Where the dove of peace hovers
Over the hearthstone and delights
In the rewards of industry and virtue.
[The Drill.]
SIXTY years ago there was a law in Illinois that all able-bodied men from the age of 18 to 45 should meet and drill as soldiers every alternate Saturday, from the first Saturday in April till the third Saturday in November. And they mustered at my father’s every time. John L. Perryman, my cousin, was Captain, a large, tall young man, with a powerful voice; we could hear him give the commands very plainly for two hundred yards. He wore a stove-pipe hat, with his long red plume stuck in his hat, and he looked nice and I think he felt big. Ben. Tallman was Orderly Sergeant. I think there was about one hundred men in our precinct; and when Ben. would call the roll, at nine o’clock, every man would answer to his name. Uncle Philip Perryman was fifer, and Harvey Cummings was drummer.