The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-04-27
GEN. wHEELERs ABSENCE.
Stays in Brooklyn While confeder-
 ate Reunion Goes on.

Brooklyn Eagle. Al,
 Over 5000 veterans in gray are sath cred in Dallas, Texas. today m me twelfth annual reunion of the Cohieu- crate Veterans Association, but one man is absent there, who, next 10 'ioruons has been in the past the greatest fuol Vi
 the Southern veterans at these huBe Ea'll erings. Gen. Joe Wheeler is in Brookiyn
 yisiIing his sister at l13 ColumDia Heights, and this is the first ConleaeIate reunion he has not attended. AcSoi eiiis
 to his sister, General Wheeler deciiheo AT invitation to attend the reunion, haN.ns
 decided at the last moment not to go. tie accepted an invitation to speak at tue
 banquet of the Spanish War correspohu.
 ents on board the cruiser St. fauI las'
 night, but sent letter or excuse SsS tertlav on account of a cold from Whlch he was sufficiently recovered this morn ing to go over to Manhattan to see hls son leave for Europe.
 A few years ago General Wheeler ap- sence from one of these reunions rom any cause other than absolute inability to attend would have been damper on the enthusiasm of the ''gri1zled gray | veterans, and he famous rebel yell | which has made great natlon watt' | would not have been given with the won't | cd gladstone ring from the re9uFehaleo lungs of old soldiers. But there has grad ually come a change or at ieast an al,-
 parent change, in the relation between | the famous cavalry general ana many o' l his former comrades.
 l Once Gordon and Wheeler stood toScth
 CT as the two great living ldois oi the | Confederacy. and theirs was the domi, | nant spirit in the general reunions helo each year. but for the past two or threC
 years General Wheeler has not stood as close to the soldiers as whole as nc | formerly stood. A peculiar and ScnSltlN' 1 sentiment possessed by the great pouN o 1 Southern veterans has rebclled Tn q nllt degree against the political course ot Gen
 eral Wheeler for the past few years. tt'
 has counselcd with two Republican ad
 ministrations, say Southern critics, au'
 when Bailey of Texas raised the eonstitu
 tiunal question in regard 10 nls holulh'
 an army commission and seat ll Con
 a.rcss at the same time as he did duiln'
 the Spanish War. it was charged tha& h was enabled by the influence of high Re
 puhlicans to resist Bailey as he did.
 Then later some Southern papers seem cd to resent General Wheelers sldini
 with President MckinleX's administration in regard t0 the war in the Philippines and some even remarked that the Geners seemed to glory more in his blue hnllori | of Major General of Volunteers and Ia ter of a Brigadier of the regular arm than he did in his old cavalry general uniform of gray in which he has bee seen at many reunions. These critics while glad to see General Wheeler hon ored along with Fitzhugh Lee felt Una 1 he parted in a measure with his olu sen ] timent that made him beloved of SoutF ern Neterans .,,,,. in tha last few years General Wheele has differed with his comrades at time ] openly at the general reunions, put tn veterans respected his right to his ow views. and if any coldness between m \ and any part of the Confederacy as org \ nized in the Veterans Association hs e 1 sprung up. it Is kept so well m the naci ground that it's existence would perhaI not be apparent if General Wheeler wei