The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1911-02-21
MARCHING
TO GLORY
BY F. A. Mitchell
Copyright by American Press Asso-
citation. 1911
BY F. A. Mitchell

upon VlSlon OF Jnat after dedtn Pc
riod which is almost universally be-
lieved to be sealed from mortal eyes.
My theory as to this condition of
mine is that being abnormal, II pro-
duced abnormal pictures. We see no
c0lors. What we consider colors are
simply millions of waves impinging on
the retina Of the eye. Comparatively
slow moving waves produce red rap
Idly moving waves produce violet; those
between the two produce intermediate
colors. Now, may not the retina when
turned awry be readjusted to receive
that which 1t is not intended to re.
ceive? In other words, may not what
] am going to relate have really ex-
listed instead Of having been a dream
or vision produced by strained con.
ditions?
was in the thick of the fight. Men
were shot down beside me, In front
Of me and behind me. The noise was
like thousand thunderstorms. There
were the deafening explosions Of can.
non, the rattle of musketry, the shrIll
neighing OF horses, shouts, groans,
shrieks. Presently something struck
me and turned me half around. My
legs afforded no support; felt myself
sinking; the terrific sounds about me
grew faint-then oblivion.
Suddenly was again conscious.
sat up, supporting myself with an arm,
The fight had moved a short distance
beyond me. Men were hurrying TO
the rear, and men were hurrying to
the front Two men were carrying
past me another on a stretcher. As
! looked | saw something mistlike
forming above the one borne along.
There was nothing describable about
1T, appealing, as 1t seemed to me, to a
sense of which / had never before
been conscious. Like a smoke wreath,
it rose and slowly drifted away.
l knew that a wounded man had
died while being carried by me-. did
not know how | knew 1t. but had no
doubt of 1t. Turning my eyes TO the
front, where a hundred yards from me
a thinned line Of my comrades, from
whose ranks l had dropped, were re-
ceiving q sharp fine. | saw men fall
ing. some crawling away, while others
were limping rearward. On some who
fell Immediately the mistlike sub
stance had seen on the man who had
died while passing me appeared, rose
and drifted away. Had | not seen 1t
leave the body / should have taken il
for pun of smoke from the mouth of
q gun.
Then noticed that al these " ;rsiths
were moving In me same direction,
gathering, clustering about common
centers. grouped In what seemed to be
one faint luminous cloud From it
broke away line like men marching
by platoon or company front then an
other line and another till many such
lines at equal distances had moved
out from the whole. which gradually
grew less till a column OF the dead
was marching on a rising curve,
AT uESL LulS NuINE leu liBul away
from me. but the direction, ever chang
ing, presently caused them to pass
over my head, yet since they were con.
stantly rising they passed far above
me. II was sight TO see, these souls
of dead soldiers passing from earth on
their way to spiritlsnd. Ever turning
IS they were, at last I realized that
they were passing to their long homes
in gigantic spiral.
thought Of those spiral nehulae,
developing universes, seen in the heav-
ems through telescopes and wondered
IL this form, as 1t marks the beginning,
marks aleo the end of the infinite COM
bination OF matter and soul
At last the rsceding column became
a single line, growing thinner TIL II
formed barely perceptible curve hike
that Of comet
So rapt was I in this strange vi
zion that I was oblivious to all else
Then / noticed that the battle was
ours. / dropped upon the ground
again, and gradually all things about
me vanished must have passed the
night unconscious on the battlefield.
When I came to myself right above
me and within foot of my face was
a blade of timothy. on the end of
which spider was crawling. watch
ed him running about on the cereal
for awhile, then noticed that It was
morning. Occasionally heard dis
tant shot l knew a picket fred it,
for with an army in the field picket
shots are always to be heard Occa-
sionally n volley came over the fields
which I knew had been fred over some
soldiers grave. As | grew more con
scious OF my surroundings l grew also
conscious Of pain in my side and
terrible stiffness through my whole
body. Then l heard a voice say:
"This mans alive"
A soldier with spade in his hand
stood over me. and an officer with
sash about hts waist, the color Of
which I knew denoted a surgeon, came
and bent over me. He called his ss-
slstant who put flask TO my lips.
81 saw this fellow last evening"
said the latter. land ! was sure he
was dead"
I recovered and have often since told
this story Of what I saw on that bat
tleheld But people usuF 'ly tap their
foreheads knowingly or say, You
we're deIirlOus. old man"