MRS. ELIZABETH BACON CUSTER.* Tenting on the Plains is an
admirable illustration of the old truth that "one touch of Nature makes the whole world kin." It is a volume which records the experiences of a very young woman, not during the terrible Secession War—though she shared in that—but afterwards, during marches, bivouacs, and garrison life, first in the wilds of Texas, and then in the still more savage and perilous wilds on the track of the Pacific Rail- way as it pushed on towards San Francisco. It is, moreover, a big book of many hundred pages, and of that size, so difficult to hold, which Americans seem to prefer ; but we can safely say, having made the experiment, that, despite its length and bulk, it is interesting from beginning to end, and is closed with a wish that there were more. The reason is not far to seek. It is all expressed in one word,—Mrs. Custer. At the outset of one of her long journeys, a soldier covered her canteen with leather, "adding of his own accord, in fine stitchery in the yellow silk used by the saddlers, Lady Custer." That trooper was a man of just and delicate per- ceptions, for the "cavalry-woman," as she calls herself some- times, deserved the title he bestowed upon her. No one but a thorough gentlewoman could have written a volume so bright, unaffected, and warm-hearted, and so free from the taint of vulgarity. Her sympathies are broad and deep ; she hides none of her tremors, yet is never hysterical ; she makes no show of her courage or endurance, yet it is plain enough that she is brave and enduring ; and what is more difficult, while you feel in every page how she adores her heroic husband, not a syllable is set down which violates good taste or savours of mere sentiment. It is all pure nature,—her nature, which is cheerful, affectionate, and womanly. "Look in thine heart and write," is the maxim which she seems to have obeyed; and
• Tenting on the Plains ; or, General Custer In Kansas and Teens. By Mina. both B. Custer. London : Sampson Low and Co.
the result is a delightful book which, faithfully portraying her varied, wearing, and often fearful surroundings, and bringing home to you what manner of man "the General" was whom she so passionately loved, derives its principal charm from the unconscious revelation of her high-spirited, refined, and pure- minded self.
That is because her qualities, in all their lights and shades,. pervade the whole composition. Next to her we may place Eliza, the Virginian negress, who took service with the youthful brigadier when her race was declared free by Lincoln. "Everybody," she said, "was excited over freedom, and I wanted to see how it was. Everybody keeps asking me why I left. I can't see why they can't recollect what war was for, and that we was all bound to try and see for ourselves how it was. After the liancipation, everybody was a- standin!
up for liberty," and she would not stay at home. "I set in to see the war beginning and end," she said, "and I stuck it
out. I alias thought this, that I didn't set down to wait to have 'em all free me. I helped to free myself. I was all ready to step to the front whenever I was called on, even if I didn't shoulder the musket." And it was true. She often cooked under fire, only enraged that the bursting shells made her move her camp kettle and frying-pan. Her dress was "completely whittled out with bullets." Before leaving, she buried the money and property of her " ole miss," and after the war, sent thither by Custer, she found the cache, dug it up, and restored all to- her delighted mistress. Once, in Texas, a malicious neighbour set the cooking-tent on fire. Her first thought was "the. General's powder-horn," so she hurried from the duty of serving breakfast and "found the blaze was runnin' up the canvass of my tent, nearly reachin' the powder. The can had
two handles, and I ketched it up and ran outside." Her cool- ness naturally delighted the General ; but she was never wanting in time of need. A tender-hearted, charitable body, she took in strays, white or black, and had a sort of orphan asylum in her quarters, and the General had to sanction it Mrs. Custer was naturally afraid of the venomous creeping things which abound in Texas. One stray was indifferent to the whole tribe, and dealt with them freely. Hitherto the General had done the duty of searcher :—
"Of all this he was relieved by the boy that Eliza called poor little pecked sparrow,' who was appointed as my maid. Night and morning the yellow dot ran his hands into shoes, stockings, night- gown, and dress-sieves, in all the places where the scorpions love to lurk ; and I bravely and generously gathered myself into the arm-chair while the search went on."
