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Show ClMSMOM t -y HY did they want A one an H I other, grandpa?" 4 before Memorial $2lf i h day' The tousle1 jpC K head of my boy $3 2 3 Ci& nestled contented ly beside my father's fath-er's grizzled beard. The veteran had been chatting reminiscently of the old Homeric Civil war days, of bivouac, forced march and battle field. He had taken from his closet the dusty blue coat, with the bronze star in its buttonhole, and had furbished it up and tried it on, to see if it would pass muster for the stress and glory of one more Memorial day parade on the norrow. The lad was a good listener and a good questioner. Snuggled there on the patriarch's knee, he playfully twirled the bronze star in the lapel of the blue coat. He had been absorbing absorb-ing a lesson in his country's history. The veteran ran his gnarled fingers through the boy's hair fondly as he heard the question, but the old man lad grown thoughtfully silent. "Why did you have to shoot each other, grandpa?" An indulgent smile mellowed the deep lined face as the soldier made answer: "Ah, laddie, boy, that's a question that has puzzled many an older head than yours. But, you see, the. country was divided about some very important im-portant matters. The north and the south couldn't seem to see things alike. Well, they tried to fix it up one way and another, but finally it came down to this question whether the United States of America was to be one country or more than one. Both sides thought they were right, no doubt. They couldn't agree about it. and both sides were so sure they ' were right that they were willing to 1 die for their belief. So in the end they just had to fight it out and settle , it. Maybe we'll find a better way to settle these differences some day, but that won't be in my time and perhaps not in yours either, laddie, boy." "Well, your side won, didn't it, ; grandpa?" "Yes, my boy, there's only one country coun-try here now," said the old man sim- ply. "Your side was the bravest, wasn't , it, grandpa?" "No, son; we used to think so once, I suppose. The other fellows, thought ' they were the bravest, too, but we all got better acquainted at Bull Run and Chancellqrsville and Gettysburg and ; Spottsylvania Court House, and some ; of those other military sociables, and I guess we're all content to call quits : on the question of bravery. Our side had the most men and the most money what they call resources, you know but I wouldn't like to say to-day to-day that we had the better soldiers." "How many men were on your side?" was the lad's next question. "Oh, more than you could possibly imagine, my little man. Those were hie armies, but mv Wis old friend General Boynton had it figured fig-ured out that under un-der President Lincoln's Lin-coln's nine different differ-ent calls for troops there were about 2,800,000 northern soldiers called into, in-to, the field during the four years the war lasted. That included the men who only served a short time and the old codgers like me, who weren't fit for much else and who enlisted for the whole war." The boy's eyes were big with wonder won-der as he strove to comprehend the figures. Then in a voice of childish awe hewhisperfd: "How many of all those men got killed?" "Nobody knows that for sure, laddie boy," said the veteran solemnly. "You see, there were hundreds and hundreds of th;m just buried in trenches after the big battles, and in all the national cemeteries ceme-teries there are long rows of graves even now with no names over tbern. But I was talking about it with our post commander the other day, and lie told me the best figures in the pension office show that the I'nlon 1 armies lost by death from all causes during the war about 3ofl,000 m?n. There were about 136,000 of those who were either killed outright in battle or else died of their wounds. I The rest died from disease. How many were only wounded brought some lead souvenirs borne with 'em to car- ' ry about with them for the rest of their days, or left an arm, like me, at Petersburg or somewhere else 1 really real-ly couldn't say. There must have been hundreds of thousands crippled like that." The boy fondled the empty sleeve of the old blue coat thoughtfully ana nestled closer as he murmured: "I'm Borry they got you, grandpa, but you never ran away from them, did you?'" he added proudly. This in a tone of confidence rather than inquiry. "D 1 d n't I, though?" laughed the old man. "You'd a-thought 1 was one of those what do you call 'em? Marathons, the way 1 ran down there at Manassas, laddie boy. But there was plenty of others oth-ers ot us in that scramble. Why, we never stopped until un-til we got across ' the Potomac and into Washington, we were so keen in that sprint. But then," added the veteran, apologetically, apologet-ically, "there were times afterward when the 'Johnnies' 'John-nies' had to run, too, for that matter." mat-ter." "How many sol- til rs" i diers did the 'Johnnies' have, grandpa?" grand-pa?" The old soldier stroked his beard contemplatively with his one remaining remain-ing hand. "Well, son, we have to admit ad-mit nowadays that we outnumbered the 'Johnnies.' Their records are not so complete as ours are got lost somewhere in the shuffle, 1 guess but during the four years they mustered somewhere above a million men altogether. alto-gether. Toward the ena their recruiting recruit-ing officers fairly robbed the cradle and the grave, for soldiers, as we used to say. After February of '64 old Jett Davis forced all the white men or boys between seventeen ana fifty years old, to go into the army and stay in until thj end ot the war Ana we Yankees may as well admit to their credit that most of 'em didn't need to be forced, either." "Lots of them got killed, I suppose?" said the child. "Yes, indeed, laddie boy. Their losses were as big as ours in proportion propor-tion to numbers engaged heavier, J dare say but they don't know just how many were Killed and wounded on their side. And, besides all the loss of life and the sorrow and suffering, suf-fering, their homes and their farms were ruine'd, so that they haven't recovered re-covered from it yet, and the war cost us in money hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars." The big, wondering eyes of the little lit-tle chap were drooping now. Bedtime had come for the little men ot the third generation since Appomattox. He sighed with a sleepy but comfortable sense of perfect security and content. "Anyhow, grandpa," he murmured, "it's settled all right now, isn't it?" "Yes, laddie boy, it's all settled and settled right, 1 guess. It's only one country here now and there 'are no slaves in it, and it's growing bigger and stronger and grander every minute." min-ute." The tousled head snuggied closer to the empty coat sleeve. I glanced up from my desk, where I had been listening to their warlike dialogue. The boy's eyes had closed in slumber. Soon the old soldier, too, had settled back into the sleepy hollow chair and was off to the land of Nod, the lad well launched on the dreamless current cur-rent of childhood sleep, the veteran perchance to live again in visions through youthful days of camp and trench and battle carnage. Let him sleep, I thought; he will need all his remaining strength for the short tramp tomorrow with the remnant of the boys in blue. New York Herald. The Old Flag. ' I come with a full heart and a steady hand to salute the flag that floats above me my flag and yetir flag the flag of the Union the flag of the free heart's hope and home the star-spangled banner of our fathersthe fa-thersthe flag that, uplifted triumphantly trium-phantly over a few brave men, has never been obscured, destiued by the god of the universe to waft on its i ample folds the eternal song of freedom free-dom to all mankind, emblem of the power on earth which is to exceed that of which it was said the sun never went down. Co!. Henry Wat-terson. Ever-Narrowing Circle. In addressing the Grand Army of the Republic shortly before he died. President McKinley said: j ."The circle is narrowing. One ! name after another is crowed out by the black pencil of grim death. Day after day at roll call we hear of veterans vet-erans who are 'not preseDt' but 'ac- j counted for.' They have gone to join ! the greLL majoriiy of our comrades j who sleep tonight beneath the low I green tent whose curtains never swing 1 outward." J |