Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, April 29, 1894, Page 10

¥ MODERN SHANGHAI Graphic Pen Piotures of Life in the Great this cutrance to their mizhty cmpre. S anl- ing on the ship I could sex the guns frown- fng down upon us from the ramparts, and could almost hear the queer cries of the officers as they drilled their cotton-gowned, yellow-faced, almond-eyed troops. We lay | for some time right opposite the entrance to | the fort, a Chinese structure of gold carvin / 10 Asiatio Metropolis, PASSING THE STRONG FORTIFICATIONS How Swell Foreigners Live and 8port in the Paris of the Pacific, FOR WHEELBARROWS STREET CARS Carp Visits a Big Chinese Newspaper Office and Gets a Few Tips, VENERATION FOR THE WRITTEN LANGUAGE the Ieart of Asla—Its A Forelgn Hundreds of Cabs, T Tts ¥ Tustituti City In asands of Jin- alinr Cas- rikshas and toms and Frank G (Special Cor a week since I (Copyrighted 1804 Carpenter.) TANGHATL, April 7 ence of The Bee)—It I8 now pond- steamed through the mouth of the great Yang-tse-Klang river into the wide waters of the Whampoa, on the French mail from Japan, and was anchored under the shadow of the fmmense fortifications which the Chi- nese have built at the Woosung bar to guard looking much like the gate of a templs, and our vessel was surrounded by the big gun- boats of China’s modern navy. It Is twelve miles from Woosung up the Whampoa riyer to Shanghal, but the water Is too shallow for the largest ocean steamers, and we made the Journey in a steam launch. The country is dead flat. It is made up of the rich sedi- ment which s carried down by the Yang-ts Kiang river from the uplands of Chini Standing on the deck of the ship you look for miles over gray mud plains, relieved here and there by what, in the distance, appear for all the world like cocks of hay, but which blocks of immense size lle just back of a beautiful park between the river and the street, and a big city has grown up on the groun owned by the foreigners, Theis are only about 3,000 foreigners, but the for- eign settlement contains more than 200,000 people, the remainder of whom are natives, who Iike to do business and live under for- ofgn protection. In addition ty this there I8 within a short distanc the ghative city of Shanghal of 12 0. This 1s¥surrounded by walls, and It 18 as dirty and % nasty as are the Chinese cities of the iInterior, where a forelgner has never been seen. Forelgn Shanghal 18 a city of electric lights, of news- apers and. of libraries. The subscription prary here contains 12,000 volumes, and the library of the Shanghal club has more 0. A TOUCH OF HIGH LIFE The Shanghai club has a finer building n any club fouse in \Washington, It $120,000 to build and ruined three con- than th cost tractors, At noon and In the evening you will meet in it as cosmopolitan a crowd as you will find in New York or Paris and its Jobby buzzes with a noise which makes you think of the big hotels of Chicago when a national convention s In progress. The foreign settlement is, in fact, a city of clubs, CAR. and there is a racing club, cricket, rifle and yacht clubs and about a dozen different Ma- konie associations, There is a brass band that gives concerts three times a week dur- summe d there are concerts and ing the dances almost night in the winter. Washington or New York has hardly as many entertainments shanghal, and the people here chase the goddess of pleasure much as they do in Paris. The city has its swell 400 and the turnouts of the rich are driven by Chinamen in livery with almond- eyed, long-gowned tigers on the footboards. The horses are generalld little Chinese ponies, not much bigger than Newfoundland m like mad, miniature baby but their drivers with gay harness coupe ndaus and drags are quite im- pressive. The conyeyance of the ordinary citizen Is the Japanese jinriksha, pulled by ragged, bare-headed coolies, and the Chinese, who wish to ride still eheaper, go about on wheelbarrows, which are a sort of a cross between an American bicycle and an Irish jaunting car. They arc made of wood with a wheel of about the of the front wheel dogs, and the GATE TO WOOSUNG are the graves of Chinamen. On some of these graves I could see great black coffins resting, and T am told that the Chinese often leave their dead for years outside the ground, and that few burials are made when the ground Is frozen. Here and there over the landscape were thatched huts surrounded by trees, and in the creeks, which cut the plain like the canals of Holland, the masts of the ships and boats could be everywhere secn. All along the river were platforms of bam- oo, with little sheds at the back of them and nets hung out from their fronts into the water for the catehing of fish. We passed hundreds of crafts of all kinds, from the lit- tle fat-eyed gondola-like sampans to the ocean steamers bound for all parts of the world. Near the forts there were scorcs of great Chinese war junks, with cannon ex- tending over their sides, and with great sails ribbed with bamboo, looking for all the world Ike the wings of gigantic bats, and the whole river was filled with other bat-like craft, earrying all sorts of cargo to and from Shanghal.