The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1912-08-29
GETTYSBURG.
[By Mary Johnston in the Ju,v A,,.,+;

white clouds were floating. The light
summer mist was dissip ated; a morning
wind, freshly>sweet, rippled the corn and
murmured in the green and lustv trees
The sunshine gilded Little Round Ton
and Big Round Top, gilded Culp's Hill
and Cemetery Hill, gilded Oak Hill and
Seminary Ridge. 1t flashed from the
cupola OF the Pennsylvania College. Nc
Pherson's Woods caught it on its topmost
branches, and the trees of Peach Orchard
1t trembied between the leaves, and
t1ecked with golden petals Menchey's
Spring and Spangler's Spring. 1t lay in
1t struck the boulders of the DEVILS
Den; it made indescrihably light and fine
the shocked wheat in wheat field that
drove into the green like a triangular
golden wedge. Full in the centre Of the
rich landscape it made shining mark. a
golden bull's-eye, of the small town of
Gettysburg,
1t should have been all peace, that rich
Pennsylvania landscapes Dutch peace
"a Quaker peace. Market wains and
country folk should have moved unon
the roads, and boy, squirrel hunting.
should have been the most murderous
thing in the DEVILS Den. Corn-blades
should have glistened, not bayonets; for
the fluttering flags the farmers wives
should have been bleaching linen on the
grass; for marching feet there should
have zen the sound of the scythe in the
wheat; for the groan of gun-wheels upon
the roads the robins song and the bob
whites call.
The sun went down the first day red
behind the hills. He visited the islands
| Of tho pocifIo Minran o,l aF
Flowers, and India and Iran. He crown
ed Caucasus with gold, and showered
largess over Europe He redeemed the
waves of the Atlantic He touched with
his spear lighthouses and coast towns
and the inland green land. He came up
over torn orchard and trampled wheat
field; he came up over the Round Tops
and Cups Hill and Cemetery Hill. But no
one, this second day, stopped to watch
his rising. The battle smoke hid him from
the living upon the slopes and in all The
fields.
The sun Travelled from east to west,
but no man on the shield of which Gettys-
burg was the boss saw him go down that
second day. A thick smoke, like the
wings of countless ravens, kept out the
parting CLEANS. He went his way over
the plains of the west and the Pacific and
the Asian lands. He came over Europe
and the Atlantic and made, on the third
morning, bright pearl Of the lighthouses,
the surf. and the shore. The ripe July
country welcomed him. But around
Gettysburg lis rising was not seen. The
high, but all that third day he was seen
far away and dim as through crepe. All
day he shone serene on other lands, but
above this region he hung small and dim
and remote like furnished, antique
shield. Sometimes the drift of raven s
wings hid him quite. An incense mount
ed to him, a dark smell and dark vapor.
The birds were gone from the trees,
the cattle from the fields, the children
from the lanes and the brooksides. All
| left on the first day. There was hollow
between Round Top and DEVILS Den, and
into this the anxious farmers had driven
and panned a herd of cattle. On the
sunny, calm afternoon when they had
done this thev could not conceive that
any battle would affect this hollow. Here
the oxen, the cows, would be safe from
chance bullet and from forager. But the
! farmers did not guess the might of that
/ battle.
The stream of shells was directed
against Round Top, but number, black
| dild ucdNy, IdIiCu lllCO CuC uollOWs n
great milk-white OK was the first wound
ed He lay with his side ripped open,
CHASTITY sight. Then COW with calf was
mangled, then a young steer had both
forelegs broken. Believing, the mad
dened herd rushed here and there, attack
ing the rough sides of the hollow. Death
and panic were upon the slopes as we'll as
at the bottom of the basin. A bursting
shell killed and wounded a dozen at once.
The air grew thick and black, and filled
with the cries of these brutes.
A courier, returning to his general
after delivering an order, had his horse
shot beneath him. Disentangling him
self, he went on, on foot, through a
wood. He was intolerably thirsty-and
10, spring. 1t was small and round and
clear like mirror, and as he knelt he
saw his own face and thought, She
wouldn't know me- The minies were
so continuously singing that he had
ceased to heed them. He drank, then
saw that he was reddening the water.
He did not know when he mad been
wounded, but now, as he tried to rise, he
grew so faint and cold that he knew that
Death had met him. There was moss
and fern and nodding white flower 1t
was not bad place in which to die. In
pocket within his gray jacket he had a
daguerreotype - young and smiling
face and form. His fingers were so
nerveless now that it was hard to get
the little velvet case out, and when it
was out, it proved to be shattered, it and
the picture within. The smiling face
and form were all marred, unrecogniz-
able. So small thing, perhaps!- it
made the bitterness of this soldiers
death. The splintered case in his hands,
he died as goes to sleep child who has
been unjustly punished. His body sank
deep among the fern, his chest heaved,
he shook his head family, and then it
dropped upon the moss, between the
stems of the nodding white flower.
A long Confederate line left hillside
and crossed an open space Of corn-feld
and orchard. Double quick it moved,
under its banners, under the shells shrek,
ing above. The guns changed range
and an iron fail struck the line. 1t
wavered, wavered. A Federal line leap
ed "a stone wall, and swept forward, |
under it's banners, hurrahing. Midway
of the wide open there was stretched
beneath the murky sky narrow web
wool of gray, warp of blue. The strip
held while the heart beat a minute or
more, then it parted. The blue edge
ri bo To-,