The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1899-07-01

Rope walker
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Next Wednesday there will be a re
ception in Washington to a woman &C
knowledged on both sides of the Atlantic
to be one of the most remarkable persons
of the nineteenth century, the Princess
Salm-Salm. She arrived here from Bonn
last week on a visit to her sister; Mrs.
Edmund Johnson, wife of Col. Johnson of
Vineland, N. J. The princess is the hero
inc of three wars, and she is an American.
AS nurse and an aid to the Christian
and sanitary commissions she won the
hearts of the North and South, too, dur
ing the Civil war. Later She showed ire
and again with the corps for first aid to
the wounded in the Franco-Prussian war
she added new luster to her fame.
She has been blessed for her sweetness
and goodness by an empress and by poor
dying fellows on many fields of battle
She was as brave as any man could; be.
and as tender as any woman can be. She
has lived with the highest and with the
lowest. From palaces to tents, from ban
quets to torn and smoky fields, she has
gone, always the samoa true and faith
full and devoted woman.
But with what strange beginning did
her glorious career start AS Agnes LIE
Clere she rode bareback horses round a
circus ring. Then she tried tight-rope
walking and held crowds breathless while
she did things no other woman had done
in America before. According to the New
York Press, it is told of her that in Chi
cago, in 1853 she ran up swaying rope
from the ground to the top of a lofty tent.
On her first attempt to do this she fell
when halfway up, and would have been
killed instantly had not the strong man of
the circus happened to be beneath He
saved her, though nearly done for himself
AS soon as she found that he was reviv-
ing and would be all right, she took her
balancing pole and started up again, this
time successfully. Then the crowd went
wild, and she was famous in circus life.
But besides having nerve and grace and
beauty, she had extraordinary intelli-
gence, md knew that if she had half a
chance she could do better things than
swing on slack ropes and ride on hare
back horses. With this faith in herself
she found a way to- be introduced in
Washington at the outbreak of the war,
and there all good folk loved her, espe-
-ciallyst the Prince Felix Constantine Alex
ander John Nepomucope Salm-Salm
He was a younger brother of the reign
ing Prince of Bocholt, in Westplialia, be-
longing to one of the oldest dynastic fami-
lies in Germany, and had been rather a
spoiled child. He had too much money.
But he was a brave and true and kind
hearted man. At the battle Of Aarhuis
the Danes captured him after he had re-
ceived seven, wounds. The king of Prus-
STA gave him sword for his bravery.
He got into debt badly in Vienna, and
went to Paris, thence to Washington,
with letters from the crown prince of
Prussia to Baron Won Gerolt Eur Lvden,
the Pruss:an minister to Washington
This was in 1861, soon after the beginning
of our civil war. He was a success SO:
cially Immediately, and the government
offered him brigade Of cavalry. He de-.
clined because he did not know English.
Then Gen. Blemker took him on his staff,
Agnes LIE Clere and a married sister
whose husband was an army officer visit.
ed the camps particularly the German
camp, which then was the most military
of all. These Germans by the way, were
the men who stopped the "Black Horse"
of the Confederates after Bull Run and
saved Washington. At this camp Gen
Blenker presented the ladies to Col,
Prince Salm-Salm, his chief of staff. It
was love at first sight with Agnes and
the prince. Though she did not know a
word of German or of French, only Eng
fish and a little Spanish, and he could not
speak English, they managed proposal
and an acceptance somehow. On Aug. 3d.
1892 Father Walter joined them in mar
rage at st. Patrick's church on F street.
Secretary Stanton was not friendly to
the Germans The princess heard that he
proposed dismissing Salm- Salm She
went to Albany and persuaded Gov. Nor.
gan 1.-The woman hater,' to give him a
German regiment-the Eighth New York.
It took her about half an hour after
Senator Harris had introduced her to the
governor to get this commission signed
and in her own possession. In October
the colonel and his wife were on the
way to West Virginia to join the Eighth,
near Chantilly. This was the beginning
If the career that finally won for the
prince the shoulder straps of a general
While with the Eighth the Princess
net Mr.. and Mrs LINCOLN, Gen. Sickles
and other prominent Americans When
the Eighth disbanded Gov. Morgan APP
pointed Salm-Salm to the Sixty-eighth
She was all through the draft riots, too
! AS recruiting was hard work, on ac7
count of the riots, the Princess went to
to see Col. ]. Fry, the pro-
vost marshal general of the United
States. She asked him for enough men
to complete the Sixty-eight and she got
what she wanted. It was a way she had
in those days. Col. Fry had called on
Gov. Yates of Illinois to help him find the
men needed The governor found the
men, but said they. should not have a
New Yorker for. captain: :Thereupon.
Col Fry filled out a commission and gave
it to the princess, making her captain
Of company in the Sixty-eighth New
York, SIS j
She was in and out of camp great deal
during the war and OF much assistance in
hospitals and to the sanitary commits
sion and the Christian commission. In
her early life she had learned to travel
IN America under all possible condi-
tons. This experience proved most use
ful. now, not only to herself, but to
friends to wished to aid the soldiers also,
get to them. On one Of her trips she
made the acquaintance Of Maj. Gen.
Carl Schurz.
The prince had done good work and de-
served promotion, but Stanton had little
use for foreigners, SO the princess set OF
to New York and Washington to see what
she could do: In Philadelphia she was
Ill, and Dr.. Mitchell attended her. She
recovered soon ard got her friends to
work OH Gen. G>nomas, who finally rec
her colonel for promotion She
was successful! as usual, for a little later
she had III her hands a generals com
for the prince.
g Washington society in war times Wes
from anything the national capt.
tai mas seen kefore or since. The old
Virginia families, who always wintered
there, had gone, as had all the Southern
element, naturally. Besides these. there
were many folk who had spent part OF
each year there, but who did not care ta
Identify themselves with either Size. anG
had crossed the water. In the places of
these absentees1 was a wonderful s,rand-
new society-arny. navy, official spec az a !.