Evening Star Newspaper, February 12, 1928, Page 90

BY CASSIE MONCURE LYNE. S I am nearly 83 years old. I have . been urged to set down some of my memories associated with " the Civil War; for I personally witnessed the disbandment of Grant's army, Sherman's army, Sheri- dan's army and Lee's army. 1 also came to Washington to witness the dis- bandment of Pershing's army, and the | expedition to Lake Erie to try to free | the prisoners at Johnson Island—many Young Warriors Who Afterward Became Leaders in National Life Are Pictured as They Appeared to a Family of the South. | |3 mm yers aving trom the rigors o How the Lincoln Ancestry Was Associated With the History of America. her weaving house and would herselt | general greeted me most courteously at 1 ;‘nm for the needs of the family. Her the time. oo also used to grind all the meal I also witnessed the unfurling of the | we had, in a coffec mill; for Sheridan’s first Confederate flag that ever floated raiders had burnt all grist mills. over Richmond—waved from the Rich- | * ook % mond Female Institute, which I at-| tended—by some girls from South | Carolina, who became rampant with secession after the news of Sumter. | My opportunities for touching elbows with the great drama of Civil War were | many: for my father, Senator Moncure, was auditor of the State of Virginia when Gov. Henry A. Wise executed John Brown at Harpers Ferry. I wish| to state right here that Gen. Robert| E. Lee was most violently opposed to this; and counseled: “If vou put him in a coffin, you will never nail him cdown. But, if there ever was a man who was set i his views, it was Gov Wise. one of the most irascible crea- tures who ever lived. with a domincer- ing spirit that he doubtless inherited from Gen. John Cropper. his ancestor in the Revolutionary War. i My family blendeli its btood with the Lees of Chantilly and of Ditchley— who were cousins of the Lees of Strat- ford. The signer of the Declaration ol Independence, Richard Henry Lee, was my great-uncle — and one of my brothers, Judge Eustace Conway Mon- | cure, was a scout for Gen. Robert E. Lee and serv under Gen. W. H. F Lee, (“Rooney.” ss h2 was called) the great cavalry leader. I merely mention these items in pass- fng, so that readers may know that mine 1s first-hand knowledge, and that. st receptions and meetings, I was thrown with the inner circle of the very heart of the Southern Confed- eracy—and attended all the levees given by President Jefferson Davis and his wife. Gen. Grant's army. for near- Ir two weeks. camped at my mother’s home near Predericksburg. 1 also attended the funeral of Stonewall Jackson. * % ox % GEN. GRANT came to our home after the battle of the Wilderness and was there for two days, having many conversations with my mother, | who was a great-granddaughter of William Byrd, the founder of Rich- mond. “Mother Moncure,” as Grant called her, was a woman of great spunk, with five sons in the Confederate service. Our_home, Ellerslie, was on the plank road that led from Fredericksburg to Richmond, truly the Appian Way of the Civil War. We had a colored girl, named Phyllis, who would run out, put her ear to the ground. and come back, saying. “I hear | 8 Yankee drum,—then we would wait, terror-striken. for what we could not conjecture. Silas, a colored man. was | kept busy, hiding our little handful of cows and horses in the swamps. Grant told my mother he intended a big ball when he reached Richmond to celebrate his victory. She replied, “The people of Virginia will give you many | & ball before your arrival.” ! Capt. Fred D. Grant had typhoid | fever in our parlor, and to show the little knowledge we had of any idea as to the germ theory, my sisters kept his sponge as a souvenir and we hung it up in the parlor after he left. | Other officers of the Federal Army who had become personally known to us were young Capt. Nelson Miles, Col. ’ Eumphries, Capt. William McKinley (afterward President) and Gen. Meade. | @l with my mother, saying, “She is | ghe smartest old woman I ever met.” | Bace headdress, because a high tortoise- | out her hair, but she was ex- | ceedingly pretty—Ilike the lovely Evelyn | Byrd of Westover, whom she strongly | 1t impossible to have faise teeth, Grant | spoke of her as an “old woman,”—yet | meatly in calico, for often she went in | WAS just about 16 years old when the war broke out. but our home was always a public forum with a politicai atmosphere, for my uncle, Judge Rich- |ard Cassius Lee Moncure, was president of the Supreme Court, and my kinsman, Judge Peter V. Daniel, was on the, bench with Judge Taney of Maryland. | who administered to Abraham Lincoln | the oath of office as President. | My father's long vears as a public of- ficial brought him the personal friend: ship of many men, for he was desig-; nated by the Virginia Assembly to wel come President Polk on his visit Richmond. being noted as a gentlem: of “urbane manners.” His first cousin. i Moncure Robinson. the great pioneer neer of America, who built the vania Railroad, kept him posted as to views 2t the North. This branch of our family mtermarried with the Scott and Cassatt family of Philadel- phia—so that we were not biased gr de- ceived as to the spirit of politics {n the North. The discussions of the Whigs and, § ats in Congress were repeated at | side, and the “Missouri Compro- | and “Dred Scott Case” were| household words. | The South was terribly indignant at this period over the publication of| “Uncle Tom's Cabin.” which nppenrvdl as a sorial in the National Era. We feit that Uncle Tom and Liza and Simon Legree were all pictures written for abo: litionistic propaganda. It secm incredible, in the reircspect of S comprehend the great excitement t the book written by Harriet Beecher Stowe produced. but as soon as it was dramatized leading actors sought the role of Uncle Tom, and men like Be- lasco became famous for its portrayal. while the character littie Eva was far more pathetic than any of recent ycars. * % ok % \ 7E loved our cclored people, and par- ticularly co I recall an old crone called “Granny Hannah"—then big Hannah, her daughter, and little Han- nah—a grandchild. Granny Hannah had been my grandmother's maid, and originally belonged in the family of King Carter’s descendants, so she re- membered Tarlton's raid in Virginia. 1781, when she was 6 years old. He had carried off her father to the West Indies and she recalled that the British stopped at a spring, where she was with her mother, and that her mother gave | them a gourd of water, and that they were singing, “In the land of the brave —is freedom for the slave"? Hence towards 1862 she was almost 90 years old, dim of vision and crooked | of back, but she was standing at the| cellar door with a tiny brass tea kettle in her hand when she saw some Yankee raiders at the corn crib filling their epaulettes, and she knew a war was going on and that all the baby boys | ;t:e ‘m‘f nursed were now_fighting nia; had been the enemy when her master | was a captain (my grandfather) in the | the British have come!” she dropped | the tea kettle and fell dead in the floor. | * % % % Al UR modest home in Caroline! which, 4 County, in which we resided, | hoopskirt width, were cut over into Gen. Grant advised Nelson Miles t0 | was not far from Bow)ing Green. and | dresses for our girls; but I had a brought us in the wake of both armies, | $600 cloth mantilla that my uncle gave s0 that the Confederates cam| there [me. He was a tobacconist., associated Mother Moncure always wore a fancy | for a Winter and burned up all Mother | with James Thomas of Richmond in Moncure’s fence rails.© They were making plug tobacco, greatly in de- shell comb, used in her youth. had|Iouisianans, the Washington Artillery,| mand for soldiers equipped by Mrs. Urquhart, whose went on the bail of President JefTerson daughter became the actress Mrs. | Davis—as also did Horace Grecley James Brown Potter. These French- and through Mr. Thomas' influznce my resembled. But, as the Civil War made ' men erected a theater and gave tab- uncle often sent flour to the Chim- leaux: but I have no memory of any{borazo hospitals for the wounded, bu Southern officers except Col. Huger of we observed fast days and ate spar- she was erect, rosy cheeked and dressed | Charleston, 8. C., who left his cot at |ingly. for we knew our army was starv- the Todds- ing for rations. our home. FIRST HOME OF LINCOLN A REPLICA never hated nuisance, and. a3 Mother Moncure har- bored many refugees from Siafford and we were glad of centered on Seward