The Savannah morning news., 1903-10-25


Gus two presidencies, and how, his name
Frightening with each added sun and
followed by every eye, he would retire
again to privacy and his Hermitage,
the best beloved since the even day of
Jefferson.
And now as I talk to you the tears
start. He is dead as l write, and gone
long ago to join his heart in the grave
and lie by the side of his wife; and it
comes strangely, even to myself that l,
an old man, and held as one hard and
practical and cold, should be so moved
of retrospection If it were to remem-
Der loss and sadness and decay, such
indeed might stand as reason for emo
ton. But my rearward glances find only
the glory of an ever climbing, sky
kissed high success. Mayhap it is the
splendor and while CLEAN of it TO
bring the tears, as does the CLINT of
sunshine on the snow.
Yet it half shames my years, these
drops of feeling. And for all that, 1
will recall how Dale and Overton and
Houston and Blair-no meek souls,
these,-were as much commoved when
claimed of thoughts of Gen. Jackson
SUCH for his friends, were the soft and
softening spells and powers of the man!
The wet eyes of these. stern and rock
heWn, may save ME from the stain of
doting weakness. But I Ioiter-I lose
time when there is none to lose-a wan
dering delay is the crime common of
old age.
Our journey to Washington was dis
puted by applause at every foot; the
double banks of the Cumberland and
the Ohio appeared to have become alike
the rendezvous of South and West and
North. Bands brayed and Commit
tees" came aboard; dozen times was
the boat tied UP and the General borne
ashore as on a wave to greet and be
greeted of roaring thousands who hail
ed him their Messiah of politics and one
come for their redemption. From the
first our progress was hedged and cano-
pied of the ever-ceasing shout, Hur-
rah! for Jackson!" Night and day it
was in our ears, and our very sleep
gave way and fed before it.
To say that through this / held no
alarms for the General would be but
an idle picture of my feelings. Verify!
1 more than once found my heart in
my mouth lest the gusty multitude that
struggled and fought to touch his hand
should kill him for mere kindness.
And yet he would thrive and be fat
upon it, if such word by any padding
of hyperbole may be made to hit his
slim meagerness. His gray eye would
light, his lean cheek show color, his
milky bristle of hair turn more stiffiy,
counters. When I would demonstrate
and cite his sick weakness to forbid,
he would shake his head and smile
his closest journey to laugh. Then
he would say:
Major, you don't know me! These
shoutings are as medicine in wine.
These people love me; l take strength
from their hands; their applause is my
food and 1 live and grow heavy by it.
And so this boisterousness of indorse-
ment went on; and the General reveled
while I sat sour with terror lest from
it he sieken and die, stricken by the
very evidences of his popularity. He
was right and 1 was wrong; he came
from this general joy, which with every
hour arose and laid actual hands upon
him, as one remade.
Some pages back 1 pitched upon the
fourteenth as a day much in my mind,
and the fourth since we came upon the
capital. 1 begin narration properly
with that day, regarding what has gone
before as preliminary and given for a
clearer knowledge of that which is to
follow as it unfolds.
There were matters to take place
upon the fourteenth which served to fix
it in my memory. The first was mis-
hap to the General himself
For the rain and the mist and the
mire, we that day found ourselves much
confined to the Indian Queen. This
might be called no hardship of loneli-
ness since, despite the mud. all the
world would pull on it's boots to visit
u.s. The General, whose dyspepsia was
dominant, had eaten only little rice.
This he took at short intervals; yet such
dwarf spoonfuls were they, that in the
end the aggregate was smallish, and he
found himself weakly languid as a
reward.
The General had been to a casual
reception below to meet official folk
they were building hopes for them
selves of what should follow inaugu-
ration, still eighteen days away-and
being done with them, and uneasy with
the WEAKNESS of their call, was return
ing to his room. At the stairs head
he stumbled: as he fell he griped his
side and gave a smothered sob of
pain.
I, who walked close behind, was we'll
aware of what had CHANGED. The old
Dickinson wound was imperfectly
healed, and a sharp wrench would tear
IL and set it to inward hemorrhage.
Swiftly / raised him, and since it was
no vast distance down the hall, nor he
mighty burden, carried him to his
chamber.
Call Augustus" he said, his voice
pain-lowered to a whisper.
Placing a chair gave him mouth
full of whisky by way of a stimulant.
Augustus was the black BODY servant
who had come with us from the Her.
mitage. l knew what the summoning
of Augustus argued, yet was hardless
to interfere. The General when
stricken-as he had been many times
in the fashion l have named, was
used to open a vein, and so bleed
himself comfortably till he felt re-
lief More than once 1 had denounced
such backwoods surgery as not only
dangerous, but revolving, and wanting
foundations of common sense. There
was no logic for it, I said and it stood
for the spirit of the preposterous when
one bled internally to bleed ones self
externally as remedy. AS we'll might
I have spoken with the trees. The
General made his stubborn laws and
lived them.
There was a Frenchman." observed
the General on some occasion of my
remonstrance, "who said that at for
ty every man was either a fool or
doctor. Now I am more than forty;
and I'm no fool"
Augustus, a tawny. handsome black,
arrived i'll hurry splendidly promis-
sorry of zeal. Being deft of practice,
he whipped a bandage sharply tight
about the Generals arm above the ell
bow-as starved as a rake-handle, that
arm, yet strong as hickory Dough!
Then the General with his Jackknife
nicked a vein well down the lower
arm, and proceeded to bleed himself
most contentedly and literally, while
Augustus held a basin.
Following these horse-leech expert
ments, for so 1 scrubbed not to brand