CHRISTOPHER CARSON.
|The subject of our sketch was one of the most noted mountaineers,trappers and hunters that ever lived.
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He was no less renowned as a guide and a soldier. He was a native ofMadison County, Kentucky, where he was born December 24, 1809. When hewas a babe his father removed his family to Howard County, Missouri.Here he spent {352}many happy days in hunting wild game, and makinghimself familiar with nature. The schoolroom had not very many charmsfor him, and at fifteen he was apprenticed to a saddler, with whom heremained two years. But this employment was irksome to him, and he soonfreed himself, and we next hear of him as a trapper, which was morecongenial to his taste, as he remained one for eight years. He nextengaged as hunter to Bent's Fort, and eight more years glided by. Fewmen understood the nature of the Indians more thoroughly than did he.He dealt with them in a truthful, straightforward way, which won theirregard, and the government appointed him Indian agent in New Mexico,where he was singularly successful in making treaties with the red men,which were religiously kept.
His services during the Civil War were inestimable in New Mexico,Colorado and the Indian Territory, for which he was promoted to colonel,and was brevetted brigadier-general.
He died from a rupture of an artery in the neck, at Fort Lynn, Colorado,on the 23d of May, 1868.
THE WORLD'S COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION.
|The next great fair which our country saw, was planned on a huge scale.It was also an invitation to the peoples of all lands, who liberallyresponded. This was the World's Fair, and it was rightly named, forit proved a gathering of all nations. It was opened in May, 1893,and closed October 30. The features of the Fair were varied, and itsinception and fulfillment were on a gigantic scale. Nearly every countryon earth sent some representation to the Fair, and during its existencemillions of strangers visited the city.
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There was a long and earnest contest as to what city should have thehonor of being selected to hold the great World's Fair, St. Louis,Cincinnati, New York, Washington and Chicago, each presenting powerfulreasons why the choice should fall upon it. But Congress settled thequestion by giving to Chicago the coveted honor, and without delaycommissioners were chosen, and {354}officials and citizens went busilyto work, hand in hand, to make the fair the grandest ever projected.
The grounds selected were at Jackson Park, Chicago, and comprised 640acres. Magnificent buildings were erected, costing from $10,000 to$300,000 each, and every State engaged with the others in a friendlyrivalry. There were forty-seven State and Territorial buildings, eachone noted for a style of architecture dissimilar to any of the rest, andyet all remarkably beautiful.
It was well represented by foreign peoples, fifty-one nations andthirty-nine colonies participating. The edifices erected by thedirectors, such as Transportation, Machinery Hall, Electrical Building,etc., were numerous and costly. The beauties of the Art Gallery were arevelation to the busy, pushing American, and the man or woman who spentbut a few days among the wonders of the great World's Fair of 1893 foundfood for reflection and pleasant memories to last a lifetime. Nature wasnot overlooked and the horticultural show was a marvel of beauty. TheFisheries Building was deemed among the handsomest on the grounds,costing $225,000, but where all were so fine and-so well adapted totheir intended use, it is impossible to particularize.
The fair, it was expected, would be opened by President Cleveland inperson, but State reasons forbidding his presence, it was arranged thathe should touch an electric button in Washington which should start themachinery here, which was done. The fair was dedicated on the 20th ofOctober, 1892, with imposing and lengthy ceremonies, and opened to theworld in May, 1893.
Figures do not appeal to the youthful mind, but still they are necessaryfor comparison, and when I tell my young readers that the Viennaexposition in 1873 expended $7,850,000, while Chicago's outlay was$17,000,000, it will easily be seen that the Worlds Fair of 1893, heldat Chicago, was carried out with a magnificence never before equaled.
PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF 1896.
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HEN {355}in the campaign of 1896 for President of our great republic,excitement ran high, as the "silverites" had put a candidate in thefield in opposition to the Republican nominee, the latter party havingadopted a platform which upheld the gold standard, and which pledgeditself to make every effort to obtain recognition for silver as moneyby gold-standard countries, at a ratio to be agreed upon later; it alsodeclared in favor of a protective tariff.