and Thad ncoln’s family Shenandoah County, Va., being closcly related to Dantel Boone. s Toone's coming back to Virginia and deszribing the gl had migrated We were poor enough, often having to pick blackbarries for something to eat, and my sisters used to make up corn cakes and sell to the soldiers for ocured some herrings from the Rappahannock fisl and the cakes were made of meal given the Yankee commissery—als, The only coffee the South had then was roasted sweet potatoes, haversacks. The sun glinted on thelr| charred; and it was a mean neverage. made of the cur- I plaited a straw S0 she concluded these Fed- | Nab, weaving [t under water, and alo {erals were the same “red coats” that | s of Kentucky that an Illinois victory meant a Sew- ard defeat; and Virginia could not for- get that George Rogers Clark had won the Northwest. 2 diana, Kentucky and Ohlo were once a part of our demain a big but—the South felt, keenly, that New Engiand had made her money out of s made slavery a moral issue | _Gen. Robert E. Lee himself set the Custis negroes free, and Thomas Jef- ferson had wished that pro the gradual abolition of slavery be in- corporated as A tenet in the Duciara- so that it was that Illinots, | some cofTee. Our dresses wori very before she tains from the beds. 8107 | hat, wi They were called “gaiters.” cculdhha;e utilized ror‘nur.\clvcs ) | sent the soldiers-—woolen socks that War of 1812. With the yell. “My God. | 4o ynit: and I went to Rizhmond and sewed in the churches, forms and sandbags. of Mother Moncure’s clothes. fortunately, brlonged making uni- Gen. Lee was profoundly moved and the outbreak and being himself a West Pointer, and | having known the Federal officers in Mexican and T never did he for a sccond dream that any easy victory awaited the Southern He simply could not join s campaigns, Confederacy, Mr. Thomas latcr " Southern States T repeat that Seward was the sbom- ination of desolation on our political %0 that Lincoln was far more acceptable as a President coln’s family had gone from Virzinin “and Lincoln tvpe of American menhood. we Capital Tourist F BY D. QUINCY SMITH, Wasbington Traveler and Writer. | ¢ ON'T go to Sinauen, signor- ¢ ine: the last car was stalled | 12 hours in the sand.” { “Don't g> to Binauen,| signorina; there's nothingz to be see.; there but an old fort and some paim trees.” | “But of course you must go to Bi- nauen, signorina. The piste (trafl) is 00d and the men will make a little | anu of Meharish for you " Of course we went, little knowing what experiences would be ours before we saw the Palacina at Nalut again. | By sunrise we were off over the 35 kilometers of sinuous mountain track and into the desert of soft sand | Whosoever says the desert is monoto- nous knows not whereof he speaks. Leaving the azure peaks of the Dicbel | ut behind us, we drove straight into ie great dunes—that sea of ever-shifte ing sand hills which, golden in the fore- round, shades off into the sapphire e Mediterranean, giving rise rworked simile of the sea of The fate of iy & real artist has ! been sezlcd by Lis temerity in daring o put upon canvas the vivid orchid tints that the Creator for I venture 1 sy the more impossible Eis colors may seem v those unfamiliar | desert, the more true to life be The very clouds| their | the | on4 refiect & th we drove througn i brilllant sunehine through the s clinging vand down a vertical hillside, | limbing up emall Viwer, 1) halt | at it gpex and hunt the Jeast wivaze we forged | wo haite, for the four | the motor through | : y, the | docvr v two small| s on the horiwn, “Eren Sinsuen” | there the Lwin oses etayed. No ther, 1o pearer aid they seem as we | ased Lnem woross the y w sands. | 2uni rose Digher | the heat dncressed, | venpling mirages ) and | £Ledy pelm groves hed abour Binauen remained slweye just heure wter we ety Nalut we through the bmlf dosen puim | of \he smslier oasi snd clmbiog | e vl of ground beyond came v | P L Lhe entiance of & 8L desert $ort wuriounded by s high bsriade of | bartad wire snd be thie saription | “ror Binsuen bt e bt | Pl dntarerieq i erylbing about us, | we Clsmiarea out ol e molor car and | Vere presented v the group of young | naiive N. C. O, who directly command | hour men of Uie 200 Mehinnsts, who were our | $unte 