~ As for our boat, it was filled with foreign and Chinese passengers, The only three’ Americans were Mr. and Mrs. Curwin Stoddart of Philadelphia and myself. My photographer took a snap-shot at us as we stood on deck with Ah Shing, the rich Chi- nese teilor of Yokohama, who was on his way with his wife and baby to visit his papa in China. THIZ PARIS OF THE aring Shanghal is like sailing into one of the great harbors of the Mediterranean. You see a forelgn city lining the banks of the river and the smokestacks of a dozen great factories send out their black clouds info the blue sky. There are several miles of these factories, and one I noticed, which covered many acres, was in ruins from a recent fire. It was a big gray brick of many stories, which the Chinese had bullt for the manufacture of cotton and in which for some years they have employed hun- dreds of bhands and had the finest of modern machinery. Until within a few months they have been paying for insurance to the BEAST. foreign companies about $1,500 a year in gold. The in the value of silver to about 50 on the dollar made them amble at this, and when their policy lapsed lust fall they cconomized by not renewing it ‘The result was that the fi cost them $1,600,000, and as Li Hung Chang and others of the officlals were largely intorestod in the stock the peoplo will probably be squeezed to make up the loss, Going on up the river through great houselike barges known as oplum boats, past a mlle or so of massive wharves backed by iron rcofed warehouses, almost touching our side- wheeler gunhoat, the Monocacy, we landed at the French wharf, and a moment later were In the greatest forelgn settlement of China, the Paris of the east, the city of Shanghal, There 18 no town on the globe like Shang- hal. It is a city of the rich, who, out here on the sho of Asla, within a stone's throw of the poorest people of the world, live more luxurious lives than do the wealthy people of the United States or Eng- land. 1 speak of the Shanghal of the European and the American. The Chinese who are mixed up in It are as poor or as rich as they are in other parts of the em- pire. The forelgners have the right to the land in what is known as the conces- slons. These belong to England, France und the United States, and the government 1s made up of a council elected by them, so there s in reality a little republic, which makes its own laws, has its own police foree and manages its own business independent of the celestlals, The land nominally be- longs to the emperor, but It is the prop- erty of the forelgners by them paying a cer- tain ground rent, which has been fixed by treaty. This mmounts to about five gold dollars per acre a year. When it wa bought it cost something like §200 per acre, but much of it has been sold for for from $60,000 to $100,000 per acre, and thus made the fortunes of the original holders. LUpon it all sorts of improve ments have gone up, and along the river there are now as fine houses as you will find anywhere in the world. Business of a wagon coming through the center of the bed of the barrow, and a framework extend- ing out in front of and behind this, cover- ing the wheel and leaving seats on both sldes. The passenger put one foot upon the soat and hangs the other in a stirrup made of rope of the size of a clothes line tied to the front of the seat and holds on for dear life to the frame, while a coolie pushes the bargow along. If there is a second passen- ger”he takes the other side of the barrow and holds on in tho samo way. Many of these vehicles carry freight and passengers at the same time. I saw one (his morning which was loaded on one side with money in the shape of about a bushel basket of strings of copper cash, while an almond- eyed maiden tried to pull down the other side of the machine with her weight. She wore a silk coat and wide silk pantalets which reached to her feet, but where sho put heg foot Into the stirrup I could note her little blue shoe with its pointed gold toe. It looked more like a miniature club foot than the real variety. Her leg, which was wrapped with cloth, was as thin as a broom handlo and showed no sign above the ankle of the curve of the calf. She wore a =ik cap, out of which her ofly black hair peeped at the back, and from her triangular pendants of green jade. On other barrows I saw Chinese men riding in pairs, and I met still larger barrows used for the carrying of freight. The passonger wheel- barrows alone in Shangl number about 4,000, and there are more than 3,000 jin- rikshas, The prices of both are very low. ears hung | THE OMAHA DAILY I"than one of the columns of our newspapers, and not more than an inch in length. It fs a 1-cent sheet, its price being ten cash, but as China Is on a ollver basis, this should, in our money, now be divided by two, and its price would then bo only half a cent. But let me give you my talk with manager. I went to the office without my interproter, and my jinriksha man, after riving me through a_series of narrow | Chinese streets, in which we had a number | of narrow escapes from pony cabs and freight | the wheelbarrows, landed me at a ragged story building, with a side entrance this were large tea-box characters, meaning the name of the paper. 