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About Grant County news. (Canyon City, Or.) 1879-1908 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 4, 1880)
A Rebel Reminiscence. In order to give anvthino- nki n graphic account of the escape from Rock Island Prison, which I am about to relate, it will be necessary for me to use the first person. Being 'in the pos session of a small sum of money, I was enabled to employ a "washerman," a good-natured individual from the east ern part of Kentucky. Among his cot lection of solid garments I one day dis covered a Federal blue blouse, worn by Home of his patrons as a shirt. It must be remembered that all articles of this nature were taken away from the pris oners when they first entered the prison. Occasionally, as in this instance, such a piece of dress, worn as underclothing, escaped notice. It at once suggested itself that a full Federal uniform might be acquired by piecemeal, through the agency of this washerman. A bargain was struck with him. The progress of the growth of this uniform was watched with an interest hard to describe. A ilingy old cap without a rim was hunted down, a rim procured from some other quarter, and the whole on its reappear ance from a regenerating baptism of soapsuds was good enough for a holiday. Button by button, patch by patch, the uniform became complete. Of course these articles had to be concealed very carefully to escape the occasional and irregular, but thorough searches made by the authorities for contraband articles. How to utilize the uniform? A short time before a prisoner had escaped in citizen's clothing by walking unconcern edly out. It was concluded to risk a similar method only as a last resort. In the meantime I provided myself with a pass, with the forged signature of the Captain and Commanding Colonel of the forces outside. Thus equipped I con cluded to conceal myself in an ambu lance, or substitute myself for a sick ninn when the sick were conveyed to the hos 2?ital, distant from the prison proper seven hundred yards. As a rule a guard Was placed on the step behind. 1 watched the habits in this respect, and, with trousers rolled up, cap in my pock et and a blanket around me, to conceal the colors I was sailing under, I followed the ambulance from bivouac to bivouac until the best opportunity presented itself, that is. when the full complement had beeu taken in, and they were ready to drive off. The order to go was given, and my friends lifted me in. I lay on the floor, but not without the remon strance of a sick and querulous fellow, avIio said the ambulance was full. We halt at the gate; a word passes, "All right" sounds assuringly in my ears and the ponderous gates shut. Here we -are in a beautiful gravel road, bowling along; the guard keeps a weather eye on us, but to my close ob servation he occasionally gives his atten tion to a lly on the horse, and while in his pride he dexterously snapped one off with his whip, the sick man from barrack seventy-seven arises, but leaves his bed behind, crouches on the back steps, dons his cap, and presently steps oil into a knott of federals, full forty yards away from the hospital and a hundred from the prison. "Hello there!" "Hello yourself!" "Won't you ride?" "Certainly." It was an old farmer, with a covered wagon. The bridge was a mile away. We chatted pleasantly about the " rebels," and I gave him in reply to his many questions, a good deal of absurd information. Finally, I professed to be tired, and told him I would lie down among his sacks in the wagon. I pre tended to sleep. The horses' hoofs sound and the wheels rumble on the bridge, ilo is stopped by the guard. A pleasant word misses, when he says: "I have a soldier inside, but he is asleep now." "All right: nevermind. Go ahead." "Hello!" I say, "Are we across the bridge? I want" to get out here," and with thanks I dropped out, I remember, from the tail-piece. I h.ad the address of a certain lady in j the city of Bock Island, whose name it i may not be proper to mention even at this time. She had been of great service to the prisoners and was in secret com munication, it w:is said, with a few of them. The house was found without dilliculty after a short walk. The lady responded in person to 1113 knock. I presented my card. The reply was startling. Under some excitement she abused the Yankees for their survillance over her, and their sending spies to en trap her. She accused me of playing that part. She had never helped the Confederates. It was all false, etc. 1 pleaded with her and protested; gave names, but this any spy could do; I had no token; and no words would do. Yet all this time she would occasionally re lent and brush away a tear of