Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1865-11-14
Another Letter from Bill Arp.

letter to Artemus Ward, hos written the following
in the same strain on the state of the country
From the Rome Courier.
BILL ARP ON THE STATE OF THE COUNTRY.
's5weet land of Liberty, of thee I sing
Not much don't, at this time. If theirs any
thing sweet about liberty in this part of the
Vineyard can't see it. The lands good enuf
and aounldnt mind hearn hymc or two about
the dirt live on, but as for find sugar and lib
erty in Georgy soil. its all mistake. Howsum-
ever, I'm hopeful. Pm much oalmer and screen
err than wus few months ago. begin to feel
kindly towards all people, exsept some. Pm now
endeavorin to be great national man. I've ia
ken up motto Of no North. no South, no East, no
West; but let me tell you, my friend, III bet on
Dixie as long I've got dollar. Its no harm to
run both skedules. In fact 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 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
off, and we were mighty nigh played out all over.
| Children wei lie increasin and Vittels dimnishin.
By close calculation it was purseeved that we
didn't kill our euenlies as fast they were i'm
por ted, and about those times | thought it q
piv that some mirakle of grace had't cut off the
breed of fnrriners some 8 or 90 years ago. Then
you would have seed far ght. General Sher-
man wouldn't have walked the track, and
| Ulysses would have killed more men than he did
of his oacn side. have always thot that General
ought to be pertikeler which side he was sacrif-
sin.
Well, if the war is over, whats the use of film
up our towns and cities with soldiers any longer.
Where's your reconstrukshun that the papers say
is goin on so rapidly? Where's the liberty and
| Tbo foot ic nd h
caterpillars made such a clean sweep of every
thing don't see much to reconstruct. They
took so many liberties around here that there's
nary liberty left 1 could have reconstructed
thousand SIGH States before this. Any body
could. There wasn't nuthin to do but jest to go
off and let alone. We've got plenty of States
men-plenty of men for Governor
Joe Brown amt dead-he's a waitin-standin
at the door with his hat off Then what's the
soldiers here for-what good are they doin-who
wants to see EN- emmy longer. Every body is
tired of the war and we don't want to see emmy
more signs of it. The niggers don't want EN-, and
the white man don't want em, and as for the
wimmen-whoopee l golly Well, there's no use
talking-when the stars fall ag in may be wimmin
will be harm onized. That male businessman
about gittin letters! .Gee-tiger! They always
was jealous about the males anyhow, and that or
der jest broke the camePs back Well, must
confess that it was powerful small concern. l
i
what to say, but don't. If they was Altered of
the wimmen why didn't they say so. If they
wasn't what do they make 'em swear for. Jest
to aggregate 'enl? Did't they know that the best
way to harmoze man, to harmonic his
wife first? What harm can the wimen do by
ceiyen their letters oath free? They can't vote,
nor they can't preach nor hold Gifts, nor play
soldier, nor muster, nor wear breeches, nor ride
straddle, cuss, nor chaw terbacker, do
nurilin hardly but talk and rite letters. | hearn
= that valiant kernal made winen put up her
fan bekaus it had pikter of Borygard pom it.
Well, she's harmonzed reckon. Now the trou-
BILE Of all SIGH is that after these bayones leave
here and go home, these pettycoat tyrants can't
come back emmy more. Some Georgy fool will
mash the juice out of 'em sertin, and that would
be neither harmonious healthy Better let
the wimen alone.
Then there is another thing Pm waitin for
Why don't they Reconstruct the niggers If they
are goin too They've give em powerful site of
freedom, and very little else. Here's the big
freedmens buro, and the little buros all over the
country, and the papers are full Of grand orders,
and special orders, and paragrafs bat I'll bet a
possum some of 'em steals my wood this winter
{ or freeze TO deth. Freedman's buro frecdman's
, humbug say. Jest when the needed ploW
il wust, the buro rung the bell and toled all the
ni2gers to town, and the farmers lost the crops;
aud now the freedman is gjtin cold and hungry,
and wants to go back. and there amt nuthin for
EN- to go to. But freedom is big thing. Hur
raw for freedoms buro Sweet land Of liberty, of
thee don't sing Butts all right. Pm for free
dom myself. Nobody wants any more slavery.
If the al oli>hunists had let alone we would
have fixed it up right long time ago, and we can
fix it uD now The buro amt fixed it, it aint goin
to. 1t don'l know anything about it. Our people
ave GOT haep mote feelin for the poor niger
than any abolishunist. w are poor as Job, but
I'll bet dollar we can raise more money in Rome
to build niger church th an they did in Bostown.
The papers say that after goin round for weeks,
the Bcstown christians raised thirty seven dollars
to build a negro church in Savannah They
powerful on theory but mighty scace in practice.
But its no use talkin. Everybody will know by
wal who's been fooled. Mr.. Johnson says he's
| gwine to experiment. that's all he can do now
its all any body can do. Mr.. Johnson's heads
level. I'm for him, and everybody ought to be
for hm--only he's powerful slow about some
things | amt q worshippin him. He never made
ME. I hear folks hollorin hurraW for Andy ohm
son. and the papers say, oh ! he's for US, he's
friend, he's all right. Well, spcse he is, hadn't
he ought to be ? Did you expekt him to be q dog |?
Bekause he amt hangin of us, is it necessary to
be playing hypocrite around the footstool Of pow
er and maxim out like he the greatest man
in the world, and we was the greatest sinners |!
Who's sorry Who's repentin? Who amt proud
Of our people2 Who loves our enimies z Nobo-
dy but burned sneak, [ say let em hang and
be hanged to ,en, before a neg EN- Ior grace
WHARF, Sokrates, whare's Cato But if Andy
holds his own, the country's safe, provided these
general assemblys and sincds and Bishops CON
ventions will keep the devil and BrownlOw tied
Here's passel of snkharted felers who playd tory
jest to dodge bullets save property, now howin
about for offs--want everything bekaus they was
for Union. They was for themselves, that's all
they for, and they amt goin to get the ofises
neither. Mr. Johnson amt got no more respekt
for 'em than have. We want to trade 'em off.
By hockey, we'll give two of 'em for copper
: head and ak nuthin to boot. Let 'em shiny on
/ their side, and git over among the folks who
don't want US Reconstructed. There's them news
paper scribblers who slip down 10 the edge Of
Dixey every "a hours, and peep over at US, on
tip toe Then they run back putin and BLOWN
with straight coat tail, and holler "He amt
dead-he amt deadlock out everybody IN
f jest from thar seed his toe move heard him
J. =