niversity was founded. [Laughter.]

But, gentlemen, when I am requested in such an august presence as this
to speak of the "Citizen Soldier," I cannot help feeling like the
citizen soldier of Hibernian extraction who came up, in the streets of
New York, to a general officer and held out his hand for alms, evidently
wanting to put himself temporarily on the General's pay-roll, as it
were. The General said: "Why don't you work?" He said he couldn't on
account of his wounds. The General asked where he was wounded. He said,
"In the retrate at Bull Run." "But whereabouts on your person?" He
replied, "You'll notice the scar here." [Pointing to his face.] "Now,
how could you get wounded in the face while on the retreat?" "I had the
indiscrition to look back." [Laughter.] "Well," said the General, "that
wouldn't prevent your working." "Ah," answered the man, "the worst wound
is here." [Left breast.] The General said, "Oh, that's all bosh; if the
bullet had gone in there it would have passed through your heart and
killed you." "I beg your pardon, sir, at that moment me heart was in me
mouth!" [Great laughter.] So if I had known that such an early attack
was to be made upon me here to-night, I should have thrown my pickets
farther out to the front, in hopes of getting sufficient information to
beat a hasty retreat; for if there is one lesson better than another
taught by the war, it is that a man may retreat successfully from almost
any position, if he only starts in time. [Laughter.]

In alluding to the Citizen Soldier I desire it to be distinctly
understood that I make no reference to that organization of Home Guards
once formed in Kansas, where the commanding officer tried to pose as one
of the last surviving heroes of the Algerine War, when he had never
drawn a sword but once and that was in a raffle, and where his men had
determined to emulate the immortal example of Lord Nelson. The last
thing that Nelson did was to die for his country, and this was the last
thing they ever intended to do. [Laughter.]

I allude to that Citizen Soldier who breathed the spirit of old Miles
Standish, but had the additional advantage of always being able to speak
for himself; who came down to the front with hair close cropped, clean
shaven, newly baptized, freshly vaccinated, pocket in his shirt, musket
on his shoulder, ready to do anything, from squirrel hunting up to
manslaughter in the first degree. He felt that with a single rush he
could