pity. Finally she gave me food and 10 and 1 was instructed to go to the next station W the Chicago & Bock Island Bail road And take the 7 p. m. train. My plan was to go to an intersection of the road and take a train to Bloomington, 111., where I had friends. I sank into a seat of the car, and when I awoke from pleasant dreams it was late at night, and 1 was informed that we had passed the station. There was nothing for it then but to continue on to Chicago, for which all the money in hand except $2 was paid out. A two-mile walk at Chicago brought me to a hotel. It was 1 o'clock at night. I sat by the stove, dosed away industriously to keep off con versation, which was sometimes forced upon me. The remaining S2 was ap plied to two enormous meals during the day. I was in constant danger of arrest as a deserting Federal soldier. I had to get to Bloomington, and that night, or be without food or lodging, or fare worse. I went to the depot. Is there none to trust? Not a face that I peered into an swered the question. I concluded to try the engineer or fireman. They were sorry; could not let me ride on the ten der or help them at stoking. The con ductor referred me to the Provost Mar shal of the city, who "would give me a pass," etc. He would not let me go oth erwise on any condition; pushed me off the platform. The train was moving off. "All aboard!" The invitation was ac cented at once. My plan was to get some one on the train to pay my fare. After a turn or so through the cars a benevolent-looking gentleman was selected. The case was explained to him. A Federal soldier, an invalid, with a furlough from his commanding oilicer, had left Bock Island with the design of spending the Christmas holidays with friends in Bloomiiigton. The niisshap of missing connections was stated. The gentleman regretted his in ability, etc. In the meantime the forged furlough was examined by others, who were attracted by the conversation. Finally one gentleman a kindly, but profane good Samaritan said he would bo if he wouldn't help a soldier who had fought for his country. This senti ment was echoed around, and in a few minutes $S was made up more than enough for the fare. But the end was not yet. A knot gathered around me. and I had to pass an ordeal of questioning. I had assumed the name of John Simpson. John and Samuel Simpson, brothers, cousins of mine, had removed to Bloomington some years before the war, and invested in land. This is all I knew definitely of their surrounding?. (These names of real persons are fictitious here). One man living in Bloomington asked: "In what direction from Bloomington does John Simpson live ?" Trusting to luck, I answered "North." This was correct. "How far?" "About a mile from the place, I believe." "Correct." "How far does Knox live from him ?" "About half a mile.'" This was also correct. He was satisfied. Another man objected to the fact that my pass was signed by the Colonel in red ink, but the furlough in black. But the most formidable objec tion caime from a member of the Fourth Illinois, the number I purported to be a member of. "You say you belong to Company C, Fourth Illinois?" '"Yes, sir." "Well, I belong to that command, and that is not the name of our Colonel, and I don't know air. such Captain!" 41 don't care, that's my company. Are you cavalry or infantry?" "Infantry, the Fourth Volunteers." "Oh! well I be long to the Fourth Reserve." That set tled him. The train sped along, ques tions dropped off, and I feigned sleep, with ears alert for the name of my sta tion, Bloomington, anxious not to be caught napping again. With early morning I stepped into the house of a relative in that httle city. He had not seen me since I was a child, but he saw through my disguise, and the boyhood friend of my father clasped me warmly to his bosom. In a few minutes more I had shed mv snake skin and was changed into a citizen, and the federal uniform was relegated to the fire. One of my first cares was to send to my mess mates a box of books and apples, the federals still allowing reading matter at least to reach them. In one of the sides of the box a hole was bored with a gim let, and a long letter detailing my ad ventures and success, with the news of the day, was inserted. This had been previously agreed upon, and when the box had reached its destination it was split up and the letter found and eagerly read by my follow prisoners. Subse quent adventures before reaching Can ada, it is not here necessary to describe. Cincinnati Enquirer. Romance. Among the various royal and semi royal houses which figure year by year in the pages of the "Almanac do Gotha" are those of Anhalt Dessau of Hessc-Hom-burg, though they have both of them been lately