Page:The autobiography of a Pennsylvanian.djvu/109

 sad experience. All of his family were in the South and rebels, and in one of his campaigns he came unexpectedly upon the grave of his brother, killed in the Southern army. Taken prisoner, he was confined for a time in Libby Prison. On his return home, at the close of the war, he became a member of the important shipping firm of Workman & Co. But a grievous wound upon the head brings recurrent attacks of mental excitement and his life given to his country has been a continuous sacrifice.

He has lived long enough, however, to see later generations teach the doctrine that it makes no difference whether men were right or wrong in that tremendous struggle, and erect statues to Wirz in Georgia and Lee in Washington. The logic of the instruction is that should the nation again incur danger, let each youth fight upon whichever side is most to his interest and trust his fame to confusion of thought and chance.

In 1864, the same year that I saw McClellan ride on horseback through the town, a fair for the benefit of the United States Sanitary Commission was held in Logan Square. The proceeds netted over a million dollars. Emily Schomberg, regarded by the men as the most beautiful creature in the city and decried by the women as being no longer as young as she had been, told the fortunes, by palmistry, of those who sought the opportunity, at five dollars a piece. I agreed with the masculine judgment as to her beauty. She was over the average height, slim, with dark eyes and much richness of color. She recalled the houries of the Arabian Nights and of Lalla Rookh. Her talents as well as accomplishments were extraordinary. I saw her many times on the street and at entertainments, and on one occasion was present when a play was given in a private theater on Seventeenth Street in which she and Daniel Dougherty took the leading parts. Rumor had it that she rejected fifty suitors on the average every year. She finally married an Englishman, of minor rank in the army Rh