1ug \le day /¥ had hewrd wany lales of thess Juugh Bders of the Bohare,” | B0 Ve quiel way Lhey go shout tie Varx O keeping Vb Boutlers Desert, for Taly. Thelr existence & due Lo Lhe Sispiration of Col Guinba Yolpinl, who $ 192828 Tecruied 150 anen, orgen S Ui 85 8 cemel oorpe, snd with w palive TEgIMEnt UK from 10000 Turks and Witk thet secord o masn- e pev unit wes Gigenised pei- manently under the command of His Royal Highness the Duke de Puglio The officers are volunteers from sny Italian regiment, serving for three | years, with the privilege of re-enlistinent | al the end of that perlod Their duty | 15 o keep the peace in the deseri, which in realilty mesns beatlng the Targul at his own game of desert war- fare Turgul 1 the eingular of Touareg 1 o of desert pirates who Nve even now by plindering ceouvans and hold | prisovers for ransom The Mebaristl, mounted on racing cumel® cculled mehnr)) dreseed we Toumreg, wrmed with her wenpon spemking helr Wngue, must learn o live their Jite, and Af they can't win thelr confidence, must exterminate e w5 wny other pest Today there are four platoons of Mebiuriet) Eacho plwloon e com manaed by one Halian oMcer pnd one the 100 native boldiers. ‘Fhe latler are | as 1 Areh can be persunded Lo wer {sgainst his traditional enemy For e first elx months the newly srrived officer, unusslgned, 15 takon only on ehont expeditions, Uil e sy ac- quitnt bdmeedt with the langusge and customa of his enemy, wnd prove his own Dtnees [or the life of " camel ps ofcer. But once hia pertod of probmtion s over, life for him begine 1 renl earnest Vit bie command of 100 men Ve young ofcer moist A e time of two monthe i Uhe desert, snd 10 deye' rest inds Antique m one of the three Meharist! posts of (of men in the post. ‘The tall, slender | the _specthcles, more lke a college professor than a burning | soldier, speaks half a doren langunges and desert dinlects fluently ttory I “the Ted Denert,” a dreaded waste of dry red stones, where, uztil his the Touareg rolgned supreme g under the heavy outer gate- aurselves in ready at the call of duty to mount and wastes, be it to Night ten times his num- ber among the dunes. fiee that tall bronzed boy over there | with the bandaged hand? and two native soldiers, shooting and | Lust week he ‘Tounreg for 10 hours, nd when night fell won through to the fort Gr be may ride the Piste, which co nects Binauen with the great desert | photograph in the promised “Fantasia community of Gadames | “That hronzed Iad i the corner, whom | “Hudolf Valenthno In embrotdered | were the Mehar) passed on acrons the conrtyard and | battle with t through, | masse, encorted us to the commandant’s pditions. which Lroom 1o freshen up after our long diive for Land when we crorsed the threshold we made his 100 miles across the | ecaned to fee] sorry for the ofcers who and he did it n w tempersture of 118 degrees, | soluted desert posts dentally he Is one of the 160 Me- recrutted fiom wmong the nstive Ber- | haristd souvenirs of many a Touareg vald made » v oo ber tribes or the Tousreg themselves, | when Gad of every toom 1L was our good fortine ien wans laken ful [to see” place to lounge wnd duy mien I of & success Lratd by Tousreg - u coravan despoiled the women ca more of tie officers ave making life mun at the end of thie room with the | the Meharl regiment u o keen, plercing be | un episode to e endured and forgotten sent i pursult of the offenders the hest tracker in ‘Tripolitania Be it | plerced with rifle alghts, pant the kieel horne ar dog, lel him bt | o8 cameln we made oug see (he tracks, and he will follow them & lrace remalin even e calling some monthe afterward, | room at the far end, where luncheon To_relleve the embairassinent conne quent upoi the meeting of w group of YOung men, only one of whom adinits And so on, miound the Jittle group & knowledge of English, which he ve- he happens to run OF THE CABIN RECENTLY BUILT AT MILTON, MASS. ham Lincoln, the President Jamin Lincoln, fought in the American Revolution and cleared Boston all knew, had appointed Col. Geor Picket: to West Point. Everybody liked him for his rugged strength— even if differing with him on political views, . o oxox (GEN, LTE never allowed the word 3 Yankee" to be used in his pres- ence, and he never