The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1867-12-05
low the JacObins r Sergeant
sing Hell" In Alabama
from the New York Racord.l

The poets, ancient and modern, have
exhausted fancy and imagination alike
n picturlng the observations and expe
%rienccs of Orpheus when he went on his
voyage OF exploration to Hadcs in
search Of bis. lost Eurydice. We oil
know what frighful demons haunted
his steps, and what horrible spectres
yrinncd at him as he went along also,
how, after he had entered the regions
If the damned, his eyes encountered
shapes and forms which made the al
genturcr shudder.
Dante, in his Inferno, gives us q
glimpse Of like poetic horrors In the
same Radical regions.
Milton, also, III Paradise Lost, de
picts the "gorgons and chimeras dire
which bcset the approaches to hell, and
hell itself.
And poor Burns, in Tam O'Shanter,
furnishes us a blood-chilling descrip-
ton of the demon dance that met his
astonished gaze, when on puir Maggie's
back, he glowercd into Kirk AlIoway.
and grew unconsciously enthusiastic
over the carousals Of those he saw
there.
The poets, it seems to US, must have
had some dim discernment Of such hell
upon-earth gatherings as the Alabama
B q k-al d Tan Radical Convention
now in session at Montgomery, when
they thus painted in glowing colors the
abodes of supernatural %wickedness and
the dwelling places of the damned
Their imagination, doubtless, was WV
id but had they lived in these days,
and in this land, VIC cannot help think
ing they wuuld realize how far short of
grim reality falls their poetic fancics.
1t has fallen to our lot to behold, face
to face, as it were, the things which
they beheld only through the medium
Of the brain--for in very sooth, con-
templating the personnel, and medita-
ting upon the sayings and doings OF
that agglomeration of evil spirits, one
may we'll say with the man in THE Tenn
pest:
"Hell isempty, and all the devils are here"
An eye witness Of the opening pro-
ceedings tells US that one of the most
prominent delegates is a %mis-shapen
creature named Bingham, who has ev-
cry appearance ola ghoul. He is from
Vermont. "IIis eyes, we are told,
'are those Of Il shark, with great bags
underneath. His hair is mummy's
hair, and his voice the voice Of a rusted
saw. He talks much in a sort Of qua.
ky ~screech, and as he grinds cut the
word 't-er-r r-ai-tor' is devoured by
admiring negroes in the galleries with
looks of flame" The exhibitions con
sists Of eighty.sevcn members all told
who may be classified us follows:
Negro BARRIERS IL
Coach drivers white and blacI) Is
Wallets (halr and ha!f) II
Elk plantation hands
Yankee pcd!ars IA
Frccdmcn's Bureau men
Massachusetts, colportcurs
Tribune correspondent mean white)
Negro preachers
Escaped convicts
Loyal Leayucrs
Total 81
Or these creatures, We have it or
good authority, that but nineteen OF
them drew their first breath on South
orn soil; the rest Of the tribe are squat
tcrs from New ENGLAND, whose bust
ness, before the war for the Cli!nn. was
the manufacture Of tin pans, wooden
nutmcgs, and brass clocks Ohe Of
those whom we have classified us es-
capped conyicts has his cars cropped
the other is branded as a dcserter from
the Federal army. One of the negro
preat hers is the same scamp who be,
fooled the "uDconlilionally Loyal in
this part Of the country three years ago
by representing that he was Mr.. Jetfer-
son Davis runaway %coachman, when
the fact is, he was a graduate Of low
negro boarding house in West Broad
way, and was never out of New York
in his life. The mean white corrcspou-
dent of the Tribune was formerly an at
tache of the Independent, and a dissem-
inator of evangelical religion, ~so.called
in Beecher's Plymouth Westinghouse
across the river. We have not been
q lie to ascertain exactly why he left
his former employers, but we are left
to infer that it was in consequence of
the mysterious disappearance of vari-
Gus articles of value belonging to the
brethren, and the strong probability OF
a visit from the detectives One of the
wretches who are down ON the Massa-
chusetts "colporteur" list, figured at
the Cooper Institute last winter, as Il
solicitor of aims for 1.-The poor freed
men," He is understood to have rails
ed several thousand dollars, but nobody
is silly enough to believe that "the
poor freedmen ever got a glimpse OF
it. The fellow was famous for his elon.
gated prayers, and a simulated meek.
ness Of expression. His ways W.
very "taking." He would take any
thing that would come in his way (lik,
the Tribune correspondent if nobody
was watching him. Ono Of the crew
in the Yankee pedlar category, we are
further informed, "a one ridden on {
rail, another is known in connection
with adultery and murder, and severa
others are accused swindlers. Thu
State Commandment. General Swaync
and the boss satrap of the military dis
trict, lying Jack Pope, are constant.
in the Convention, instructi.g, advis
ing and ordering the miserable crea
lures what to say and how to vote
But, that is what we Northern ant
Western taxpayers toll and sweat Il
pay them big salaries for! And tina
is what the Rump Congress engineered
their Military Reconstruction AbOmin
alton fnrt