The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1898-09-23
LOsT-A REGIMENT

REGIMENT
This Is distressing news respecting
the Thirty-second Michigan, says the
Chicago Chronicle. The regiment is lost.
vanished, disappeared. Adjutant Cen
eral Corbin, with tears in his eyes, ad-
mits that he doesn't know where it is.
He took his eye off the regiment for a.
moment, and when he turned around it
was gone. Commissary General Eagan-
confesses that he doesn't know where it
is, either, but there is nothing strange.
about that, considering thai General
Eagan has all along been in a hazy con
dltion respecting the whereabouts Of
any and all of the troops. A gentleman
who dispatches supplies to Maine for a..
regiment which turns out to be in.
Florida is not exactly the person to-.
whom one would look for information
respecting the whereabouts Of the
Thirty-second Michigan.
AS for Surgeon General Sternberg..
he has an idea, but he is reluctant to.
make it public. He thinks perhaps the
Thlrty-second may have wandered into,
one Of his justly celebrated division
hospitals. That would account for it's.
disappearance. Under the wise and.
judicious rules which General Sternberg
has framed n person who gets into
a division hospital is thenceforward lost
to the world. His clothes are taken
away from him, bis head is shaved, and
he is put to bed-if there is a bed avail
able. otherwise he is dumped down on
the ground. In either case he is enter
ed upon the hospital records as "un-
known" 1t doesn't make any difference
whether he is Major General Shafter or
Private Jones-down he goes as 'un-
known" If he recovers he gets his
name back along with his clothes. If he
dies he is comfortably and expeditions
ly buried without n hysterical rela-
tives bowling around the premises. The
unknown innovation is a stroke of
genius upon which General Sternberg
justly prides himself. He is thinking
of having it patented.
1t may be, therefore, that the Thirty
second Michigan, from colonel down to
drummer boy, is now comfortably
tucked up in a division hospital some
where between Tampa and Detroit, in
dividually and collectively labeled "un--
known" and enjoying rancid bacon,
moldy hard tack and the other Injuries
which a grateful government dispenses
to it's defenders. At least that is Cen
eral Sternberg's theory.
AS for Secretary Alger, he is cautious
about expressing an opinion. He thinks
it possible that the regiment may have
chartered a steamboat and set out to
capture a few islands on it's own hook,
or it may have gone tarpon fishing, or
it may have started north and landed
in a Georgia watermelon patch, from
which it can't tear itself away. All he
knows is that he ordered the Thirty
second from Jacksonville to Island
Lake, Mich, several weeks ago. If it
hasn't got there it is not his fault. He
has troubles of his own, as he justly
and truthfully observes, and can't put
in his time looking for lost, strayed-
or stolen regiments ever if they do hail
from Michigan.
In this unsatisfactory situation we
are forced to leave the problem. Time.
and a corps of efficient detectives will
doubtless solve it. In the meantime we
a only extend our sympathy to the
friends and relatives of the Michigan
volunteers, with the assurance that if
the soldiers don't turf up their widows
will at least draw pensions.
There is in the following extract from
his opinion in Mcknight against An
derson an exposition of the legal rights
Of the wife as we'll as of her domestic
privileges in the matteS of self-support:~
1.-The legal unity of husband and wife
has in Georgia, for instance, for most
purposes been dissolved, and a legal
duality established. A wife is a wife,
and not a husband as h was formerly
Legislative chemistry has analysed the"
conjugal unit, n it is no longer treat
ed as an element, but as a compound
A husband can make a gife to his wife,
although she lives in the house with
him and attends to her household du-
ties, as easily as he can make a present
to his neighbours wife. This puts her
on an equality with other ladies, and.
looks like progress. Under the new Oh
der of things, when he induces her to-
enter into the business of keeping
boarders and promises to let her have
all the proceeds, he is allowed to keep"
his promise if she keeps the boarders-
1t would seem that the law ought to-
tolerate him in being faithful to his
word in such a matter, even though he
has pledged it only to his wife, and we
think it does"