Bemidji Daily Pioneer Newspaper, May 30, 1908, Page 4

T e T e T T T MEMORIAL DAY PROGRAM; THERE'LL BE NO DEVIATION Unless Rain Should Be Very Severe, the Entire Exercises Will Be Given as Originally Determined--- Full Program Given Below. The exercises for Memorial day will be carried out today as per the printed program, unless the rain should ‘‘pour down in torrents,” as per the statement of Commander Bailey and others, made today. Should the weather be so uncomfortably stormy that it will be im- possible to go to the cemetery, the exercises outdoors will be abandoned; but all indoor erercises will positively be carried out. The members of Co. K will meet at the city hall at 9 o’clock sharp. All citizens of Bemidji, of whatever walk in life, should participate in these exercises, at least to the extent of being present. It shows a spirit of patriotism that should by all means be fostered and encouraged. TO OWNERS OF LAUNCHES. All owners of launches, who can do so, are requested to donate the use of their boats for the purpose of taking the Post, Circle and Company K, and invited friends, for a trip on the lake, Saturday evening, May 30th, at 4 p. m., Memorial day. H. W. Bailey, Commander. Orders to Firemen. All members of the fire department are requested to meet at the city hall (in uniform) Saturday, May 30, at 10 o’clock, to take part in the Decoration day exercises. Earl Geil, Chief. The following program will be observed on Memorial day, May 30, 1908: FORENOON. At 10 o’clock a. m., sharp, the Post, Circle of the Ladies of the G. A. R., Company K, and the public will meet at the Odd Fellows’ hall, Bel- trami avenue, and proceed to Greenwood cemetery, where the G. A. R. " Memorial services will be held. At noon dinner will be served for the members of the G. A. R. and Circle at the Odd Fellows hall. AFTERNOON. At 2 p. m,, sharp, the Post, Circle and Company K will meet at the Odd Fellows’ hall and march to the Coliseum, where the following pro- gram will be rendered: Song—"“America”.. .. Prayer...ceoeeceinnes Song—"‘Just Before the Battle, Mother”......... Reading of the Governor’s Proclamation Drillssceviesnssioisisnsessivonssasns Song—“’l‘enting on the Old Camp Ground”.. Reading—"'Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address”. Recitation. ... Flag Drill. . Song—"I'm a Pilgrim”. . Flag Drill.... s Audience .Comrade T. J. Martin «++.Miss Oliver «.P. J. Russell -.Company K sesesees.Mrs. Smythe - Prof. Ritchie Esther McGhee District No. 4. Mrs. Smythe sssestscesiienees. .. Bemidiji School Song... sevesss.. Mrs, Peart Address .Hon. B. F. Wright Song—"The Vacant Chair”......vvveveneennnrneinanns... Miss Oliver At 4 p. m. the crowd will meet at the dock on the lake, where launches will be furnished the Post, Circle and Company K and others for a ride on the lake to strew flowers upon the waters, in honor of our soldier-sailor dead. ~The public is cordially invited to attend these ser- vices. H. W. Bailey, J. M. Fuller Commarder. Adjutant. , TO THE PUBLIC. Those having deceased relatives or friends who served in the Civil war, or Spanish war, are requested to note the company, regiment and state, in which such persons enlisted, place the same upon a card, with wreath attached and hand the same to Adjutant Fuller at the cemetery to be placed upon the monument in honor of the unknown dead. Taking Time by the Forelock. It was In the latter portion of the civil war, when great calls for troops ‘were In process of being filled, that no- tice was served on the adjutant gen- eral of one of the smaller states of the north that the quotas of some of the towns were not full and that the men must be forthcoming. Orders to that effect were issued, with the result that when the matter was closed there were about enough men for a single com- pany. It was organized and sent to the front and attached to one of the regl- ments from the same state. ‘The first time this little body of sol- WHERE DO YOU SPEND YOUR EVENINGS? FOLLOW THE CROWD TO THE BRINKMAN FAMILY THEATRE "High Class Yaudeville and Automatic Drama....... diers saw service was at the battle of the Wilderness. The action was going on during one of the terrible days of that battle, and the shells and bullets were getting in their work. The cap- tain of our company felt called upon to make a speech to his men, and he said: ‘“Soldiers, we are