USA > Pennsylvania > Crawford County > Pioneer sketches : scenes and incidents of former days > Part 26
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Charlie Goddard, the young artist, aged nineteen, Many years there are between The philosopher and the sage, Or a ripe old age.
Now Charlie, as you travel down the road of life, Take along with you a happy wife; And hope from your children you can draw,
The finest picture that you ever saw.
CHAPTER CXLVI.
WAR TIME HEROES.
PRETTY MRS. MASON-HOW SHE MADE HERSELF USEFUL TO THE CONFEDERATE GOVERNMENT.
OME of the most valuable as well as courageous seeret agents of the South during the war were ladies, possessing, as many of them did, beauty finesse. the instinctive knowledge of human nature that enabled the sex to penetrate the weakest point of man's armor, and a patriotism that made them proud to assume any risk that would benefit their canse. Many undertook missions so desperate that only their womanhood saved them from a short shift when discovered. A case in point occurs to me. We had fallen back from Fairfax Court House and gone into camp at Centreville. Winter was at hand, and smoke curled lazily upward from 10,000 clay-built chimneys. Every tree had been leveled by the soldier's axe: the old turnpikes were lost in a labarynth of foot worn paths and fields were only a little while before the wind played hide and seek among the growing corn, were as hard as the bed of a billiard table.
The headquarters of Beauregard were in a farm house unpainted and unpretentious, that once had been the home of famous Virginia hospitality. But, the boys had gone to the war, the old folks had retired to more congenial scenes in the interior of the State, and all around were signs of ruin.
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The plans of General Mcclellan, whose army was en- camped in the Confederate front, his fighting strength and the disposition of his forces, together with the new phase of public sentiment in the North, that was then beginning to take shape, were at that time subjects of grave concern to the Southern commander, and it was important to obtain more definite information than had been furnished by the regular spies. How to get it, however, and through whom, were the questions.
The problem was solved at breakfast one morning by a member of Beauregard's staff: "I know a lady in the neighboring county of London who possesses every qualifi- cation of a successful secret agent; her name is Mrs. Virginia Mason; she is young, fascinating, highly educated, a welcome guest in many Washington families and acquainted with a large number of Southern people who spent their winters in the Capitol before the war. Withal she is a widow, her husband having been killed at the battle of Manassas, and brave enough to undertake anything that will save the country she loves."
Beauregard instructed the officer to ride ever to London and invite the lady to visit headquarters, and in a day or two she appeared. In the interview that followed he told her what he required-a report from Mcclellan's army, its condition, the disposition of his forces and the plans dis- cussed by the military authorities at Washington. For this purpose she was to ingratiate herself with prominent officers, visit New York and Baltimore, the various depart- ments, or any other points where information could be procured. She was also to communicate with the represen- tatives of the Confederate government in the different cities of the North.
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The young lady readily accepted the proposition, and with an abundance of money started at once on the perilous errand, which meant glory if she was successful and prison if the failed. She returned after an absence of several weeks, crossing the Potomac opposite of Dumfries and arrived at the camp of Colonel, now Senator, Wade Hamp ton; thence escorted by one of his officers she was driven to headquarters at Centreville.
I can see her now, as she alighted from the ambulance, on the piazza of the little brown farm house; a young but matronly looking lady, handsome, too, with glowing dark eyes that looked as if they had fireworks in them. She was dressed in black and her only baggage was a small hand satchel. She was also accompanied by a shaggy skye terrier, a more armful, that made a soldier who hadn't seen a pretty woman for a month of Sundays, envious.
What occurred within the doors that closed upon her was related to me afterward by General Jordan, then and Subsequently Beauregard's Adjutant General. Beauregard was of course delighted to see her, and, with a woman's volubility, she told him more in two hours than he could remember in two months. The verbal part of the inter- view being ended. he inquired for her papers, the record of her trip, and dispatches be expected from Confederates in the North.
"Why. General. Ididn't dare bring them on my per- son." she replied, with a peculiar smile. "It was unsafe. you know: I might have been captured, and therefore I have tokl yon all I know by word of mouth."
