Papurau Newydd Cymru

Chwiliwch 15 miliwn o erthyglau papurau newydd Cymru

Cuddio Rhestr Erthyglau

9 erthygl ar y dudalen hon

NOBLER THAN REVENGE.

ALGERIA OF TO-DAY.

[No title]

DHULEEP SINGH.

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WHY MARK TWAIN LEFT THE I…

Newyddion
Dyfynnu
Rhannu

WHY MARK TWAIN LEFT THE ARMY. At a banquet of Union Veterans in Baltimore recently Murk Twain gave his war history as follows: -When yonr secretary invited me to this reunion of the Union Veterans of Maryland he requested me to come prepared to clear up a matter which he said had long been a subject of dispute and bad blood in war circles in this country-to wit, the true dimen- sions of my military services in the Civil War, and the effect which they had upon the general result. I recognise the importance of this thing to history, and I have come prepared. Here are the details. I was in the Civil War two weeks. In that brief time I rose from private to second lieutenant. The monu- mental feature of my campaign was the one battle which my command fought-it was in the summer of '61. If I do say it, it was the bloodiest battle ever fought in human history; there is nothing ap- proaching it for destruction of human life in the field, if you take into consideration the forces engaged and the proportion of death to survival. And yet you do not even know the name of that battle. Neither do I. It had a name, but I have forgotton it. It is no use to keep private information which you can't show off. In our battle there were just 15 men engaged on our side—all brigadier-generals but me, and I was a second-lieutenant. On the other side there was one man. He was a stranger. We killed aim. It was night, and we thought he was an army of observation; he looked like an army of observa- vation—in fact, he looked bigger than an army of observation would in the day time; and some of us believed he was trying to surround UP, and some thought he was going to turn our position, and so we shot him. Poor fellow, he probably wasn't an army of observation, after all, but that wasn't our fault; as I say, he' had all the look of it in that dim light. It of observation, after all, but that wasn't our fault; as I say, he had all the look of it in that dim light. It was a sorrowful circumstance, but he took the chances of war, and be drew the wrong card; he over-estimated his fighting strength, and he suffered the likely result; but be fell as the brave should fall—with his face to the front and feet to the field-so we buried him with the honour of war, and took his things So began and ended the only battle in the history of the world where the opposing force was utterly exter- minated, swept from the face of the earth-to the last man. And yet you don't know the name of that battle; you don't even know the name of that man. Now, then, for the argument. Suppose I bad con- tinued in the war, and gone on as I began, and exter- minated the opposing force every time-every two weeks-where would your war have been ? Why, you see yourself, the conflict would have been too one- sided. There was but one honourable course for me to pursue, and I pursued it. I withdrew to private life, and gave the Union cause a chance. There, now, you have the whole thing in a nutshell; it was not my presence in the Civil War that determined that tre- mendous contest-it was my retirement from it that brought the crash. It left the Confederate side too weak.

HISTORIC BONES.

DINING ON SNAILS.

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