e
admiration for General Grant he shared to the fullest degree. But this
never restrained Field from taking all sorts of waggish liberties with
General Logan's well-known fondness for mixed metaphors and other
perversions of the Queen's English. The general, on one occasion, in a
burst of eloquence, had spoken of "the day when the bloody hand of
rebellion stalked through the land"; and for a year thereafter that
"bloody hand" "stalked" through Field's column. He enjoyed attributing
to General Logan all sorts of literary undertakings. Among others, was
the writing of a play, to which reference is made in the following
paragraph:

Senator John A. Logan's play, "The Spy," is in great demand, a
number of theatrical speculators having entered the lists for it,
the managers for the Madison Square and Union Square theatres being
specially eager to get hold of it. A gentleman who is in the
author's confidence assures us he has read the play, and can testify
to its high dramatic merits. "It will have to be rewritten," said
he, "for Logan has thrown it together with characteristic looseness;
but it is full of lively dialogue and exciting situations. In the
hands of a thorough playwright it would become a splendid
melodrama." The play treats upon certain incidents of the late Civil
War, and the romantic experiences of a certain Major Algernon
Bellville, U.S.A., who is beloved by Maud Glynne, daughter of a
Confederate general. The plot turns upon the young lady's
unsuccessful effort to convey intelligence of a proposed sortie to
her lover in the Union ranks. She is slain while masking in male
attire by Reginald De Courcey, a rejected lover, who is serving as
her father's aide-de-camp. This melancholy tragedy is enacted at a
spot appointed by the lovers as a rendezvous. Major Bellville rushes
in to find his fair idol a corpse. He is wild with grief. The
melodrama concludes thus:

De Bell--Aha! Who done this deed?

Lieutenant Smythe--Yonder Reginald De Courcey done it, for I seen
him when he done it.

Reginald--'Sdeath! 'Tis a lie upon my honor. I didn't do no such
thing.

De Bell--Thou must die. (Draws his sword.) Prepare to meet thy
Maker. (Stabs him.)

Reginald (falling)--I see angels. (Dies.)

De Bell--Now, leave me, good Smythe; I fain would rest. (Exit
Smythe.) O Maud, Maud, my spotless pearl, what craven hand has
snatched thee from our midst? But I will f