"Captain Glazier rises above the conventional war-writers' idioms, and gives his work a place in literature and history. Here is found the stern actuality of war's fearful tug; here the beautiful pathos of pure manly sentiment flowing from the heart of many a brave soul on the battle's eve; here the scenes of sad and solemn burial where warriors weep. The din of battle on one page, and the jest at the peril past on the next—the life-test and the comedy of camp—these alternatingly checker the work over, and give the reader a truer insight into the perils and privations of our brave defenders than any book we have read."
CHAPTER XXXI.
OCEAN TO OCEAN ON HORSEBACK.
From Boston to San Francisco. — An unparalleled ride. — Object of the journey. — Novel lecture tour. — Captain Frank M. Clark. — "Echoes from the Revolution." — Lecture at Tremont Temple. — Captain Theodore L. Kelly. — A success. — Proceeds of lecture. — Edward F. Rollins. — Extracts from first lecture. — Press notices.
The story of the career of Willard Glazier will not be complete without some description of his novel and adventurous feat of riding on horseback across the continent of North America—literally from ocean to ocean, or from Boston to San Francisco. This unparalleled ride was satisfactorily accomplished by him in 1876—the Centennial year. It was a long and trying journey, extending over a period of two hundred days, and a distance of four thousand one hundred and thirty-three miles, but at the same time a journey of great interest. His object was to study, at comparative leisure, the line of country through which he would pass, and to note the habits and condition of the people he came in contact with. The knowledge thus laboriously acquired he purposed placing before the public in book form.
While thus in the commendable pursuit of knowledge, he also contemplated making some practical return for the many kindnesses and courtesies he had received at the hands of soldiers since the disbandment of the volunteer army, and the wide circulation of the first product of his pen, The Capture, Prison-Pen and Escape; and it had occurred to him that to accomplish this he might turn his journey to beneficial account by lecturing at the various towns he visited, and handing over the proceeds to the Widows' and Orphans' fund of the "Grand Army of the Republic," of which patriotic society he was a member; or to some other benevolent military organization.
The thought no sooner entered his mind than, with his usual promptitude, the resolution was formed, and, with the following letter of introduction from Captain Frank M. Clark, of New York, he at once proceeded to Boston:
4 Irving Place,
New York, April 20, 1876.