El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1915-10-14
HENRY CAPELL
LOVED FLOWERS
Faithful Employe of Herald
Often Talked of His
Wartime Boyhood.


flowers and all growing things. About
3 his modest home in Altura ne mad a
garden which he tended with jealous
: care. He also had fruit trees ana
, grapes in which he took great PRIDE
! He loved the wild flowers of mesa ana
D mountain, and always had bunches OF
; them about him in his house
The World Is Not SO Bigs"
{ After The Herald was taken over by
I II. D. Slater almost Is years ago, MI
! Capen. while in conversation with MT.
/ that in his barefoot bOyhOOd days Oack
1 in DansvilIe y. Y. he had known a
I young man named slater Johhny
3 Slater young recruit In one Of the
! New York volunteer regiments at the
{ beginning of the civil war, who was
; the champion foot racer In the resi-
ment. It developed that the YOUNG
Johnny" Slater whom Mr. Capeu hau
known. was the father of ms new en-
ployer. The matter had merely been
mentioned as an incident Of an eve
ning's conversation as Mr. Capell re
! marked later. because Of the similarity
Of names. and he had no idea that Jne
young soldier he had known in 1851
was the father Of the man who had
Just taken over The Herald. 1t goes
to show" said Mr. Capell, that the
world is not so big after all
Mr.. CapeIl-s Early Days.
As details of the early association
came back to him. Mr.. Capell told how
a few weeks after the war broke out
was recruited in the Genesee valley ana
assembled al Dansville. where Mr. Ca
peu. then boy Of 3, lived group
Of boys from the regiment used 70
come TO his house of evenings and sing
with his sisters around the little cabi-
net organ. One OF these boys was
young Slater. with whom he became
acquainted. This was near the indian
reserve, among the Six Nations, and in
dams used to be numerous in the sol
der camp during the training period
The indians We're great runners. ana
were always challenging the soldier
boys to run foot races with them The
boys in the regiment used to pick young
Slater. boy of IS. to run against the
red men. and Mr.. Capell remembered
many q lively contest upon the tented
fields. He remembered when the boys
marched away to war. and now the
news came the following year that the
regiment had been cut to pieces at
Manassas.
Talks of Wurtimes-
Some time after this conversation
Mr.. Capeil visited Dansville, and there
talked with A. O. BunneL, who had
published the Dansviile Advertiser for
more Ehan so years. BunneH not only
recalled the incidents. but added many
others from his ricn store OF reIninls-
cence. and told how ne had accom-
panied Skaters mother to Washington
after the boy had been reported dead
on the field. and how after weeks OF
search he was found in hospital ues-
Derately wounded but undaunted-
Through the acquaintance thus estab-
lished much interesting Information
was gained. of which the son IN Il
PasO had been I'm ignorance.
Brave in Cause Of Right.
No one in FL PasO was more closely
associated with Alr. Capeu than was
j a smith. Together they fought TO
establish The Herald as a representa-
tive paper in the southwest and their
devotion TO the paper and to each other
vas one Of the fine things is their
lives
Henry Capen was a man who would
stand hitched when the cause was
right said Mr.. Smith. In the old
days. when we had eur difficulties in
editing a paper in what was then
frontier town. Henry was always right
at my side to back me up in anything
that came up and his physical bravery
was second in strength only TO MS
moral courage His devotion to ms
boys and the influence for good he had
over the boys who worked under him
has left its permanent impress on III
PasO's business life"