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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 23, 1908)
Omaha Sunday Bee PART III. hjilf-to::e sectioii fAQK 1 TO 4. Largest Circulation THE OMAHA OEE Best IT. West VOL. XXXVII NO. 3G. OMAHA, SUNDAY MORNING, FEBRUARY 2.1, 1908. SINGLE COPY FIVE CENTS. The THOMAS SWOBE SOLDIER AND PIONEER OF NEBRASKA Busy Life that Followed When a Tanner Boy Ban Away from Homo Away Back In 1861 to Take a Muskfet Under Grant and Help Win Back the South to Old Glory. v IN PEACE and In war Major Thomas Swobe baa distinguished himself during his life. Activity has been the keynote of his career. He Is a veteran of two wars, the civil and the Spanish Amcrlcan. He la a pioneer of two cities, Omaha and South Omaha. He has been as powerful a factor in building up the country In times of peace as he has been In fighting for it in times of war. On March 17 of this year he will retire from the army. On that day he will have reached the age limit sixty-four years. -He was born March 17, 1844, an Ideal date for an Irishman, though Major .Swobe is not an Irishman. His birthplace, was Johnstown, Fulton county. New York. There he lived until his fourteenth year, when Ms parents removed westward and settled In Michigan. Three years late:, when the boy was 17 years old, the event which had cast Its shadow before for several years occurred. The country was rent nsurder, brothers took up arms against each other, the great rebel lion had begun. When he first read in a newspaper of the attack on Tort Sumter his blood, like that of a million others, was fired. He wss Inspired with patriotism. He urged his father to allow him to brat his plowshare Into a sword and to enlist in the army. But Ms i;arei!ts pointed out with strong argument and with still stronger 1 a;.l the advantages of a pastoral life compared with the more Mlt:ng bi:t more dangerous career of the battlefield. The busy sensor, on the farm was opening and Thomas was kept sufficiently mplo; ed during the spring and summer to do more than think of Elory. In the fall, however, he slipped the parental leash and pre sent d Mmpflf at a recruiting station In the town of Nlles, Mich. Ho vrs nrt yet 18 years old, but he managed to persuade the officer to. t ' r. Mm and he became a private in Company E, Twelfth Michigan In'rt try, on October 16, 1861. He was promoted to be a corporal on December 1 0 of the same year. His regiment was ordered to the thrctT of war on March 6, 1862, going to St. Ixiuls, Mo., where It was cttaf-l-.rd to the First brigade, Sixth division, Army of the TennPFscc. 'The regiment was transferred to the First brigade, First dlvlf Ion, Army of : the Tennessee, in June, and later to the First brigade, Flpventh division, left wing. Thirteenth corps. District of Taokscn, Department of the Tennessee. ' Baptized in Fire at Shiloh t The- young boy received his first experience in real war in a rigorous srl.ool, the battle of Shiloh, that terrible two days' slaugh ter. Ilia reg'ment had Joined the Army of the Tennessee only a few days before at Savannah, Tenn. General Grant was in command of this army, consisting of about 40,000 men. He was awaiting General Buell, commanding the Army of the Ohio, to come up, and Urn. the plan was, to advance to Corinth, where Johnston was er trenched. But Johnston made a move to frustrate these plans. " Viih 4 0,000 men he marched out from Corinth on April 3 and ad veined (upon Grant's position on the river, forcing the fight of April 6. Corporal Swobe was In the thick of this throughout that first da's conflict, which resulted In a victory for the confederate army. In the evening of that day the confederates had captured all of Grant's positions along the river with' the exception of one. During the night pencral Buell arrived with his army and crossed the river under the protection of this one position still held by the union army. The second day brought victory to the union forces and the confederates were driven back toward Corinth. Johnston was killed in this battle and General Beauregard was In command of the re treating rebels. "'-,. ' "General Grant was" the calmest man I ever saw even on the field of a great battle," says Major Swobe. "It did not seem to worry him that his army was being driven back. He sat on a bill in his disreputable old uniform, which was, I think, that of a private. He had a cigar In his mouth all the time and he wore a pair of thread Kloves. He occupied himself in whittling twigs, picking up one after the other, whittling them to a Ipoint or cutting them off sqi pre. He could not have been more calm and unconcerned If be bad been sitting in a corner grocery store In a village on a drowsy rummer afternoon, instead of being the general In command of an army of 40,000 men fighting below him." The combined union forces followed the retreating rebels toward Corinth and laid siege to that stronghold, which surrendered. The conduct of the young corporal