Year: 1864




and inspired with the same sentiments.
In few days they will go back to the
front and will report to their comrades
that all is we'll in the rear; the grand ar
my is closed up, compact, and ready for
actiOn.


There is a revelation in this war. Il
has shown us many things we had not
dreamed Of. They tell US that when
the prairies are on FIRE you will see all
sorts ofanimals that were never suppos-
ed to inhabit that region. Great and
small, fierce and gentle, oil are driven
along in body, and their existence
and natures revealed by the dangers Of
the sweeping fire. Calamity is there,
and has revealed the hidden mysteries,
Of the wide prairies.


When fire breaks out in city it lays
bare strange places and stranger lives
than ever had been thought of. Vices,
miseries, and scenes hitherto successful
y concealed from the public eye, are,
by the lurid blaze of calamity, sud denly
laid bare for examination. SO with ma
tions, when great disturbance of inter
nal strife has convulsed the land, there
is sudden and astonishing revelation
of characters.


Nothing in the history of this nation
has shown up the virtues aud the vices
of the people 50 effcotually as this war.
1t has revealed the beauty spots and the
plague spots, and taught us to appre.
ciate the one and shrink from the other.


He knew one who said that he could
never properly appreciate the story OF
the honey found in the carcass of the
dead lion until this war came. lie had
looked long and dcspondingIy, but out
of all the wickedness and sin of the
war he had fouRd much sweetness
There was honey in the dead lion.--
Looking down into the corruption and
miseries of the war, tho honey could be
seen and drawn up. HI did not believe
that He who rules the destinies of mar
would let down the upper milestone up
on US, and grind US to powder, unless
some good were to come oft.


We have all frequently heard of the
horrors Of war, but we have not so often
thought of the horrors Of peace. Bad
as war may be, greater evils sometime:
arise from long peace. The nations
life becomes stagnant, and from its sli.
my corruption emerge hideous things
that taint the air with their presence
1t is no doubt terrible to see the ocean
lashed to fury by the tempsst--to listen
to the roaring aud gurgliug of the de-
vouring waves, but it would be far more
terrible to have that ocean lying in per-
petual calm, with all life gone from its
still and CLASSY bosom; to have the ma
vies Of the world lying motioRless and
rotting on the staguant waters, their
sails dropping off piece by piece. Bet
ter far the storm that stirs up the depths
and gives life and vigOr to the ocean
and all upon it.


The storm Of war which now drives
furiously over our land, which is heav-
ing and lashihg in anger, may have
lashed US into life and saved us from
stagnating and rotting in Indifference
and vice. Not that it is proper to say
that nothing but good can come out Of
this war. 1t would be too much to as
sort this. The evils we suffer may be a
chastisement for our sins.


But there is one advantage of this
war that is evident. When peace comes
at last, no one can say that there has
not been greater opportunities for do
ing good during this war than ever be.
fore. The young men of the present
day never saw or read Of time as grand
as this. They never had such opportu-
mites of doing great and noble actions,
Before this war there were no such op-
portunities No people ever saw for
its young men more glorious era for
its openings to famous deeds. And
how nobly the young men have taken
Advantage Of it. Before this war tho
young men swarmed everywhere, and
you never dreamed that behind that
pale face, within that dsiicats form,
were the germs of hsroism that would
mako the world look on in Wonder
But the trumpet call came, aud the
yeung men lcaped to the ranks in re-
sponse to its blast. Pale, fragile, and
scarcely able to handle his musket, the
boy went out, and in the camp, and
amid tho shock, and fury and carnage
of the battlO, the germ of heroism de,
vsloped and expanded, and tho delicate
boy lowered up as a man and hero,


What time this is too for unmasking
humbugs and hypocritss. There is no
mercy for prctendors in the stern reali'