The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-04-17
a HE southbound express was rush-

III HE southbound express was rush
ing on to the historic Gulf
L City, where. on the morrow,
the old heroes of the Lost Cause
would assemble in annual reunion. inc
coaches were crowded with the veter-
ans and their families-some old SOL
diers wearing the gray UNIFORM anu
some In citizens garb.
Chief among them one beheld the gen.
eral commanding the Alabama division
and his staff--a fine body of old ana
Ia onored heroes, who. together, hau
passed DER the hilltops of victory ana
through the valleys of defeat and who'
40 years after, could enjoy TO the Ut
termost this assembling of their com
rades, though time was rapidly thin-
ming the ranks of gray. >
The bright side to this otn erwlse
sad picture was presented by the fair
young daughters of the old soldiers.
who each year, accompany them as
sponsors and maids of honor to their
various camps and who love TO near
recounted their deeds of valor and TO
join with them in celebrating these
eras of patriotism Each young girl
wears a badge and the coiors OF the
Confectionery, and to them the ecca-
sions are those of joy and peace, and
even the 'old vets pause in their rem
infscences, ever and anon, TO JOIN in
the brighter chat of the young.
AS the shadows of the November aft
ernoon began to lengthen the tow
ers and spires of the fair old city came
into view, and the trains speed was
gradually decreased as 1t threaded Its.
way among the outlying industries that
have sprung up and made to blossom
as the rose" a country that was once
devastated by the cruel touch of war.
Among the many passengers was a
young man who had sat apart dur
ing the journey, taking no part but
feeling some interest withal in the stir
ring scene-a novel one to him. Born
and reared in the far west, he hal
sought investments in the south and
was now en- route to Mobile to confer
with a well known firm. Leaving the
Magic City of Alabama on the early
morning train, he had found himself
in the midst of a small Confederate
army. Till then he had not known
of another flag than Old Glory. His
ancestors had come over in the May
flower, had fought under Washington,
and had helped to raise that proud
standard "o'er tn land of the free and
the home of the brave" Later they
had again seen 1t victorious in the
civil war, which was a small matter of
history to him. having occurred be-
fore he was born-,and after Lees sur
render his parents had moved to the
great west. To be thus suddenly
brought into section of his own
country where another flag seemed to
wave to the utter exclusion of the stars
and stripes, was revelation to him.
All day had he listened, amazed and
entranced, to the patriotism that sur
rounded him, and which, shared In by
old and young alike, was past his I'M
derstanding. In his cold and unsym-
| pathetic state all he knew of patriot
ism was the flag of the union flying
from some government building--or an
occasiona sally of United States troops
against the red men, from some near
| by army post in which his side was al
ways victorious, Victory was to him
a foregone ct>>clusion. Even the en-
| thusiasm evinced by his state in the
Spanish American war had failed TO
touch him as he had been touched to-
day, when he viewed these old soldiers,
who had gone down in defeat, and who
now told of 1t with reverential awe and
tear-dimmcd eye-when he gazed upon
matrons and maids who gloried in that
defeat and made heroes of the van
pushed. Here. indeed, was new world
| into which he had stepped and he could
but marvel.
And when the train drew up at the
union depot, a surging crowd greeted
,
and badges and streamers of red and
white fioated on the sort southern
breeze.
Fred Forester was on the lookout
for his business partner, who had pre-
coded him by some weeks and whose
telegram had called him to Mobile.
From the car window he spied War
| ing, who seemed to be one of party
of those patriots-or were they reb-
els2 In the group was a girl wear
| ing the Confederate gray with It's
| braid and brass buttons, while jaunty
army cap crowned her dark wavy hair
What a picture she made as she smil-
ingly welcomed the visitors and as
sisted others in giving to each a badge
which was quickly pinned over each
loyal heart! The supply was exhaust
ed when Forester reached her party,
piloted thither by Sidney Waring, who
presented him to each in turn. The girl
in gray was the last and to her For
roster said:
Can you not also be generous to
the stranger within your gates'?" in
dicating the badges upo nthe men,;
coats.
II will give you flag" she smiled,
as she drew tiny silken STARS and
Bars" from her belt and handed 1t to
him.
He bowed courteously. And this flag
how is it known? Pardon me. but