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A Country Road. ♦
Ytflow with dust it sleeps in noonday’s glare,
Yellow with dust it stretches far away;
On the mossed wall the chipmonks frisk
and play, -_
Where golden daises broider all the air.
Uow nature seems to dream’mid fragrance
rare.
For summer silence bolds unbroken sway,
Till round the bend a creaking wain of
hay
Comes lumbering down the drowsy thor
oughfare.
Then all is still again; the orchard trees
Are motionless as the distant purple hills
On which the shadows of the white
clouds rest,
When suddenly the white-flecked clover seas
All joyous tremble, while the bobolink
trills
His wildest melodies with sweet unrest.
— Ii. K. Munkittrick in Harper's Weekly.
CAPTOR AND CAPTIVE.
AN INTERESTING WAR STORY.
Would you like an interesting war
story today? We have it, and it reads
like a romance. It was related by Mr.
Charles A. Howell. The story begins
with the charge of Wilson’s Western
cavalry on the Confederates around
Columbus. Gen. Howell Cobb’s com
mand occupied Girard, just across the
Chattahoochee River, and the news came
that Wilson’s cavalry was bearing
rapidly on the town, and that this dash
ing troop would reach Girard by about
7o’clock in the evening. They came on
time and the Confed<jrate forces, greatly
outnumbered, and taken on such brief
notice, were at immense disadvantage.
The Federal cavalry had come like a
cyclone, and the face of the earth was
literally dotted with them. They held
every point around the town and ad
vanced from all directions. Before
night they charged the Confederate
forces, and in a few minutes the battle
■was on. Fierce was the struggle, as,
locked almost in each other’s lines, the
two contesting forces fought for supre
macy. But it was soon over; tho Con
federates could not bold out against tho
heavy odds, and retreat was tho only
escape from capture or annihilation.
One after another the lines broke, and
in tho darkness of the night the Con
federates found themselves absolutely
disorganized, companies lost from their
commands, soldiers from their com
panies, and every man struggling to
keep out of the enemy’s hand.
“To the bridge 1” was the cry.
The scattered Confederates rushed to
the bridge to escape to the Georgia side
only to find it in flames! Some had got
ten over in safety and many went though
the best they could, fighting fire and
picking their way through the sputter
ing timbers.
Among the last to pass the bridge
was Second Lieutenant Charley Howell
of Company C, First Georgia Regiment
—a boy, scarce 18 years of age. He
,was lost from bis company and found
himself a stranger among strangers, but
the gray uniform ho wore called a kind
word from a strapping Texan who, like
him, was a refugee, but had fortunately
escaped on horseback, and had succeed
ed in bringing another horse with him
which he led.
44 Want to ride?" said the Texan, ad
ding hurriedly, “Bettergit up; we ain’t
got no time to spare!”
No sooner said than done, and over
the road leading from Columbus toward
Greenville, in Meriweathcr county, the
little Lieutenant and the sturdy Texan
jogged along together in the darkness
of the night.
The Texan was on his way to Macon,
where he hoped to join friends, and
Lieut. Howell was on his way home to
Atlanta, and he wanted to get there by
the most direct route, which accounted
for his not accepting the generous offer
of his companion to “keep your horse
and come on with me to Macon.” They
separated after a day’s ride together,
one continuing north towards Atlanta,
and the other leading a riderless horse
toward Macon.
On the second day after tho fight at
Girard, Lieut. Howell fouud himself
near Waverly Hall, in Harris county.
The sun was sinking over the moun
tains, which rise in that section as if by
some error of nature, and the traveller,
almost exhausted, was wondering where
he would rest for the night. The road
hugged a mountain stream, and a bend
brought ia full view a mill cozily nes
tled on its banks, while across tho road
was one of those ula-cimo Southern
mansions, of immaculate white,
broad piazzas, and possessing an air of
hospitality which seemed to say,
in.” Several ladies were about
yard, two in deep mourning, as soon ap
peared, for husbands who had gone
the war never to return. The gray coat
at the gate attracted their eyes and
opened their hearts. “Come in,” they
said, “we will do the best we can for
you. You are hungry. We have but
little left, but what we have we will
share. ”
Soon the traveller’s story was told.
