The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-07-01
Trains on Early Schedule Ar
rived With Later Trains.
Too Many Veterans Came at
Same Time to Be Handled.
SECRETARY OF WAR SPEAKS
Delivers Eloquent Address
Amity Replaces Enmity.
Ont of Bitterness Has Sprung
Peace and Good VIII.

Gettysburg. July despite the
strenuous efforts of the regular army
to do impossible things, thousands OF
veterans spent the night on Gettys-
burg field with nothing between theI,
and the stars, but their clothes ana
their courage and nothing between
them and the hard earth but httle
more of the same thing
IT wasn't the fault of the regulars
and it was not the fault OF the Vete'-
ans.
The railroads poured the thousands
into C1ettysburg the best they could,
hut train after train that was lookeo
for early came crawling in near mlu- m
night and afterwards. They kept com
jn9 from that hour until long after
daybreak and shortly after breakfast
the rush began again.
Major Normoyle of the quartermas-
ter's department, Z. S. A, who mas
fingers, went to bed not at all and the
little force of army officers went no
more than he. - =.
Thev toiled with all the vigor IN
them to provide blankets, to point OUT
tents to satisfy the veterans that eV-
erything would be all right TINS
morning. They shifted trains. they
ran engines, they manipulated switches
with the ease. of born rallroao men;
Thev became information bureaus anu
mack horses,
in blue and gray came pouring IN anu anu
the tide rose around them higher and
higher. A..,4
DrohabIv $4,000 veterans would be on
The field by night, 5000 more than
have been looked for. Although nan
that number would fill the camp III
comfortable fashion, Major Normoyle
said he would see that every one was
taken care of; that nobody went hum
CRY and that blankets to warm ana
tents to protect were found for ALL
Had Twelve Blankets.
In their rounds of the main streets
Of the camp in the early morning the
made them swear. While other vet
Grams shivered in the chill oe1ore the
dawn, they found a PennsyIVanlan IN
his tent snug as bug in rug lylns
on three blankets with three over MIN
and nine beneath his cot
The Pennsylvanian was keeping them
for friends, he said, but the nara
hearted regulars could not see the
friends and the Pennsylvania was
separated from all but two of the
blankets in short order.
Many of the men of '6S spent the
night around the fires near the COOK
their bones were not so young as they
used to be and that the ground was
much harder than it was SO years ago
Although the railroads were not
usual cold breeze that springs up in
the early morning hours did not visit
the camp. and there was only light
fall of dew.
This was the first formal day of the
seYni-centennial celebration.
Although Buford and Wheeler had a
skirmish near Gettysburg 80 years ago
yesterday, it was on July l. that the
battle began which forced the Union
troops out of Gettysburg back toward
Cemetery Ridge.
Colonel ]. NJ. Schoonmaker. chairman
of the Pennsylvania Gettysburg COM
mission, was the presiding officer for
today's meeting in the big tent and
Secretary of War Garrison, Governor
Tener of Pennsylvania, Commander in
Chief Alfred 3. Beers. of the G. A.
r. and Commander in Chief General
Bennett H. Young, of the United Con-
federate Veterans, were listed as the
principal speakers.
Otto L. Stamm of Almond, N. Y.
member of the 9th Massachusett in
fantry. died during the night of apo
plexy.
The army surgeons have been sur
prised at the endurance shown by the
veterans and by the fact that no more
of them succumbed to the heat
Endurance Surprises.
There have been no real prostra-
tions,' said Major Collins of the army
medical staff. Many of the veterans
have arrived exhausted or came here
sick and toppled over after they got
here. When you think that only few
score men in nearly so, 600 all of them
near the seventy year mark, have been
taken to the hospital and that only four
have died, you will see that it is re-
markable record. Statistics show a
higher mortality rate than the camp
in any city of it's same size
The army doctors and DR.. Samuel
Dixon of the Pennsylvania state
health. department today continued
their effort to have the sale of liquor
in the town of Gettysburg put to an
end. Colonel Beitler a member of the
state commission announced today
Governor Tener could not declare mar
tial law in Gettysburg and close the
saloons. A last appeal will be made
to the Gettysburg authorities.
Fifteen thousand veterans of the war
between the states sat in the extreme
heat of the big tent on Gettysburg
battlefield today and Joined in the
opening ceremonies Of the first day of
the semi-centennial celebration. The
doctors of the regular army, the Penn
sylvania department of health and the
Red Cross looked with apprehension
upon the swelling crowd of old and
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