Beauregard could not conceal his vexation, and the more he showed it the more the little woman seemed to enjoy it. Finally, after teasing him to her heart's content,
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she said, with affected demureness, "General, have you a pair of scissors or a knife? I'd like to use it for a minute." Beauregard handed her an ink eraser. "Come here, Dot," she called to the dog, and taking him in her lap, continued, "I told you, General, it was not safe to carry important papers on my person, and I have not done so; in fact I have been suspected and searched ; but a woman's wit is some- thing superior to a man's judgment; see," she said, with coquettish nonchalance, as she turned the little animal on its back and deliberately proceeded to rip him open, "here are the dispatches." As she spoke she held in one hand the hide of her skye terrier, and with the other smilingly extended a package of closely written tissue paper, while dancing about the floor was a pretty black and tan dog, happy at his deliverance from another dog's clothes. The deception was perfect, and the mission a success. Beaure- gard was enabled to anticipate MeClellan's movements, and the charming spy not only received a handsome reward, but was led to the altar after the war as the bride of the young officer who sang her praises at Beauregard's break- fast table.
Mrs. Mason afterwards engaged in a number of per- ilous enterprises, visiting the North several times, and once running the blockade with the late Captain "Bob" Lock- wood, so long identified with the New York and Charleston line of steamers. Whether she is still alive, I do not know.
CHAPTER CXLVII.
OUR COUNTRY -- ITS POSSIBILITIES -- GOLD AND SILVER VS. PETROLEUM, COAL AND IRON.
From the vast resources of our country's revenues we can raise, When we attempt to compute it we are left in astounding maze.
G OLD, SILVER, petroleum, coal and iron, so extensively mined in America, are five of the principal factors which contribute to make this
a great country. Divergent as they are, the former mined in the western, the latter principally in the eastern portion of our country, which, it seems, was well divined, to pro- mote a general prosperity and industry throughout our broad land. New fields are constantly being discovered and America to-day is, as it were, only in its infancy, in the aggregation of its mineral productions. And during the next generation I verily believe that people will come up and say that Secretary Wm. H. Seward did not make so much of a mistake during Lincoln's administration in the purchase of Alaska at $5, 000,000, then said to be so cold and sterile that nothing but a seal and a Norwegian could live. Already discoveries there up the Ukon River attest quite differently.
Many a spot once thought to be so bleak and barren,
When its rugged sides and hills are tapped wealth is found therein:
Neither you nor I, nor the prophetie seer,
Can approximate America's growth for a future year.
Our North American continent stretches from the At- lantic to the Pacific Ocean, and from the Gulf of Mexico to
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the Behring Sea, with its vast domain of its undeveloped country. And when we contemplate the wonderful strides of progress, improvements and wealth during the past half century, our maritime relations on the sea, our friendly commercial intercourse with all nations of the globe, we can only predict a great future before us, and exclaim with the poet-
America, 'tis of thee I sing, Sweet land of liberty.
This has been too often attested by the great influx of people from all nations to our shores, who saw the declara- tion of our forefathers, engrafted in our American Consti- tution, that all men were created free and equal, and here they could enjoy the privilege of possessing some portion of God's green earth, on which the sire for his family could earn a comfortable subsistence.
The avenues to wealth lead out in all directions to the industrious, frugal and temperate citizen of America. The English farmer, gardener and mechanie ; the German farmer, merchant and restaurant keeper; the French and the Hibernian in their diversity of occupations, can attest to the fact that in America they can breath the consolation of possibilities stretching out before them to encourage and speed them on in an heroic endeavor in the acquisition of a fair competency that in declining years will serve to smooth the pathway down the journey of life.
Then when the people of America shall fully realize or comprehend the magnificent proportions her young giant has assumed, then, as a nation, they will be satisfied that America possesses a greater area of arable lands, a greater area and diversity of minerals and excellent timber, an intelligent people, great genius, indomitable pluck and go-
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aheadativeness. Then let us rest easy, and try to behave: live down, outgrow all secession elements, that we may enjoy a full heritage of a great people, of a vast country, full of resources and possibilities. Then let all the people of the different nationalties now inhabiting our land pro- claim with one accord their loyalty to the land of America, which affords them equal rights and a comfortable existence.
"John," said a New York school teacher, to a boy who had come from the west. you may parse the word town." "Town is a noun," said Johnny. "Future tense." "Think again," the teacher interrupted, "a noun couldn't be in the future tense." "I don't know about towns here." said Johnny, stoutly, "but half the towns out where I came from are that way."