The party were seated on the broad
piazza overlooking the mill, and the
chirping of the crickets, the monotonous
hum of the water playing with the mill
wheel, and the noise of a gentle wind
toying with the limbs of the towering
oaks, lent an air of solemnity to the oc
casion.
There are sounds of tha pattering of
horse’s hoofs!
In another minute the bend is round
ed, and two horsemen, magnificently
equipped and in full uniform of Federal
cavalry, hastily dismount at the gate of
the mansion!
“The Yankees! The Yankees! » J
screamed the ladie3 in consternation.
The riders had promptly “covered”
the young officer with their revolvers,
and, advancing toward the house, one of
them, in captain’s uniform, said:
“Have no fear, ladies; we will not
harm you.” Then, turning to Lieut.’
Howell, the speaker continued:
“You surrender?”
“I must; I am unarmed.”
“You are a rebel?”
“I’m not called such our way, but if
the term suits you, all right.”
“You wear a Lieutenant’s stripes, I
see—they take’em young down here.”
“Not too young to fight.”
‘ ‘Well, come on, we will have to
take you in charge,” and the three left
the yard, the cavalry men mounting
and the prisoner following on foot.
In this way they left the old mansion,
turning southward. Soon the Captain
turned to his prisoner with the remark:
“You will find it hard work to keep up
with us on foot; hadn’t you better get
up behind John?” motioning to his at
tendant. And get up behind John he
did, and in this way they rode for sev
eral hours.
Late in the night Capt. Louthan, for it
was Capt. J. W. Louthan of the Seven
teenth Indiana Cavalry, his attendant
and prisoner, reached his command,
about 75 mm who had been detailed as
scouts after the Columbus fight, In
the meantime the Captain had said to
his prisoner that if he would promise
not to attempt to escape he would be
treated properly and protected in camp
from any trouble. The promise made,
the young lieutenant felt easy, When
they joined the command of scouts the
soldiers around the camp fires eyed the
prisoner—the only one in camp—in
quisitively, and a burly Pennsylvanian
remarked, the Captain having turned
aside:
“What do you want with that little
rebel? We’ll just have to kill him to
get rid of himl”
“Captain,” said the prisoner next
morning, “they are talking about bill
ing me; am I to be protected?”
“Who talked about it?” the officer
asked.
i 4 That man there,” pointing to the
Pennsylvauian who had made the threat.
“Confound you,” said the officer,
“don’t you know that this is my prison
er, and I will shoot the man that touch
es him?”
To the prisoner ho said: “I have
your promise that you will not try to
escape. I will take you at your word.
We are going from hero to Macon, and
may get into several skirmishes on the
march. A horse provided for you, and
when we get to fighting you must keep
to the rear.”
On the march to Macon the scouts
fell into several warm skirmishes, and
Capt. Louthan was always in the front.
4 ( He was as brave a man as I ever
saw, ” said Mr. Howell in speaking of
him yesterday, “He was a hard
fighter, and always kept in front of
his men. Whenever we stopped on the
march at houses along the road he was
as gentle and as kind to tho ladies as
any man could be. He would say to
them in assuring them that their fright
was unnecessary, ‘Madam, these men
shall do nothing that your own soldiers
would not do. You will oblige us with
something to eat, and I trust you will
not consider it plunder on our part. It
is one of the exigencies of war. > i*
At this time the Fedcrals held Macon
—it was the week that Leo surrendered
and a thousand Confederate prisoners
were under guard in a large cotton
warehouse in that city. Capt. Louthan
joined his command in [Macon, and his
single prisoner fell into the warehouse
with the other prisoners. A day and a
SCHLEY COUNTY NEWS.
night ho stayed there, almost suffocated,
poorly fed, and scarcely cared for at all.
