The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-09-03
SOUTHERN HOSPITALITY.


 Commander Terrence Writes to His Comrades of the G. A. R. of the Grow ing Fraternalism Between the Blue and the Gray.
 Headquarters Grand Army of the Re-
 public. Minneapolis. Minn., Sept. 1. To the Members of the Grand Army of
 the Republic:
 On April 1st made my first visit to the south, and it was naturally one of great interest to me, especially as went in my official capacity as comman- der in chief of the Grand Army of the Republic. The departments of the Grand Army ot the Republic in the south are weak numerically and had no personal knowledge of the condition ! in which I would find them. It was, | therefore, very gratifying to discover the happy relationship existing between them and the ex-Confederate soldiers. At the close of the annual meeting of the department of Alabama held in 1 Montgomery was honored with din- | ner and between every comrade at the | table sat an eX-Confederate soldier. 1 The fellowship was delightful. On the following evening the department of AL abama were the guests of the camp Of 1 Confederate veterans, and the good | feeling manifested on that occasion and ! the patriotic sentiments expressed by all the speakers would have made any patriot glad. At Atlanta I visited the 1 Confederate Home and shook hands ! tTr,i#& nII ss, IxhaY1 l left they were as reluctant to let me | go as if I had been brother. Every where went was treated kindly and again and again assured that the war | was lonS since over and that we were now citizens of a common country and | followers of a common flag. The senti- ment was also expressed that we, the old soldiers, could do more to bring the l people of thd north and south together than any other class of citizens. and that it was our duty to do so l have always believed that the most disas- trous results of the civil war were the animosities and bitter eeeling engen- l dered thereby, and am convinced that i the most patriotic service we can render our country is to earnestly aid in re- moving every barrier that separates or estranges the people. The great victo- ry won at Appomattox will produce im- perfect fruit if we cannot win the hearts as well as the flags of the men who wore the grey.
 The legislature of Alabama makes a small annual appropriation for their in- digent ex-Confederate soldiers, but only sufficient to provide them with the me- cessares of life for few months. Mountain Creek is twenty-eight miles north of Montgomery on the Louisville and Nashville railroad-a high, healthy region with good water and beautiful scenery. The cottages will cost about fifteen hundred dollars each and accom- modate eight persons. They will be Of different designs, located on circuitous driveways in beautiful oak grove. and will present a very attractive appear ance A hospital and chapel will be built, also a headquarters house two stories high, with four large rooms on the first floor and a auditorium on the second that can be used for religious or other services, to hold eight hundred people. It will be called the Bungalo house, built of logs, and any one con tributing ten dollars can have the name of his dead hero on a particular log and thus perpetuate his memory. There are about three hundred and fifty diabled and dependent veterans in the state of Alabama, forty of whom are blind. The department of Alabama. Grand Army of the Republic. heartily endorses the home Mountain Creek, and has already contributed to it's erection.
 Fraternally yours,
 ELL TORRANCE,
 Commander in Chief G. A. R.