spoke with harsh criticism of enybody in his life. After the close of the war, when he was at White Sulphur Springs, W. Va. with afs wife, who was then a great invalid. ome fiery Southerners said: “General, you did not think much of Grant, did you?" | H~ looked sternly at them and re- pited: “T surrendered to him.” And the spirft of Lee in a measure tempered the feelings of the State of Virginia, especially toward Lincoln. | Mrs. Lincoln’s family, the Todds, had gone from King and Queen County, Va. with the sturdy winners of the Northwest territory, George Rogers Clark's militia, and a Todd is men- | D less Caverns, who came to Virginia, progenitor of Ab- The deed books of Au- fusta show, in 1768, that he took up purchase, and this Lincoin (John) had a son named Abraham who was a captain in the Virginia militia In Pennsylvania, Lineolns had lived for a time. dwelt a | Quaker family whose head was Squire He had 10 children. intermarried with son of this big houschold was Daniel Boone, the pio- ticned in this expedition and also as among the heroic defenders of Bryans | Station, where war against the Indlans compelled the women of the fort to go out and bring water for the relief of the frontiersmen, all of whom were needed to defend the stockade. Lincoln's brotherhood to humanity caused the shackles to fall from the in- ctitution of slavery. placing the name of the Great Emancipator on a pedestal teo high for the target of criticism ever to reach the soles of his feet. As carly as 1636 a Thomas Lincoln was mentioned as a Puritan_pioneer in th~ records of Hingham, Mass., and! that name “Thomas” comes in direct | ily line down to the very father of Abra-'Boone, who tempted them to go with |him to Kentucky, then a virgin wilder- Harbor of the He was the officer designated by Washinton to receive from Corn- sword of surrender at York- tor he was a_member jon which ratified the Consiitution of the United States. much for the beginning of the family, iow England, where the town of Lincoln, n-ar Lexington, is a mile- stone on their journey through Ameri- The climate and soil of New England did not tempt the more hardy spirits {of the Puritans to remain, the Lincolns wandered down and thence to the rich lands of | ylvania in Berks County. Augusta, the county seat of which is Staunton (birthplace of Woodrow Wil- known as Rockingham County, Va.and on Linn Creek, close to the first Lincoln raham Lincoin. close to where George Boone. The wanderlust tendency of the fam- ploneer guide ness, and so this Abraham Lincoln, | with his four children, followed the | Wilderness road through the Cumber- | land Gap. His youngest child, Thomas, | kept up the old original Puritan name ! of the first forbear, who came to Mas- | sachusetts in 1636, and he was the | father of the Great Emancipator of | slavery—Abraham Lincoin, named for s grandfather. | This connects America’s three great war Presidents with the famous Vale of Shenandoah—Washington, Lincoln | and Wilson. Here a'so fought three other Presidents of the United States | during the Civil War—Garfield, Mec- | Kinley and Hayes President McKinley was very kind to :ny family when he camped on Mother | Moncure's land; often bringing books for us to read, which he placed on the gsatepost, not entering the yard. He ‘oaned us Victor Hugo's vorks, includ- ing what the soldiers all called . “Lee’s Miserable,” as a pun on the ragged. hungry Confederates, who were then iruly, “Les Miserables” so far as creature comforts went. ® SEWime SHALL never forget being in my mother’s front yard when a lone rider appeared, bringing news of Lee's surrender. We could not belleve it. But_horror of horrors was yet to come —when tidings came of Lincoin’s as- sassination. It was the darkest hour of tragedy the South had ever known— though. as a section and a Confederacy, our hands were innocent of the blood of great martyr. Yet we were doomed to explate it in the awful years of re- constructicn. which, 1r Lincoin had iived. would never have humiliated our loved country. Lincoln visited Richmond immediate- ly after the surrender at Appomattox. The Emancipator had come up the James River. landed 2t Rocketts and was foilowed by curious pickaninnies through the deserted streets of Rich- mond—for the capital of the