On the second day Capt. Louthan, as
officer of the day, saw him through
one of the warehouse windows, near
which he was standing, and exclaimed:
(t Why, I forgot about you. You
must get out of thatl”
The Captain elbowed his way through
the jam of prisoners, and, telling him
to “come along,” led the prisoner out
and carried him to his tent on the bank
of the Ocmulgee.
“You will stay here,” he said, “and
with the promise that you will remem
ber that you are my prisoner, and that
you will report here three times a day,
at meals, I will relieve you of guard.”
On the third day the Captain, remark
ing that “the trouble was about over,”
asked his prisoner if be would accept a
parole. “I can get it for you, and you
can go home, and Heaven prosper you.”
And thus it was that Lieut. Howell
finished his war experience and returned
to Atlanta.
And now for the after war part of the
story!
Naturally Mr. Howell, no longer
Lieutenant, has often wondered what
became of the brave Federal Captain, to
whose kindness he was so much in
debted.
Four years ago, while on a trip
through the West, he concluded to go
to the meeting of the Grand Army of
the Republic at Minneapolis, hoping to
find some trace of him there. But he
could hear nothing.
Several weeks ago, in casual conver
sation with Mr. Ira M. Swartz, with
Capt. Jacobs in charge of the work on
our new army post, something about the
story was mentioned.
“I think I can find him,” said Mr.
Swartz, and find him he did, at Dun
kirk, Ohio, to which place Mr. Howell
at once wrote him. A few days ago a
reply came, as follows:
I received your letter some time ago; was
glad to he tr from you. I recollec t the time
that I I was out scouting and picked you up. |
am truly glad that you found me out and
wrote to me. * * * I would like to come
down to your place and see you and visit
■some of the battlefields. I would also like to
attend a reunion of Wheeler apd Forre;t’s
principal fighting we did was with them. I
do not belong to the Grand Army of the Re
public, as I live about five miles from town,
and it is too far for me to attend the meet
ings. I send copy of the Kenton Democrat
with your letter to me. My political faith is
Democratic. Hoping to hear from you soon,
I remain, yours truly,
J. W. Louthan, Dunkirk, O.
A letter has already gone inviting
Capt. Louthan to come down .—Atlanta
Constitution.
)
The Upas Tree.
Supernatural, almost diabolical, in
flue. ces are attributed to the famous
upas tree, which, according to all ao- i
counts, is so deadly that if a hot wind 1
passes over it an odor is carried
along which is fatal to whosoever ,
breathes it. Old letters, written
from Park in 1642 by “The Turkish
Spy,” describe a plant cultivated in a
garden in the city that blasts all that
grows within ten cubits of its roots.
They call it ‘ ‘ill neighbor. ” He de
clares that there was a withered circle
around it, while the tree itself was
and .
green thrifty. There is a tradition j
of a poison or upas tree that grows in
the Island of Java, from which a putrid
steam rises and kills whomsoever it
touches. Fn^Ph a TWph » . .
gra„ to be found .a the valley or eur
rounding mountains, Not a beast or
bird or reptile or living thing lives in
the vicinity. On one occasion 1600
refugees encamped within rH miles of
it, and all but 300 di rrt [thin two
months.” The falsehood of this story
is exposed by Bennett, who says: “The
tree [upas] while growing is quite in
nocuous, though the juice may be used
for poison; the whole neighboihood is
most richly covered with vegetation;
men may fearlessly walk under the tree
and birds roost in its branches.” Dar
win, in his “Loves of the Plants,” has
perpetuated Foersch’s fable when he
says:
“On the blasted heath
Fell Upas sits, the hydra tree of death.”
