Coeur d'Alene evening press. (Coeur d'Alene, Idaho) 1907-1929, 1909-12-15
4 CHRISTMAS CARD,
q 2. ToWNsEMp aMlrH.

i ~ tAHNANA1 AM8 AM3ls
& eiatienl
refer Young and Frederick Avre.
! we're playmates In childhood, attended,
the same school ana left the same col.
lege In the spring Of 1851 to enlist d
tne same regiment In the Union army.
1ney campaigned together and after
each hight Immediately sought each
Other TO learn Of their mutual safety.
Oh one occasion Young shot a Con.
Lederate who was about TO run n hav.
onet into his friends breast. On An.
otner Ayres carried Young, who had
peen wounded. for miles on a retreat.
saving him from q southern prison
ana perhaps death. Their devotion Do
each other was well known In the
army In which they served, and they
were referred to as furnishing an ex.
ample OF typical friendship.
10 the fourth aud last year Of their
service they quarreled. Both had be-
come subaitern officers and were tent.
mates. One day Young entered their
tent and. looking under his cot. missed
chip he kept there as a rest for his
soap.
What's become OF my soap dish?
he asked his friend.
What soap dish?'
That chip had here"
"Oh. that dirty thing! threw IL
out"
What did sou do that for?" angrlly.
Because | propose to have the tent
! live In respectable
And l propose to have something to
put my soap on. and ] won't allow
any man to interfere with It"
1t is not essential TO give the stems
~ which these two bosom friends be-
came more and more angry aud fnalIy
alienated. The contemplate cause
was a chip which its owner considered
q soap dish and bis friend as not suf-
hciently aesthetic to grace their can.
vas habitatioD. They did not speak to
each other during that campaign and
before another Ayres had been trans.
ferred to the star and assigned TO
duty with different corps.
In 1865 Young and Ayres were both
again In civil life. On Christmas
morning Of the next year. on going TO
the pOstoffice for his mail Ayres was
handed an envelope addressed to him
In the familiar hand writing of his
friend. Opening II. he drew forth
card on which was a picture Of a
dove with an olive branch in its
mouth. Nothing was written on the
card. nor did any letter accompany II,
but the recipient knew that his friend
had remembered bis birthday and sent
peace Offering. He was not a de-
monstrative man-nor was Young. for
that matter-so he put the card In his
pocket, saying nothing to any one
about II. but thinking on It a great
deal.
The next Christmas morning Young's
wife. whom he had just married. hand
ed him an envelope the superscription
on which was 10 Ayres' handwriting.
1t contained the Christmas card be
had sent Ayres on bis twenty third
birthday. Mrs. Young asked her hus-
band what II all meant He prevari-
Gated. He was ashamed to tell her
the story-frstly, on account Of the
Insignificant cause that had separated
him from bis friend; secondly, because
he blushed at this mIssiye passing be-
tween them, worthy rather Of two
than two veterans Of q
great war.
For forty years the card continued
to pass at Christmas time between the
two friend-enemies. Picture processes
and the little dove of 1866
was q sorry looking bird beside the
dove Of the twentieth century. Be
sides. the card was worn and sOiled.
Possibly had the two friends been
near each other they would have re-
turned to q closer relationship. But |
In all these years they never met. |
Ayres never married. and Mrs. Young, |
who meanwhile had come into posses
sion Of the story Of their quarrel said
that she believed he loved /
her husband too well to marry a wo-
man.
A Christmas came round when Peter :.
Young was IN no mood to remember to |
send the card with the dove and olive
D&duC0s a NNtSA9 11A NOlAG Au uA3 M
fairs. and what be had been for years
building fell with a crash. The crown
81 his and his wife's sorrow was that
his health broke down under the
strain.
Had he not after these many years
come to tread in a rut he would have
written to learn the cause OF bis not
his token. But be had never
written line or spoken a word to the
nan with whom be had quarreled In
ais youth. and II seemed too late for
aim to begin. The result was that be
'efralned from writing aud worried.
One day-it was shortly before
Chrlstmas-M Young. rummaging in
ler husbands desk. found the old
ard. II occurred TO her at once that