Virginia free press. (Charlestown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1832-1916, 1865-11-23


hit. in a letter to Artemus Ward, has written
the following in the same strain on the state OF
the country: 91 hF
Bill Arp on the State of the Country.
"Sweet land of Liberty, of thee sing"
Not much don't, notat this time. If there's
anything sweet about liberty in this part OF the
VINEYARD, can't see it, The lands good enuf
and / wouldn't mind hearin hyme or two a.
bout the dirt live on, but as for findin sugar
and liberty in Georgy soil, it's all nistake'---
Howsumever. I'm hopeful. I'm much calmer
and Sereener than l was few months ago.
begin to feel kindly towards all people, eSsept
some. I'm now endeaverin to be great nation-
al man. I've taken up a mottoe Of no North,
no South, no East, no West; but let me tell
YOU, my friend, Ill bet on Dixie as long as I've
got dollar. Its no harm to run both skedules.
In fakt its highly harmonious to do so. I'm
good Union reb, and my battle cry are Dixie
and the Union.
But YOU see, my friend, we are gctttn 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 until the novelty Of the thing had wore
of, and We were mighty nigh played out all
over.
Children were incrcasin and vittels dimin-
ishin. BY close calculashunit was purseeved
that we didn't kill our enemies as fast as they
was imported, and about those times | thought
it was a pity that some mirakle of grace hadn't
cut off the breed of furriners some 1S or 20
years ago. Then you would have seed a far
fight General Sherman wouldn't have walked
over the track, and Ulysses would have killed
more men than he did-of his o,cn side. l
hav always thot, that General ought to be
pertikler which side he was sacrifisin.
Well, if the war is over, whats the use of fill
in I'D our towns and cities with soldiers any
longer. Where's your Reconstruction that the
papers say is going on SO rapidly? Where's
the liberty and freedom? The fakt is, Gener-
al Sherman and his catterpillers made such a
clean sweep of everything, | don't see much to
rekonstrukt They took so many liberties a
round here that there's nary liberty left.
could have Reconstructed thousandsich States
before this. Any body could. There wasn't
nuthin to do but jest to go off and let us alone.
We've got plenty of Statesmen-plenty OF
men for Governor
joe Brown ain dead-he's S watin-stand-
in at the door with his hat off. Then what's
the soldiers here for-what good are they dom
who wants to see en- any longer. Every
body is tired of the war and we don't want to
see any more signs of it. The niggers don't
want EN-, and the white men don't want EN-,
and as for the wimen--whoopee golly
Well, there's no use talking-when the stars
fall aedn maybe the wimen will beharmonized.
That male business-that oath about gitten let
tersl Gee-tiger They always was jealous
about the males anyhow, and that order jest
broke the camel's back. Well, | must confess
that it was a powerful small concern. would
try to sorter smoothe it over if | knowd what
to say. but / don't If they was afeered OF the
wimen why didn't they say so. Ii they wasn't
what do they make em swear for. Jest toag-
grevate EN-? Didn't they know that the best
way to harmonize man, was to harnonlze
his wife first ? What harm can the wimen do
by recciyin their letters oath free? They cant
vote, nor they can't preach, nor hold offis, nor
play soldier nor muster, nor wear breeches,
nor ride straddle, nor cuss, nor chaw terbacker,
nor do nuthin hardly but talk and write letters.
| hearn that valiant kernel made woman
put up her fan because it had pikter of Bory-
gard 'pon IT, Well, she's harmonized, reck-
on. Now the trouble Of all sich is that after
the bayonetS leave here and go home, these
pettycoat tyrants can't come back any more
Some Georgy fool viii mash the JUICE out of EN-
sertin, and that wouldn't be neither harmonious
or healthy. Better let the wimen alone.
Then there is another thing I'm waitln Tor.
Why don't they Reconstruct the niggers If they
are ever goin to? They've give EN- power
full site of freedom, and very little else. Here's
the big freedmen's buro, and the little buros all
over the country, and the papers are full Of
grand orders and special orders, and paragrafs,
but III bet possum some of EN- steals my
wood this winter or freezes to death. Freed
mems burol freedmen's humbug, say. jest
when the corn needed plowin the worst, the
buro rung the bell aud tolled all the niggers to
town. and the farmers lost the crops; and now
the freedmen is gettin cold and hungry, and
wants to 90 back, and there amt nuthin for EN-
TO 90 to. But freedom is big thing. Hur-
raw for freedoms burol Sweet land Of hber-
ty. of thee | don't sing But it's all right
I'm for freedom myself. Nobody wants any
more slavery. If the abolishunists had let US
alone we would have fixed it up right a long
time ago. and We can fix it, up now. The buro
aint fixed it, and it amt goin 10. 1t don't
= o. n. -. r~r.&