Des Arc citizen., 1866-07-14
NUMBER 20.

I wanted information, and thus we dia- logued. e f,.
 My Betsey Jerusha, hastmuch ofparentss"
 "Yes, Brickuel, have two parents and four ante-parents"
 'sWhat didst they do?" sn, ;rwat 3
 My ma taught school and skinned cells. and my father WAS m eel catcher and silver tongued politician"
 ''How many boys canst spank in q day."
 s'I have spanked twenty-seven in an hour and it want good hour for spanking either!'
 And cells How many cells canst thou peel in day. Tell me, thou educator of the world?'" af.,ssl,.
 Well, now, that is pretty right smart of q question. guess can skin six minute. I skin lem and sling 'em over my shoulder into that are tub, and kin keep one in the air all the time, like . cows tail in fly time, and I aint much of skinist nuther!'
 sDoes it hurt the eels?" e
 "Why, of course, it kills the cells But that is his fault. If he'd had his skin put on toth4 CT side out, twouldn't hurt cm any! 'Twould have slid off itself It's our doctrine in Now England to have things conform to our mo- tions, even if the ecls we skin don't like it. You see this is the hub--and the cells have no rights, we the skinners, are bound to res4 pect!" and into the air she playfully tossed another yard of subdued, quivering agony!
 Says we-
 "Do you skin em for fun or for proft?"
 Betsey said it was for both. There was money in it, and it was fun to see them squirm, for they had no business to be cells, and to come to New England in the spring and fall for what they wanted. And thus Betsey taught me to love. Gentle, christianzed Betsey!
 And I kissed her. And hugged her thero I 1. cla | rI that she should have cells to skin forever. That I'd have one made on purpose Then she smiled and said she'd be mine, so-called, if I'd agree to find her in cells to find young ones for her to spank, let her come once year to hear the big organ and rock her baby in the cradle of liberty; to let her kiss every nggcr she saw to let her spend half her time in pedding tracts and making flannel shirts for babies in Africa and would do my best to ex- tend the blessed gospel and the likeness of Ben. Butler in the bcnightedregion beyond tho 1 hub.
 consented to all she wanted of me except the niggcr. On that I was frrum. So was Betsey. She said ''nigger or single blessed 1 ness" She said they were her pets. told her was q democrat. Oh, gracious She strengthened up till her corsets snapped like pistol thought she had gone off But she hadn't. She was there yet. Said she, as she scrunchcd an eel in her hand and waved her peeling machine over head:
 ssYoua democratl Marry democrat? Go way Git eout Don't tech me! Oh, you great, nasty western man Take your arm away from around my intellectual breast Oh, you great, ugly, western he man! I'd skin you like an cell Oh, git eout! Rise your hoary locks from that ere lap. I'll take my eels and fly from your advances. Marry a democrat2 I'm no such woman! Oh, you great big, red whskered, grey headed, savage, | unrefned, uncultivated, uneddicated, big nas- ty, he man! How dare you talk to me! I'd die first, and then wouldn't"
 And she done as Joseph did in the night and went off into Egypt leaving me in bed of eel skins. And now Pm gone nutmeg, 2 busted what-do-you-call-it I've lost my Bet sey Jerusha, and must live in the west beyond the cells and school marm charms of her l so adored for us of the west are not of the celtic.
 Thine, unsknned,
 "BRIcK" PoMEIoy.