The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1896-04-26
Why He Thinks Tom 9callorae
q E'inancien
Mr.. FRENTlCE8 MISSION
Enabled Two Young Fellows to
Paint Richmond Red
THE OLD MAN FELL aH THE WAY
Had His Pockets Full o. Federal Mon
ey and His Son anz3 Cchiltrae
Saved Him by Spend
ing 1t All.


At the dinner given in tire Hotel
Cha1aberlin, at Old Point Comfort, Sat
urday night to the Secretary of the
Navy and the General of the Army,
Senator Vest, of Missouri, one of the
wittiest story tellers in the American
Congress, said that it, was his opinion
that the financial problem which is
now agitating the country could best
be solved by the wild Texan Ranger
who bears the aame of Thomas z.
0chiltree. He proclaimed Ochiltree as
a master of finance, and in proof Of that
assertion told this tale:
In the latter part of the war of the
rebellion the thought suggested itself
to President Lincoln that George D.
Prentice, the then editor of the Louis
vile Courier Journal, could be prof.
tabIv sent upon a mission of diplomacy
to meet Jefferson Davis, the President
of the Confederacy, in the city OF
Richmond. Prentice, as the world
knows. was a wonderfully gifted man.
He was an intense UniOnist, and yet
/ his sons were the rankest rebels of the
y
of them, Sterling, had been killed, and
there was left to him alone, as the apple
Of his eve his boy Clarence, who was a
soldier in the Confederate army, and
who had been in what in those days
was considered slight difficulty by
reason of his having killed hotel
keeper in Abingdon, Va. Mr.. Lincoln
thought that if George d. Prentice
held negotiations with Jefferson Davis
there might be brought about a ces-
sation of the fractional strife, an hon
orable and amicable settlement OF the
civil war. With that purpose in view,
arrangements were made whereby Mr..
! Prentice was passed through the Con-
/ federate lines and was escorted to
/ Richmond. where he made his head
quarters at the Spottsweod Hotel. At
/ that time Prentice's remaining son,
| Clarence. was on the staff Of General
/ John C. Breckenridge, in the Army of
/ West Virginia. His boon companion,
/ his confdant, the Damon to his Pythias,
was Thomas r. 0chiltree, who was
with the Army Of Northern Virginia
! These two were telegraphed for to
make pleasant the stay in Richmond
of the editor of the Louisville Courier
/ Journal.
When the two young rebels got to-
/ gether in the capital of the Confed-
eracy they determined that they would
enjoy life, and they did. They took the
/ old gentleman around town and gave
him a hilarious time, having dinners
that cost 5000 and $500 each in Confed-
crate money. Young Prentice was
wonderfully brilliant fellow. He had
been educated at Heidelberg. where
incidentally he had killed a man, and
his face had been slashed with many
a rapier He was a linguist, a must
clan of pronounced ability and a gener-
allv richly-gifted man. His father had
4 been in Congress as a Wing, and Presi-
dent Lincoln had great confidence in
his powers of diplomacy. At that time
there was in force a law Of the Con-
federate government which made it a
felony 10 bring within the rebel lines
or to use in any way the greenbacks
of Uncle Sam. The offense was consid-
cred similar to that Of counterfeiting
in the present day.
The object Of this was obvious The
+. Confederacv was on the decline. Even
those fighting with the desperation OF
I heroes knew that its days were num-
bered and that while the scrip of the
/ rebelIous States would soon be worth
i less the notes of the National Govern
meut would be redeemable at par. As
( a consequence a national bank note
representing one dollar was easily eN-
changed for a Confederate piece of fin
ancial paper which called for one hun
dred dollars To prevent this discrimi-
nation the use of the United States
notes was made a crime, and an alien
that is. Union man-bringing
\ Uncle Sans promises to pay within the
I Confederate lines was liable to inpris-
onmeut.