1 went fn and made my way to the second story, where I lucklly stumbled Into the room of the managing editor. I addressed him in good plain United States, and found that he spoke English as well as I did. I introduced myself, and showed him some letters which I carry from the State department and high officials. at Washington. He read them and looked at the seals, and then bowed low again and aga'n, and shook his own hands at me in Chinese fashion and asked me to be seated At my request he took up a py of his news. paper and explained it to me ving me a number of facts about newspager work among the celestials. “We have, sald he, ‘‘th largest newspaper in_ China, and our daily circulation s about 12,000, her two other native newspapers published in this city, but neither of them makes as much money or does as well as we do. We are the oldest, and we have been In existence now twenty-two yesrs. We have a good advertising patronage, and the Chinese lieve in newspaper advertising. Take a look at the paper and you will see that it Is pros- perous from an advertising standpoint, T looked at it, but for the life of me 1 could not tell the “ads” from the editorials, and I said so. The editor took it from me and said: “This first page is alt editorlal, We don’t let any of our advertisers use it. If we let one they would all want it, and so we use it only for ourselves when we have special announcements and for editorials and news, The second page and part of the third page fs news, and the ads do not com- mence until the latter part of the paper. We often have to issue supplements to get in all our advertising, but our Chinese cus- tomers object it we do not put 1 and ding matter in the supplement well. You note the lines run up and down the page Instead of across it and the beginning is at the right of the page instead of the left, as with you. Our lines' are about fif- teen inches long and we count by the word not by the line. Each Chinese character represents a word, and our rates are 5 cents for each ten characters for the first insertion 3 cents when the advertisement runs for a week and cents a day per each ten words for all time after that."’ HOW IT CIRCULATES. “Are there many papers in China and do you find them in the interior?” I asked. “No,” replied the Chinese editor. “Wa culate all over China, but you do not find published in the native citi The rnors would not permit them, as the editors might say things they would not like, and man. them would not want their doings criticised or reported. The Chinese are very economical. Money is worth a great deal here. We charge, for instance, 10 cents cash for this paper and we have in reality a circulation of at least 50,000, though we print only 12,000 papers.” “How Is that?" said I “The paper is resold and rented by the subscribers and others, so that at least that many heads of families get hold of it. pay our newsboys 2 cash a copy for s ing, or, rather, we sell them the papers, s0 that’ we get 8 cash out of the 10. They receive in your money just about one-tenth of a cent for selling and delivering the paper. Well! they cheat the regular cus- tomers often by renting the paper for 6 or 7 cash to outsiders till 11 or 12 o'clock, when they will come around and get it and deliver it. ~ We can't prevent this here. Then dif- ferent shops subscribe for the Shun Pao and their customers come in regularly every morning and read it. Families pass it from one to the other, subscribing together for it, and there are men who make a business of going about day after day and buying u old and clean newspapers of the subscribe to carry them out in the countfy districts to sell. So you sce every newspaper reaches at least a half dozen persons or families be- fore it is burned. All of the unsold coples of the Shun Pao are burned by the office. The Chinese rey- erence literature so that they think it a sin to use as wrapping paper or in any common way anything written or printed in Chinesc and along the streets of the Chinese cities tened to the walls of the houses, you find little boxes filled with written scraps, which the passersby pick up whenever they chance to fall upon the street, to prevent the char- acters from being defiled. In Chinese houses, instead of pletures, you find often long serolls containing a sentence of classic Chinese beautifully written, and