Wicksville

“ Wicksville hain’t ever dreamed of two page advertisements like those’ll be.”
“I only hope,” says I, “that there won’t be no bloodshed.”
Mark grinned, happy-like. “Business is p-p-pickin’ up. Wonder how many page advertisements Spragg has p-p-picked up for the Eagle Center Clarion?”
CHAPTER V Next day what Mark Tidd called the mended Wicksville Trumpet gave its first toot. It didn’t break our backs carrying to the post-office the copies we mailed to regular subscribers. ”

“ Mark’s mother was going to need two dozen new ones, Binney’s mother figured on three dozen, and Tallow’s mother allowed as how she needed about two dozen and a half.
Mark blinked and pinched his cheek and whistled a little.
“There’s about two hundred h-houses in Wicksville. The population of the township’s about four thousand, so that means about two hundred more farm-houses. That’s figgerin’ five folks to the house for town and country. Looks like the average number of cans was about two d-dozen and a half. But that’s high. Lots of folks don’t set as good a table as your f-folks. ”

“ We’ll take what’s comin’ to us, and git out of it the best we can. Anyhow,” says he, beginning to shake all over, “it’ll be the f-funniest thing that ever happened in Wicksville.”
“Yes,” says I, “I’ll bet we laugh like anythin’ at it when our folks come to the hospital to tell us about it. A tie,” says I. “Think of the row them women will make when they find out they’re tied.”
“I’m t-thinkin’ about it,” says Mark. ”

“ When Mark and Tallow came back, Mark says, “F-fellers, keep your eyes p-peeled for a strange man. We want to know it the m-minute this Pekoe strikes Wicksville.”
So, not having anything else to do but run a paper, and dodge folks that wanted to lick me, and help with the contest, and do the chores at home, and play some, and a few other little things, I had to help keep my eye open to find a man I’d never saw and didn’t have any idea what he looked like. Mark was always reasonable about what he wanted you to do. ”

“ I calc’late I’ll take ’em home and think it over. ’Tain’t no easy job to pick the handsomest man in this town. Wicksville’s that full of handsome men they’re stumblin’ over each other in the street. Handsome! If there’s a feller in this town that kin look at his own reflection without feelin’ timid of it then I hain’t seen him. Gimme them votes, I say. What’s ailin’ you?”
Mark counted out the votes and then we helped Old Mose load his phonograph into his wagon. ”

“ I says.
“Oh, Skip gives me all sorts of responsibility,” says he. “He knows me.”
“I’ll bet he don’t,” says I to myself, “or he wouldn’t have you around.” But I only grinned at him admiringly. “Say,” I told him, “them clothes of yourn wasn’t just bought, was they? They look different. Bet a real tailor made ’em.”
“Course,” says he. “I couldn’t wear store clothes. Man in my position has to look swell.”
“You do it, all right,” says I. Then I got an idea. “Are you figgerin’ on winnin’ the contest?”
“What contest?”
“Handsomest man in Wicksville,” says I. “Everybody’s votin’.” ”

“ What for does Ol’ Hans want mit a picture in the baber?”
“It isn’t what you w-w-want,” says Mark, “it’s what the f-f-folks in town want. Why, Mr. Richter, this thing won’t be worth a cent if you ain’t in it! What kind of a p-page of prominent citizens of Wicksville would it b-be if you wasn’t there? No good. Folks ’u’d say, ‘Where’s Hans Richter? Where’s the man that’s been f-fetchin’ our milk for twenty year?’ That’s what they’d say. And folks comin’ from out of t-t-town would want to know what b-business we had printin’ other men’s pictures and leavin’ yours out. ”

“ Then Mark got up and repeated some of his figures, and ended up by saying:
“You’ve g-g-got up a company to run a n-newspaper, so why don’t you run one? We f-f-fellers has got to go back to school, but we’ve built up the Trumpet so’s it’s a good paper, with fifteen hunderd subscribers, and it’s m-makin’ good money. Now, why don’t you buy it, you b-business men, and run it for the benefit of Wicksville and yourselves? Hire a good editor and give this county the b-b-best newspaper in the State. It’s all ready. All you got to do is t-take it over. We’ll sell cheap.” ”