In his maiden battles had come to the notice of his superior officers. A reward came quickly, hen, on July 6, 1862, he was made a sergeant His regiment moved to Bethel, Tenn., and thence on to Jackson, where It remained on luty until August. Then It moved to Bolivar, Tenn., being attached to the Sixteenth corps of the Army of the Tennessee. Y Pap Price Makes Trouble i General Sterling Price, with a large force of confederates, had occupied Iuka, a small village on the Memphis & Charleston railway. General Rosencrans wanted it and Swobe's regiment helped to get it In the battle of Iuka on September'l9 and 20. They were also In the battle of Hatchie river on October 6, That winter the regiment did guard duty on the Mississippi Ceral railroad, with head quarters at Middlesburg, Tenn. The winter's inactivity was modified ' by the attack on'Mlddleburg on December 24 by 8,000 confederates under Van Dorn. The town was garrisoned only by the Twelfth Michigan, which successfully defended its position. General Grant himself took cognizance of this in a general order, part of which was as follows: "The general commanding the post of Bolivar has to thank the defenders of Mlddleburg thai a most determined and apparently overpowering effort of the enemy was defeated by their valor and fortitude." In the summer of 1863 the regiment was moved to Memphis, Tenn., and thence to Vicksburg, Miss., participating In the expedition to fataria on June 3 to 6. The regiment participated in the fierce fighting that attended the siege of Vicksburg and was present when it was surrendered on July 4. The regiment was ordered to Helena, Ark., on July 27 and moved thence to Clarendon and then to Duvall's Bluff. It accompanied General Steele on the"' Arkansas expedition which culminated In the capture of Little Rock on September 10. There the regiment remained on duty during the winter. In January Sergeant Swobe was on veteran furlough until March. The regiment was on duty at Little Rock, Duvall's Bluff and various other points in Arkansas guarding railroads and on provost guard and fatigue duty until February, 186S. On December 20, 1864, the sergeant received bis Hrst commission, being made second lieu tenant. He received a first lieutenant' commission on April 12, 1865. He was then detached from the regiment and assigned to duty as assistant quartermaster on the staff of General Graves, com-, mandlng the First brigade. Second division. Seventh corps, Depart ment of Arkansas. He was present at the surrender of General Fagan and his forces at Washington, Ark., on June 22. He was detached as post commissary at Washington, Ark.. June 22 to Oc tober 23, 1865, and as commissary on the staff of General Dwfght May, commanding the District of Ouachita, Department of Arkansas, until December. IJe was in charge of the cotton bureau from De cember, 1865. to February. 1866. Into Business Life He was mustered out and honorably discharged from the service on February 15, 1866. The warlike Mars having now given way to Vulcan and the gods of Industry, the eagle having flown away and left the dove In possession of the country, the warring brothers having made peace. Lieutenant Swobe quickly beat back his sword again Into a plowshare or a pruning hook or some such Instrument of peace and progress. He returned to his home In Michigan. He was a young man, with hlc way to make. He determined to push Into the west, as hla ancestors had done, and he chose Omaha as his home, coming here In August. ?866. The plowshare was good enough during the farming season, but in a new country In the fall It was somewhat out of place. So he beat It Into a pen and took a poalUoa as deputy clerk under rrank Murphy, who was county clerk t jr ' '' . COLONEL THOMAS SWOBE, U. S. A. (Ret) at that time. He made friends and was something of a politician. So he succeeded to his chiefs place and was elected county clerk in 1869. At the expiration of his two years' term he engaged in the real estate and abstract business He still continued In politics and was elected councilman in 1872, serving on the council of which John M. Thurston was a member. He was re-elected to the council In 1874. Omaha was beginning to show its strength and to give some indication of Its future. It was the eastern terminus of the Union Pacific road and the western terminus of other roads which would eventually build westward from here. It had growing businesses and promising infant industries. Mr. Swobe was quick to recognize the possibilities of the town and he Invested in its property and enterprises with a free hand. He engaged in the hardware business with Milton Rogers. In 1882 he built the Millard hotel In conjunc tion with J. H. Millard, Ezra Millard, Samuel Shears and J. E. Markel. He bought out the interest of the others in 1890 and became sole manager of the hostlery. Later he was associated with J. E. Markel in the railway hotel and restaurant business. They built up a vast and very prosperous