swallowed up, thanks to Prince Bismarck, in the new Gormau Empire, It will be remembered by our readers that the Langravine Louise of Anhalt-Dessau, widow of the Langrave Gustav, some time reigning Prince of Hesse-Honiburg, and sister-in-law of his successor, the Langrave Ferdinand, died in the summer of ltS53, at the age of nearly sixty years, at theSchlossof Hoin burg, near" Frankfort on the-Main. And as some of the details of her early are so romantic that they would seem to belong to the realms of fiction rather than those of reality, I will give here a short sketch of her life, presuming only that the facts advanced are not imaginary, but literally and strictly happened as they are told in thcMC columns. The Princess Louise Frederica, daugh ter of the hereditary Prince of Anhalt Dessau, was born on March 1, 1708, and was little more than a child, certainly not "out of her teens," when the Prince Ferdinand above mentioned, happening to pay a visit to her father's court, was struck with her extreme beauty and fell violently in love with her. Unfortunate ly, however, he was not an elder son, and the voting lady had even before this though unknown to himself been prom ised in marriage to Ferdinand's elder brother, Prince Gustav; and, although the ardent lover tried every means of changing this prior engagement to an ar rangement in his own- favor, he was not able to persuade the young lady's parents or to gain his end. A lingering illness, during which Prince Ferdinand's reason was for some time despaired of, was the immediate consequence of the marriage of the Princess, which was solemnized on the 13th of February, 1813. At last he recovered from the' shock, and reason having returned, he entered the army of his fatherland, and both on other battle fields and also at Waterloo, threw him self into the thickest of the fray, as if he wished to rid himself of the burden of life. But death as often happens in such cases did not come at the moment when he was wanted. At all events, he did not take a fancy to his voluntary, or rather would-be victim ; and so the Prince returned home from his campaigns un hurt in body, and probably better in mind also. In order to while away the time which hung heavy on his hands, he now set out on a long course of travels, during which he visited almost all of the Courts of Europe, and not a few of Asia also, and did not return to Homburg un til the death of his brother had already called him to the throne. This happened at the end of ISIS. Prince Ferdinand was now sixty -five; the Princess Louise, his brother s widow, had seen her fiftieth birthday, and was the mother of married daugh tors, who, of course, were his own neices. Nevertheless, though so many years had passed by since he had first sought her youthful affections, she was still the beloved of his heart; though it was, of course, impossible for him to ob tain the consen; ef the Church, or, per haps, of the State either, to a marriage within the prohibited degrees. Accord ingly he resolved to lay down a most ex traordinary line of conduct for himself. He was naturally reluctant, for her sake and for the avoidance of scandal, to live under the same roof with his early love; but, as there was only one royal resi dence within his small dominions, he saw himself obliged, very soon after his accession, to install himself as inmate of the Palace of Hamburg on the moun tains. There he lived henceforth in the strictest possible retirement, inhabiting only a few rooms in one wing of the building, and leaving the rest of the pal ace to his widowed sister-in-law. Long ranges of apartments separated their suites of rooms, and during the week the two royal personages never set eyes on each other, but every succeeding Sunday was a feto day to Prince Ferdinand, for upon that day he would regularly tra verse, along with his courtiers, the emtpy saloons which separated him from his beloved Princess, and would enter most soberly and solemnly, yet with glowing eyes and a beating heart, the boudoir of his old love, and respectfully kiss her hand. After conversing with her for about an hour seldom much more or much less he would take up his hat, and solemnly, and with al most gloom on his countenance, retrace his steps to his own lonely apartments. The faithful subjects of the Landgrave so well knew the mood of the Prince, and so thoroughly respected his feelings, that tjioy seldom handed him any pe titions except on the morning of Sunday, when his face was always radiant with joy, and he wovrid have a smile, and al most a welcome, even for beggars. The Princess died, as already stated, in the vear 1858; and from that time down to the day of his death the poor Landgrave remained