Confed- cracy was in sacktloth and literally in ashes—since the city was burned at evacuatidn. The Booths lived in Maryland, and insanity ran in the family, for Junius Brutus Booth impersonated Hamlet and King Lear until he nimself lived th» parts and became a maniac. From this taint in his blood Wilkes Booth inherited that unevenly balanced mind and temperament which made him an assassin, but he was not erazy when he did it—for he did it to avenge the death of John Yates Beall, whom he loved as David did Jonathan. It was personal spite. . e i JOHN YATES BEALL was a native of Fauquier County. Va.. a graduate of the University of Virginia and a lineal descendant through the Mac- gregors or Magruders of Rob Roy. the famous hero of Scott's novel, so that a fearless. indomitable spirit seems a heritage with the blood that coursed in his veins. His father had taught him to adore his State with a veneration tha‘ would lead him to imperil his life for Virginia In Fruquier he had, around War- tenton, been thrown with the dashing Ashbys, those fearless riders who served the Confederacy until death. He had attended a preparatory school in Mary- land. where he roomed with Wilkes Booth. Beall was charged by the United States Government with sinking a steamboat on Lake Erie and also depre- dations on the malls of the country. and He held a commission in the Confed- erate Navy, and his knowledge as a seaman made him attempt seizing a ferryboat on Lake Erfe, in which it was his purpose to escape with the Confed- ! erate prisoners from Johnson Island. When Beall was sentenced by court- martial as a spy and guerrilla the ver- dict stirred the Union and Confederacy alike. This was due in a measure to the splendid defense which Beall's law- yer put up. James T. Brady of the New York bar, who gave his services through sincere sympathy for the prisoner, ‘When news of Beail's fate reached Wilkes Booth he at once sought the kindly heart of Lincoln to intervene. At first Lincoin declined to interfere, but as Booth pleaded on his knees Lincoln promised a respite. Lincoin’s kind heart was touched. Wilkes Booth at once hurried to New York to bear the glad tidings to his friend, but through Gen. Dix and Sec- retary Seward an order already had been sent by telegraph to execute Beall, and when Booth arrived his friend was a corpse, having heen executed at Gov- ernors Island February 24, 1865 Booth became the spirit of vengeance. With the craftiness of mania. which flowed In his veins from his father, old Junius Brutus Booth, he set to work to accomplish his purpose. It was like the actor in him to stage the scene in Ford's Theater, and like the junatic to jump to the stage with the cry. “Sic semper tyrannus.” on his lips—thus giving |everybody a view of the assassin. * ok % % \VE, down in Virginia, knew nothirg of the scene of crime or who had done the foul deed. We learned it be- cause of Wilkes Booth's fleeing to V ginia- and hiding in Caroline Cou near our home After Lee had surrendered. we 1 aily faced starvation. So my | Alice, and my brother shelied som: | with their hands: and from the mars were resurrected the wheels of our ancient carryall, with which and 2 wagon body made of planks from 2 tobacco barn my brother, Judge Mon- cure, jogged away to the Rappahanor: to seek herrings. On his way he met Mr. Willis Je*! whom he knew well. and accepted 2 invitation to dine with him. The Je*' owned a tavern. There Judge Monct met two very pieasant. agre soldiers, who claimed to be North Caro linfans trying to reach Gen. Joe John- ston’s army: and they invited m brother to accompany them. He. hoa ever. accepted Lee's surrender as the end for the Lost Cause: and declined He inquired when they were leavirg for North Carolina and the reply wa that they “could not say definitely. a« they had a sick friend at a farmhouss nearby.” (This was none other than Wilkes Booth with his broken leg.) | __These men gave their names as Lieut Dangerfleld and Capt. Lewis: but the: were In reality Atzerodt and Herold, the two conspirators who aided Booth 1 assassinating Lincoln. Booth had com from Maryland by crossing the river a Port Conway (where President Madisc: was born). and they made their way t the home of our neighbors. the Ga | and, representing themseives as Cor