Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 May 1884 — AN ARMY EXPERIENCE. [ARTICLE]

AN ARMY EXPERIENCE.

How on Old Veteran Escaped Annihilation to Impart a Warning to Others. 's (National Trljtrane of Washington.] A pleasing occurrence which has Just come to our notice In connection with the New Tork State meeting of the Grand Army of the Republic is so unusual in many respects that we venture to reproduce It lor the beno;flt of our readers. Capt. Alfred Rensoni, of New York, while pacing In the lobby of the armory, previous to one of the meetings, suddenly stopped and scanned tho face of a gentleman who was in earnest conversation with one of the Grand Army offlters. It seemed to him that he had seen that lace before, partially obscured by the smoke of battle, and yet his bright and pleasant countenance could not. be the same pale and death-like visage which he so dimly remembered. But tho recollection. like Banquo’s ghost, would not “down" at command, and haunted him the entire dny. On the day following be again saw the samo countenance, and ventured to speak ta its owner. The instant the two veterans heard each other's voioes, that Instant they recognized and called each other by name. Their faces and forms htyl changed, but their voices were the same. The man whom Capt. Rensom had recognized was W. K. Sage, of St. Johns, Mich., a veteran of the Twentythird New York Light Artillery, and both members of Burnside s famous expedition to North Carolina. After the first greetings were over, Capt. Rensom said* “It hardly seems possible. Sage, to see you in this condit on, for I thought you must have been dead long ago. ’’ “ Ves, I do not doubt it, for if I am not mistaken, when wo .last met I was occupying a couch in the hospital, a victim of ‘Yellow Jack' in its worst form.” “I remembet. The war seems to have opused more misery since its close than when it was in progress," replied the Captain. “I meet old comrades frequently who are suffering terribly, not so much from old wounds as from the malarial poisons which ruined their constitutions."

“ I think so myself. When the war closed I returned home, and at times I would feel well, but every few weeks that confounded •all-gone’ feeling would come upon me again. My nervous system, which was shattered in the service, failed me entirely, and produced one of the worst possible cases of nervous dyspepsia. Most of the time I had no appetite; then again I would become ravenously hungry, but the minute I sat down to eat I loathed food. My skin was dry and parched, my flesh loose and flabby. I could hold nothing on my stomach for days at a time, an 4 what little I d.d eat failed to assimilate. 1 was easily fatigued, and my mind was depressed; I was cross and irritable, and many a night my heart would pain me so I oould not sleep, and when I did I had horrid dreams and frightful nightmares. Of course, these things came on one by one, each worse than the other. My breath was foul; my tongue was coated, my teeth decayed. I had terridc headaches which would leave my nervous system completely shattered. In fact, my existence, since the war, has been a living death, from which I have often prayed for release.” “Couldn’t the old surgeon do you any good?” “ I wrote him and ho treated me, but, like every ocher doctor, failed. They all said my nerve was gone, and without that to build upon I could not get well. When I was at my worst, piles of the severest nature came upon me. Then my liver gave out, and without the u?e of cathartics 1 could not move my bowels at all. My blood got like a stream of tire and seemed literally to burn me alive." “Well, you mightbeltcr have died In battle, quick and without ceremony." “How many times 1 have wished I had died the day we captured Nowborne!” \“And yet you are now the picture of health." “And the picture is taken from life. lam in perfect condition. My nerve tone is restored; my stomach reinvigorated; my flesh is hard and healthy; tn fact, I have now blood, new energy, and a new lease of life wholly as the result of using Warner's Tippecanoe. This remarkable preparation, whi.h I consider the finest tonic and stomach restorer in the world, has overcome all the evil influences of malaria, all the poison of the army, all traces of dyspepsia, all mal-asslm-ilation of food, and indeed made a new man of me.” The Captain remained silent for a while, evidently musing over his recollections of the past. When he again raised his head he said: “It would be a godsend if all the veterans who have suffered bo Intensely and also all others in the land who are enduring so much misery oould know of your experience, Sage, and the way by which you have been restored." And that is why the above conversation is recounted.