business. He was a pioneer Investor in South Omaha. When the present site of the Magic City was nothing but prairie he had faith In it and he was associated with other Omaha men In the conception and development of the city and the stock yards. He was one of the Incorporators of the Union Stock Yards company and a member of Its board of directors. Later he was one of the Incorporstors of the South Omaha Iand company and wns one of the men to whom the trust deed of the 1,875 acres on which the city now stands was made out. Others among these mere W. A. Paxton, P. E. Her, J. A. McShano, Charles F. Manderson and J. M. Woolworth. He was one of tho reorganises of the Omaha Driving Park association in 1S90 and a member of the board of directors. He wss a member of the Real Kxtate Owners' association, organized In 1891. War Finds Him Ready In 1898 the dove of peace which bad dwelt In the landfor more than thirty years again winged its flight and gave place to the eagle of war. Once more Thomas' Swobe transformed hliplowBhare into a sword and offered his services to his country. Those services were accepted and he was appointed captain and assistant quartermaster, United States volunteers. May 28, 1898. He accepted and qualified on June 10. This time his country needed him on the other side of the world. Dewey's squadron had annihilated the vessels of the Spaniards In Manila bay. but Uncle Sam's blue coats were in the thick of the fight to gain possession of the Philippine islands. Also there was fighting on the Inlaid of Cuba, near at hand. Captain Swobe was ordered to Tampa, Fla., to equip the siege artillery under General John I. Rogers, chief of artillery. After the surrender of the Spanish army in Cuba he was ordered to Moutauk Point to take charge of the shipment of troops from that place. He was subsequently mentioned especially In the report of the chief quartermaster at Moutauk Point for efficient services connected with his duty an J was recommended for promo tion and for transfer Into the regular establishment. From this time on he was to do Important service upon the sea in the business of transporting Uncle Sam's soldiers from home to the new Island Interests. He was assigned to duty as transport quartermaster on the transport City of Berlin (now the Meade) and continued in that position until August 26,"t899, making fourteen trips between Now York and Porto Rico and Cuba. , ' Around the World Again He was then ordered to the other side of the world on an im portant mission. He went to Tacoma, Wash., and becamo quarter master of the chartered transport Post Albert, sailing for Manila on September 3 with a cargo of mules, horses and army supplies by way of Dutch Harbor, Alaska, and Kobe, Japan. Tho transport arrived at Manila on October 15 with 512 animals in good condition out of 516 taken from Tacoma. After delivering a part of the cargo at Hollo and Cebu be returned to Manila, where hu was ordered to report to Oeneral Bates at Jolo for duty. He was assigned on No vember 28, 1899, as quartermaster of tho Department of Mindanao and Jolo, with headquarters at Zamboanga, Mindanao. He served as chief quartermaster of this department until mustered out of the volunteer service on June 30, 1901. He then returned to the United States and was appointed captain and quartermaster. United 8tates army, to rank from February 1, 1901. On November 18 of the same year he was ordered to New York to take charge of the United States army transport "Crook" as transport quartermaster, and took it to Manila by way of the Suez canal with a cargo and troops, arriv ing In Manila on February 3, 1902. After distributing the troops-at different points In the Philippines and picking up troops for the states he was ordered to San Francisco with the transport Crook, arriving there on April 2, 1902. At bis own request he was then relieved from the transport service and ordered to Sheridan, Wyo., as constructing quarter master at Fort Mackenzie, Wyo., where he served in that capacity until October. 1, 1904. He was then ordered to report to the com manding officer, Department of the Missouri, for assignment to duty as assistant to the chief quartermaster in charge of the government depot He was promoted to be major and quartermaster on February 16, 1907. Major Swobe has been granted a month's leave of absence, be ginning February 17 and expiring March 17, when he will be re tired from service under the age limit as lieutenant colonel. He left last Monday for California to spend the month visiting with his son. Major Swobe married Miss Alzlne Scott In Omaha and they have two sons, Edwin T. Swobe of Omaha, engaged in the Insurance business, and Dwlgh Swobe of San Francisco, traffic manager of the ML Cloud River and Railroad company of California. Scientific Study of Light and Heat Reflected by Sun (An Extract from "Po&aTar Astronomy." by Flam marlon and Gore.) ALREADY the star of Venus, Chasca, gives the signal of