Bereaved Widow .- "Why. doctor, you have the offrontery to charge me $500 for treating my poor, dead husband, and he died after all."
Doctor .- "Well, didn't you collect 825,000 life in- sinance?"
CHAPTER CXLVIII.
THE FORCES OF NATURE.
I T IS SAID that the shores of France are sinking so rapidly that in twenty centuries the French will have become entirely submerged. During one year the sun attracts toward the skies and make clouds of fourteen feet of the entire sea-occans everywhere -- much of which is precipitated as rain on land, and flows back by rivers into the sca.
A recent survey has established the number of glaciers in the Alps at 1.255, of which 249 have a length of more than four and three-fourths miles. The French Alps con- tain 144 glaciers; those of Italy, 78; Switzerland, 471, and Austria 462.
Tables of the density of the atmosphere, calculated from telegraphic weather reports, have been found to give a better clew to the movements and origin of cyclones than the usual method of a comparison of the Isobars and Isotherms alone.
The most recent observations as to the amount of heat the earth receives from the sun, show that in clear, pleasant weather 633 per cent reaches the soil; this figure rises in October to 41 per cent. and sinks to 28 per cent. in January.
CHAPTER CXLIX.
AMERICAN CONFLICT.
HEN brother meets brother on like fields of Trafalgar, Then comes the mighty tug of war. A host of kin and countrymen their battle axe did wicht, On many a hard fought Southern battle field.
But, ah, the sad requiem at close of battle and roll call, The cause and manner which many brave men had to fall. Forever should a Christian nation sternly abhor The awful scenes of carnage in cruel war.
The reader is already aware of the causes which pre- cipitated our great American conflict, and able historians have gone on before to delineate its precipitaney to a finality, and we shall only attempt herein to make some allusions thereto, and characteristic of the American people. Their quick response to the call of their government ; the fiery ordeal which they underwent; the financial abyss thereby into which they were plunged; the wonderful endurance and tenacity of purpose, in coming out of such a struggle to minister in healing its gaps and wounds (as far as possi- ble) and soon again to take its place in the galaxy of nations to shine as the brightest star in the firmament and the greatest nation on the globe.
During the tame administration of James Buchanan, 1857 to 1861, the South having seceded from the Union, and having the Secretary of War. Secretary of State and the Secretary of the Treasury, who were among its prime
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movers in secession, and manipulators, they hastened to take advantage of that political power and abstract the funds from the treasury and the armament and munitions of war and at once appropriate it to the use of the Southern Confederacy, thus leaving the North wholly unprepared for war. During her struggles one year later in the act for the maintenance of the Union, Messrs. Mason and Slidell, who had been sent to England to solicit aid for the Southern Confederacy, were captured by the Trent on the high seas. England appeared on the scene and claimed protection for these men. The diplomacy which followed between Sec- rotary Seward and the English Premier on this matter, will long be remembered by the loyal people, in the surren- der of these men. The North had an elephant on its hands which they thought a good deal of, born and bred in America, and they proposed to take good care of it, and proposed that Johnny Bull might take care of himself, too, provided he would stay at home and let the North alone.
England no doubt wanted to see the South succeed in her secession from the Union, and had she taken further steps in that direction you would have seen-
The Green Mountain boys, also the State of Maine,
Likewise from California and the Kansan plain, From Oregon to Alaskan sealing strand,
Throughout the Atlantic States to Dixie's land.
What England thus to claim a beligerent right, To array her forces in an ungodly fight, Because she had free trade in her eye and cotton for a king, No, sir: America would not stand any such a thing.
CHAPTER CL.
SPARKS OF HUMOR.
WOULD NEED THEM .- Husband (going to a rich unele's funeral)-"Put a couple of large handkerchiefs into my grip, dear; the old gentleman promised to leave me $20,000, and I shall want to shed some appropriate tears."
Wife-"But suppose you find when the will is read that he hasn't left you anything!"
Husband-"In that case you had better put in three."
INSURANCE APPRECIATED .- "How is your daughter Sarah gittin' on since she married and moved to Califor- nia ? " said the first man from JJayville.
