Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1902-06-26


to write of my earlier days. There was
nothing in them out of the ordinary, as
look back at them now; nothing but
what might, and no doubt did, happen
to many another young fellow in those
busy days of our great fight for the
right to live as we deemed best in this
new land across the sea. And yet those
days did then seem to me unusual, and
l can tell the youngsters that come af-
ter me that there was something to be
done every hour, and many goodly
thrust of sword and pike to make for
what was our right and our just due.
Thank God, the long years are gone
that devastated this fair land and
destroyed the happiness of SO many
families! And when 1 think of the
ruined towns and the thousands of
graves left by that long war, cannot
help bidding those who come after US
to give their forbears what is but their
due-the credit for making a free land
with their blood and leaving bit of
this green earth where the next that
come to it may breathe the air of free
dom.
Perhaps in this year of our Lord, 1911,
the grave signs of another disagreement
with Great Britain makes me want to
do my share to ward off another fight,
by telling the men of today something
of the struggle we had thirty and more
years ago In good truth, If the hot
heads have not a care we shall be at II
again. and no mistake. And yet, if the
time should again come. If second
struggle is to be fought out, then this
hand that scratches across the page
now is not so weak, nor the heart so
sluggish, but that 1 can take the old
sword down from my study wall and
strike another blow for the rocks and
hills and homes We worked so hard to
call our own, back in the last century.
Let the men of England make no mis-
take. Those of us who are getting on
toward the three score of years have
still the spark in us, and we can stand
up beside the younger ones, who nave
come since the old days, and mayhap
show them point or two that came to
us from the great Washington.
Perhaps, though, this itch of the pen
comes only from a wish to recall those
strenuous days, when my friends and
lived a life that could not be elualled
for its constant change and its con-
slant action. Those We're great old
times, when Ne saw little of the misery
and much of the famous fighting, when
we worked out the beginnings of what
We now call American.
Perhaps, yet once again, 1t is all to
recall the face that is not hundred
miles from me at this moment, that has
walked and worked by my side these
thirty years. Aye, friend, If you had
If you but knew her now-the
fearless gentle nature that has made ME
what am, that would have made me
SO much more had been aught but
lump Of animated clay! If you could
but have looked into her eyes and seen
what saw If you could but have
heard her voice!-hark 1 can hear 1t
now-that old song somewhere above
stairs as she goes about her da.iy work
of bringing up the chickens she and
are trying to make worthy their native
land. Chickens they are no longer, but
sturdy boys and girls-men and wom-
en- they call themselves. Yet their fa-
ther, sitting here in his study looking
out on Boston common, could tell them
a tale-aye, has many a time in part
that would wake the brave spirit in
them.
Well, whatever the reason for this
scrbbling, l have liking for trying it.
Perhaps 1T may stir up some lad. Per-
haps 1t may give hint to some young
girl as to what a woman was in those
days, and should be in these Indeed, j
believe / have 1T now! lis the last
reason, to be sure! For as walk down
old Beacon Hill and along the Charles
after a useless day of voting in the
house to widen my neighbours street or
some such meaningless trash, and come
upon one of the fairest of all God s Gre
ations--as l see her walking onward in
all the innocence and beauty of her
youth, there must needs come into these
eyes of mine weak tears to thing that
/ am old, and vet lhat have seen the
time when such as she would send ne
smiling TO my grave could ! but keep
her just as she is i'm her fenrlessness
and gentleness and youth. And, indeed.
If need be, / can do it now; for fifty
winters cannot so change a man that
he should forget that.
But, such as it is. here is the story.