now up against the enemy. When the orders are given to fire, do your best and kill all you can with the forty rounds of ammunition you have. When you have fired it all away, you had better retreat. T am a little 1ame, so I am going to start now.” —Boston Globe. PROGRAM TONIGHT Tlustrated Song 4. Don’t Leave the Old Folks Jenny Miss Anna Hager 5. Marie Stuart Dodd, Eminent Violinist 1. Overture . Miss Aona Hager MOTION PICTURES 2. Presidential Possibili- 'MOTION PICTURES ties 6. Michael Strogroff, Co- urier to the Czar. Jolly Zeb, The Happy Tramp 3. A Visit to the Public Nursery =¥ AN ENTIRE CHANGE OF PROGRAM TONIGHT 7°30, 8:30 and 9:30 Admission 10 and 15 Cents An Original Story of the Civil War by Ormsby MacKnight. HE older we grow the firmer be- comes the conviction that we had better keep within the strict limits of duty. I once busied myself about correcting an evil and instead of recéiving thanks for doing so got nothing but kicks and cuffs. That was when I was a very young man, Since then I have known better. I was a private in the Union army operating in Virginia. While we were in camp between marches and skir- mishes I was one day on picket when I saw a girl up in a tree making sig- nals to the enemy. She thought she was concealed from our picket line by the branches. So she was, from every one but me. Between her and me was an opening just big enough for me to see her wigwagging with a white handkerchief. 1 should have called the corporal of the guard and reported the matter; but, thinking 1 might win promotion for myself by at tending to the matter personally, I lefl my post, went to the tree, ordered the girl down and marched her to the head quarters of the general commanding. The general took her in charge, thet rated me soundly for leaving my post I was arrested for a breach of duty, but was soon after released with a reprimand. A few weeks later came a fight In which, with others, 1 was taken prison- er. We were kept temporarily in an open field waiting transportation south when who should pass by on the road but the girl 1 J had seen wig wagging to the enemy. Shesaw me, recognized me, but passed on quickly with: out notlcing me. ‘“There’s one of your spies,” I remarked to a Confederate guard. “I saw her one day in the Union lines making signals to your men. I turned her over to our general and supposed =3 she'd been put 7 fout of the way “THERE'S ONE OF of doing dny fur- TOUR, SPIES. ther damage. 1 guess she escaped, after all.” ‘Without making any reply to me the soldier called for the officer command- ing the guard. I saw him point to the girl and say something, whereupon the officer went rapidly after her. The next day the officer came to me and thanked me for putting him on to a Union spy. I asked him to explain, and he said that on my information the girl had been arrested. She had been loitering about their camp, and complete information was found upon her as to every corps present, includ- ing artillery and cavalry. The general commanding was puzzled what to do with her since she.was a woman, and he revolted against hanging her. I told the captain that they were making a mistake since I had myself seen her making signals to the Confederates. But he told me the girl stoutly denied ever having been within the Union lines. To this I replied that the troops then confronting the Union forces could not have been the same as now. I think I impressed him that possibly a mistake was being made, but wheth- er he followed the matter up or not I didn’t know. I asked him the next day what had become of the spy, and he sald she was under guard awaiting information from some one who knew her to be a good Confederate, but aft- er the finding of the documents on her no one doubted that she was a Federal spy. The next morning at daybreak 1 heard a volley, followed by artillery firing. Then I saw a blue line scurry- ing across a cornfield, and then—well, I hugged the ground to escape a hail- storm of bullets. It wasn’t a minute before the Federal troops passed over me, following the Confederates they had surprised, flying in every direction. They rallied and made a stand just be- yond the limits of their camp and put up a good fight, but they didn’t succeed in recapturing the ground they had | lost. I was in the wildest state of excite- ment imaginable, for I had been saved from what I dreaded most—a