"Why, bless ye, she's getting on fine: her first husband died leaving her 85,000 life insurance, and it wasn't six months afore she was tied to another chap that has a policy on his life for $10,000, and runs a buz saw. She's a rattler, my gal is."
Jordan L. Mott, the well known iron merchant, and a friend were seated at Delmonico's the other night. The friend said: "Oh, I should so much like to order a beef- steak and onions, but I am afraid to as I am going to call on some ladies bye and bye."
"Never mind," said Jordan, "go ahead and order the onions. When you get Delmonico's bill it'll take your breath away."
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MET HIS 'MATCH .- Clerical Gent (to fellow passenger) "Have you ever thought that in the midst of life we are in death ?"
Fellow Passenger-"Often."
Clerical Gent-"Have you ever reflected that at any moment we may be hurled into eternity, and that we ought to be prepared for that event ?"
Fellow Passenger-"I've said so a million times."
Clerical Gent-"Is it possible that I am talking to a brother ciergyman? I judged from your dress"-
Fellow Passenger-"I'm a life insurance agent. Just let me show you a few figures of insurance at cost."
On a west side street car-Conductor-"Madam, this boy is certainly over five years old, and I can't let him ride for less than full fare."
Passenger-"Well, it is the fault of this car being so slow."
Conductor -- "I don't know what you mean by that."
Passenger -- Willie was under five when we started, but I reckon he must be eight or nine now."
Sunday School Teacher .- "And when the wicked chil- dren continued mocking the good prophet, two she bears came out of the mountain, and ate up forty of the wicked children. Now boys, what does this lesson teach us?"
Jimpsey Primrose. - "I know."
Teacher .- Well Jimpsey?"
Jimpsey Primrose .- "It teaches us how many chil- dren a she bear can hold."
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Perseverance in more than one instance has been a virtue, and proper pertinacity will be rewarded. A seere- tary of an insurance company advertised for a canvasser, and his test of candidates' fitness as they applied, was to tell them to get out of the office that instant, or he would kiek them out. Several timid young men turned tail and left him, with great disgust; but one, more brazen-faced than the rest, nothing daunted by the threat, coolly sat him- self down and said he would not go until his testimonials had been read. So he locked the door, put the key in his pocket, and handed in his papers.
"Ah!" said the advertiser, "you'll do, I can see. } don't want testimonials, your style is enough for me No one will ever succeed as an insurance canvasser who will be influenced by a threat to be kicked out of any place."
Yarsley-"Wiekwire, we were just discussing the question whether married women really do go through their husband's pockets; does yours?"
Wiekwire-"Of course. I can only give you my own experience and that is she don't; when she gets to the hot- tom of them she stops."
She-".Did papa ask you about your income ?" He-"Yes."
She-"And you told him that little fib about the large salary !"
He-"Yes." She-"I'm so glad."
He-"Well I am sorry. he borrowed five dollars."
CHAPTER CLI.
THIE OUTLOOK.
F THE CONDITION of a people and a government, we may reasonably judge of the future by the past. The present out- look of old countries, Europe and Asia, is plainly visible, and its history easily com- prehended. The present condition of af- fairs in England and Ireland is but a repe- tition of many similar scenes heretofore enacted there.
The unhealthy dominant grip of kings and emperors poisons the body politic, disturbs its equilibrium and pre- vents it working in harmony for the realm. This dominant spirit dates back to olden times. King Solomon, the great, could send a couple of thousand of Jews onto his hills of valuable wood to snake down like beasts his valuable tim- ber. King Pontius Pilate swung his sceptre over a multi- tude, and sent them off to nail Christ upon the cross with the same impunity that they would kill a sheep and hang it up in the shamble.
In London to-day there are thousands of people suffer- ing and starving, while they notice all around them untold wealth. In New York you will notice the lady passing in rich attire and bedecked in jewelry and diamonds to the value of thousands of dollars; the next moment you may notice the poor street sweep begging for a penny and the boot black and newsboy singing lustily for a nickel. In
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yonder mansion sits the Croesus, Astor, with a daily income of 824,000; yonder is the big oil prince, Rockafeller, with an income of $18,000; there, too, is Vanderbilt, with $15,- 000 per day; while Jay Gould comes up with $7,000 of a daily income. A pretty nice allowance for dress, bread, and pin money for their wives and daughters.
