bread. If it was soup they were max
ing in the large kettles, it was an aliment
TO have delighted Squeers, though l think
it would have caused riot even in Dothe-
boys Hall We were invited To the tent Of
Mr.. Carl Browne, which was of a rank to
have regular tent flaps, and these being
raised allowed a delightful current of air.
He was reclining in nice hammock, in
vited us TO seats on his bunk and then
rose and talked with clearness and di-
rectness of manner which, with his polite
ness and easy use of good English, made
the interview very pleasant. AS we talked
a very nice looking man of about % or 30
years came in and announced that he was
a machinist from New Jersey and wanted
Mr.. Browne put him rapidly through
searching catechism: Was he a temperate
man, and did he understand the great
principles of this movements Would he
observe strict discipline, and would he work
for 81. 80 day at any employment that
offered? Had he studied the great princi-
Piles of brotherhood and the rights of man?
and so forth and so forth. All this being
answered in the affirmative, he was enroll
ed, and then Mr.. Browne told us of his
life, his struggles and sorrows, and his
firm trust in the speedy arrival of univer-
sal justice in this world and happy rein
carnation in the next. II own said he, |
zone of the prettiest places in southern
California, with lovely mountain lakes |
and groves on it, apd L came to the !
Worlds fair at Chicago to help in the !
California exhibit. 1t was there you saw !
me dressed in buckskin, not for any patent /
medicine advertisement, but for the bust |
ness | was there to do. After that l made |
speeches at those lake front meetings till |
Mayor Harrison stopped them, and then I |
went into this movement. / was born on /
a farm near Springfield, Ills, on the 4th |
of July, 1S49, and went TO California in |
1869 which has been my home ever since. |
For some time l edited a paper called The |
Cactus at Los Angeles. / have been in |
jail several times and got used to it, so /
didn't mind being jailed in Washington /
till they vaccinated me. That was an out /
rage. There's no sense in it. 1t does nc |
good 10 put poison in your system. We |
are going to march to Washington on the /
4th with some big hickory and locust .
canes well seasoned, and we shan't mind /
the police if they only come at Us with .
clubs. If they come with gatling gun,
We shall retire.
AT this point the advanced messenger Of
BlOndell's contingent, 100 men from Los
Angeles, Cal, arrived TO announce that
said contingent had passed through Wash
ington unmolested and would be on the
ground in an hour. Mr.. Browne imme-
diately ordered the big welcome tent erect
ed in the middle of the field, and the camp
took on quite an air of life. We inspected
the panorama wagon, which Is Mr.
Brownies lecture platform; the little log
cabin, which Is shown To visitors rs . tri-
umph of architecture, and the big tent,
accepted a very remarkable pamphlet pub
lished by Mr.. Browne. donated % cents
each TO the subsistence fund and drove
back TO the city. J. 3 PARKE
His Hard Lot