The Norfolk post. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 1865-1866, 1865-08-07
The Murfulk gost.
MONDAY, AUGUST 7, 1866.
Interesting Conversation of Confederate
Officers.

Officers.
The Richmond correspondent of the
New York Nation, a very intelligent
gentleman, relates the following dia-
logue overheard by him in the parlor of
the Spotswood:
AS one sits in the hotel parlor or in the
cool piazza after tea, it is probable that
the group surrounding him consists of
men from all parts of the South. Mill
tary titles are frequent, andth majority
have on, if not full suit, lat leastsome artl-
Gle of clothing made of Confederate gray
cloth, or of butternut brown. Few are
without pipe and tobacco pouch.
Among themsclvesthey are very frank in
manners and speech, nor do observe that
a Northerner is treated with particular
GOODNESS. The old gentleman from Co.
lumbia whose property has all been de-
stroyed, and who is on his way North to
make composition with creditors whom
he will never be able to pay in full; the
man from Louisiana who thinks he has
as good a right to live in this country as
any other man, who is going to stay and
live easy if they leave him his property,
and stay and take it rough and tumble if
they don't; the gentleman who was born
and raised in East Tennessee, and who
has left his native State because he con-
siders it unsafe for any manth that has been
Southern sympathizer to try and live
there, and who is now laUkingfo for place
to locate; the young n from North
Carolina who deserted from Lees army
after Gettysburg and worked as farm
laborer in Maryland-all furnish share
of the smoke and the talk. The last
named person, however, does not, like
the rest, confide his past history to the
company in general. He tells it to me,
knowing that 1 am from the North, and
adds that he reckons ''they'll be pretty
hard on man round here if they knew
he didn't go plum through to the sur
render. Down in Moore co. he has two
brothers that were just as strong for the
war as any two fellows could be. He
| didn't know what they'll say to him.
| He reckons they stuck it out. He'd like
to get good mule and carry on with
| him when he goes"
The conversation relates to the crops
! the condition of the negroes, the fbeha
vior of the Yankees In each man s neigh
borhood, the probable action of the Fed
eral Government, Southern prospects in
business and politics, the state OF public
opinion in the North, all mingled with
stories of the war-perhaps an anecdote
of " Prince" John Magruder, an adven-
ture with bushwhackers, description
of the wholesale destruction caused by
| Sherman's march, or of midnight rob-
berry of rebel family IN Tennessee.
| A remark made by the Vennesseean
attracts the attention OF his nelgnbor
who saws: "Ah, doctor, have you beer
North recently?' "Yes, sir, / had t.
leave nv home in Tennessee. My wifi,
| is a New England woman, and Nv,
! been staying with her folks. In fact,
hadn't any other place to stay at, ant
was very thankful to stay there"
"Oh, we're all poor together, sir; ant
no Southern man need be ashamed to
confess it, How did you find the people
up there ?"
'"Well of course, they think they
| were right, and they're mighty well
| pleased to think that we're subjugated,
but everybody was kind and pleasant.
r lie business men were all glad to see
Southern men coming back. You see
they never liked the Western men SO
well as us. Westerners would often buy
when they meant to fail and smash up,
but we Southerners never had the name
OF doing that, and they like to see us
again."
lima interrupts. He is a short, small
man, quite sixty years old, slow OF
speech but emphatic, and with care
worn expression of face.
"Were you owing much, sir, at the
North?"
"Well, yes, sir; I owed near forty
thousand dollars when the war broke
out"
expecting in few days to meet credi-
tors of my own, and / would like to
know how they feel up there"
"Theyll treat you we'll. Very likely
you,u find that your creditors are not
the men that you think. Some OF my
paper had passed into second and third
hands. The original holders had failed,
been smashed up by the war, and my
notes were sold at auction. l got them
back cheap. I heard of one Norfolk
house whose paper had been sold in that
way, and they got it again for ten cents
on dollar. Others of my creditors
asked me for full statement, made on
my honor, of what my debts were, and
the amount of property that l had saved
gave it, and they dealt very fairly
with me. / couldn't pay, fifty cents
Oh, they leave man little. vi course
| II depends good deal on the kind OF a
man the creditor is, and good deal on
your own character >,
illthey let a man have more goods.
| "On credit Pho, sir. Won't do that.
You may get them to fix it up III the
way of consignment"
TWelI. sir, Is it reasonable for them to
expect us to pay our debts? Now here
am I. may say that haven't a cent
i'm the world. Sherman's army burnt
NV store and my house."
fisherman says he didn't."
aHe did, sir There can be no doubt
of il. One of of the Yankee officers told
NV wife not two hours before the fire
beean. Columbia is doomed city, l
cannot but think that the moral obliga-
| tion resting upon me to fulfil my con-
tracts with my Northern creditor is neu-
tralized. That was not civilized war
fare. May be it was not my creditors
who were responsible for that devasta-
ton. But some of us down here were
innooent of the sin of secession, yet we
haJ Ia suffer with the guilty. Why
sbould not the innocent and the guilty
or the North suffer together in the same
way? I do not believe that l am NOR
ally bound to spend my old age In toll
;,,S RI repav nv Northern creditors.
ought to be legally released from M.
Indebtedness, and not feel that there i
a burden upon me which can neve
shake off,