It is probable that the fable of the
blighting influence of the upas tree has
been derived from the fact that there is
in Java a small tract of land on which
nothing can live. This is caused, not
by the “fell upas,” but by emanations j
of carbonic acid gas, which are con
stantly going on. At the same time it
is quite true that the juice of the upas
is a deadly poison.
A “WHITE CHIEF.”
Colonel Jordan, a Pale-faced
Leader of the Sioux Nation.
“low He Persuaded the Indians
to Cede Their Lands.
The “white chief” whose marriage to
a squaw princess put it in his power to
become a leader of the Sioux Nation is
Colonel Charles P. Jordan, and to his
influence more than to that of any other
white man, except General Crook, is due
the ratification at the great Rosebud
Agency of the act dividing the Indian
reservation in severalty among the Sioux
and opening up to the whites a vast and
fertile tract of land in Dakota. Mr.
Jordan not unnaturally feels pleased
with the result of the labors of the Com
mission at Rosebud, where he is now the
Government’s licensed trader, and where
he w T as for a year or two in partnership
with Marion D. Lytle, the stepson of
President Harrison’s brother Car
ter, and nephew of General William II.
Lytle.
Colonel Jordan is a spare but well
proportioned man of keen, jienetrating
eye, bronzed face, brown hair and mus
tache and medium height. By right of
marriage to an Indian princess he is a
4 i white chief,” and has more influence
among the Sioux than any other white
man perhaps in Dakota. When asked
how the Sioux were persuaded to cede
their lands and what were the new and
dramatic features of the ceremony, Colo
nel Jordan said:
“We first called the half breeds and
‘squaw men’ together and argued the
matter to them. The next day we ap
peared in the grand council, which was
exclusive and where a large crowd had
assembled. I made an earnest speech
after several chiefs had spoken bitterly
against the bill. Afterward when the
main council with the commissioners
was held, when the crisis was expected,
and when hundreds of warriors had at
scmbled, the heal chief, Swift Bear,
called upon me to speak after several
Indian chiefs had talked against the
bill.
“I referred to my speech made in the
Indian council and advanced other argu
ments. When I sat down I saw that
while many were willing to sio-n each
feared to take the initiative from dread
of the opposing chiefs. Knowing Crow
Dog, the slayer of Spotted Tail, to be
all right, because of conversations I had
had with him, and knowing that he
was more feared and fearless than any
other Indian, I quietly moved over to
where he sat and asked him to come
forward with me and start the signing.
* He got up, and another influential
Indian, Standing Bear, accompanied
to the table at which the Commissioners
sat. They both signed their names,
and I then motioned to the head chief,
Swift Bear, to come forward. He did
so and signed. Then the rush com
me need, and two additional tables had
to be supplied to accommodate those
who wished to sign, and hundreds came
forward, and the work was favorably
commenced. The next day another
counsel with the kickers was held by
Commission and Two Strike and several
other chionic kickers again harrangued
against the bill, and things looked very
unfavorable. When Two Strike had
concluded his bitter speech I sat in the
anCM of thiu „= hc noti[y “f"
sired to sign that they could do so at the
agency office. The council then broke
up and many started for the agency
office. and, seeing the
crowd was unable to sign as fast as was
required, I asked that another table bo
furnished. This was done and enough
signatures were obtained to make the
negotiations successful here.
“Several councils •were held by the
Commissioners with the Indians, during
which time my lieutenants did the in
terpreting along with Louis Richards,
and when the councils broke up the four
of us corralled the kickers and brought
m ° St ° f thcm to tlme ‘”
^ 0l0ne Jordan is about forty years of
lias scvcrul children by his
Sioux wife, and a valuablo and well
8tockod cattIc ranch » e ar Rosebud. The
Klfluence of Sllch "ith the Indians
” ° nC ° f the most ll0 P eful si gn* of the
progress the two inces are making to
wards a better understanding of each
Other.— Acid York World.
'wonder sea captains arc crusty
when they are pilot bred.
An Incident at a Base Ball Game.