the literatl often write to each other in poetry. SALARIZS AND WAGES PAID. I saw such rcrolls in the little room of the dramatic critic of the Shun Pao, as I walked through the offices with the man- ager and was Introduced to the editors. The city editor was a fat Chinese gentle- man in tortolse shell spectacles, the glasses of which were as big as a trade dollar, who wore a blue silk gown and a black cap with a red button on it. He was surrounded by his long-gowned reporters, to whom he was giving the assignments of the day, and he told me that he would be on duty till 3 o'clock In the morning, when the paper would go to press. I next visited the com- posing rooms and took a look at the print- ers, There were, perhaps, a dozen at work, and T was told that thelr wages were from | $1.50 to $3 a week in silver, equal to 75 | conts and $1.50 in_ our currency. The | editors get from $35 to $40 a month, and reporters from $8 to $10 a month in silyer, according to_their efficiency. The printers | Qo night and day work for seven days in ‘ the week and 360 days in the year at these and it takes no slight learning to be printer. There are in the Chinese 13,000 different characters, and ses 1 saw In this composing language each of the ci room, the editor told me, contained about CITY EDITOR AND HIS STAFF. You can ride to any point in the city on a jluriksha for 5 cents, and the wheelbarrow hackmen get, 1 am told, about 1 cent a mile. 1 expect to take a trip on one soon, and will have my photographer take me enroute, A CHINESE NEWSPAPER. I pald a visit yesterday to the biggest Chinese newspaper in the empire to make injuiries as to the employment of a Chinese artist to do some native fllustrations for me, and had a most interesting talk with the manager. The paper Is called the Shun Pao, and it is the best-paying and most widely circulated of the three native news- paper dailles of Shanghal. It is an elght- page sheet of about the size and shape of Frank Leslie's newspaper or Harper's Weekly, printed on the thinnest of rice paper.” It is 8o light that it does not welgh more than & man's handkerchlef, and so thin that the paper can be printed on one side only. The paper goes to press in big sheets, which are so folded that the blank side 18 turned Inward when taken in hand by the rubscri and so that there is neither cutting nor pasting. Owing to the thinness of the paper, it has a greasy yellow appearance, and it is printed so closely with Chinese type that not an inch of spiace seems to be wasted, The headline or title of the paper consists of two Chinese characters, taking up a space not wider 10,000 different characters. Think of that, ye printers of America, and thank God you wWere born In a land where the alphabet con. talns only twenty-six letters, and where there 18 not a different sign for every word in the language. In a Chinese printing of- fice the cases aro ten times as big as ours, and each printer stands surrounded by threo walls of type, running from his feet to the top of his head and sloping out from him on all sides. After a look at the business office of the newspaper, 1 was shown the only illustrated paper in China, which s also issued from this establishment. It is published every ten days. It s about as big as an old- fashioned almanac, and It always appears In red or green covers. It publishes many descriptions of lffe in America, and Its pic- tures of foreigners and their ways are laughable in the extreme. There is no per- spective shown In the drawings and the Chinese storles are full of blood and thun- der, of sentiment and humor. Here the Chinese Romeo woos his almond-eyed Juliet, and there the tragedies of love, abduction, of crime and superstition are depicted by the Gillams and Remingtons of this celestial land. FRANK G. CARPENM BEE SUNDAY, APRIL 29, THE GRAND ARMY OF LABOR 0Odds with Which ths Tocal Coopers Union Has Had to Oontend, BETTER TIMES SEEM TO BE COMING Long and Hard Fight Agamnst Penitentiary Made Good«—Progress of the Interna- tional Bakers' ' Un Proceeds of Working Girls' Ball—Labor Notes, Coopers unfon No. 10 of Omaha is con- sidered one of the ploneer unions of the city and the struggle of this unfon for existence during the past three years has been one that would have discouraged many men in other departments of labor. No class of laboring men has suffered more from the competition of conviet labor during that time. The extremely low prices quoted for finished goods that were the product of con vict labor has had the effect of lowering the wages of men at the cooper's trade and in many cases compelied honest gmen 1o leave the city or work at something els It is estimated that three years' time js re- quired to properly learn the coopers’ trade and after men have spent that much time in learning the trade it is ve disag! able and unsatisfactory to them to be compelled to look to some other calling to make a living. The