The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1900-06-03
GLORY Of PATRIOTISM
Mrs. Allyn Capron Would
Have Her Children Soldiers.
SHE VISITS ARLINGTON
Where 0kIahoma's Gallant
Rough Rider Is Buried.

Capron, whose husband organized Roose7
velt's Rough Riders in Oklahoma for the
Spanish war, has written of the New
York Herald, after a visit to Arlington
cemetery where her husband is buried:
No one name is associated with more
heroic deeds for the flag than is that of
Capron. Allyn Capron was the gallant
captain of the Rough Riders who fell
with seven wounds in his body. His
father, Captain Allyn Capron, of Light
Battery E, died soon after the close of
the war, as the result Of disease con-
tIacted in Cuba The first Allyn Capron
fell on the field OF Cherubusco, in the
Mexican war. Although three generations
OF the family have given their lives in
tho country's service, Mrs. Capron, with
the true fortitude of a soldiers wife, de-
clares that had she sons they should be
trained for the army. Her pathetic and
patriotic letter is as follows:
From my earliest recollection have
loved the army. It's heroes of Revolu-
tionary times appealed to me from the
pages Of my first history. The magnif-
cent deeds of the civil war thrilled my
glrlsh beart as nothing else ever did, and
when 1 grew TO womanhood and became
the wife of a soldier 1 think the dizzest
height of my ambition had been doubly
crowned
Ny first army life on the western plains
introduced me to the toughest feature Of
campaigning-the toughest save war.
heard the constant notes of the cavalry
trumpet; the tread Of the hoofs of the
t, oop was sweetest music to my ears, and
the monotony of life at a small post was
more than compensated for in the fact
that I was a part and parcel of the mill
tary portion of our country.
In those days 1 did not dream of the
end of a soldiers life, or, II 1 did, it was
to dismiss the thought and to call up the
brighter, more engrOssing events of the
moment. Arlington. the beautiful, solemn
last home of the heroic dead. was but
far away thing to me in those days. But
even when that feature of the end Of
army life comes before the vision Of my
dream I still feel that had / sons to start
on their way into the world would send
them to West Point and into the army
It is the ideal life Of the chivalrous man,
and if thereis a grave at the end Of it, a
bullet cutting short a promising career
ways there is fame sometimes, and there
is ever and certainly the transcendent
feeling that no other avocation ,can In
spire4the sensation of being a stone in
the arch upon which our country and
government are founded.
Nearly all Of my army friends have
been killed on the firing line. and they
are nearly all in Arlington. That is why
1 love it. 1t is the Mecca on which my
thoughts are ever centering. and were I
a man and a soldier no greater final
honor could come to me than to feel that
my dust was to be committed to that
hallowed ground, surrounded in a COM
mon company by the great names in the
history of my country.
The pine clad hills that overlook the
Potomac. and from which can be caught
glimpses of the city of Washington seem
to me to be the ideal spot for such pur-
pose. The simple graves of the soldiers
and the mighty monuments bearing the
names of famous in our history look out
upon the splendid sweep of the river and
across the rolling country to the shores
of Maryland They are near enough to
the city to feel its pulse. yet far enough
away to be in that absolute quiet that it
seems should be the portion Of the dead.
What could be more appropriate than
that the site for the national cemetery
should be on ground once owned by the
family into which George Washington
married-the Custises?
Memorial Day can bring width It no
decorations more beautiful than thsse
which nature has given to Arlington.
Flowers maybe speak what the lips can
not tell the loved dead. but there is
solemn splendor in the swaying pines.
sad. sweet fragrance in the odor of the
balsam that is eminently more fitting
than the poor flowers. cut only to die
uPon the graves they leave their delicate
lives to caress.
What can be more splendid than the
Mcclellan gate, it's simple Roman arch
growing thick with ivy that tenderly
caresses the stone and clings fondIy to
the smooth pillars? What more simply
beautiful than the rows OF monuments
and tombs scattered about the immense
grounds, the trees the only thing to keep
the company Of the dead? When l walk
about that hallowed and beautiful re
cropolis Of heroes" 7 feel as the martyred
Garfield did when he said In opening his
address on June 1. 1858, u am oppressed
with q nsenseiess propriety1 IN utterinE
words on this oteastdnl- r silence Is ever,
golden It must be 7here beside the graves
Of fifteen thousand men whose lives were
more significant than speech, and whose
death was a poem, the music Of which
can never be sung"
OF nysown who lies here the records OF
the war can speak He died in the fash
CT an eye, but it is a glorious death, and
I repeat that, had sons. should seek
for them no higher career than that OF
the soldier.
As a soldiers wife. my pride was al
most complete; as 8 soldiers mother II
would De wholly so. And when the end
came, were Il Of q fever in the jungle. an
Indians bullet or by the fire Of civilized
foe. ere my eyes closed and the life light
died from them my visions would be ot
that cool. green. pine sheltered spot upon
the hills abovee tn Potomac the sough-
Ing Wind singing above my grave. the ivy
twining about 'the stone put there by those
who loved ne. and l could die happy
twice happy because I was TO lie forever
In beautiful Arlington. heroes on every
side of me
WANT ROUGH RIDERS REUNION