The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1866-02-11

blame 4ooa ~ .l.i..
To scold me instead of caressing,
mimicked her speech-ike a churl that
And angrily said, 'sYou'rc dam-dam-
dam
A damage instead Of blessing"
Bill Arp Returns to tho Eternal City
and Meets his Friend Big John.
EClitu,' metropolitan Rekord
MIR. EDrTUR, Sur: hav not up to
this time made any remarks in publik
about the trials and tribulations, the
losses and crosses, the buzzards and
dead hosses seen on our journey
home to the eternal City. I shall
not allood to it now, only to remark
that our comm back were not so hasty
as our leavin. It was in the.dead of
winter, through snow and through
sleet, over creeks without bridges and
bridges without floors, through q
deserted and desolate land, where no
rooster was left to crow, no pig to
squeal, no dog to bark; where the
ruins of happy homes adorned the
way, and ghosty chimneys stood up
like Sherman's sentinels guardin the
ruins he had made. A little one hos
consern containd the highth of my
worldly possessions, consistin of my
numerous and lovely wife and chill
dren, and o shuck basket full of some
second class vittels. Countin our
offspring, there was about ten of us
in and about and around that wagin,
thus illustratin what the poet has sed,,
''One glorious hour of crowded life is
worth an age without name, though
the glory were hard to purseeve on
sich okkashuns. Mrs Arp are of the
opinyun that her posteriity were never
as hungry before their life as on
that distressin journey, and she once
remarked that there want nary rod of
the road that dident hear some of EN-
hollerin for vittels. My wife's hus-
band is troobled bekaus they amt
broke of it yit, and it do seem that
the poorer I git the more devourin
they become, all of which will eend
in sumthin or other if sumthin dom
happen.
We finally arrived within the pre-
sinkts of our lovely home. The doors
creaked welcome on their hinges, the
hoppin-bug cherruped on the hearth,
and the whistlin wind was singin the
same old tune around the bedroom
corner. We were about as happy as
we had been miserable, and when I
remarked that General Vandiver, who
okkupied our house, must be gen
tleman for not burnin it, Mrs. Arp
replied:
81 wonder what he done with nv
soing masheen.''
''He dident cut down our shade
trees" sed I.
"My buroes and carpets and crock
cry are all gone," sed She. TT.
IT may be possibul, " sed I, 'that
the Genrul- -
''And my barrel of SOAP" sed she.
ct may be possibul," sed I, ''that
the GenrG moved off our things to
take keer of EN- for us. T reckon
We'll get EN- all back after while"
''Ater aohile,'' said Mrs. Arp, like
an ekko, and ever since then when /
alood to our Northern brethren she
only replies, ''Aaer qchiie.''
By and by the skatterd wanderers
begun to drop in under the welcum
shades of our sorrowful City. 1t
were q delightful enjoyment to greet
EN- home, and listen to the history OF
their suffrings and misfortunes.
Misery loves company, and after the
misery is past there's a power of com
fort in talkin it over and fixin up as
big a tale as any body. I wen
standin one day upon the banks Of
the injun river, a wonderin in my
mind who would come next to glad.
den our hearts, when I saw the shad-
der of an objek darknin the sun-lit
bank. 1t wer not a load of hay mol
an elefant, but shore enuf it wer my
friend Big John, a movin slowly, but
surely, to the dug out landing on the
opposite side. His big round face
assoomed more latitood when he saw
me, and without waitin for remarks
he sung out in a voice some two
slaves deeper than the Southern Har
mony-
ScThora oomo to tbo boaoh -. ..... 2,