Powerful syndicates are being formed in most all branches of business, and as you travel over the great prairies you can ride for miles on the lands of the European and the American syndicates, and ere long they may under- take to corrall these magnificent prairies and stock them with hens and geese and compel them to lay golden eggs to enhance their riches, and let the locust, the grasshopper and the poor peasantry starve to death. Well now, is it not about time that this sort of a circus should come to a halt and wipe the sweat from its avaricious brow and cool its fevered pulse and greedy gizzard, and consider well that ere long they will only ocenpy about 2x6 or's feet of God's earth at last, when they give up the ghost.
Let us look at some of the unhappy conditions of the people. Free trade, the cause of the suffering told of by General Booth; again the plague spot of free trade, England, is uncovered and the gaze of the civilized world is turned upon scenes of poverty and destitution which can be witnessed in but few other lands. The new book by General Booth, in London, bearing the title, "In Darkest England," merely corroborates the statements of Kay, Mayhew, the Rev. Stopford Brooke and other writers and speakers, who have endeavored to describe the terrible con- dition of the poor of both town and county of Great Britain.
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General Booth presents, as the total number of paupers in Great Britian, 3,000,000, or to put it roughly, one-tenth of the population. But Mr. Chamberlain says there are 4,000,000 to 5,000,000 in the realm, a mass of people equal to that of the metropolis of London, who have re- mained constantly in a state of abject destitution and misery. Mr. Isaac Hoyt furnishes an argument showing that the whole pauper class of the community is some- where near 7,000,000, or one in every five of the popula- tion. This exceeds the total reported by government officials.
Free trade is said to be the cause of this wide-spread pauperism in Great Britain. Sir Edward Sullivan, Henry C. Carey, Stephen Colwell and Robert Ellis Thompson, are among the writers who have taken this position. They maintain that since the doctrines of Richard Cobden were put in practice in every land, in 1849, the people have been visited with destruction. Small proprietors and minor industries are disappearing. The boasted cheapness of products does not alleviate the general misery caused by the want of employment. In a total population of 35.000,- 000, only about 1,300,000 have fixed incomes of €100 a year, and there are 33.700,000 who depend on some kind of labor for their support. With no protection this vast mass of people is brought into competition with both con- tinental and barbarian labor. Free trade demands cheap labor, and does not foster diversified industries or seek to furnish employment for the people as does protection. Free trade destroyed British agriculture. Before the repeal of the Corn Laws, the landed interest ruled the country. The agitation for rescinding these laws was begun by Richard Cobden and other manufacturers in
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order to obtain cheap food for their workmen and keep at the lowest point the natural and necessary rate of wages.
The cotton barons and the iron lords are now in the ascendant, and the landed interest is fast going into decay. Foreign importations of grain are causing the land to go out of cultivation. The small farmer is unable to subsist and he is selling his holding to the large proprietor, to be used for grazing purposes.
The effect on British commerce and industries, as shown by statisties, reveal the remarkable fact that the commerce of protectionist countries has grown more rapidly than that of free trade England. Sir Edward Sullivan presents in his "Free Trade Bubbles" the follow- ing percentages, which are probably gathered from Mulhall, showing the proportionate growth of commerce in the countries here mentioned, during the period from 1868 to 1879: In the United States the increase has been 68 per cent; in Holland, 57; France, 51: Italy, 48: Ger- many, 39; British Empire, 21.
Free trade is undermining the manufacturing interests of Great Britain. Norway and Belgium having abundant forests and cheap labor, supply England with window frames, doors and other carpenter work. The result is that the British joiners are compelled to emigrate. The duties on silk goods were abolished in 1860 and the silk manufac- turers of Macclisfield and Coventry were destroyed. The workmen either entered the poor houses or left for foreign countries.
The English cotton trade is also suffering from compe- tition with Germany and Belgium.
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"Forty years ago," says Sullivan, "Great Britain pro- duced two-thirds of the dry goods of the world ; at present she produces barely one-third." The manufacturers of Manchester declared not long ago that either lower wages or protection must be had. The lace industry of England has been destroyed by admitting the cheaper fabrics of Saxony free of duty, and thousands are starving in Nottingham. Free trade has closed every sugar refinery in England, and 30,000 workmen have been thrown out of employment.
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