morning. Scarcely do her silvery fires sparkle on the horizon, when a gentle murmuring is heard round the temple. Soon the azure of the'' sky pales toward the east, waves of purple and gold Inundate the celestial plains. The watchful eye of the Indians observe its gradations and their emotion increases with each new tint. Sud denly the light rushes In great waves from the horizon; the star which sheds it rises in the sky; the temple opens and the pontiff, in the midst of the Incas and a choir or eacred virgins, sings the solemn hymn, which at the same Instant is re peated by thousands of voices from mountain to mountain." Thus writes Marmontel when describing the festival of the Sun the god worsh! ,d by primi tive nations. And at the return of the equinox the rising of the sun, the god of day, the king of light was saluted by the Incas from the heighths of their cyclopean terraces. The same adoration, the same worship, Is met with among all the an cient peoples. Without yet taking into account the real size and the incomparable importance of the dazzling star, they already knew that he is the father of terrestial nature; they knew that it is his heat which supports life; they knew that It Is he who makes the trees In the forest to grow, the stream to flow In the valley, the flowers of the meadow to bloom, the bird to sing in the wood, the cereals and the vines to ripen; and they hailed him their father, their friend and their protector. Modern science has not only confirmed, but in creased tenfold, a hundredfold, the ancient conjec tures. The sun's light heat and power are as much above the ancient ideas aa the poetry of na ture is above our Interpretation. No light created by human Industry can compare with his. Inter posed before his disc, the brilliant electric light appears black. The highest temperatures of our furnaces, that of the melting of gold, of silver, of platinum, of Iron, are but ice compared with the solar heat The astronomers of the school of Pythagoras, who thought they gave a grand Idea of the day star by estimating Its distance at 44,740 miles and Its diameter at 384 miles, were as far from the reality as the ant who believed Itself the size of a horse. And yet to estimate the sun as the alze of the Peloponnesus was then such bold ness In the eyes of the classical conservatives and the teaching doctors that for having asserted this beginning of truth the phllospher Anaxagoras was outrageously persecuted and condemned to death a sentence commuted to a degree of exile on the petition of Pericles! The trial of Galileo was, later on, a repetition of that of Anaxagoras. Photometric measures of the solar light show that it is equivalent to 1,575,000,000,000.000, 000,000 millions of wax candles, or to 157,500, 000,000,000.000,000 millions of carcel lamps, sup posing that one carcel lamp Is equal to ten can dles, or to 15,760,000,000,000,000,000 of gas burners, each equivalent to ten carcel lamps. At the surface of the day star the Intensity of the light exceeds by 6.300 times that of the incan descent metal melted in a Bessemer converter, 14 6 times that of calcium and four times that of the electric light. The luminous and calorific influence which we receive from the star Of day being a fact of con stant and universal observation, the question which Is presented to us is, not to ask whether this influence Is real, but to determine the In tensity of a cause which at such a dUtance can still produce such effects. But what are our tem peratures, which, after all, proceed from the suu, In comparison with that of the sun itself? The heat of boiling water appears to us enormous and our living organism cannot bear it. Still, it rep resents but the ordinary scale on which our ther mometers are graduated. Water bolls at 100 de grees Centigrade, sulphur fuses at 113 degrees, tin at 236, lead at 325. silver at 945, gold at 1.245, iron at 1,500. platinum at 1,775,- iridium at 1.950. The furnaces of our laboiatories have succeeded In producing heats of 2,500 to 3,000 degrees. What are these effects in comparison with the Incandescent star, which, across a distance of 93,000,000 of miles, and only by a quantity of heat 2,000 millions of times less intense than that which it radiates, is still capable of warming our planet to a point which makes It live In the fecun dity of this radiation. The quantity of heat emitted by the sun was measured by Sir John Herschel at the Cape of Good Hope and by Poull let of Paris. The agreement between the two series of measurements Is very remarkable Sir John Herschel found the calorific effect a vertical sun at the level of the sea Is sufficient to melt a laver of Ice of .00075 of an inch per minute; while, according to Pouillet, the quantity of ice melted would be .0070 inch. The mean of these two determination jxuuu he far from th truth; It is .0072, or .437 Inch per hour. Taking into account the thicknesses of the atmosphere traversed at different hours, we find that