southern prison. While I was shouting the gen- eral hurried past, and with him, rid- ing straddle on a strayed Confederate horse, was the girl spy. She caught sight of me and * reined in, with flashing eye and scowling brow. “Hold on, gen- eral,” she said. ‘““There’s the man who gave me away.” Dismounting, she ran up to me, hit me a sharp blow with her fist and be- o fore -1 cdula / =/= v Z""’* recover from Iy surprise “HE'S THE MAN WHO knocked me GAVE ME AWAY.” down and stamped on me. All the while she was calling me the vilest names and swearing at me like a pirate. The officers of the general's staff laughed immoderately at the grotesque sight, but the general evi- dently considered it a serious matter. “Thatll do, captain,” he sald at last. “Let him up. He’s only a fool who doesn’t know enough to attend to his own business and leave others to at- tend to theirs. You're lucky to escape @ halter, and you'’d have been dead be- fore this if they'd have found out you were a man.” Then, turning to me, he sald: “This last blunder is too much, Report to your captain under arrest. The most I can do with you is to try you for deserting your picket post, but that I'll do.” However, he thought better of it, for it would have been hard to convict me since all I had done was through ignorance. Tue Spy ‘Was young Mwc- Oracken of his staff, one of the most daring boys in the army. He had sig- naled the Confederates to gain their confidence preparatory to going into their lines for information. Had I not -given him away he would have gone back with a full knowledge of the enemy’s strength and position. That was forty-five years ago. Since then I have attended to my own busi- ness, HOW IT FEELS TO BE SHOT. Experience of Edgar Van Etten, Now New York Central Official. Edgar Van Etten, vice president of the New York Central and Hudson River railroad, who, while but eighteen years of age, was a captain in the Un- lon army, tells this experience of his In the battle of Spottsylvania: “One bullet which had struck the ground in front and was partially spent struck me with considerable force just below the knee and, running hard as I was at that time, tumbled me all in a-heap. I never shall forget the sensation. The bullet had struck with such force that my leg from the knee down was apparently gone. I can re- member well that as I fell I saw the sun, a great red ball, in the hot July sky, halfway down behind the horizon. The first thing that came to my mind was: ‘You poor devil, you have lost a leg, and what will mother say when she hears that you are shot? You are badly wounded, and perhaps you will die. Certainly it means going to the hospita] and amputation, which, if you survive, means a wooden leg or a crutch all of your life’ - It seems to me now that a thousand thoughts of this kind ran through my mind and for fully ten minutes, although I know that it was less than ten seconds; then I reached down to feel how much of the leg was gone, and to my surprise I found it all there. I pinched it and felt of it and shouted for joy and got up and limped ou after the boys. “We captured the earthwork and drove out the Johnnies, but, following them too far, met a countercharge and were driven back to our side of the earthwork. By this time it had become almost dark, and the Johnnies, with a yell, charged down to the other side of the earthwork, but we held our own, and all night long both sides lay with their backs against the earthwork, load- ing and firing over their heads. At 2 o'clock in the morning, however, we dug through and captured two of their guns, but they got away with the oth- ers when they evacuated. My leg was swollen so that I couid not stand upon it. T was carried to the hospital, and heroic treatment was applied, which ‘was to let cold water drop upon it an hour at a time. It seems to me now, as I think of it, the pain was such that T would rather have lost my leg, but two days of this treatment brought me around all right.”