oam off a glass of beer. He looked at me
in astonishment, and I said in a voice husky from dust down my neck:

"Colonel this is an important epoch in the history of our beloved
country. Events have transpired within the past hour, which leaves it an
open question whether, as a nation, we are afoot or on horseback."

"Great hefens," said the colonel, stopping with his glass of beer half
drank, "you vrighten me. Vot has habbened. But vait, und dake a glass of
beer, as you seem exhausted, und proke up. Captain Ouskaspiel, hand the
shendleman some peer. Mine Gott, bud you look hard, strancher."

I do not believe that I ever drank anything that seemed to go right to
the spot, the way that beer did. It seemed to start a freshet of dust
down my neck, clear my throat, and brace me up. While I was drinking it
I noticed that the German colonel and his officers eyed me closely, my
bare feet, my flannel shirt full of dust, and my hair that looked
as though I had stood on my head in the road. They waited for me to
continue, and after draining the last drop in the glass, I said:

"Colonel, it was no ordinary circumstance that induced you brave
foreigners, holding allegiance to European sovereigns, to fly to arms to
defend this new nation from an internecine foe. While we natives, and
to the manor born, left our plows in the furrow, to spring to-arms, you
left your shoemaker shops, the spigots of your beer saloons, the marts
of commerce in which you were engaged, and stood shoulder to shoulder.
Where the bullets of the enemy whistled, there could be found the brave
Dutchmen of New Jersey. It brings tears to eyes unused to weeping, to
think of the German fathers and mothers of our land, who are waiting and
watching for the return of sons who will never come back, and this is,
indeed, harder for them to bear, when we reflect that these boys were
not obliged to fight for our country, holding allegiance, as I said
before to----"

"Waid a minute, of you blease," said the colonel. "Dake von more drink,
and dell me, of you please, vot de hell you vos drying to get at. Capt.
Hemrech, gif der shendleman a glass of beer."

A second glass of beer was given me, and I drank it. There was evidently
a suspicion on the part of the New Jersey officers that the importance
of my visit had been over-rated by them, and they seemed anxious to have
me come to the point.

"On the march today," said I, wiping the foam off my moustache on my
shirt-sleev