The morning news., 1899-12-22
HOWELL SPEAKS IN BUFFALO.
HIS THEME 1.-THE MAN WITH HIS
HAT IN HIS HAND"

Cordially Received and Royalty
Entertained.
Buffalo. N. Y. Dec. 2l-Clark Howell of
Atlanta, who, with several friends from
that city, arrived here last evening as the
guests of the Independent club, to-day
visited the site of the exhibition and in
spected the service building. which has
just been completed, and the other work
in progress.
The party and a number of friends, who
Travelled in a special car of the Interna-
tional Traction Company, continued on to
Niagara Falls. where they viewed the
falls and the gorge from both sides of the
river.
Tonight Mr.. Howell was the guest of
honor at the monthly dinner of the Inde-
pendent Club, and delivered an address on
THE Man With His Hat in His Hand"
MIR. Howell was listened to attentvely
by the 300 members of the club and their
guests, and his remarks were frequently
interrupted by applause. Mr.. Howell said
in part:
Permit me here, Mr.. Chairman to in
troduce at a somewhat advanced stage
| vi my T6uldl AS, not IIlG text, DQl llt Aitit
of my theme, and to say, lest you have
thought that 1 had strayed from it, that
| its application will not be so remote as
| might have been inferred. On the day l
| received the invitation to address this dis
| unguished gathering, chance took me to
the federal military post in the suburbs of
my city. The Twenty-ninth Regiment of
United States Volunteers, then quartered
| there, and recently landed on the other
| side of the Pacific, had that day received
| orders for their trip of 10000 miles. The
troops were formed in full regimental pa
| rade in the presence of thousands Of spec
| tators, among whom were anxious and
weeping mothers, loving sisters and sweet
| hearts, and a vast multitude of others
| who had gone to look, possibly for the
| last time, upon departing friends. OF the
| enlisted men great percentage were
| from my own state, most of them from
| simple farmhouses and the quiet and un-
| pretentious hearthstones which abound in
the rural communities of Georgia. A few
| had seen service in Cuba, but most of them
| had volunteered as raw recruits from the
| farm. There were sturdy and rugged
| mountaineerS from the Blue Ridge coun-
| tes-strong, steady and intrepid, with the
| simplicity characteristic of the mountain
| Businesses from which they came There
were boys from the wire grass-plain, un-
| assuming and unaffected, their eyes light
| ed with the fire of determination and their
| hearts beating in unison with the loyalty
! of their purpose. The men moved like
| machines. The regiment of raw recruits
| had become in few months "a command
of trained and disciplined soldiers. The
| very air was fraught with the impressive
| significance of the scene. which had its
| counterpart in Hlany of the states where
/ patriots enlisted faster than the muster
roll was called. l thought of the homes
| these soldier boys were leaving, the loved
| 1aft To fbair anxiO1G fears the
aged mothers last caress, the fathers sad
| farewell And / thought of the lot these
| patriot lads had chosen, the tired marches
| beneath the blistering sun, the restless
nights in rain-soaked tents that kept out
| naught but sleep, the ambushed shots of
| savages and the bite of the pagan's lead.
| I saw hearts then strong with the pulse
| of youth, stilIed by the arrows sting; eyes
then bright with the light of life, stare up
from the sodden field.
Leaning against a tree close beside me
was a white haired mountaner who look
ed with intent eyes and with an expression
of the keenest sympathy upon the moye-
ments of the men in uniform. His gaze
was riVeted on the regiment, and the ire
quent applause of the visiting multitude
fell apparently unheard on his ears. The
regiment had finished its evolutions; the
commissioned officers had lined themselves
to make their regulation march to1the
front for report and dismissal. The bu-
gler had sounded the signal; the artillery
had belched its adieu as the King of day
withdrew beyond the hills; the halyard
had been graSped and the flag slowly fell,
saluting the retiring sun. AS the flag
started its descent, the scene was charac-
terized by a solemnity which seemed sa-
cred in its intensity. From the regimen
tai band there foated upon the stiffness
of the autumn evening the strains of THE
Star Spangled Banner" Instinctvely and
apparently unconsciously my tall neigh
Dor by the tree removed his hat from his
head and held it in his hand in reveren-
tial recognition until the flag had been
furled and the last strain of the national
anthem had been lost in the resonant
tramp of the troops as they left the field.
What a picture that was-the man with
his hat in his hand as he stood uncover
ed during that impressive ceremony! I
moved involuntarily toward him, and i'm
pressed with his reverential attitude, I
asked him where he was from. Il am"
said he from Pickens county," and in
casual conversation it developed that this
raw mountaineer had come to Atlanta to
say farewell TO an only son who stood
in line before him, and upon whom his
tear bedimmed eyes might then be resting
for the last time. The silent exhibition
of patriotism and loyalty l had just wit
messed had been prompted by soul as
rugged but as placid as the great blue
mountains WDlCn gave II DlTln, ana Dy an
inspiration kinded from the very bosom
of nature itself.
There was the connecting link between
the hearthstone and the capitol; There
was the citizen who, representing the only
real, substantial element of the nations
reserve strength-"the citizen standing in
the doorway of his home, contented on mis-
threshold" had answered his country's
call--the man of whom Henry Grady 50
eloquently said: He shall save the re.
public when the drum tap is futile and
the barracks are exhausted" In him was
duty typihed, and in him slumbered the
germ of sacrifice. There was that in the
spontaneous action OF the man that spoke
of hardships to be endured and dangers 10
be dared for country's sake; there was
that in the reverential attitude that said.
even though the libation of his hearts
blood should be required in far-of lands,
his life would be laid down as lightly
as his hat was lifted to his country's call.
Denied by age the privilege of sharing the
the danpprG of ba raAa