Eliza, who had her own way of "rewarding merit," both in officers and men—she gave them hot biscuit and coffee—was also provident for others. Take a last glimpse of this interest-. ing and devoted woman -- "Our faithful Eliza," writes Mrs. Custer, "as we talk over that march [a very trying one], will prove in her own language, better than I can portray, how she constantly bore our comfort in mind. Miss Libbie, do you mind, after we crossed the Sabine river, we. went into camp ? Well, we hadn't much supplies, and the wagons wasn't up ; so as I was awaitin' for you all, I says to the boys, "Now you make a fire, and I'll go a-fishin'." The first thing I got a fish,—well, as long as my arm. It was big and jumped so, it seart me, and I let the line go ; but one of the men caught hold and jumped for me, and I had him, and went to work on him right away. I cleaned him, salted him, rolled him in flour, and fried him; and, Miss Libbie, we had a nice platter of fish, and the General was just delighted when he came up, and he was surprised, too, and he found his dinner—for I had some cold biscuit and a bottle of tea in the lunch-box—while the rest was awaitin' for the supplies to come up. For while all the rest was awaitin', I went fishin', mind you.'
The bottle of tea is accounted for by the fact that General' Custer never touched alcohol in any form. He drank, indeed, little of anything, having "conquered thirst" by judicious abstinence ; and when in quarters, he was constantly engaged in earnest endeavours, not to prohibit liquor, but to save his- officers and men from falling into tippling habits, which so often end in drunkenness. He was a great deal more than a beau sabreur, and had in him the makings of a soldier-political. His high spirits, love of frolics—the rollicking games of Father- Custer and his mighty sons are among the most amusing things in the book—the fact that he wore long flowing yellow locks and loved a bit of colour, made some call him theatrical, Never was there a human being who was less of the actor: As he is sketched here, not formally, but by incidental and- illuminating touches, he appears as a young man of boundless, overflowing energies in all ways, yet thoughtful, generous, and a gentleman, and he says of himself, with truth, that Ma. enthusiasm never controlled his judgment. Men like Sherman, Hancock, Sheridan, and Grant knew well that he was an able public servant, and gave him their full confidence ; and he was admired and respected by them for the very same qualities which commanded the love and devotion of the troops he led to battle. Both husband and wife had a love for the lower animals, and Mrs. Custer writes about dogs and horses in a glowing strain, which shows how sincere it was. We read of General Custer as having a tame lizard and chameleon in Texas. Here is an extract from a letter to his wife when he was in the West watching the Indians :— "I have the funniest pet now. It is a young beaver. He is quite tame, runs about the tent, follows me, and when I lie down on the bed to read, he cuddles up under my gown, or on my arm, and goes to sleep. He cries exactly like a baby two days old. A person outside the tent would think there was a nursery in here, if he could hear it about 2 o'clock in the morning. I feed it from my hand at the table. Its tail is perfectly flat. I am going to tell Eliza that it used to be round, but a wagon ran over it. Its hind feet are webbed like a duck's ; its fore feet are like hands."
Beneath the boisterous surface there was an element of pro- found seriousness in General Custer, and at twenty-seven the ambition to be " great " had given place to a passion to be worthy of his blessings. "I was lying on my pallet to-day," he writes to his wife, "and I could not help uttering a prayer of gratitude to God for all that he has bestowed on me, and asking that I might be made worthy, and led to pursue such a moral life that others might be benefited by my example." He had come to be a soldier of duty, and in that character, with two brothers, he died in an ill-starred Indian combat.
It is only by reading the book itself that an adequate con- ception of this gentleman and soldier can be formed, for the touches which reveal his fine character are put in artlessly here and there, without ostentation. Then an exhilarating streamlet of fun and humour runs through these fascinating pages with a sparkle that never grows dull. Yet we must repeat that the charm of the volume is Mrs. Custer herself, who is ever both sweetness and light. See how full she is of sympathies for the poor pioneers whose labours and sufferings made the great West habitable :— " I want to ask those," she says, "who journey for pleasure or for a new home, if they realise what those men were [her own father was one] who took their lives in their hands and prepared the way Who chronicles the patient, plodding, silent pioneer, who, having been crowded out of his home by too many labourers in a limited field, or because he could no longer wring subsistence from a soil too long tilled by sire and grandsire ; or possibly a returned volunteer from our war, who, finding all places he once filled closed up, was compelled to take the grant of land that the Government gives its soldiers, and begin life all over again for the sake of wife and children ! There is little in these lives to arrest the poetical fancy of those writers who put into rhyme (which is the most lasting of all history) the lives otherwise lost to the world."
And she brings home to us, in some degree, out of her full heart, the trials, privations, and sufferings of the early dwellers in a desolate land, for such was the boundless prairie. Nor is she less eloquent upon the officer and the soldier, who have some human virtues to weigh against their failings ; and is especially grateful to the former class for their untiring kind- ness and care. In true knightly fashion, they "all watch and guard the women who share their hardships," and look out for their comfort and safety, "whether old or young, pretty or ugly." But we must stop, although our notice is too brief to do justice to this healthy, excellent, and animated book.
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