local unfon has at various times undertook to operate a co-operative factory with the hope that the business men of the city would see the benefits to be derived from a patronage of honest workers at liv- ing wages, but in cvery Instance the peni- tentiary made goods have lhad the effect of driving the unfon out of business entirely, All members of the unfon speak well of Mr. John Powers, who, they claim, has always stood by the men of their trade, and would never ask them to work for an amount be- low the union scale. Had It not been for the competition of penitentiary made barrels, kegs, tierces, etc., it fs quite probable that Mr. Powers and other employers would at the present time be giving remunerative employment to al hundred men of this trade in Omala today. “It s absolutely impossible jor us to compete with convict labor,” said one of the members of the unfon to a reporter of The Bee, “from the fact that the convicts work for nothing and it is well known that while Mosher had the contract at Lincoln he stole the money from the state to purchase material, and as he got the labor for nothing it was very easy for him to undersell any honest manufacturer material with his own money pald the union scale.” This fact as stated has had the effect of working up a strong sentiment against the penitentiary ring at Lincoln and the workers of all trades declare that the convict labor system must be changed so as not to prevent honest men from earning an honest living. The local coopers’ union has taken a stand upon the question and has lately asked the Central Labor union to aid in the cause. The committee on home industry of the Cen- tral Labor union has been very successful so far in getting a number of the business men | interested in behalf of the union and has already secured an agreement from some of the breweries to hereafter use none but unfon made cooperage goods. It now has started a movement to try to get the South Omaha packing houses to sign such an agreement, and if the committee is success ful it will be a great vietory for the local coopers’ union, which has been striving very hard under disadvantageous circumstan for a mere existence, This union also pri poses to take an active part in coming legislative campaign and see what it can do toward electing men who will use their in- fluence in the Interest of, organized labor in- stead of the penitentiary. ring. who bought h and Working Girls Counting Profits. The Working Girls Knights of Labor as- sembly of Omaha beld. a meeting Friday night in their hall on Fourteenth street to straighten up accounts after their dance. It was found that the assembly had cleared something over $30 for the treasury. This was considered a very satisfactory amount all the girls seemed pleased. They ex- sed a desire to attend the May party to be given by the mattress makers assembly and, it is said, quietly hinted this fact to some of the young men who visited their meeting _‘“'to how much money was de.””” Mr. Michael Nelson took an active part in helping the girls make a success of their dance and will most likely see that at least one of the members has the pleasure ot attending the May party, so it is rumored in labor circles. This assembly holds regu- lar meetings every Friday evening in Knights of Labor hall, where visiting members are always welcome. It has always done its full share in charitable work and is consid- ered one of the banner labor organizations of the clty. International Bakers Unlon. Local members of the International Bakers and Confectioners unlon report that the union is growing very fast throughout the country the present year and predict that 1895 will find their organization one of the foremost in the nation. As a rule, bakers have been regularly employed and received fairly good wages, but the present business depression 'has reached members of the bakers' trade as well as all other work and this fact has caused them to seek rellef through organization. Thelr international union is reported to be in better condition now than at any previous time in its exist- ence, all of which goes to show that work- ingmen seek to organize as soon as their in- terests are noticeably affected. The history of this union is the history of many others which have increased their membership since the panic commenced. or Notes. Shoemakers struck for an advance at Lynn, Mass. Packers and nallers have struck at Minne- apolis. All_unfon bookbinders in Buffalo are em- ployed. The London Trades council has 200,000 members. The National Bookbinders unfon has thirty- two locals. The government cents an hour. Grand Raplds unions have decided to go into polit Al window glass workers in America be- long to the union. Los Angeles unions have decided to es- tablish a labor library. The state trade and labor assembly of Ohio tavors political actlon. May day will be célebrated In many cities of tho United States! Indlanapolls