The Montana post. [volume] (Virginia City, Montana Territory [i.e. Mont.]) 1864-1869, 1864-11-05
VIRGINIA CITY, MONTANA TERRITORY, SATURDAY

SHcoAesco amVuB tnth unOer tno Bp
tpropriase names Of g Tangle-foos, /" " Blue
fuin,S SWsRed-eye," "Bust-head," an,
Knocksem-stiff'' If the vender Of thi
vile stuff did not dilute it freely with waite
---so freely that itrarely fails itsslf to "ge
tight in cold weather-the race Of ssmea,
Southern whites" would soon be swep
from the earth, As it is, they seem to thrie,
and fatten upon it; old men, doing ava,
in the chimney-corner, and little childreI
tottling about the Hoor, drink it as # it wa
water. r. a..
ANorthern man was once forced to din,
ut one of these novels. Missing the Gus
tomary "whisky y-kag" from the table b,
said to the housewife
"Can't you give me mug of Knock
aem-stiff?H
81 can't, Stranger" WIGS her reply: "l
hain't nary drap to speer!"
"None to spare! Why, see barrel Of
it there in the corner
ga barr'l Nv it " exclaimed the woman
"why whot's thet fer q lone widder an
SEWN chillen? We shall be nation dry
fore winters over.'
Not one in thousand Of these people
can read, and not one in ten thousand can
write. have known many who never saw
q book or q newspaper, and some who never
heard of Bible or spelling book. As a
consequence Of such ignorance, they have
very crude notions of God and religious
duty. In fact, though they often spend
weeks at camp shouting " Glory''
aud groaning "Old Hundred" they have
no religion. once heard one of their
n ALI Il.
iustrated their knowledge Of spirisetal
things. ~' =
1t was at little church in the shadow of
Bald mountain, one Of the immense range
dividing North Carolina from Tennessee.
Tho building was a simple structure of
logs, with q puncheon floor, and single
o. ening for q door. but without window
or chimney. 0na bare spo. in it's centre
q huge hght-wood FIRE was blazing, and
fuLing, and forcing thick volumes Of smoke
into tn peop!c's eyes till they wept as if
they were 20 /, i1c,ssnnvlwate- -iug pots. The con-
gregstion was scateG arounc his FIRE on
benches of rough logs, anu the pi,a'hef
occupied small platform, raisea , few
>; eps from the floor, and furnished with
single block of wood which oficiated as a
chair. The women had bare heads and
feet, and their or.y garment, Git was the
month of Noyember) seemed to be coarse
cottonade gown, falling straight from the
neck to just below the knaes. The men
had long matted hair and shaggy boards,
and wore slouched hats, (thsy kept them
on during the services and linsey trows-
ers, and hunting shirts, SO begrimed with
dirt, and so torn and patched in thousand
piaeess ttris scarcely vestige of the origi-
nal material was left visible to the naked
eye. Many Of them-owing, no doubt, to
their custom Of ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS de-
formed and apparently idiotic, and they all
had s,nnted, ague- distorted bodies, untan-
ned-leather skins, small heads, round as
bullet, and coarse, wiry hair, which looked
like shreds of oakum gathered into mops,
and dyed with lamp black.
The preachers text, which he credited 70
the apostle DAVID, was "Try the sperrcts,"
and he showed, to tho satisfaction of his
that while Scripture enjoins the
taking of "a little wine" which, he said.
was the ancient name for whisky" for the
sake" it as expressly requires
that we should "try the sperrets," or, in
other words, that we shall drink none but
the very best whisky we can get. He reck-
oned thet such ruin as came from 'Hio,
could be got ter Jim Decker's-over he
ter Jonesboro--fur a coon skin
gallon, was purity tollable sort o. ruin, and
might do fur white folk, but sech as Dan
Ferguson 'stilled, down thar ter the mill,
warn't ne way fit fur hoss ter drink" He
bclabored bad whisky, for time. with We
hemence, and then opened his batteries
upon tobacco. Whisky was, as the Bible
atirms, good for the stomach, and he
the " clar stuff wouldn't hurt no
part Nv n humin bein," but tobacco was a
vile thing that would kill any living crea-
ture but woman; and how she could chaw
it, and smoke it, and snuff it, and dip it, as
she did, he couldn't see, no how. Its use
warn't noway sanctioned by Scriptur,' and
nary one Nv the Apostles, Prophets, or good
men Nv the olden time uver used it; and
while the Bible often spoke Of wine and
'' sperrets, it nuver onst mentioned the
name of terbaccer, and thet proved it
couldn't be good ter take.
When he had adjourned the meeting"
for acknowledgements wullin' am
thar being no freshet on the mounting-I
ventured to suggest to him that it was pos
siblc he had misunderstood his text, and
then learned that he could not read, and
that u neighboring planter-one of the
given him the text, outlined
his subject, told him that the text refers to
ardent spirits, and that he must be sure to
&c pitch powerful strong inter Ferguson's
whisky"
1.-THE men who can thus sport with the
best feelings of their fellows, are, as we
know, capable Of worse things.l
Nowhere but in the Slave States is there a
class of whites so ignorant and degraded as
IRE these people. In every other country
The peasantry labor, are the principal pro.
iucers, the really indispensable part of the
but the "mean white" of
he South does not knosc hoU to labor he
produces nothing; he is q fungous growth
lpon the body of society, absorbing the
strength and life of its other parts, and he
would rot exist il the Southern system were
in healthy state. And he is the natural
product of Slavery, for Slavery, which
makes the slave the planters blacksmith,
and wheelwright, and carpenter, and arti.
Fan of all work, shuts up on the mean white
man every avenue of honest toll, and drives
aim to tie barren sand-hills to starve and
la 81 ao1a tha da>y frop, u -.