Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1901-04-12
K%NNEEEEN1EEE>N EEEN<WNsF% N I'M
THESE APRIL DAYS.


These early days in April recall
memories Of the war for the preserva-
ton of the union of states. Many in
cidents of that internecine strife which
ended under the apple tree at Appomat-
toX with the surrender of Lees army.
fash over the minds of the surviving
veterans and serve to quicken the blood
through their aged frames like an ex-
hilerating tonic 1t was in early April
forty years ago. that the people of the
northern states of the union We're
aroused to action by the bolnbardment
Of Fort Sumpter. 1t was in early April,
four years later, when the armies of the
slave-holding confederacy laid down
their rifles and We're allowed to return
peaceably to their homes, to begin anew
the industrial pursuits which made the
south rich yet arrogant. Before, the
ooor of treason was emitted from every
bale of cotton raised on plantation.
Now the staple is the product of the
freeman. Before, the chimney of a fac
tory strange sight in the south.
Nov, in the mountains of Tennessee and
the erstwhile stave-h holding states, the
products of the south are woven into
fragments or otherwise manufactured
into tangible articles of export.
tx
The press dispatches tell us of meet
ngs in various parts Of the union to
commemorate the surrender Of Lee at
AppomattoX. The middle-aged man of
today can imagine himself at one of
these reunions. Since the Spanish war
brought the veteran from Georgia to
! smoke his pipe with the Hoosier, each
talk of the destruction of the battleship
Maine" in Havana harbor as men of a
common country and a common destiny
alone can talk; and perhaps the histori-
cal incident at AppomattoX is for time
forgotten in recounting the deeds of
their sons at San Juan hill. One can
almost hear in the distance a shout an
| r,ounciIg the arrival of Fitzhugh Lee
| and three cheers and a tiger from the
old boys in blue for their erstwhile en-
envy on the field of Gettysburg. Ere the
! northern welcome has spent itself in
| the air, another is lifted up from the
| camp of the confederate veterans, this
| time in greeting to the old man ap-
preaching on crutches-General Oar
| Sickles. who fought under Hancock in
the federal army.
| With such picture reelected on his
mind, what man will deny that blood
|
| vain? In the mental vision of this
patriotic panorama. what man is NOT
grateful to the grand Spanard who dis
covered this hemisphere. because it gave
to Americans an opportunity to drive
the tyranncal Spaniard out and plant
the tree of freedom on the isle which
vas the apple of the eye of Columbus !?
! More than years of trade and traffic
| and commerce between the states: more
than books and poems and dramas
could do: more than half a century of
peace could do, was done in a single
hour on the Sunday morning of July 4,
1885, when the fleet of Admiral Cerveras
was shot into the bosom of Santiago har-
Dor. That act alone was benediction
for Appomattox an atonement for Fort
Sumpter.
Full of glorious recOllections do these
early April days summon; yet one, and
only one, is filled with gloom, and
tragedy. and horror. The grand his
torical character who wrenched the
shackles from the southern bondman
and guided the destiny of the nation
from Sumptar to Appomattox, fell by