carpenters and joiners struck against cents an Bour. A federated central labor union has been organized In New Hampshire, One of the cigar makers unions in Baltl- more has $3,200 in {t§ treasury. Walking delegates haye organized a soclety in New York City and Hrooklyn. Fall River has 8,300 union weavers, and about one-third of them are idle. A co-operative glass works Is ning on full time at Heaver Falls, Buffalo unions haveé a’labor play which will be given for the first time May 1. pays proof readers 53 now run- " The International Bakers union has or- ganized four cities €ince January 1. The clgar makers union at Utica, N, Y., has established a co-operative factory. Labor unions in New York state municipal ownership of street rallways, The Metal Workers Protective union demand an eight-hour day after May 1 Union printers at Detroft will be fined $5 it they patronize a theater there which is boy- cotted. tavor will The union printers at Fargo have pur chased a newspaper plant and wil run a labor paper. The Nebraska State Federation of Labor will meet in Grand Island the second Monday in July. Silk ribbon weavers and dyers are on a strike at Paterson, N. J., against & re- duction. The painters unions of New York Oity are 1891 TWENTY PAGES fighting ono another. bosses bettor. The International Bakers and Confectioners unfon will hold ts elghth annual convention in June at Baltimore. One hundred clgar makers wont Foster & Co.'s factoryin New York than accept a reduction A mass meeting will be held In Knights Labor hall this afternoon at 2 o'clock to discuss the labor question The local building trades council elected officers at the mueting held in Knights of Labor hall Friday evening. Tallors unfon No, settled fits differ- ences with its employers by agreeing to sub- mit its case to arbitration The cap makers of New York City have Nothing pleases tho out of rather won thelr strike against a reduction. Only three establishments were involved. Local labor leaders are proposing to or- ganize a the “home guards” recruiting force” to be known as of Coxey's army. Sonth Omaha _fs coming to the front in labor circles. Four new unions have been organized there by the Central Labor union organization committee On account of a proposed reduction fin wages all the press feeders and tenders walked out from the American Lithograph company's works of N York The strike of the coal miners Is becoming genoral. If It continues long it will dis turb the running of a number of factories that use the product of the mines Knights of Labor will organize an assem- bly of workers fn Beatrice to be composed of thoso who are in sympathy with the cause of labor from an organized standpoint The Omaha bakers have organized a new union under 121, Messrs. Henry Geet, Andrew Beck and Peter Ecken have been elected to represent th union in the Omaha Central Labor union. Slioo workers of New York held a mass meeting to discuss the labor question Speeches were made against the pa of the Wilson bill and asking tthat congress legislate on something else beside the tariff. LT R MY FIRST AND LAST BATTLE. By Edward Everctt Tale, (Copyrighted 1894.) For three years of the civil war I had been closely connected with the sanitary smmission of Massachusetts and of the United States. The commission had it for its duty to keep the people at home in touch with the army. It tried to keep alive the enthusiasm of the people for the so and it tried to make the soldiers under- stand that they were not forgotten by the nation, In the correspondence and other work conne casion to visi d_with the sanitary I had oc- Fort Monroe in the spring of 1864, and was most cordially and cour- teously reccived there by General Butler. I was his guest at his house, and, with re- gard to some interesting things in the move- it of the w I learned a_ great deal which was very curious from him. When we parted I sald to him, “It will not be long before you will see me again. I shall be drafted some day, and as I present arms to you as a sentinel you will remember your ol guest.” He asked if I could not stay then, and said he would put me to work. But I had home duties in hand. I was not surprised, therefore, when, after General Butler b well planned surprise had taken up his position at Bermuda Hun- dred, where the Appomattox and James rivers join each other, to receive a telegram trom his chief of staff, saying simply, *'Come on at once. We are more successful than our best hopes.” At that time, the begin- ning of May, 1864, the chances were good for the combined armies going, separately or together, into Richmond. Alas, it was a ar before this happened! But I made at once arrangements to join the headquarters staff, with which I was now intimate, and I went on, with a fortnight's leave of ab- sence from my work at home. As T passed through Washington, where we were all at home in the war, I went to the War department, where