Dallas herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1849-1873, 1866-01-13
Bill Arp on the State Of the
Country.
"Swcct land Of liberty, Of thee | sing.

II there anything sweet about lib
erty in this part of the VINEYARD,
cant see it, The lands good enut,
and | wouldn't mind hcarin hymc
or two about the dirt live on, but
~ for iindin sugar or liberty on
Gcorgy soil, its all mistake
IIowsumcvcr, I'm hopeful, I'm
much calmcr and scrrconcr than |
was II few months ago, and | begin
to feel kinder toward all people, cX-
ccpt some. I'm cndcavorin to be II
great national man. I've taken up
y motto of no North, no South, no
Fast, no West; bat let me tell you,
my friend, III bet on Dixie ms long
as I've got II dollar. Its no harm to
run both skcdulcs. In takt, its
highly harmonious to do so. I'm n
good Union reb, and my battle cry
are Dixie and the Union.
But you SEQ, my friend, we are
gittin restless about sum things
The war had bekum nifty hard 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 off, and VIC were
mighty nigh played out all over
Children were increasing and vittals
diminishing. BY a close calcula-
shun it was perseeved that we
didn't kill our enemies as fast as
they were imported, and about
those times thought it was q pity
that some mirakle of grace hadn't
cut off the breed of furrincrs Is or
20 years ago. Then you'd have
seed Il fair fight. Gen. Sherman
wouldn't have walked over the
track, and Ulysses wouldn't have
killed more than he did-of his own
side. l alters thought a General
ought to be pertckelcr which side
he WAS n sacritisin.
Well, if tho war is over, what's
the use Of film up our towns and
cities with soldiers any longcr?-
Where's your reconstruction that
the papers say is going on so rapid
ly? The fact is, General Sherman
and his caterpillars made such a
clean sweep of everything, don't
see much to Reconstruct. They
took SO many q liberty around here
that there's nary liberty left. l
could have RECONSTRUCTED a thou
sand such states before this. Any
body could. There wasn't anything
to do but ies 60 off and let us alone.
We've got plenty of men for states
men-plenty of men for Governor.
Joe Brown amt dead-hc's wait
in-standin at the door with his
hat off. Then, what's the soldiers
here for? What good are they do
in? Who wants to see 'em any
longer? Everybody is tired Of the
war, and we do not want to see any
more signs of it. The niggcrs don't
want EN-, the white men don't want
'em, and the women-whoopee! l
golly! We'll, there's no use talkin
when the stars fall agin maybe
the women will be harmonized.
The male bizncss-the oath about
gittin letters. Gee tiger! They
alters 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. l would try and sortcr
smooth it over. if I knowcd what
to say, but I don't. If they was
alear. d of the wimmin, why didn't
they say SOP If they wasn't, what
do they make EN- swear for? Jest
to aggravate EN-. Didn't they know
that the best way to harmonize a
man was to harmonize his wife first?
What harm can the wimmon do, to
receive their letters oath frce?-
They cant vote, nor they cant
preach, nor bold offs, nor play sol
der, nor muster, nor war brooches,
nor ride straddle, nor cuss, nor
chaw terbacker, nor do nothin hard
ly but talk and write letters. l
hearn that valiant kernel made a
woman put up hor fan, bekase it
had pictur of Borygard on it
Well, she's harmonized, l reckin.-
Now, the trouble of all such is, that
after these baynots leave here and
60 home, these pettycoat tyrants
can't como back any more. Some
Georgy fool will smash the juice
outen EN-, scrtain, and that wouldn't
be neither harmonious nor healthy.
Better let the women alone.
Then there's another thing Tn
waitin for. Why don't they reckon
struct the niggers if they are ever
gwine to? They have given a
powerful site of freedom, and devil
lish little else. Here's the big freed
mans buro, and the little buros all
over the country, and the papers
are full of grand orders and para
grafs, but I'll bet possum sum of
'em steal my wood this winter, or
freeze to death. Freedmen's burol
frcedmen's humbugl l say. Just
when corn needed plowin the worst,
the buro rung the bell and tolled
all the negroes TO town, and the