The year of 1893 had brought a terrible panic, which caused moresuffering in its train, than any that had preceded it. Business wasnot to be had, labor was not sought, and failures were of everydayoccurrence. People began to ask why this state of affairs existed.The advocates of silver answered that it was because that metal waslegislated against, while the protective tariff people asserted thatthe troubles were due to the fact that the tariff was faulty--it neitherprovided money for governmental uses, nor work for the toilers.
At once a fierce contest of words and arguments began. The silver menformed clubs, papers presenting their arguments were scattered all overthe land, able speakers were employed, and nothing was heard but theall-absorbing currency question.
The Democrats held a convention at Chicago in July with the silver menin the majority. William J. Bryan of Nebraska proved so convincinga speaker in the debates, that he held the attention of vast andenthusiastic audiences.
In return for his efforts {356}he was nominated for President, andArthur Sewall of Maine for Vice, as William McKinley of Ohio, hadbeen named in the Republican body that met at St. Louis, in June, withGarrett A. Hobart of New Jersey as Vice-President.
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The platform sanctioned by the party was the free coinage of silverat the ratio of "sixteen to one," and that the tariff was to remainunchanged. The watch 7 word of the party became "sixteen to one."
When the Populists held their convention they chose Mr. Bryan for thePresidential chair, and Thomas Watson of Georgia for the position ofVice-President. The Silver party indorsed the choice of Bryan, andthe whole country became engaged in the conflict. The excitement wasintense, and party spirit ran high. The States seemed equally divided,the Eastern and Central coming out for gold, while the Western andSouthern espoused the claims of the white metal.
Still another party arose, called the Gold Democrats, who convened atIndianapolis in September, and selected John M. Palmer of Illinois fortheir Presidential leader, and Simon B. Buckner of Kentucky for Vice.This party came out squarely for the gold standard only.
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Mr. Bryan took the stump and addressed the people of the country atlarge. Mr. McKinley remained quietly in his own home at Canton, andreceived delegations. It seemed as though every man, woman and childtook sides in the great question at stake, and each was equally sure ofsuccess. Debates noticeable {357}for their bitter intensity were heard,meetings were held day and night, and each party felt certain that inan acceptance of its particular views alone rested the safety andperpetuity of our country.
The battle culminated on November 5, 1896, when William McKinley waselected by a large majority. The rancor and bitterness died out, allparties accepted the people's choice, and he was inaugurated PresidentMarch 4, 1897, amid a scene of splendor.
Of his patriotism, his clear-sightedness, his wisdom, his administrationis daily giving proof, and his conduct of our late war with Spain is thebest vindication of the calm, unbiased, just and grand character of ourchief executive.
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"HOME, SWEET HOME."
FRANCES E. WILLARD.
In {359}the spring of 1863 two great armies were encamped on eitherside of the Rappahannock River, one dressed in blue and the otherdressed in gray. As twilight fell, the bands of music on the Union sidebegan to play the martial music, "The Star Spangled Banner," and "RallyRound the Flag;" and that challenge of music was t
aken up by those uponthe other side, and they responded with "The Bonnie Blue Flag," and"Away Down South in Dixie." It was borne in upon the soul of a singlesoldier in one of those bands of music to begin a sweeter and a moretender air, and slowly as he played it they joined in a sort of chorusof all the instruments upon the Union side, until finally a great andmighty chorus swelled up and down our army--"Home, Sweet Home." Whenthey had finished there was no challenge yonder, for every band uponthat farther shore had taken up the lovely air so attuned to all that isholiest and dearest, and one great chorus of the two great hosts went upto God; and when they had finished the sweet and holy melody, from theboys in gray there came a challenge, "Three cheers for home!" and asthey went reverberating through the skies from both sides of the river,"something upon the soldiers' cheeks washed off the stains of powder."
