The Abingdon Virginian. [volume] (Abingdon [Va.]) 1849-1883, 1862-12-12


to give clerk hundred dollars month to
wait on the soldiers, and then allow them to
sell a poor barefooted soldier pair of boots
that will take all his wages for two months,
while his little ones at home may be cryin
for bread. KNOWN all this, say, / was sor-
ter afraid to AK them if they had the shoes
and linsey to sell. but lookin sorter innocent,
| SEES |, Mister, ses |, what do you ak for that
Ensey and them boots? Five dollars yard
and eighteen dollars pair, ses he! Jebosa-
fat. thinks to myself. what's the world a
comm to? [ yamossed that rancho sure, bein
entirely satisfied, and thought I'd santer round
tor awhile and catch as many pints as |
could. The first man | met had dirty face
and wore spectickles. but he had an honest
expression and beneFoence in his eye. SEES |
to him, Mister, ses |, who sells linsey and shoes
IN that big Office yander? Two men, ses he,
ones q clerk in the Office and tother ism t.
How's that? ses hes an able bodied loolSin
man and seems under forty-fve, and if he
amt clerk how does be keep outen the army?
Don't know, ses the man with the spectickles,
maybe ne IS clerk when the recrutin officers
Is about, and when they amt, he ISN'T.
Well, ses [, is them and the man in the eel
lar all the extortioners about this city? No,
ses he, not by a jug.fnll--nor they amt the
wust, neither. The man in the cellar has some
excuse, for he's sickly, and can't go into the
army, and [ believe he has good heart in
him, but has been led astray by the love of
money. There's heap Of people all over the
country and in all the towns, that's buyin mp
all sorts of things and selln 'em to the wives
and children Of soldiers at Or times their
value, while the husbands and fathers of these
wImmln and children are away off on the
bloody battlefield, ragged, and barefooted,
and hungry, and fghtin for them that's grind
in the faces of the poor. True rs preachin, ses
|, and God wilIin, I'll put all these fellers in
my letters before I'm done, and if any on 'em
don't like it they can lump it, for believe I'm
called to the work
Now, Mister Edtors, while these things is
tolerated, how in the name of common sense
and common humanity is Abe poor families
to keep from starvin and bein battered in rags?
and how is our great and noble cause Co pros
per? How is a soldier, or anybody else, to
buy shoes and britches, and keep the pot
bllin? 1t can't be did. My notion is, that this
extortlon all over the country, is whippin us
q great deal faster than the Abolitionists can
do it, and if we ever gain our independence.
we'll first have to hang, Or burn, or shoot, or
drown, the miserable extortioners that's suck
in the blood outen the Confederacy, & wringin /
the tears outsn the people.
Pm sorry my letters got so long, for hav- I
emit begun to tell all that's in me. With Gods 7
blessin Pllwrite to you often while these long 7
nights last and III tell you things that would /
almost bring tears outen the mile posts and /
telegraph poles on the railroads. I'll tell you
ibout Government clerks speckilatin and ex-
;ortionin in things that's necessary to the
comfort and very existence of the wives and
children of absent soldiers, and in course ne
slectin the bisness that Government is givin
EN- hundred dollars o month to attend to-
I'll tell you about officers in the Commissary
department. goin into eahoot with outsiders,
md speckilatin in beef, and pork, and mutton,
md linsey, and cotton, aud so forth, and ieay-
n undone what the Government is payin 'em
o do. I'll tell you about people ransaekin
the whole country to buy wheat, and corn, &
iaxseed, and linsey, and soap and beeswax,
md taller, and any and everything else they
IAN lay their greedy hands on, to make mo-
lopoly so they may coin money outen other
peoples miseries, and then git down on their
snees and ask the Lord to bless our soldiers
nd our cause. Til tell you all about these
hings, and then I'll come round by the Salt 4
Works, and the way I'll let the eat outen the I
Wallet there will be wonderful to look uDom
snd want you to print my letters and to
rint all that's in 'eaa, for Deuteronomy ses,
nd heWas nifty good maa, that You shant
anzzie the OK that treds out the corn.
30 no more at present,
but youra till death,