The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1898-04-14
ICoPYRIGHT.l
CHAPTER Y.

CEPTION OF BULLETINS CONCERNING
THE PROGRESS OF THE BOMBARDMENT
OF FORT UNTER-ANX!ETY AS TO THE
FATE OF THE FORr-SoME GENTLEMEN
WHO WERE MISTAKEN AS TO THEIR
OWN ZEAL FOR a FIGHT.
Groups Of men who talked together in
tones that were ALWAYS earnest, and ire
auently excited, collected on the corners,
and then drifted off into heady stream
thai surged cityward, like an incoming
tide. Each group WAS like an eddy IN
the current of the Mississippi, seemingly
revolving around its own center, with no
connection with the rest of the main
flow, save in receiving onward propul-
sion. The members Of each group spoke
only with each other and hardly by any
chance with those of the other groups,
and the casual observer would have
hardly imagined that precisely the same
feelings were moving every individual
in the throng to say precisely the same
things.
1t was the habitual reticence of the
great mass of men, who do not cry their
convictions aloud from the housetops,
but communicate them modestly and
moderately to those belonging to their
OWN little circle.
But as the eddy in which Bronson
and Armitage were molecules drew
near the South Branch-which then
outlined the heart of the city proper
the streams on either side of the street
became more compact and homogene-
ous from the pressure of the influx from
every lateral street that was passed.
Still there was no general interchange
of feeling-notliing' to show that one
common impulse moved all in the surg
ing throng.
Suddenly there rose upon the soft
evening air, from neigiboring balcony,
like the voice of one CRYING in the night,
the first notes of a superb lyric tenor
voice. singing with such measured dis
tinctness that every syllable fell unmu-
tilated upon the ear:
0. say. can you see. by the dawn's early
iisht."-
Instantly each of the thousands of feet
which were rising and falling upon the
pavement with sound like that of
breakers upon lake beach, stopped its
cadence; each man halted and turned
his face quickly toward the sound.
There was a wail-as Of a strong man in
agony-in the singers voice as he went
on:
What so proudly we hailed at the twiights last
cleaning,
Whose broad stripes aud bright stars, through
Der the ralnparjs we watched were SO gal
lantiy streaming:
And the rockets red glare, the bombs bursting
Gave proof through the night that our flag was
still tscrcf
For an instant there was hush like
that which in the celebration of high
mass follows the contamination of the
sacrifice of Christ upon the cross. Then
as the full diapason of the organ, which
announces His triumphant resurrection
from the grave, came an antiphonal
burst from strong chorus beside the
singer:
Tis the star-spangled banner, o. long shall il
wave.
Der the land OF the free and the home Of the
brave.
This touch Of music made the whole
of that mighty mass kin.
1t struck the chord to which all hearts
were vibrating, and voiced in the swell
ing rythm Of its heroic measure the
emotions burning in every bosom. Nc
longer was that throng of selfcentered
and repellant groups. 1t was as when
in the laboratory the lightning's flash
awakes the slumbering affinities of ele
ments and fuses them into some mighty
compound.
From each throat rose such q spon
taneous shout as man utters only when
the fountains of his nature are unsealed
and the gates of reserve are swept away
by the fioodtide Of feeling. 1t came a.
the storm over the prairies or the gale
upon the lake, and the tears streamed
down each mans cheek as he cheered.
With each succeeding verse, with each
line, even, the passionate intensity of the
singer famed higher and ruddier; with
each verse, with each line, fiercer burned
the sympathetic fires in the breasts o
those who listened, welding them al
together In one glowing mass.
Every phrase in the familiar old sons
took new meaning of undreamed-o
viyIdness. What before had seemed com
monplace-almost triyial-now burned
with mighty import.
The long, majestic sweep Of the strains
breaking into forceful cadences, told tn,
story far more eloquently than by word
of Nation conceived in sorrow anC
brought forth in anguish; of a countr'
bought with the blood of beloved fathers
wrung from their breasts on the battle
field or torn from their naked feet by tn
frozen roads of Valley Forge; of
Liberty sanctified by women's tears, an,
consecrated by Gods favor for all tn
world of a temple of freedom builde,
for all mankind, with every stone lait
with the sacrifice of our fair first-born.
And all this was now menaced by i'm
pious hands