the quan tity of solar heat absorbed by the atmosphere Is four-tenths of the total radiation directed toward the earth; bo that if the atmosphere were removed the illuminated hemisphere would receive nearly double the heat. If the quantity of solar heat re ceived by the earth in a year were uniformly dis tributed it would be sufficient to liquify a layer of ice 93.4 feet covering all the earth. In the same way It would cause an ocean of cool water , having a depth of sixty-two miles to pass from the temperature of melting ice to that of ebullition. The sun is the mighty source from which pro ceed all the forces which set in motion the earth and its life. It is its heat which causes the wind to blow, the clouds to ascend, the river to flow, the forest to grow, fruit to ripen and man himself to live. The force constantly and silently expended in raising the reservoirs of rain to their mean at mospheric height In fixing the carbon in the plants, tn giving to terrestial nature Its vigor and its beauty, has been calculated from a mechanical pol;:t of view: it is equal to the work of 217 bil lions, 316 thousand millions horse power; 543. 000,000,000 of steam engines, er.ch with an effec tive power of 400 horses, would have to work day and night without intermission; such is the per manent work of the sun upon the earth. We may not think, so, but everything w hich moves, circulates and lives on our planet is the child of the sun.- The generous wine whose trans parent ruby cheers the table, the champagne which eparkles in the crystal cup, are so many rays of the sun stored up for our taste. The most nutri tious foods come from the sun. The woods which warms us in winter Is. again, the sun in frag ments; every cubic inch, every, pound of wood, is formed by the power of the sun. The mill which turns under the impulse of the wind or water. re volves only by the sun. And in the black night, under the rain or snow, the blind and noisy train w hich darts like a flying serpent through the fields, rushes alons the valleys. Is swallowed up under the mountains, goes hissing past the stations, of which the pale eyes strike silently through the mist in the midst of night and cold, this modern animal, produced by human Industry, is still a child of the sun; the coal from the earth which feeds Its stomach is solar work stored up during millions of years In the geological strata of the globe. Aa It U certain that the force which sets the watch In motion la derived from the hand which has wound it, so it is certain that all terres trial power proceeds from the sun. It is Its heat which maintains the three states of bodies solid, liquid and gaseous; the last two would vanish, there would be nothing but solids; waer and air itself would be in massive blocks. If the solar heat did not maintain them In the fluid state. It is the sun which blows in the air. which flows In the water, which moans in the tempest, which sings In the unwearied throat of the nightingale. It attaches to the sides of the mountains the sources of the rivers and glaciers; and consequently the cataracts and avalanches are precipitated wKn an energy which they draw directly from him. Thun der andjighting are in turn a manifestation of his power. Every fire which burns and every flame which shines has received its life from the sun. And when two armies are hurled together with a crash, each charge of cavalry, each shock between two army corps, Is nothing else but the misuse of mechanical force from the same star. The sun comes to us in the form of heat; he leaves us in the form of heat; but between his arrival and his departure he has given birth to the varied powers of our globe. Presented to our mind under their true aspect, the discoveries and generalizations of modern sci ence constitute, then, the most sublime poem which has ever been offered to the intelligence and the imagination of man. The physicist of our day, we may say with Tyndall, is Incessantly in contact with marvels so grand and sublime that those who study them have need of a certain force of charac ter to preserve them from being dazed. And still all this is nothing, or almost nothing, in comparison with the real power of the sun. The liquid state of the ocean, the gaseous state of the atmosphere, the currents of the see. the raisin of the clouds, the rains, storms, streams, rivers; the calorific value of all the forvstj of he globe and all the cotl minis of the earth; the moton of all living beings, the best of all humanity, the tore j-up' power In all human m iscles, in all the manufactories, in all the guns all that is almost nothing romnared with trat of which the sun is capable. Do we think we have measured the o!ar power by enumerating the effects which It pro duces on the earth? Error! Profound, tremen dous, foolish error. This would be to believe still that this star has been created on purpose to Illu minate terrestrial humanity. In reality, what an (Continued on Page Ftux.), 1
