RE-UNION OF THE ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND

 

General Philip Sheridan.

The McGrawville Sentinel, Thursday, May 19, 1887.

RE-UNION OF THE ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND.

Grand Preparations Are Being Made For Drill Week—Blunders of the Last Congress.

(Special to the McGRAWVILLE SENTINEL.)

   WASHINGTON, May 16.—For the past few days Washington has been alive with hotel proprietors, medical men and old soldiers of the army of the Cumberland. Each class mentioned has been holding a convention here. The surgeons attended strictly to business, but the bonifaces who represented all the leading cities and the leading hotels in the United States, while "much on pleasure bent," were not possessed of frugal minds apparently. They were banqueted by the local hotel proprietors in a manner befitting professional epicures, and were taken to Mount Vernon, also to see the president, to see the sights of the capital and to the theatres by the public "mine hosts" of this city, and it required a good little sum of money to pay the carriage hire alone for the two hundred visitors.

   The chief event of the re-union of the army of the Cumberland was the unveiling of the bronze statue of Garfield, erected by his old comrades in arms. The ceremonies took place on Thursday. The day was one of May's most perfect specimens, the crowd in attendance very large, and every detail of the programme successfully carried out. The three surviving of the five commanders who succeeded one another at the head of the army of the Cumberland were present—Generals Sherman, Buell and Rosecranz, and rode in a carriage together in the parade with General Sheridan, the president of the society of the army of the Cumberland.

   The pyrorama, which is to be one of the attractions arranged by the managing committee for drill week, is being erected on the drill ground. It requires a frontage of about nine hundred feet, and it will be shown only of nights. It will represent the naval battle in Hampton Roads which ended with the memorial contest between the Monitor and the Merrimac. Unlike a panorama the iron-clads will be real vessels, made according to the originals, and will be seen moving about, the [perspective] being such that they appear to be of full size.

   The illusion is such that the spectator will appear to be standing on the shore of Hampton Roads. He sees the water stretching out before him, a lighthouse with a revolving light is introduced for picturesque effect, and in the distance is Fortress Monroe and a number of vessels of the federal fleet anchored nearby. The drama opens by the appearance of the Cumberland, which comes in under full sale and drops anchor.

   The Merrimac then appears and the work of destruction begins, ending with the battle between the Merrimac and Monitor in which the former is burned. The vessels are worked by screws and several men seem to get badly burned in the scrimmage. The guns are made of thin iron plates but they have collars at the muzzles which make them look thick and solid. Apparently red-hot shell and shot are fired which, when they strike the side of a vessel, explode and make a brilliant show. During each exhibition 3,500 such booms are fired, other vessels are burned and the thrilling scenes in Hampton Roads are vividly portrayed.

   One of the sins of the last congress, due either to cheese-paring or to the blunders of the rush of a closing session, was the failure to make provision for the lighting the Washington monument and running the elevator. As a result only people who are bold and strong enough to grope to the top with candles can enjoy the wonderful view from its summit. Thieves protected by the darkness have chipped and marred the ornamental stones within, and now owing to this vandalism, and the failure of congress to provide the means of protection, the monument will be closed to visitors entirely. The watch force is inadequate to prevent depredations by relic-seekers and others who deface the memorial stones simply through depravity of nature. The marble has been chipped in many places, while the silver ornamentation on the Nevada stone has been mutilated, and the bronze letters on the Swiss tablet have many of them actually been forced off and carried away as mementoes. During the national drill it is intended to open the shaft to visitors, provided the drill committee will furnish a watch force sufficient for its protection.

 

Chauncey M. Depew.

Abram S. Hewitt.

PAGE TWO—EDITORIALS.

   On invitation Mayor Hewitt and Chauncey M. Depew, of New York, addressed a union meeting of a labor society in their city last Sunday. It is truly relishable to see the advent of a union of minds in labor and capital, each counseling the other and seeking to further each other's interests. Mr. Hewitt prefaced his address proper with the remark that at first the invitation to attend the meeting had surprised him since he had always regarded the seventh day as one to be devoted entirely to rest, but that he had come to the conclusion that he could put the Sabbath to no higher and holier use than to assist in welcoming a society, the members of which worked honestly through six days of the week, and had met for the encouragement of each other upon the seventh.

   He said that everyone contained within himself the elements of an anti-poverty society; that forty years ago he formed himself into one and that he had been doing remarkably well ever since; that the majority of those who are seemingly destitute are tramps and idlers who won't work.

   As proof of this he cited the fact that every man who is willing to labor can produce more than he can consume. Mr. Hewitt then expressed himself as strongly in favor of co-operative between labor and capital, but decidedly disfavored the arbitrary and tyrannical course that certain organizations have adopted towards their members in the near past.

   In regard to the good effect of proper organization he gave an excellent example. If every railroad employee in the United States was to daily put by the price of a glass of beer, at the end of the year the total sum saved would be some millions, with which these employees could purchase a controlling interest in some important railroad and run it themselves. Being interested in the success of the enterprise, they would give their best endeavors to it, and within four years they would regain the amount invested. To achieve such a result as this Mayor Hewitt maintained that only extensive and proper organization is needed.

   Speaking of the necessity of labor he said: "If capital could be had for nothing the world would cease to revolve upon its axis, and we would be forced to pick up a living upon the debris of a ruined civilization." After illustrating how great a benefactor the steam-engine has been to humanity, and the nobleness of the engineer's calling, Mr. Hewitt brought his speech to a close.

   Mr. Depew said that of all the boys with whom he associated in his boyhood days at Peekskill, the sober and industrious were now independent, and those who drank were all dead. He said that he had come to the meeting to do what he could to promote harmony among the employees of the several railroads represented. He himself was an employee as much as the firemen, the engineers or the track-walkers.

   "Blatant spouters will get up and tell the people that the railroads are taking millions of dollars from the pockets of bloated capitalists," continued Mr. Depew. "What is the truth? The New York Central railroad will earn $34,000,000 this year; $30,000,000 of this will be paid for wages, taxes and material, and the capitalists will have to 'bloat' on the remainder. They won't burst with the 'bloat.' Many of these 'capitalists' are poor men and women who have a few hundreds, or perhaps thousands, in the stock of the road. Fully one-tenth of the labor of the country is furnished by the railroads, yet these great labor producers are called monopolies. I like to receive and talk with representatives from your body, for you know what you want and can talk knowingly about it, but there are representatives of another organization who have bothered me with their complaints who knew not one word of what they were talking of. I want nothing to do with such."

   Mr. Depew inveighed against saloons and counseled sobriety above all things, for a railroad, he urged, could not afford to nor would it employ hands who drank. If it did it would be practically a murderer. He never was a know-nothing but he thought it time that this country's universal invitation to immigrants should be held out no longer, as it is resulting in the harboring of ignorant, law-breakers and destroyers of society. The speaker hoped that the time would come when the relationship of the officers and employees of railroads will be closer than at present; when life insurance and savings banks' principles will be incorporated in the management, as well as another system of insurance which will give the sons of old employees the preference in the matter of employment.

[Liquor] Licenses Granted.