—Leslie’s Weekly. John Rountry’s Bravery. During the night of Sept. 21, 1864, fire was discovered in the magazine light room of the United States steam- er Montauk. The alarm created a panic and demoralized the crew with the exception of James Horton, John Roun- try and Charles H. Weeks. Horton rushed into the cabin, obtained the magazine keys, sprang into the light room and began passing out the com- bustibles, including the box of signals in which the fire originated. Rountry, with hose in hand, notwithstanding the cry of “Fire in the magazine!” forced his way through the frightened crowd to the light room and put out the flames. Sat on a Barrel of Powder. Among the many medals awarded by the mavy department for acts of brav- ery during the civil war was one given to John Davis, who was on the United States steamer. Valley City in the at- tack on the enemy’s vessels and a fort near Elizabeth City, N. C., Feb. 10, 1862. When the vessel was on fire near the magazine he seated himself on an open barrel of powder as the only means to keep the fire out. He Led Them Froil Libby. Death of General Thomas E. Rose Recalls Daring Deed i of the Dark Days. HOMAS E. ROSE, U. 8. A. brevet brigadier general, re tired, who died in Waskington on Dec. 18 last, led the party ol Union soldiers who dug their. way ouf of Libby prison during the civil war, says the New York Evening Post. General Rose was captured in the battle of Chickamauga. He escaped at ‘Weldon, N. C., was retaken the next day and sent to Libby prison on Oct. 1, 1863. The forlorn conditions at Libby pris- on in 1863 are well known. The build- ing itself was an old ship’s chandlery warehouse, embracing nine large rooms, into which were crowded 1,20C prisoners. Quarters were so cramped that the inmates had to sleep “spoor fashion,” head to head and feet tc feet, in squads. There was no furni ture in the building, and only a few of the early comers possessed suck luxurles as old army blankets o1 knives, cups or tin plates. As a rule the prisoner by the time he reached Libby found himself deprived of all these accouterments. Outside the prison to the south was a canal. In wet weather the cellar oj A VOLUME OF COOL AIR POURED OVER (M. the prison would become flooded with water, and platoons of hoary rats emerged from its ancient walls on the surface of the tide. The eastern- most cellar. was the worst and was known as Rats’ hell. From the first day of his incarcera- tion Rose’s mind turned to thoughts of escape, and all through the course of the partly successful plot he was the engineer and captain. He found a Ioyal lieutenant in Major A. G. Hamil- ton of the Twelfth Kentucky cavalry, and together the two men decided that the most feasible plan was to dig a tunnel. from Rats’ hell eastward, a distance of about seventy feet, to an empty shed abutting on a building owned by the James River Towing company. The exterior of the prison was carefully guarded night and day by sentinels, but indoors. the vigilance ‘was somewhat relaxed at night. - At one time more than 400 prisoners were in the secret of the work, all under oath, but by some miracle the Confed- erates did not discover what was on foot. ‘Work was begun with a broken shovel and two case knives. With infi- nite pains the men cut through stone walls and piling in various.places only. SATURDAY--DECORATION DAY STORE WILL BE CLOSED FROM 10:00 to 1:00 WALL PAPER! We have just received a new line of wall papar di- rect from the factory. Great values at 10e, 20¢ 25¢ and 35¢ a double roll, 72 square feet, bring the -dimentions of your reoms and we will give you an es- timate cost of paper. You will be surprised how little it will cost you. . O’Leary @ Bowser, Bemidji. to find themselves frustrated, now by water from the canal, now by some im- passable obstacle. They tried to avail themselves of old sewers, but one was too small and one debouched in too public a spot. Finally they adopted the plan of digging eastward to the shelter of the other building. 4 Rose picked out thirteen faithful fol- lowers in addition to himself and Ham- fiton. Most of the others had been dis- couraged by the slime, the foul air and the ill success of previous attempts. Rose and his little band went on in- defatigably, scarcely eating, scarcely sleeping, engrossed In the one feverish thought of liberty. At best it would be a slender chance. The streets of Rich- mond were patrolled by southern pick- ets, and friends were few for escaped Yankees wearing prison stained blue aniforms. But hope, springing persist- ently, drove them on. By great good fortune Rose had come into possession of a rope nearly. a hundred feet long, an inch thick and new. By an agreement between the commissioners of exchange several bales of