The Potter journal. [volume] (Coudersport, Pa.) 1857-1872, 1865-03-15

! houses anu Tue SlUI6S duu NiLS pupiIO
/ buildings,-we look at them and hold our
/ breaths IN utter amaZement. Every step
we take increases our astonlshment No
pen, no pencil, no tongue can do justice
to the scene. No imagination can con-
ceive of the utter wreck, the universal
ruin, the stupendous desolation. Ruin
I-ruin-ruin-above and below; on the
right hand and on the left ruin, ruin,
ruin. everywhere and always-staring at
us from every paneless window; looking
at US from every shell torn wall; glarlng
at US from every battered door and pillar
and verandah crouching beneath our
feet on every sidewalk. Not Pompeii
nor Herculaneum, nor Thebes nor the
Nile have ruins so complete, SO saddening,
SO plaintively eloquent, for they speak to
us of an age, not ours, and long ago dead,
with whose people and life and ideas we
have no sympaty whatever. But here,
on these shattered wrecks of hoUses-
built in our own style, many Of them
doing credit to the architecture Of our
epoch.-we read names familiar to US all !;
telling US of trades and professions and
commercial institutions, which every
modern city reckons up by the hundred !;
yet, dead, dead, dead as silent as the
grave of the Pharaohs, as deserted as the
bazaars of the merchant princes Of Old
Tyre. Whoever among us wished to
know how his spirit would feel if be were
to revisit by the pale glimpses Of the
moon the ruins of his native city after the
present civilization shall have passed
away, learned it to his complete satisfac
ton on the morning of last Monday here.
1t was early-few stragglers were abroad !;
inst enough to make the desolation still
more desolate by contrast and the still.
ness, not of the Sabbath, but of the deS-
ert, hung heavily over all. Hardly a
building in all this part Of the city-and
this is the business part-has escaped
the terrible crashing and smashing Of the
shells. And right in the centre Of it, are
at least, Il should judge ten acres of
rnins, the monuments of the great fire
which occurred three years ago This
is in an open space-only plackened walls
and solitary chimneys remain in it, And,
all around this area of desolatlon, are
the ruined houses that still stand-"Gill-
:. more's Town." as the negroes call it; a
triumph of military sklll-of the art
destructive of all arts; a proof to the
Christian that Gods judgments are sure,
and that the cries Of the poor are heard
at The Great Throne and avenged by the
all Righteous Judge. They acted, the
men who lived in these mansions and
traficked in these stores and marts, as if
God were dead as if their own will was
the only standard of rIght-they Knocked
at any "higher law they sold the poor
men in their avarice aud killed the good
men in their hate; when, 10 the people
whom they despised rose up against them
and the race whom they enslaved trode
their streets under the banners and as the
comrades of their conquerors
A NEGRO IMAGE-BREAKER.
We found The Mercury Office deserted
"A negro family already quartered in the
room which bad been the editorial sane,
tum In the faont room, there were
four busts Of eminent Americans-on Of
them Calhoun. l have no respect what
ever for mere intellect, unless it is em-
ploVed for the benefit of the race; and
when it is perverted and made an engine
for the oppression of the poor, have a
cordial detestation of it. These human
internal machines, these torpedoes IN
/ trowsers, should be treated just as their
mechanical images are treated--destroye
/ or put out of harms way. Now, Calhoun
did mere than any one man to make 5la-
very respectable-he used all his great
powers to crush the negro. So l hate
him. l said to the negress who showed
! US iIto the room:
"That man was your great enemy-fe
did all he could to keep you slayea-yOu
ought to break his bust"
I She said nothing, and as I was occupied
/ in examining manuscripts [ did not
notice that she left the room, After a
while, having finished my search, / tho't
that the bust of Calhoun would be good
trophy for The TRIBUNE Office, and made
up my mind to "spoil the Egyptians" to
to that extent
/ The negro woman was there, and'I saw
that the bust had disappeared. I asked
her where it was.
She had done gone" and broke it
So perish all Queen Liberty's enemies !
The Courier Office was in possession Of
the Provost Marshal After various re,
searches, we obtained the current news of
THE EVACUATION.
The recent movements, planned by
Gen Gilmore along the line of the
/ Charleston and Sauannah Railrnad (nnhnr