the adjutant general was an old classmate of mine. I s no stranger there then, and 5o it hap- pened that he gave me a dispatch for Gen- eral Butler. This elevated me at once in the esteem of all chiefs of transportation, giving me I do not know how much power, but great prestige whenever I needed it. T went down to Fort Monroe at once, where I found only one or two of the gentlemen of the staff, chafing because they were not at the front; and on the government steamer of the next day I went up to Dermuda Hun- dred. We were rather more than half way up when we were arrested for a little by the sound of firing on the shore. It proved that this was one of the days when Fitzhugh Lee had attempted to cut off General Butler's river communications. He had at- tacked the field works which we had on the south side of the river. As it happencd these works were held by negroes recruited in Virginia, and this was one of the earlier trials of those troops. After a_little delay on this account we pressed or, and,.just about at nightfall, arrived at the crowded water front of Bermuda Hundred. The whole army of 25,000 men had ar- rived there suddenly a fortnight before, as it it had fallen from the sifies, In that time wharves and landing places had been improvised with - marvelous rapidity, and, although there was endless con- tusion, still things seemed to go forward with the kind of energy which marks the work of a well disciplined army. For me, I was as igricrant as a freshman Is on enter- ing college what I was to do. I knew that General Butler and his staff were six or seven miles away, I knew that night was falling, and I did not know how I was to &0 to him. Fortunately for me, as T thought, there was on the boat a member of his staf, with whom I had some acquaintance, and I relied upon him to help me through. When we landed, however, he was out of the way, and I could not find him. I suspected that Lie did not care to embarrass himself with a_civilian, and was intentionally keeping out of sight. I therefore did what T always do in life— struck as high as I could. I said to the sentinel that I was a bearer of dispatches, and asked him the way to the headquarters of the commander of that post. I wish I remembered this gentleman's name, so well did he illustrate the courtesy and prompt- ness of a man in command. He said at onco that his own orderly should go with me to General Butler; that he would lend me his own horse, and would send my valise on the ambulance the next morning. So the horse was saddled, and about the time when it became dark the soldier and I started on our way. He knew no more of the way than I did, and a very bad way it was. I made my first acquaintance with the ed soll of Virginia then and there. We lost ourselves sometimes, and then we found ourselves, the greater part of the road being the worst possible country road, all cut to pleces by the heavy army work, through +woods, not of large trees, but which were close enough on both sides to darken the passage. It was 9 o'clock or later when we saw the welcome sight of the headquarters camp fires. We rode up and T jumped from my horse to shake hands with General Butler, Colonel Shaffer and the other gentlemen,” They asked instantly how we had passed the batteries. I told the story, and General Butler, who was always offusively polite, and to his other gracious ways added exquisite facility in flattery, said to me: *“We are greatly obliged’ to you, Mr. Hale. I have been very anxious for two or three hours. I was afrald my dispatches were cut off.” I had already handed to him the utterly unim- portant letter from the War department, which had been my talisman thus far. Then and there I first heard soldiers talk of what had been done and what had not been done in that day. I knew beforehand that in the push towards Richmond we had been flung back at Fort Darling. I did not know till 1 came there exactly how the command was impresed by the delay. But in the headquarters cirele I found nothing but confidence, and I very soon saw that I was to understand that we should have taken Richmond but for the heavy fog of the day of tho battlo and somo other in- felloities. 1 think now that this is probably true. The fires wero kept burning, and we sat and chatted there hour after hour, When wo had been thero perhaps two hours, up came m friend of the general's staff, and, with suf- flelent profanity, exorclsed the roads over which he had ridden. He had never been there before. General Butler heard him through, and then said: “Hut here is Mr Hale, who has been here two hours. The soldier turned on me, & little crestfallen, all the other members of the staff sufiiclently amused, and he asked me, With another ocath, how I found the way. I sald: “We followed the telegraph wire,”" and from that | Brussels. Victoria, and Hartford choicest $1.15 yard. Urehard & Willelm Garpe 14:14-16 and 18 Douglas St. day T was rather a favorite with the staft for this civilian snub on a gentleman who was ot a favorite. Meanwhile somebody had been ordered to pitch a tent for me, and, 1 suppose, about 11 o'clock I went to bed in my new quarters. 