LETTER FROM COLONEL A. W. SWALM TO 

 MR. AND MRS. SAWYER 



Southampton, England, October 1, 1913 

 Dear Carroll and Berenice: As sudden as death in 

 battle came the fell news of the taking away of Major 

 Lacey — to our complete consternation, and the deepest 

 regret. I had just come up from town at a Church Con- 

 gress meeting — and was telling Mrs. Swalm of the big 

 men seen and heard in a great meeting of 3,000 men, 

 when the rap of the postal messenger brought the shadow 

 of death into the house by your cable. Yesterday I tried 

 to express to you our sorrow, and the day and night were 

 sad indeed. For so much of our life had been wound 

 up with his; mine from 1855 by passing acquaintance — 

 and you know all the rest of it ! 



Yesterday morning I had two letters from him, giving 

 all the details of the 33d reunion, with a copy of the pro- 

 gramme containing his notes as chairman, and a com- 

 pany badge for me in one letter, and the second giving 

 personal particulars of the family, of Nellie being there, 

 and the Schee present — and coupling so much tender- 

 ness about some of the boys who had not been present 

 at the meeting, and about his going to Des Moines to 

 appear at the Supreme Court in a case, and coming back 

 the same afternoon. We fear that he had been running 

 the machine at too great a speed for his age — and that 

 the result was a break on vital lines. 



But — so ends the career of a greatly useful citizen — 

 one who did not spare himself in that common service, 

 and whose service as time goes will loom up in its real 

 value and its benefit alike to state and nation. 