inconsolable. At all events, he became thenceforth a com plete hermit, and lived in the strictest seclusion, wandering by day and night through the chambers of his lonely pal ace. An English traveler who visited the n6ighborhood of Hesse-Honiburg in 1850 or 18u'0, writes thus concerning him: "His subjects, as well as the numerous tourists, ehiefiy Englishmen, who every year visit the baths of Homburg, never get sight of him who formerly was so admirable; and he is supposed to be de termined to end his days in a small pri vate chapel, before a statue of Princess Louise, his old never-forgotten lady love." It only remains to add that the Landgrave Ferdinand died on the eve of our Ladyday, in 180(5, and that he was the last of his royal race. His small ter- .' ritory was in the same year incorporated with Prussia, and now forms a portion of tne Empire of Germany. But for the war it would have fallen to Hesse-Darmstadt. The Queen. The Pleasures of the Andes. The leaves cut like razors, and their points pierce like needles. The mountains hereabouts are everywhere saturated like sponges, through the incessant rains, and for days we waded rather than walked over them. The puma, tapir, and bears are common around Saranrcu, and their tracks are very numerous. I saw one magnificent bear crashing through the cane as though it. quite enjoyed it, and others of my par ty saw tapirs. nc morning we found puma tracks round our tent, but we did not see the brute. "Wild and savage cat tle are also numerous around Saraurcu, and are sometimes of great size and power. They are escaped cattle or the descendants of escaped cattle, from the farm around Cayambe, and are some times very ferocious. There were two immense bulls that we saw several times, which trotted about at an amazing ace, and took leaps like chamois. J. A. Carrel was out one day trying to do a little bit of exploration, and was attacked from the rear by these beasts. He was looking over a precipice, peering into the fog, when hearing some noise be hind, he turned round and saw them ap proaching from opposite directions with lowered heads, ready to give him a lift over. He bolted up a little peak, with both close in pursuit, and they kept him a prisoner for, I think, a couple of hours. Whenever he tried to escape they rushed at him, but at last he succedby a feint in enticing them both to the same side, and scrambled down the other and outwitted them. E. Whymper's Letter in The Spectator. "Just Out!" (at all the libraries) First Young Ladv: "How did you like 'Convict Life,' dear?" Second. Young Lady: "Pretty well. "We've just be gunTen Year's Penal Servitude.' Some of us like it, but " Old Lady (men tally) : "Good gracious! What dreadful I creatures! So young, too!" Wise Farming. I. C. Steele, in a recent address before the Pescadero Grange, s:iid: We all know that the products of the farm are greatly reduced in quantity and quality by the system, or rather want of system, generally practiced here. We have seen crops of oats and barley that yielded seventv and a hundred bushels to the acre all along the coast in this country. How is it now? The quantity is reduced one-half, and the quality is j like the the quality, minus. The time was when the farmers in this section had time for recreation and money to spend. How is it now? How much of the present embarrassment of the farmers shall we consider justly attributable to the deterioriation of the soil? It seems to me as a matter of self interest (not to mention patriotism) we are called ux)on to not only maintain the fertility re maming in the soil but ro restore its original productive power. How can we do it. The compost heap, rightly made and its material properly applied in the pro duction of farm crops, is a never failing bank of savings for the farmer; and every farmer can and should have a place to prepare plant food, and there deposit stable and yard manure, straw, weeds, night-soil, ashes, oot, soap suds, beef and pork brine, old boots and shoes, old clothes, dead animals, bones (pound ed fine) , hair, blood in short all waste matter at hand, and to these should be added swamp muck or peat from time to time, if they can be had without too much expense. Dead leaves of trees should also be added where they are to had. The compost should be sheltered, and sufficient water used on it to aid de composition and prevent burning. Suppose we cultivate half the quantity of land and devote the same amount of labor and expense on it that we now do on the whole and get the same amount of produce? We would gain the use of the other half for pasturage or meadow, securing greater diversity in our farming and a larger amount of plant food to maintain the fertility of our