Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1901-02-28

| courageous DIS JdAlSc VASE :,
character is impossible does not tue
story give a false idea of the women OF
/ the Revolution?
"Janice Meredith is the country -Dred
daughter Of well-to-do and stln-neck-
ed Tory. She is only 16 when she Is
Subjected to the influence Of war mys-
terry, intrigue, and excitement. Having
little knowledge of the world, and be-
| ing impulsiye. with a will of her own,
she drifts into comprehensive and ad-
ventures that might we'll unsettle an
older head. Old soldiers may incline to
the opinion that the author in picturing
Janice meant to present a study OF the
development of girls character undef
| the stress and bewilderment or war.
| Without doubt there were good many
| Janice Merediths in the border States
during the Civil War.
'There were scores of districts In
Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and
Missouri occupied alternately by the
| two armies-first by the Confederates,
then by the Unionists, and again by the
Confederates, and again by the Union
lists. The young people of the several
neighborhoods were subjected to the In
f1uence of one army and then to the in
fuence Of the other, and when mature
men and women were dazed and beWil-
dered by unexpected events susceptible
girls and boys must have lived through
strange experiences. I remember on
our first march from MurfreeSbOrO to
McNinnyille we passed a handsome
| residence where four or five young la
| dies stood at the gate as interested and
smiling spectators.
"Some weeks later, as we hurried
back along the same road in retreat,
the same girls chaffed us good-humor-
eddy about being caught. In six months
we moved again to the front along the
same road, and four of the girls greet
ed us. The other had married a noted
Confederate General. Then came
months of fighting over that road, and
the house was visited by scouting de-
tachments from both armies. In time,
only three girls stood at the gate as we
passed, and then only two. Then came
another in black, and the faces Of none
were blithe, because war spared moth
ing about them. But to the last, flirt as
they might with Union officers, the
girls had no sympathy with the Union
cause, although one of them married
a Union officer.
Even in the Northern States girls in
the rural districts or in villages did un-
heard-of things, under the influence of
the war spirit. There was in our old
home neighborhood a sweetfaced,
quiet girl who had never been more
than ten miles from home. When the
war came she was wild with excite
ment, and when several young men en-
listed, among them her sweetheart,
and started for camp, she disappeared.
1t was discovered that she had cut her
hair and had put on mans clothing,
and had told one of her confidential
friends that she was going to enlist,
or that, If she could not enlist, she was
going with the soldiers in some capac-
ity. Her friends followed her to the
State capital, and, as they supposed,
found her among the young men
lounging about the depot, now used as
barracks.
They laid plans to trap her, and two
old men who had known her from
babyhood accosted her, or rather ac
costed the jaunty young fellow they
supposed would swoon when they call
ed him Mary. He did nothing of the
KIND. He swOre at them in masculine
voice, and laughed at them. One man
apologized and offered the new recruit
chew OF tobacco. The latter took 1t
eagerly, and the two old men turned
away discounted. But as they did so
their sharp eyes noticed that the young
man threw away the tobacco, with a.
LOOK OF ineffable disgust on his face.
and they felt sure they had found the
girl the were after. They came back
ID ten minutes with an officer, but the
girl had disappeared She went to her
lover in camp, and he advised her to re-
turn home. She promised to consider
the matter, and he put her on the north
bound train, but she did not return
home until the close of the war.
Her lover was killed in battle in
1868 IN the fury of a charge some of
as who had known Mary Ladislow
heard a womanss shout or cry of exul-
tation. It seemed to come from a Young
mounted officer who had caught up
nag and was galloping along the wa
yering line. Seeing him / thought of
Mary, but only for a moment. and the
mystery of that woman's shout I'M bat
Tie was never explained. "A year later
4 was at the old country town at home
Wnenf a lady asked If she might ride
with me 10 the village from which had
come that morning. recognized the