“ No use havin’ a b-business if you don’t make money out of it.”
“Go ahead,” says I. “I’m willin’ to make all there is.”
“I’m goin’ ahead,” says he. “I’m goin’ to start a scheme to get s-subscribers. I want a t-thousand of ’em right off. Not jest f-folks that buys the Trumpet on the street, but that p-pays their money and has it all the year. Like to git fifteen hunderd if I could.”
“Hain’t that many families in Wicksville,” says I, “and no family wants more ’n one copy of a paper, even if you do edit it,” says I.
“There’s other towns,” says he. “We got the whole county to p-play with. ”

“ Not until she entered the great bend of Vicksburg did she once come into contrast with anything that could in any degree diminish her regal supremacy. There, as day was breaking, she entered the deep shadow of the southernmost "Walnut Hill." The town on its crest was two hundred feet above her lower deck, and the stiff Yazoo squire, his kindly brother-in-law and sister and the Vicksburg merchant and his wife, waiting down there while she slowed up to the wharf-boat at its foot to let them and others off, were proud of the bluff and of the two miles of sister hills hid by it and the night. ”

“ Even the good cheer and the comfort of the General Quitman could not reconcile me to the eternal beating of steam drums, blowing whistles, bumpings at landings, and the general oppression of levees, clearings, and plantations, which marked the course of the river, and I was not sorry next morning when Vicksburg came in sight on the left bank of the giant stream—a city on a hill, not very large, besteepled, becupolaed, large-hoteled. Here lives a man who has been the pioneer of hotels in the West, and who has now established himself in a big caravanserai, which he rules in a curious fashion. ”

“ Vicksburg is a port of entry, and has an extensive trade in cotton, of which it ships about 90,000 bales annually. It has railroad car shops, foundries, cotton-seed oil and lumber mills, and many smaller industries. During the Civil War Vicksburg was strongly fortified by the Confederates, who several times repulsed land and naval attacks, but were forced to surrender to General Grant, July 4, 1863, after a long siege. ”

“ We closed up in regular order and about 3 o’clock came in sight of a fleet of eighty transports and gunboats at the mouth of the Yazoo. We halted about one mile above them, and twelve miles from Vicksburg by water, or eighty by the short cut on the Louisiana side. The troops here tell us our boys are working on the Farragut’s canal and are to have it finished in a few days. We slept in the boat last night, Abe and I in our old place. The country for over a hundred miles above here is quite thickly settled by wealthy planters. On some of the plantations the Negro quarters form quite a town. ”

“ I have spoken much of Grant. There is reason that I should. No campaign of the war is so insolubly linked with the personality of the commanding general as the Vicksburg campaign.
For three weeks he was the Army of the Tennessee. He dominated it absolutely. His personality, with its vigor and its action, was in all, through all, over all. His corps and divisions were commanded by great men, but, with a single exception, they were loyal and devoted and reflected his will, and sought the achievement of his purpose in every act and movement. ”

“ Vicksburg is a beautiful city, built on a steep cliff, continually in sight of the broad, brown, passive streams of the Delta and the strips of forest which break up the waters. Above it all are the beautiful lawns and terraces of the National Cemetery rising from the Mississippi shore, and the dead lie in view, as it were, of the broad loveliness of the river. Sixteen thousand Americans hallow the soil. ”

“ Mobile being then in our possession, with 100,000 men at Meridian we would redeem the entire country from Memphis to the Tombigbee river. Of course I would have the gunboats with a small force at Vicksburg as auxiliary to this movement. With regard to the canal, Vicksburg can be rendered useless to the Confederate army upon the first rise of the river; but I do not advise this, because Vicksburg belongs to the United States and we desire to hold and fortify it, for the Mississippi river at Vicksburg and the Vicksburg-Jackson railroad will become necessary as a base of our future operations. ”

“ What's the best path into Vicksburg?”
“See that little openin' in the bushes. Follow it. Jest over the hill you'll run into a passel of our fellers, but pay no 'tention to 'em. If they ask you who you are an' whar you're boun' tell 'em to go straight to blazes, while you go to Vicksburg.”
“Thank you,” said Dick, “I like to meet an obliging and polite man like you. It helps even in war.” ”

