Explore "The New York Herald Reporter who Lived for Two Worlds" by Annie Wittenmyer on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Two weeks after the surrender of Vicksburg, I took passage on a steamer for the North. Just before the boat left the wharf, a gentleman whom I knew came on board in company with a sick friend, whom he introduced as Mr. Brown, "Correspondent of the _New York Herald_. " I was so weary with the scenes of war, with the heat and hard labor which had been the common lot of all workers during the siege, that I did not want to talk to any one, much less to a "_Herald_ reporter. " He was sick, and was going home for a season of rest, so he said. How deceptive appearances are. I set him down at once as a drinking man, because his face was flushed and his eyes red; and I determined to be as unsocial as possible. I did not see him again till evening, when he came back into the ladies' cabin and began social conversation.
I determined our talk should be religious, and soon introduced the subject. He had remarked that we were making headway, and would probably reach Helena by eight o'clock the next morning. But he said, "of course there are dangers on every side -- sand-bars, snags, and guerillas. _So we can't tell where we will be in the morning._"