federates, begged to be permitted t stay. Already Federal troopers were scour ing the country for Booth. as Stantor had offered a huge sum of money fo his capture. News that a sick man wa: at Garrett's farm spread: and soldiers in pursuit found Mr. Jett, =t had crossed on the same ferryboat wi them: so he was igd to point out thei hiding-place. All this was news to him. since th: surrender of Lee had filled the countr with men who were honest Confedera he was captured near Suspension Bridge. | N. Y. brought to Fort Hancock and there imprisoned in the same cell with Gen. Roger Pryor of Virginia. He w charged as being a spy and guerrilla and was hanged as such. This foray occurred in December. 1864. Beall had previously been a prisoner at Point kout, Md. and claimed he was seeking to return to the South through Canada to fight for the South. He had been previously on an companions were under suspicion. bu he led the Northern troopers to Ga rett’s farm. where Booth was captu and killed. Herold and Atzerodt, as‘well as Mrs | Surratt. were hanged as conspirators | My brother did not dare tell any on | but his wife for ten vears that he ha | accidemtally eaten with them. (Copvright 1928 1 and Modern Mixture in Africe fuses to use, and two American girls | whose only accomplishment is their | ability to “smile in Itallan" Helen starts for the fort pets, but alas, Mother | Cat and her baby and the two Shigh pups run at sight of us, one of the men | naively remarking: “They have never seen skirts before, | jand are afrald of the ladies—just as we men are, after our life alone here in | | the desert.” | He came In just half an hour before we arrived and the shock of meeting | the first American girls who ever pene- trated Into the interfor scems to have {left his speechless, | As the Iast kitten vanishes, luncheon is served, and we take our places in the cool, flag-stoned, white-plastered dining room, for one of the merriest menls we had in Itallan Africa. Nothing was lacking to make the party a success. Abetted by our two officer-interpreters, we were & folly crowd. One of the most unexpescted and helpful diversions was probably the | introduction of American jazs on the phonograph. Every man had his fa- | vorite tune, and we girls found many of our own among them “Linger Awhile” will always bring back memories of Sinauens for the | straina of that record were the last sounds we heard as we drove away in the late afternoon | Luncheon over, cinemas and cam- erax were produced and we started down the hill from the fort to nm| oasts, where “Rudy™ tnvited us into his his quarters, These so entranced us | that we were in danger of forgetting | the promised fantasia | Imagine & Pueblo Indian village fallen into ruin, one room at the sum- mit st roofed over, with two door- ways, facing each other, on opposite | sides, one opening into an endless mare | of pueblos, the other looking out over | the endless, golden silence of the real! desert. Single file we climbed up, and in, and we stopped silent on the thresh- old. A low. broad couch, covered with | A soft, ved rug, was in one corner, with A Targul tabouret beside it. Walls wero | stained n reddish brown and hung with local rugs, snddle bags, cushion covers, denert knlves and weapons. A low | stool, m shelf of well worn books, pipes tobneco, gave It & touch of home The smiling faces of the men loung- | ing wbout the floor, as Helen and T sat | enthroned the ch, sipping renl “Cafe Maure” (Arab Cafer made of it for us a picture time can never dim .o WRUDY" broke the spell with the | comment that the camels Pardon! 1 meant the Meharil - were arriving, wnd excused himself o dress One by one the nien vanished to re- i real Touaregs; fowing trowsers loose blouse secured ut the walst by a broad sash; cartridge belt and revolvers At the walst; long, ornate carbines slung across the back and the fex of the forenoon replaced by the elaborute tarhan familiar to il frequenters of the silver scveen, only with the fmpor- tant difference that the ‘Tarqul alwaya vells his face, generally 0 blaok, leav- g exposed only two glowing eyos AL the fopt of “Rudy's” caatle kuelt the Meharl’ The men mownted and vanishied Into the distanoe, traveling credibly fast For these Meharl ave not to he apoken of in