THE REV. O. H. TIFFANY, D. D.
|HOW solemn a thing is death!--and yet, how wonderful a thing {360}islife! God appoints it, man develops it, death seals its destiny,eternity unfolds its ultimate issues. Each human soul in which thispower of life is has "its secrets and histories and marvels of destiny,heaven's splendors are over its dead, hell's terrors are under its feet,tragedies and poetries are in it, and a history for eternity."Every social organism, every grand national aggregation of lives butgeneralizes the history of the individual, and thus the history of alllife and of all living, whether in individuals, families, societies ornations, is one history, and that history the record of its conflicts,its defeats, its victories. The dawn of this life is a struggle forbeing, its growth a constant warfare with antagonisms, its maintenanceis by continued defenses. And each and all of these create crises ofdestiny which may retard or advance, destroy or establish the whole.
Our national birth was a contest with physical difficulties, ourestablishment a victory over political antagonisms; the last desperatestruggle was a conflict of ideas, a contest of moral principles; and wemay hope that its issue shall be one of prosperity and peace.
Mountains are rock-ribbed and enduring because the earthquake hassettled them on their foundations; the pines that crest them like acoronet withstand the rudest blasts, because they have been rooted bythe storms which toss their giant branches. So universal freedom hasbeen made sure by the passing turbulence of rebellion, and our nationalprosperity established by the rude blast of war.
It was a war such as the world never before witnessed; it was fought bysuch armies as never before were marshaled on the field. But the end hascome. These great armies have returned covered with honor and laureledwith renown. They are merged again in the business and activities oflife; they have disappeared from view like the snow in springtime,or the dew of the morning in the {361}summer's sun; now and then thehalting step upon the sidewalk, here and there an empty sleeve, remindus in our daily walks of the stern realities of war.
After war, peace!
Peace to the dead. Peace through their labors to the living. These "havefought their last fight," the salvos of artillery which soon shall soundfrom the guns they loved so well shall not awake them. The grass shallgrow green in springtime, the birds of summer shall sing their sweetestnotes, the bright glories of autumn shall tint the foliage above them,and the white snow of winter shall lie unbroken on their graves, butthese shall sleep on in peace.
Peace, white-robed and olive-crowned, has come to us who linger. Peace,with its cares and toils, peace, with its plenty and prosperity, peace,with its duties for to-day and its destinies for to-morrow. Let uswelcome it and become worthy of it. Let there be in all our lives,thoughts, hopes, endeavors, such devotion to duty as called and sentthese brave men to the battlefield and sustained them there; and then wemay safely leave our future to the care of those who, coming after us,shall pause, amid the ruins time may make, to trace upon the marble inour cemeteries the names of the heroic dead.
``God gives us peace! Not such as lulls to sleep,
``But sword on thigh and brows with purpose knit.
`And let our Ship of State to harbor sweep,
``Her ports all up! Her battle lanterns lit!
`And her leashed thunders gathered for their leap.
THE UNION SOLDIER.
ROBERT G. INGERSOLL.