The Rev. Dr. Woods referred to the
team work of the Cleveland Base Ball
Club at the meeting held Sunday after
noon in honor of the reopening of the
Third Baptist Church. He showed how
necessary it was for a congregation of
Christians to “pull together,’’ and in
illustrating the point said that he had
attended the Cleveland-Boston game on
the afternoon of July 4. In his opinion
Boston had better players, but the unity
of work among the Clevelands gave
them the game.
There was an incident of the after
noon, however, that the Doctor did not
refer to. In common with many other
well-known citizens he sat on the
bleaching boards, as the uncovered seats
at League Park are called. He was very
near the bench on which the Boston
players sat when they had their innings.
Although the Doctor was accompanied*
by another minister, and was surround-
ed by many gentlemen whose presence'
would lend grace to any drawing-room,,
there were several talkative chap3 near
by who said some unpleasant things to
the Boston team. Finally the umpire
made a decision which the Bostonians
thought was much against them, and it
had hardly been delivered when one of
the individuals on the bleachem began
chiding the disgusted and angry play
ers. Manager Hart of the Bostons, who
sat with his players, lost his temper at
the combined attack of spectator and
umpire, and, springing upon the bench
on which he had been sitting, shook his
index finger under Dr. Wood’s nose,
became very red in the face, and ex
claimed, in a loud tone of voice:
“Sir, if you don’t keep your month
shut, I’ll have you put off the ground.”
Dr. Woods blushed, but his clerical
fnend immediately came to his rescue
by giving Mr. Hart some interesting in
formation.
“My dear sir,” said the minister,
“you don’t know whom you are talk
ing to. The gentleman under whose
very nose you shook your finger is the
Rev. E. A. Woods, D. D., pastor of
the First Baptist Church, the most
fashionable congregation of that denom
ination in this city. Dr. Woods came
here to enjoy the game. lie hasn’t said
a word, but has conducted himself like
a Christian and a gentleman.”
It wm then Mr. Hart’s turn to grow
red. In fact, he almost fell off his
perch on the bench, He stammered
out a public apology from where he
stood, and after the game enlarged up
on it in a private conversation with Dr.
Woods, The Doctor did not tell this
story Sunday afternoon and the Leader
takes occasion to give it to the public,
so that everybody, and not only Dr.
Woods’ friends, can enjoy it, for it is
one of the best thiugs, so far, of the
base ball season. — Cleveland Leader.
Remedy Against Red Spiders.
Some interesting experiments have
been carried on at Amherst by S. T.
Maynard, the horticulturist of th«
Massachusetts Agricultural Experiment
Station, which indicate that evaporated
sulphur is not only a good fungicide,
but that it is *an exce lent remedy
against the common red spider. The
remedy consists in heating a kettle of
sulphur for three or four hours twice oi
three times a week to nearly boiling
point in the room with infested plants,
care being taken not to heat it so that
it will take fire, but evaporating enough
to fill the room with visible vapor and
to make the sulphur odor perceptibly.
So perfect a remedy is this claimed to
be, that infested plants exposed for a
few hours in the room where sulphur is
used are said to be completely freed.—
Scientific American.
Scene in the Kansas Legislature.
It has not been very often that Sam
Wood has been downed. We remember
a tilt in tho Legislature between him
and P. P. Elder. Sam talked one day
over some five-minute rule and Elder
called him to order. The next day
Sam caught Elder talking over time and
called him to order. But Elder didn’t
want to quit and lie said: “Let the
gander from Chase shut up.” Sam re
sponded that he wanted tha goose from
Franklin to shut up. Elder says: “Let
the ass bray.” “All right,” says Sam,
“I withdraw my objections, go ahead.”
Engaged.
John Digg (to classmate): Well,
Jack, college days arc over, What are
you going to do for a living?
Jack Fastsett: Been engaged by
Rich – Co.
“What for?”
“Son-in-law.”