1 had slept an hour, yhow as it proved, when I was awakened by the firing of can- non. 1 1 never heard such firing; it proved afterwards they were the heaviest guus which I have ever heard in my life. Of cou I wanted to jump up, but I said to myself, “It will seem very green if I walk out on the first sound of firing. I suppose this is what I came to the front for. If they want me they will call me, and I shall hear firing enough before I have done.”” So I turned over and tried to go to sleep—did g0 to sleep—and was wakened again by louder and louder firing. All this lasted, 1 suppose, perhaps an hour. Then all was still, and I went to sleep for the night. You are wakened in camp, if you are at a major gencral's, by the bugles of his cavalry escort, and the next morning I heard thelr reveille, also for the first time. I washed myself, was eady dressed, of course, and, in a little while, orderly told me that breakfast was ready. I met ptain Laurie, a fine old offi- cer of the navy, whom I had known a littlo in Boston. He said to me, “And how did you like our firing last night, Mr. Hale?’ 1 sald that to me, as a civilian, it seemed very loud, but I supposed that that was what I had come to the war fcr, and I did not get up from my hed. Lauric answered, as 1f he would rebuke me for my ignorance, “I have been in the service thirty-nine years, and I never heard such firing be- fore.” T found then, for the first time, that the whole staff had been up and on horse- back, had been at the front to try to find out what this firing was, and had returned almost as much perplexed as they came. It was thus that it happened to me that I spent my first and last battle in bed. I was acting on the principle of doing the duty which came next my hand and obeying ail the orders which were given to me. I had not run_away; I was pleased with that. And if T had not personally received tho surrender of .three or four battle flags that was my misfortune. I had occasion afterwards to hear much of the testimony and to read all the rest of it, which related to this remarkable bat- tlo. 't you will read the history of the time, as told in the Richmond newspapers and those of New York City, and will put them together, you will learn’ that on that night a reconnoisance was sent out from our lines into the tangled shrubbery which separated our newly-built works from those of the rebels. You will learn that the rebel guns mowed down these columns as corn at breakfast C Is mowed down before a tempest. Or, if you read a northern newspaper, you will learn that certain columns of the rebel trooy who were named, were worse than decimated by similar artillery from our works. Every word of this was entirely false. In fact, there was a very heavy cannonading from the newly erected works on both sides. As I have said, it lasted an hour. Much of it was from heavy guns, which had been landed {rom the navy to strengthen the battery which we had near the river. But, as the result of it, there was never any evidence that a rabbit was scratched; cer- tainly no drop of human blood was shed in that ‘encounter of glants. How It happened so late in the evening I do not know. But what happened was this: A party of ladies had been entertained on board one of our ships of war. As they left, an officer, with the gallantry of his profes- sion, asked one of the ladies if she would like to see how a gun was fired, and, to do pleasure to her, fired one of the guns into the darkness, At that moment everything was on the qui vive ashore, and our land battery men, eager for something to do, finding that one shot was fired, thought another had bet- ter be fired, and continued the firing. This started the successive artillerists for nearly a mile, as our works ran up into the country towards the Appomattox river, and not to be belated or accused of sleepiness, they be firlng In turn. Of course this roused the equally ready artillerists on the rebel side and they fired, I suppose, at the flashes which they raw a mile or two away. And this was the famous cannonade which made the wholo of my first battl The naval officers were dreadfully morti- fled, our gentlemen at headquarters were in- dignant beyond account, and the thing almost came to courts martial and courts of in- quiry. But it was wisely thought better to leave the record of it to be made, at the end of thirly years, by the only person who w at all concerned, who spent the hour of the battle in his bed under canvas. Littlo pllls for great ills: DeWitt's Little Zarly Risers, Clty workers in London get unlon wages. e o 4 oot Jovardy ayar ) /( y ceptional showing Bigelow, pieces of these best - CARPEIS. 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