clothing had been sent by the Federal government to the suffering toldiers at Belle Isle. A committee of Union officers from Libby prison had been assigned to supervise the distri- bution, and one of them by a bit of clever legerdemain managed to secrete the rope which bound one of the bales. Rose and Hamilton fashioned it into a ladder. They concluded that the safest means of getting into Rats’ hell with- out detectior would be to dig a secret passage from the kitchen, which was on the floor above, but not directly over Rats’ hell. Carefully digging out the mortar with a jackknife, they removed the bricks one by one from the back of the large open fire- place. When morning came they re- placed the bricks and filled the crevices with soot which they had taken the precaution to collect beforehand on a blanket. After several nights’ work they had an S shaped passage down which they could descend to Rats’ hell by meaps of their rope ladder. The wall of that east cellar had to be broken in three places before a place was found where the earth would support a tunnel. Rose dug as- siduously, while Hamilton fanned air in to him and dragged the excavated material out as fast as it was ready. Without the artificial ventilation the tallow dip by which Rose worked would go out and Rose would suffo- cate. A wooden box which had been used as a spittoon served very well to draw the earth out of the passage- way, part of the precious rope having been attached to it to enable the out- side worker to pull it out and in turn the digger to pull it in. As fast as the earth was taken out it was hid- den under a deep layer of filthy hay which covered the floor of the damp cellar. The average diameter of the tunnel was about two feet. As the work progressed it was pushed with greater haste. Usually one man would dig and fill the spittoon with earth, at a given signal a second would draw the spittoon out, a third man would keep the air moving by fanning it with a rubber blanket, a fourth would act as relief, while a fifth would keep guard. As there were fifteen in the plot, they were able to work in three relays. The work was fearfully mo- notonous, however. Absolute silence ‘Wwas necessary, and when the men be- came separated they had to find each other by groping.around in the dark- ness, The rules of the prison required that the prisoners should be counted twice a day. To account for the absence of the five men who were at work each day their comrades resorted to various “repeating” devices and managed to be counted twice in sufficient numbers to make up the deficiency. The whole plot was nearly upset by Hamilton’s eagerness to see it brought to a successful end. Being certain that the tunnel was sufficiently long, he dug upward, contrary to Rose’s counsel, and found, to his dismay, that the hole he had broken was outside the shed in plain view of the sentlnels if they chose to mnotice it. Rose then pushed an old shoe through the hole and the next day by looking out an upper win- dow saw where the old shoe lay and made a recalculation. On Saturday, Feb. 6, 1864, it seemed almost certain that the Confederates had discovered the plot. Rose decided to push the work to an immediate con- clusion. On Sunday Rats’ hell was usually neglected by the Confederates, and Rose entered the tunnel and work- ed all day without food or rest, accom- plishing twice the distance that any digger had done up to that time., The earth was composed of dense, hard sand. The only implement was a broad bladed cold chisel. On Monday morning Rose again de- scended to the work. It was the seven- teenth day of that tunnel, and Rose resolved that it should be the last. Until an hour after midnight his work went on. Rose was nearly a physical wreck. The perspiration soak- ed his weary limbs. He could scarcely inflate his lungs with the poisonous air. His bead swam. In the agony of suffocation he drop- ped the dull chisel and beat his fists against the roof of his grave with the might of despair, when—blessed boon!