land. Jext to manuring comes rotation in crops. There are but few crops that shoujd ever be planted two years in suc cession on the same land, for the reason that a constant rotation will secure better crops and is less exhausting to the soil. Flax does nicely in this section now, but it will soon fail if continually planted on the same land. In the rotation of crops the grasses or some forage plants must occupy a prominent place. It is doubt ful whether permanent prosperity in ag riculture can be attained without the cultivation of grass. To carelessly allow weeds to take the place of grass is a per nicious practice. Weeds are of little value for any purpose, and their increase in this country, if continued, will destroy crops entirely. Grass can be made to take the place of weeds, and is valuable feed for stocK, and a good fertilizer when turned under. Here in our coast cli mate we have perennial grasses that form a good sod when allowed to do so, and some of the best foreign grasses thrive when sown. Mesquit, orchard grass and Js'ew England rye grass I have tested, and am satisfied they can be grown suc cessfully here. I obtained a few roots of the Panicum Spuclabile and of the Milum Mulejiomm of Professor Hilgard last spring, both of which are growing well, and will, I think, be a valuable acquisi sition to our forage plants. I believe we can greatly improve our pastures, and have permanent meadows of grass in stead of depending upon grain for hay. I intended to try red clover next year. Its great value as a fertilizer makes it very desirable. The most natural feed Jor cattle, horses and sheep is grass, and with its fertilizing qualities it is one of the most important farm cmps. Sand wich Island jmmpkins is a profitable crop to raise for cattle and hog feed, anil leaves land in fine condition for a grain crop. Peas is also a good crop for feed and to mellow land. The care of domestic animals and growing crops suitable for rotation, with odd times devoted to the collection of material for the compost heap, would di vide faun labor evenly through the year and relieve it of the heavy strain at liar- vest. With tiiis system generally prac ticed (and I believe Ave shall have to adopt something like it whether we will it or not some time) , the labor problem, so far as the farmers are concerned, would soon solve itself. The efficient laborer would gain a home, and the farm would bo relieved of the ruinous ex pense of high-priced, inferior help. Night iu the Moon. At last, however, night sets in. Grate fully it comes in after the sun has gath ered up his smiting rays and gone down to his rest. All at once wo are plunged into comparative obscurity, for again there is no twilight to stay the steps, of departing day. At one stride comes the dark. But, lookiug up into the sky, we behold a vast orb, which pours down a milder and more beneficial splendor than the great lord of the system. It is such a moon as we terrestrials cannot boast; for it is not less than thirteen times as large and luminous as onr own. There it hangs in the firmament, without ap parent change of place, as if "fixed in its everlasting seat." But not without change of surface. For this great globe is a painted panorama, and, turning round majestically on its axis, presents its oceans and continents in grand suc cession. As Europe and Africa, locking the Mediterranean in their embrace, roll away to the right, the stormy Atlantic, offers its view, then the two Americas with their huge forests and vast prairies, pass under inspection. Then the grand basin of the Pacific, lit up with island fires, meets the gazer's eye, and as this glides over the scene, the Eastern rim of Asia, the upper portion of Australia, sail into sight. The Indian ocean, and after wards the Arabian Sea, spread them selves out in their subdued splendor, and thus in four and twenty hours, "tho great rotundity we thread" turns its pictured countenance to the moon, and grandly repays the listening lunarians by repeating, to the best of its ability, tho history of its birth. Nor is the sky less marvelous in another respect. For the absence of any atmospheric diffusion of light permits the constellations to shine out with a distinctness which is never parallelled on earth. They glitter like diamond points set in a "firmament of ebony. Stars and clusters which we never see by the naked eye flock into view, and crown the heavens. Life in Germany. Of course there is no fire-alarm tele graph. Alarms must be sent to the po lice or to the fire watch in different parts of the city. Fires, however, like every thing else in the country, never seem to be in a hurry to burn, and an American would say that the fire companies were in