The weekly standard. (Port Gibson, Miss.) 1865-1867, 1865-12-02
Bill Arp ON the State OF the
Country.
HE ANNOUNCES HIMSELF AS 4
GOOD UNION REB."
''sweet land Of Liberty, Of thee l sing"

"Sweet land of Liberty, Of thee sing"
Not much I don't, not at this time
If there's anything sweet about liberty
in this part of the vineyard, I can't see
it. The lands good enuf and I wouldn't
mind hearin hymn or two about the
dirt I live on, but as for fndin sugar
and liberty in Georgy soil, its all a
mistake. Howsumever, I'm hopeful
I'm much calmer and sereener than
was few months ago. Ibegin to feel
kindly towards all people, except some.
I'm now endeaverin to be a great ma
tional man. I've taken up mottoe Of
no North, no South, no East, no West,
but let me tell you my friend, I'll BET
on Dixie as long as I've got a dollar.
Its no harm to run both skedules. In
fakt its highly harmonius to do so. I'm
good Union reb, and my battle cry
are Dixie and the Union.
But you see my friend, we are gettin
restless about some things. The war
had bekum nifty heavy on us, and after
the big collapse, we thought it was over
for good. We had killed folks and
killed folks until the novelty of the
thing had wore of, and we were nifty
nigh played out all over. Children
were increasin and vittles. diminishin.
BY close calculashun it was purseev-
ed that we didn't kill our enemies as
fast as they was imported, and about
those times I thought it was pity that
some mirakle of grace hadn't cut of
the bread of furriners some Is or 20
years ago. Then you would have seed
a fair fight. Gen. Sherman wouldn't
have walked over the track, and Ulys-
ses would have killed more men than
he did-ofhas oa0s side. I hav always
thot that a General ought to bepertik-
Ter which side he was sacrifsin.
Well, if the war is over, what's the
use of film up our towns and cities
with soldiers any longer? Where's
your Reconstruction that the papers
say is goin' on SO rapidly? Where's
the liberty and freedom? The fakt is,
Gen. Sherman and his caterpillers made
such clean sweep of everything, ]
don't see much to RECONSTRUCT They
took SO many liberties around here that
there's nary liberty left, I could have
RECONSTRUCTED thousand such States
before this. Any body could. There
wasn't nuthin' to do but jest to go of
and let us alone. We've got plenty of
Statesmen, plenty of men for Govern
or. Joe Brown amt dead-he' "a wait
in'-standin' at the door with his hat
off. Then whot's the soldiers here for?
what good are they doin'? who wants
to see 'em any longer? Everybody is
tired of the war, and we don't want to
see any more signs of it. Theniggers
don't want 'em, and the white men
don't want 'em, and as for the wimen-
whoo-peel Igonyl Well, there's no
use talkin'-when the stars fall agin
maybe the wimen viii be harmonized.
That male bisness that oath about
gittin' lettersl Gee-tigerl They al
ways was jealous about the males any
how, and that order jest broke the cam
els back. Well, Unjust confess thatitwas
a powerful small concern. I would try
to sorter smooth it over if I know'd
what to say; but I don't. If they was
afeerd OF the wimen why didn't they
say so? II they wasn't, what do they
make 'em swear for? Jest to aggravate
'eml Didn't they know that the best
way to harmonize man, was to har-
monize his wife 1rst2 What harm can
the wimen do by receivin' their letters
oath free? They can't vote, nor they
can't preach. nor hold offs, nor play
soldier, nor muster, nor wear breeches,
nor ride straddle, nor cuss, nor chaw
terbacker, nor do nuthin' hardly but
talk and rite letters. I hearn that a
valiant kernel made woman put up
her fan bekausei it had pikter of Bory-
gard pom it. Well she's harmonized,
reckon. Now the trouble of all sich
is that after these bayonets leave here
and go home. these petticoat tyrants
can't come back any more. Some Cor
gy fool viii mash the juice out of 'em,
sartin, and that wouldn't be. neither
harmonious nor healthy. Better let
the wimen alone.
Then there is another thing I'm
waitin' for, Why don't they rekon-
struct the niggers il they are ever goin
toa They've give 'em powerful site
Of freedom, and devilish little else
Here's the big freedmen's burp, and
the little buro's all over the country,
and the papers are full OF grand orders
and special orders, and paragrafs, but