“ This long, dreary and, for heavy and continuous rains and high water, unprecedented winter was one of great hardship to all engaged about Vicksburg. The river was higher than its natural banks from December, 1862, to the following April. The war had suspended peaceful pursuits in the South, further than the production of army supplies, and in consequence the levees were neglected and broken in many places and the whole country was covered with water. Troops could scarcely find dry ground on which to pitch their tents. Malarial fevers broke out among the men. ”

“ Although the Confederates fought bravely and well to prevent the Northern troops from getting control of the Mississippi River, by the close of 1862 they had lost every stronghold except Port Hudson and Vicksburg. In 1863, General Grant put forth a resolute effort to capture Vicksburg, and after a brilliant campaign laid siege to the city. For seven weeks the Confederate army held out. Meanwhile the people of Vicksburg found shelter in caves and cellars, their food at times consisting of rats and mule flesh. ”

“ As has been said, Vicksburg was only thirty-five miles distant. The three boys were attached to the Artillery Service. In the quiet of a Summer's afternoon, during the siege, we could hear daily, the distant cannon's roar; and frequently the intensity of the cannonading would jar the windows of the old home into a simultaneous vibratory noise - an ominous message from loved ones at the front! I vividly remember just such trying condition, one afternoon, attracting the attention of the neighborhood minister, Mr. Whitfield, who had called to talk over war-news. ”

“ That was Wickwire. Not a bad fellow, either; he can talk pretty straight and shoot pretty straight. How do I know? Because he has told me the story and I’ve seen him shoot. There, you see, is one friend that you never reckoned on. He used to be a cowboy, and I got him a job working for Sinclair on the Frenchman; he has worked at Dunning’s and other places on the Crawling Stone. He hates Sinclair with a deadly hatred for some reason. Just lately Wickwire set up for himself on Little Crawling Stone. ”

“ Seagoing men-of-war and ironclad gunboats engaged shore defenses and escorted troops along river and bayou; cavalry raids struck far behind enemy lines as the armies of the West marched and countermarched in a gigantic operation which culminated in the campaign and siege of Vicksburg. Protected by heavy artillery batteries on the riverfront and with land approaches to the north and south guarded by densely wooded swamplands, Vicksburg defied large-scale land and river expeditions for over a year. ”

“ We saw Stevenson and Logan this afternoon. I saw Quimby when we stopped for dinner. A number of fellows swam the Black River and captured chickens, pigs, etc. The Rebels have chosen their own ground and have been badly whipped each time. We draw scarcely any rations. Engineers are bridging the river.
May 18. Monday. We lay in camp until 1 o’clock, when the bridge was completed and orders came to advance. We crossed in the rear of Blair’s division and marched to within six miles of Vicksburg. The country is nothing but a succession of hills. Sherman’s corps was in the advance. ”

“ Altogether, the Federal encampment and movements were far more stirring and interesting than the quiet fortified life of Vicksburg, waiting with calm and bristling front the result of the energetic movements beyond. We met frequently on Sky Parlor Hill an [Pg 37] acquaintance on General Pemberton’s staff, who seemed to watch with interest operations on the shore above and below us. We could see that Vicksburg was as attentively observed by the Federal troops. ”

“ It is Wickwire.”
“Wickwire,” repeated Whispering Smith. “Wickwire has no business here that I know of; no doubt it is something I ought to know of. And, by the way, you ought to see this man,” he said, turning again to Dicksie. “If McCloud tells the story right, Wickwire is a sort of protégé of yours, Miss Dicksie, though neither of you seems to have known it. He is the tramp cowboy who was smashed up in the wreck at Smoky Creek. He is not a bad man, but whiskey, you know, beats some decent men.” ”

“ Vicksburg was the market-point. Trade was increasing daily, and rapidly filling up the town with mercantile men. The young and enterprising were hurrying thither, and in a few years there was met here more talent and more enterprise than at any other point in the State. The Bar had Prentiss, John Guion, McNutt, Sharkey, the three Yergers, Anderson, Lake, Brook, Burwell, and many others of distinction, including the erratic H.S. Foote.
The entire population was a live one, and every branch of business was pushed with a vim commensurate with the abilities and enterprise of the population. ”