The Savannah morning news., 1903-12-27

cause tomorrow is Christmas, and It
will find me still very Ill and confined
to my bed. And my dear wife is also
sick in Atlanta and cannot come to
my relief. 1t will be a sad and lonely
Christmas to me in some respects.
while in others it will be an occasion
of much pleasure. I have been able
to send over thirty baskets and two
boxes of very nice oranges into thirty
homes and one orphans home, and I
shall know that in all these houses I
have made many hearts glad in
Christmas cheer. Besides this, friend
up in Virginia sent me a big box of
very nice apples, and 1 have distrib-
uted some twenty paper bags full of
these where they will do the most
good. Then came a basket from
North Carolina and one from Macon,
Ga, both full of good things, lots of
fine cake, candy, bread, fancy crack
ers, apples, ETC., and a cooked chicken.
And out of these two baskets 1 have
great abundance of goodies" to car
ry additional joy to many an hum
BILE home. And so, here upon my bed
of sickness, I am to enjoy a very
proper Christmas. I say proper be-
cause famous writer has declared
that the proper way to observe Christ
mas is to make everybody happy
not to be happy yourself at other folks
expense. It is a day on which to ex-
claim, GOD bless everybody"
This is the first time since I COM
menced these letters, several wears
ago, that am too sick and weak to
write more than two paragraphs, and
these only to explain why the mat
ter Following is made up of delayed
paragraphs, some of which are several
months old. L am compelled to do this
or cause break in my regular sum
DAY letters, which I do not like to do.
D.! am overwhelmed with fresh matter
for future letters, but can only at
tend to one item to-day, the press tele-
gram from Atlanta in Wednesdays
Morning News, that "Old Sherman
headquarters are to be Gen. Barrv's.
referring to the old "Leyden House. .
{! nave several times denied that the
mouse was ever Gen. Sherman's head
quarters, 1t being headquarters of Gen.
George II. Thomas, U. S. A. Sherman
occupied Judge Lyons brick house over
on Washington street, now the Girls
High School The Atlanta papers
ought to study up on local military
history and not blunder. The Consti-
tuition goes so far az to print a picture
OF the Leyden House. with Cen.
Sherman's photo on one corner and
Gen. Barry's on the other. A year ago
II published this same picture, without
Ieh; barrys photo on it and nobody
IN Atlanta corrected the error Cant.
). A. Cook of Milledgeville, however.
followed up my correction with an ac-
count of his visit to Gen. Sherman's
headquarters at the Judge Lyon house.
1 am glad to see that some of the
leading daily papers of the South have
recently dropped the ARE" and adopt-
ed the is when referring to the
United states. 1t is true that the
constitution says: Treason against
the United States shall consist only in
levying war against them, or in ad-
her1ng to their enemies" but the plu-
raj there used has become singular
under the operations of the Civil War,
which made it more appropriate 10
say this lis" a nation and not we
are" the United States. AS far back
as 1925 that eminent journalist and
gifted poet William Cullen Bryant.
had vision of the present reunited
nation which we have become-the
pride of all Freedom loving people the
world over, and the defender of the
weak and the oppressed. Here is Bry-
ants prophecy:
The years that DER each sister land
Shall lift the country of my birth
And nurse her strength till she shall
stand
The pride and pattern of the earth:
IT'LL
Shall cling about her ample robe,
And from her frown shall shrink
afraid
The crowned oppressors of the
globe"
Originality is a good thing in its
place, but l think it is never wrong TO
follow worthy example. In previous
letters 1 have noted the fact that our
colleges-which term covers all the
highest educational institutions of the
country-in the past even back to the
Revolution, have always furnished
brave and patriotic young men to our
armies-North and South. The oldest
records are held by Yale and Harvard
but during the Civil War all colleges
responded, some even closing their
doors for want of students. Now, the
point I am aiming at is this: At
erected Memorial Gates" to the stu
dents who went to war. The Harvard
gate is a memorial to 215 students
from that institution. Columbia Uni
versity of New York city is to erect
a Memorial Gate" to her students
who were in the Spanish-American
War. Thus do these colleges combine
the useful and the ornamental. A
handsome gateway is always a useful
and attractive affair.
A marked example of the careless
manner in which even well-posted mill
tary men use the term commander
in-chief'' is found in Capt Henry
Coppees preface to his Life of Gen.
Thomas" where he refers to Lieut..
Gen. John M. Schofield. U. S. A., as
COMMUNICATIVE Chief of the Army"
1t may be remembered by some read
ers of the Morning News, that Lieut..
Gen. Schofield, after his retirement, en-
dorsed my statement that there was
no such position in the United States
army as commander-in-ch chief. or gen
eral-in-chief, or even commanding gen.
eral, under either of these titles. Con-
gress, on several occasions has con-
ferred these titles upon certain gen.
erals, but they were never. so far as
I know, made a permanent feature in
our army organization. Scott and other
generals in the old regular army were
sometimes called generals-in-chief, and
also commanders-in-chie and the same
blunder prevails at the present day.
No amount of correction seems able
to stop the misapplication of the title
of n-chief. Hardly a day
passes that it is not found In news
1fr nd cd