no hurry to put them out. The en gine is a very primitive affair, mounted on a hand car and drawn by a few men, with as much passivity and almost as much deliberation as if they were going to a funeral. Arriving at the fire, the en gine is lifted from the car, placed on the ground, and worked by hand. Usually it is not much larger than a garden en gine and does not furnish a more power ful stream. I attended with a friend a trial of fire engines in Jena. We both concluded, in no spirit of exaggeration, that two or three garden engines could, be obtained from some of our agricul tural warehouses which would do quite as much execution as any of the engines we saw. To a New York or Boston fire man the whole exhibition would have been a cold water comedy. But if you laugh at the fire department you lapse into instant giavity when a German very properly: "Our fire department may not be as good as yours, but still (with a significant shrug of the shoulders) we do not have any Chicago or Boston fires." And it is true; there is greater precau tion taken against fire than with us. The building laws are stringent; houses are built of brick, have immensely thick walls and seem to be practically fire proof. Fires very seldom spread. By using the pound of prevention the Ger mans are able to get along with the ounce of cure. With the German fire depart ment in Boston the city would soon be an ash heap, but with the German preven tion and the American cure it would be invulnerable. The cheapness of labor in Germany in duces profligacy of time and effort. It usually takes three men to slice a horse one to hold the animal's head, another to hold the animal's foot, and the third to put on the animal's shoe. If you wish anything done that one man can do per fectly well, you must pay some other man "for looking on. If you have one or two little carpet bags at a railway station, which you could carry yourself without any effort but a little strength of pride, of the army of porter-s that ask to relieve you two or three must ,be satisfied. In Vienna it takes two men and a horse to water the streets. The apparatus seems to have been contrived like some of our public offices at Washington for the sake of giving an extra man employment. One man sits on the box and drives the water wagon: a piece of hose six feet long issues from the other end, with a sprinkler attached to its nozzle, and a man following at a dry distance behind swings the hose back and forth, from side to .side, and effectually clears the street of pedestrians. Another serious indictment is that there is a lack of hitch ing posts. I spent nine months in Leip sic looking for a place to tie a horse, and did not find one. I have never seen a hitching post in Berlin, Munich, Vienna or Dresden. If they are there the authorities have taken great pains to con ceal them. I doubt if there is a real genuine hitching post in all Ger many. The most natural conclusion of the frivolous punster is that there are no fast horses there. But the more exact, if less facetious for the neg lect of hitching posts is that no one ever thought of them, or, if the idea oc curred, it was probably banished as offering too great a temptation to horse thieves. I remember complaining to a bright and cultivated Saxon lady one day, after riding horseback, that there were no hitching posts in the city. I told her how convenient and pleasant is was in America to find a standing invita tion on the sidewalk whenever you wished to alight. "But don't thieves steal your horses when you leave them tied?" she asked in great surprise. And. when I told her that many of our doc tors ride in buggies and carry a weight to anchor their horses to the curbstone, she was greatly amused and surprised, and in her opinion American honesty went up to par. The fact is, iiowever, that in the present state of German society there is no need of hitch ing posts. Such a thing as a light wagon, or road-wagon or buggy is un known. At least I never saw but ono buggy thero, and that was in Leipsic, and I was so perfectly confident that it was an American wagon that I walked up to the owner and said, in the best English I could command after a three months' residence in Germany, "Where, if you please, did you get that buggy?" and he told me, in equally good English, that he brought it from America, and that for a long time it had astonished the natives. This manufacturer, riding about from day to day, mighthave found a hitching-post very convenient, but in accordance to the prescribed etiquette ot tho country and the superfluity of labor, he always took a man with him. But why should a man be called upon to do what a stick of wood judiciously placed could do just as well?