— the crust gave way, and the loosened earth showered upon his dripping face, purple with agony. His eye caught sight of a radlant star in the blue vault above him. A flood of light and a volume of cool, delicious air poured over him. At that very instant the sentinel’s cry rang out like a. prophecy, “Half past 1, and all’s welll” Rose recovered quickly. He was in & yard under a shed, with a fence be- tween him and the sentinels. He walk- ed out on the street and reconnoitered a little. Then he returned to the tun- nel, covered the exit with a plece of plank and crawled back to Rats’ hell. The party of fifteen agreed that as the night was nearly gone it would be better to wait till the next night before attempting to escape. It was also agreed that each member of the party should have the privilege of taking one friend into his confidence. The sec- ond party of fifteen thus formed was pledged not to follow the working par- 'ty out till an hour had elapsed. Rose and his companions made a suc- cessful departure at 9 o'clock on the evening of Tuesday, Feb. 9. But the news leaked out, and the little kitchen was soon crowded to suffocation with WANTS ONE CENT A WORD. HELP WANTED, WANTED FOR U. 5. ARMY: Able- bodied unmarried men, betweern ages of 18 and 35; citizeas of United States, of good character and temperate habits, who can speak, read, and write English For information apply to Recruit ing Offic r. Miles Block, Bemidji Minn. _ WANTED—Second girl for private family at Grand Forks. Good wages. Apply 703 Beltrami ave- nue, WANTED—Experienced lady wait- ress at Armstrong’s Cafe. FOR SALE, FOL SALE: The 22-foot launch “‘West Minister,”complete in every way. Anup-to-date pleasure craft in perfect condition. Fquipped * with five-horsepower, double-cylin- der first-class motor. Spend, ten miles. Apply S. E. P. White. FOR SALE—Bedroom suit com- plete, lounge, chairs, and sewing machine. Must be sold at once. Inquire C.'C. Woodward, 421, Bemidji avenne. FOR SALE:—Horses, wagons and buggies. harnesses, all kinds, light and heavy, at my barn in the rear of postoffice. S. P. Hayth. FOR SALE—Lath $1.25, shingles $2.50 per M. Douglas Lumber Co., Telephone 371. FOR SALE—Acron steel range, good as new. Inquire 109, Fifth street. FOR SALE—House and 2 lots at 609 2nd St. Apply to Tom Sym- ington. FOR RENT FOR RENT—Furnished rooms with bath. Inquire 609, Be- midji Ave. LOST and FOUND FOUND:—A bunch of keys on ring. Call at Pioneer office. ELLANE U -, PUBLIC LIBRARY—Open Tues days, Thursdays and Saturdays, 2:30to 6 p. m., and Saturday evening 7:30 to 9 p. m. also. Library in basement of Court House. Mrs. Harriet Campbell librarian. AWNINGS, TENTS, STACK COVERS, FLAGS, & Write for Prices and Catalog. AMERICAN TENT & AWNING CO., 207-209-211 Wash. Ave., North Minneapolis Can it be true that you thop during storiny weather— Telephone buying is the proper way. “Use the Northwestern” - NORTHWESTERN TELEPHONE EXGHANGE GOMPANY 200 prisoners, all clamoring to get at the entrance to the tunnel. At the height of the uproar some one yelled “The guards!” and a panic ensued in which several prisoners were trampled underfoot. = The room ' was quickly emptied, but the alarm proved to be false, and many of the soldiers return- ed and made their escape. Great was the surprise of the Con- federates next day when the roll call revealed the absence of 109 prisoners. And as the fireplace had been rebuilt by somebody and the last man out had covered the hole in the ground no visi- ble trace remained to show the aston- ished keepers how their tenants had decamped. Curious crowds, having read the newspaper reports, flocked to the neighborhood till finally some one kicked aside the plank in the yard and revealed the hole. Of the 109 who got out fifty-nine reached the Union lines, forty-eight were recaptured, and two were drown- ed. Among those retaken was Rose, but he was exchanged for a Confeder- ste colonel on April 30. Not All Gone, A Confederate soldier whose com- mand had run two days from Nash- ville had thrown away his gun and ae- couterments and, alone in the woods, sat down and commenced thinking, the first chance he had had to do such a thing. Rolling up his sleeves and look- Ing at his arms and general physique, he thus gave vent to his feelings: “I am whipped, badly whipped and some- what demoralized, but no one can say. I am scattered.” He Was a Mark For the Sharpshooters. Isaac Harring, who served through- out the civil war and who was a con- spicuous mark for the bullets of sharp- shooters because of his great height, died at Gladstone, Mich., Dec. 27 last: He was eight feet high, the tallest man In the upper peninsula of Michigan. | 3 e e e . £y e A T A I DA AR TN sk i i