Coeur d'Alene evening press. (Coeur d'Alene, Idaho) 1907-1929, 1910-01-15
A CHRISTMAS CARD,
nx 3. ToWNsENp eMlTll.


were playmates in childhood, attended
the same school and left the same col.
Iege in the spring Of 1891 to enlist in
the same regiment In the Union army.
They campaigned together and after
each fight Immediately sought each
other to learn OF their mutual safety.
On one occasion Young shot a Com
federate who was about to run BAY.
Onet into his friends breast. On an
other Ayres carried Young, who had
been wounded, for miles on a retreat.
saving him from "A southern prison
and perhaps death. Their devotion to
each other was well known in the
army in which they served, ana they
we're referred TO as furnishing an ex.
ample of typical friendship.
In the fourth and last year OF their
service they quarreled. Both had be-
come subaltern officers ana were tent
mates. One day Young entered their
tent and, looking under his cot. missed
a chip he kept there as a rest for his
soap.
whats become Of my soap dishr'
be asked bis friend.
"What soap dishY
THAT chip had here"
"Oh. that dirty thing! threw 1t
out"
What did you do that for?' angriiy.
Because l propose to have the tent
live in respectable"
"And 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 steps
by which these two bosom friends be-
came more and more angry and finally
alienated. The contemplate cause
was a chip which its owner considered
soap dish and his friend as not suf-
HcientIy aesthetic to grace their can
vas habitation. They did not speak to
each other during that campaign and
before another Ayres had been trans
ferred to the STAFF 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 postof1ce for his mail Ayres was
handed an envelope addressed to him
in the familiar handwriting Of his
friend. Opening 1t, he drew forth a
card on which was a picture Of a
dove with an olive branch In its
mouth. Nothing was written on the
n card, nor did any letter accompany it,
but the recipient knew that his friend
had remembered his birthday and sent
a 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 it, but thinking on it a great
deal.
The next Christmas morning YOung'S
wife, whom be had just married. hand
ed him an envelope the superscription
on which was In Ayres' handwriting.
It contained the Christmas card he
had sent Ayres on his twenty third
birthday. Mrs. Young asked her hus-
band what it all meant. He pFevari-
Gated. He was ashamed to tell her
the story-firstly, on account of the
Insignificant cause that had separated
him from his friend; secondly. because
he blushed at this mfssive passing be-
tween them, worthy rather Of two
schoolgirls than two veterans Of a
great war.
For forty years the card continued
to pass at Christmas time between the
two friend-enemies. Picture processes
improved. and the little dove of 1865
was a 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 a 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
facetiouSiy 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
s branch. A crisis had come in his al
fairs, and what he had been for years
building fell with a crash. The crown
of his and his wite'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 his NOT
receiving his token. But be had never
written a line or spoken a word to the
man with whom he had quarreled II
bis youth. and it seemed too late fol
him to begin. The result was that hS
RETAINED from writing and worried.
One day-it was shortly before
Chrlstmas-Mrs. Young. rummaging II
her husbands desk. found the old
card. 1t occurred to her at once thai
N her husbands preoccupation and
distress he had for the first time for
gotten it. She had saved a paragraph
taken from a newspaper mentioning
her husbands failure in business and
another stating that he was suffering
fFOm naFvO.,1 rvnufHaf fOn plaPfns