Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1917-10-11

Contributed to The sStar-News by
VIII B. Smith, "On Wheels')

SldlI S1Illtc Liz 1OCh anu tuCAS SHAH
come water out of it, that the people
may drink. And Moses did so in the
sight of the elders of Israel."-Exo-
dus 17:6.
1.-THE state of Pennsylvania has
erected fine soldiers monument at
Andersonville, Ga, as memorial
to the 1000 sons of the Keystone state
who persisted in that prison. And on
this monument, on one of the bronze
tablets, we read, Commemorative of
the miraculous breaking out of the
spring at Andersonville prison, Aug
ust 10, 1864, known as Providence
spring" The appearance of this
spring was so providential when thou
sands were suffering from thirst that
the commission thought it worthy of
being perpetuated in enduring
bronze"
The writer when a 16-year-old boy
was an inmate of Andersonville, pris-
on and owes his life to the waters of
providence spring." and in July 1904,
desiring some information concerning
its present condition, wrote a letter
of inquiry to the superintendent of the
United States national cemetery at
Andersonville, Ga. The following is
an extract from his reply.
"Office of Superintendent of U. S.
National Cemetery, Andersonville,
Ga, July 20, 1904.
Mr.. Will B. Smith.
Dear Sir and Comrade-Your favor
of the Goth reached my hands this
morning and take the first opportun-
| ity for a reply. From the nature of
the question I infer that you have
hardly been keeping tab on Ander-
sonville of late years, but doubtless
you had a surfeit of it in it's wartime
shape. providence spring" in it's
present dress would harly fit the pic
ture which you doubtless retain of it
in your old memory box" It flows
it f1ows-it flows as it did in the days
of yore. The prisoners cry of thirst
rang up to heaven; God heard, and
with His thunders cleft the earth
and poured his sweet waters forth.
A thunderbolt fell with omnipotent
ring and opened the waters of Provi-
dence spring. A fine granite and mar
BILE pavilion is now standing over the
4
carries the water to a basin for the
use of all who come. There has never
been the slightest diminution in the
flow of the water, no matter what the
condition of the streams, wells or
springs elsewhere. It is the marvel
of all who visit the locality and is
fast becoming an object of veneration.
The hallowed memories which cluster
around it will endure until the lapse
of time. Let him who drinks from the
venerated fountain bow his head in
reverence.
To the writers mind being fanil-
lar with the circumstances, the Won
derfIl appearance of Providence
spring" in Andersonville prison stock
ade in the month of August 1864,
when $4,000 famishing Union prison
ers (under blazing southern SUM
were dying by the hundreds, famish-
ing for the want of water, was as
providential or miraculous as when
Moses struck the rock and brought
forth the water at Horeb for the fam
ishing Israeites, for it was when
$4,000 famished Union prisoners had
| ICdCdCo tiA6C CIIIlCdA ilOulCAG WAOA
they could not longer endure, with
naught but the filthy contaminated
water of the small shallow creek to
sustain them, during severe cleo
trio storm, this living stream broke
forth, bright, pure and sparkling,
bringing renewed life and hope. Not
only was it providentia1 that this
supply of pure water should come at
| this time, but also that it came from
| within the "dead line" where by the
prison laws it was protected from be-
| ing trampled and defled, and when
led under the dead line in a spout to
a large wooden trough it was where
| it was of easy access to all. Also,
had it burst out ten feet further north
it would have been outside the prison
stockade, where the prisoners could
not have gotten at it.
Think of the condition: Thirty
two thousand men huddled on twenty
seven acres of ground under a blaz-
ing August sun, praying to God for
water to quench their thirst, and this
magnificent spring bursting out on the
hillside, where they had no suspicion
of water, and supplying $4,000 men
with an abundance of the pure liquid
and not only that but today prov