|THE past rises before me like a dream. Again we are in the greatstruggle for national life. We hear the sounds of preparation, themusic of the boisterous drum, the silver voices of heroic bugles. We seethousands of assemblages, and hear the appeals of orators; we see thepale cheeks of women and the {362}flushed faces of men; and in thoseassemblages we see all the dead whose dust we have covered with flowers.We lose sight of them no more. We are with them when they enlist in thegreat army of freedom. We see them part with those they love. Some arewalking for the last time in quiet, woody places with the maidens theyadore. We hear the whisperings and the sweet vows of eternal love asthey lingeringly part forever. Others are bending over cradles, kissingbabies that are asleep; some are receiving the blessings of old men;some are parting with mothers who hold them and press them to theirhearts again and again, and say nothing, and some are talking withwives, and endeavoring with brave words spoken in the old tones to drivefrom their hearts the awful fear. We see them part. We see the wifestanding in the door, with the babe in her arms--standing in thesunlight sobbing--at the turn of the road a hand waves--she answers byholding high in her loving hands the child. He is gone, and forever.We see them all as they march proudly away under the flaunting flags,keeping time to the wild, grand music of war, marching down the streetsof the great cities, through the towns and across the prairies, down tothe fields of glory, to do and to die for the eternal right. We go withthem, one and all. We are by their side on all the gory fields, in thehospitals, on all the weary marches. We stand guard with them in thewild storm, and under the quiet stars. We are with them in ravinesrunning with blood, in the furrows of old fields; we are with thembetween contesting hosts unable to move, wild with thirst, the lifeebbing slowly away among the withered leaves. We see them piercedby balls and torn with shells in the trenches by forts, and in thewhirlwind of the charge, where men become iron, with nerves of steel.
We are with them in the prisons of hatred and famine; but human speechcan never tell what they endured. We are at home when the news comesthat they are dead. We see the maiden in the shadow of her first sorrow.We see the silvered head of the old man bowed with the first grief.
The past rises before us, and we see four millions of human beingsgoverned by the lash; we see them bound hand and foot; we hear thestrokes of cruel whips; we see the hounds tracking women {363}throughthe tangled swamps; we see babes sold from the breasts of mothers.Cruelty unspeakable! Outrage infinite! Four million bodies inchains--four million souls in fetters. All the sacred relations of wife,mother, father and child trampled beneath the brutal feet of might. Allthis was done under our own beautiful banner of the free. The past risesbefore us; we hear the roar and shriek of the bursting shell; the brokenfetters fall; these heroes died. We look--instead of slaves we see men,women and children. The wand of progress touches the auction block,the slave pen, the whipping post, and we see homes and firesides, andschoolhouses and books, and where all was want and crime and cruelty andfetters, we see the faces of the free. These heroes are dead; they diedfor liberty; they died for us; they are at rest; they sleep in the landthey made free under the flag they rendered stainless, under the solemnpines, the sad hemlocks, the tearful willows and the embracing vines;they sleep beneath the shadows of the clouds, careless alike of sunshineor storm, each in the windowless palace of rest. Earth may run red withother wars, they are at peace. In the midst of battle they found theseverity of death. I have one sentiment for the soldiers, living anddead--cheers for the living, and tears for the dead.
Our Noble, Heroic and Self-Sacrificing Women.
EMORY A. STORRS.
|BRIGHT and shying on our resplendent annals shall appear the namesof those thousands of noble, heroic and self-sacrificing women, whoorganized and carried forward to trium
phant success a colossal sanitaryand charitable scheme, the like of which, in nobility of conceptionand perfectness of execution, the world had never before witnessed, andwhich carried all around the globe the fame and the name of the women ofAmerica.
From camp to camp, from battlefield to battlefield, through the long andtoilsome march, by day and by night, these sacred charities followed,and the prayers of the devoted and the true were ceaselessly with youthrough all dangers.
Leagues {364}and leagues separated you from home, but the blessingsthere invoked upon you hovered over and around you, and sweetened yoursleep like angels' visits.
While the boy soldier slept by his camp fire at night and dreaming ofhome, and what his valor would achieve for his country, uttered even inhis dreams prayers for the loved ones who had made that home so dear tohim, the mother dreaming of her son breathed at the same time prayersfor his safety, and for the triumph of his cause. The prayers andblessings of mother and son, borne heavenward, met in the bosom of theircommon God and Father.
ANTIETAM.
|I'VE wandered to Antietam, John,
`And stood where foe met foe
``Upon the fields of Maryland
```So many years ago.=
`The circling hills rise just the same
```As they did on that day,
``When you were fighting blue, old
The Blue and the Gray; Or, The Civil War as Seen by a Boy Page 23