the aame breath with the ordinary !flmhflul benata of burden, familiar to the tow - sl Rather do they hear about the same relation o thely humbler com- a8 does the flect Arab horse to the plodding army mule Olnemas tocused to cateh the fAving conventent but slippery sand dunes on as men and Mehard raced 1o wave thelr long emibines and chant the Afvican equivalent of ow st do 1t agatn, while we hunted other | polnts of vantage for our next ueh willing aetors they were anxious to please wee womething of the lghter side of an Afriean soldier's life thia time returming i columns of foues the vunning antmals enfoving the ap Amerion mav Back they rode hen, wa wen and Mehatt came 10 show the sup e grace of the antmals, enue gArh of the Viders. and (he splon - developing and Graining 0 patiol hey Pletures over, we started back up th Nl to the fort and the motor for tae long thp back to Natut LRI L YOMING from Stacuse to Tripolt 4 fest tmpressions of Afcica are mote |t aceordance with ehildish ideas ward us, riding i one long Mue. e | dosert than at any other. p!fl; nl\\('l‘ | the northern coast. The low beach. th. WavIng date palins and the sthver dunes J Al seem to ery aloud “Afviea T I e | tmmedinte foreground the white Avab city Hea huddled up on its flat peninsu- e, framed in by the feathery greon of the tall date palins. Here 18 o glmpse of & minaret, or a tiled mara- bout's tomb. There w Chrtstian church tses ubove the low roofs Byt all sink nto |‘\l\a||nmnuw befure the stern old Castella One could wiite & whale volume Abont that somber pile of stone, anee & Roman foriress, upon whose vuins the Hpaniards erected the st oastello shortly after Don Podvo Navarma oon auered the town 1 1310 Relntoreed By the Kaights of Malta, modified the Turkish bashaws when they used 1 An A combination havem and strong hold, and today — our host 4 A retinue of Arabs appeared and ap oropriated our things: a smiling cu:-- ioms official chalked our bags, and we found ourselves whisked into the gov- -rnor’s car and deposited at the Grand Hotel. before we could catch our breat Such a grand hotel it is too. I two stories of long arcades rise out A large garden along the lungo Ma Volpi. Tripoli's seaside boulevard beaming proprietor greeted us In exce lent English, and took us to the sui we soon came to loos Tripoli home. a large be room and bath. opening terrace where breakfast us each morning as we s across castle, town, sea an delightfully quiet and res: stretch oneself out there canvas steamer chairs, after a hot up the coast, or into the in But we must be off to pay o to the Castello Out 1p the arcaded mamn dewalk cafes tery and med sray mass of : ance was up a steep winding case, with a formidable looking guar at the summit. Dis how would make ourselves k Italian, we clambered slo But we didn't wonder long approach the soldier car attention. and about the “due motioned us ac: to another of One after anoth to the oficial hou interested in our P suggestions. Guide Maps were prod modations were d prismgly tured for four separate tx up the coast. to the ea Leptis May Zliten and west to the Foman N Zabrata, inland to the southeast Tarjunas i the Djebel Tarn southwest through (mountain system) to , Nalert, Sinauen, Qtose and Jefren | . ! Wooden Cannon. Y one familiar with (he consty 177 ton of modern weapons of warta land the high explosives used i the T Would NAturally suppose & eannon mac of woad would be of httle or no vab as A weapon But wooden cannon ha been used With considerable suevess TevolHONATY movements i Cuta, Ha and the Damtnican Republie The wood tsed tn the comt of these C1Ude WeAPIS WAS & \ety varlety, having & twisiad grain curled about the fog i sueh a4 way b to aplit the timber With the fmeans was almost impossitile freen were selavted. and & plece of I3 0r 8 feet i length and atout fool I dlameter was cut After Thark had been removed and the | made perfectly round. 1t was swing Jon w orude truss and a hole was buin Pinto 1t flom ane end The hg w wound Wit strips of vawhide W the cannon was cover®i with the s of hide, another layer was wound o Aand this was continued unul th woapon had therensed several lwhes + daweter After the g was covered and th bare was faishad, treated 1o & hot draught, whi 10 eantract the hide blnding