The Opelousas journal. [volume] (Opelousas, La.) 1868-1878, 1868-06-06
An Ode to the Freedmen's Bureau.
BY HARRY MOSS.
Broad and capacious institution


Who had the unctuous honor of san'
ing godfather to thee ?
In whose prolific brain vast thou fir
conceived
Who dost thou claim for fathe
thou dark and hdeous abortion
Who art thou?
Echo answers-a foul and loathsom
sore, which rankles near the heart {
this lost and ruined country-torevel
more.
Thou vast begot by the arch-fend Q
hate, conceived in the diseased womb Q
fanaticism, and born to an unwilling
! world in sorrow and shame.
Thou hast cost "the greatest Govern
ment the world ever saw" millions up
on millions of money.
The annual expenditures would girdl
the world with Atlantic cables, fnis|
the Pacific Railroad, and clothe and fee1
thy country's army and navy.
Thy agents and commissioners woult
make caravan of rogues reaching il
double ranks TO San Francisco.
Thy parasites would fill ten Thousand
fat-boats.
Thy hangers on and followers ART
enough to start penltentiary in every
village. The recipients of thy country
could buy the Bureau back, with thei
i'll got gains, sell it off at cost, and realize
a most enormous profit.
Thy sinecures would pay a weeping
nations debt
And thy head Tycoon would embezzlf
the last car ticket out of sick freed
mans pocket, and put counterfeit dime
in his church contribution box on Sun
day.
Thou art national incubus, lazily re-
clining upon thy country's heart, sIenc
ing the pulse of her industry.
Thou hast torn the bandage from the
eyes of Justice, and given it to thy
freedwomen for dish rags.
Thou hast stagnated the channels Of
commerce, and broken the back bone of
agriculture.
Thou hast made the ships to sit idle
upon the waters, and the plow to stand
still in the furrow.
Thou hast filled town, and city, and
village, with fostering lazzaroni, more
loathsome and numerous than ever throng-
I'd the streets of Naples.
Thou hast stretched ab.oal thy desc.
lating hand, and ten times ten thousand
broad acres, that once whispered to the
passing breeze the glad tidings OF their
own richness, are now as barren of fruit
trees as were thy originators of reason.
The thorn bush and bramble now rank
ly flourish where the cotton stalk bloom
ed, and thy pampered manufacturers
have stopped short on the high road to
wealth.
The Northern looms stand still at
midday, and their machinery is heard
no more throughout the land
Borne from the North by the light
nings breath, comes each day news of
crash after crash among her merchant
princes.
Oh, Freedmen's Bureau! Thou art
miserable miscarriage and the Goddess
of Freedom died in giving thee birth.
Thou weavest not, neither dost thou
spin, yet gangrened slaughtered pen
hast sweeter smell than thou.
Thy victims are dying off like Gov.
eminent mules with the glanders.
Fell disease is sweeping her chilly
fingers DER thy pets, and starvation and
filth are most powerful handmaidens.
Thou hast killed the goose which laid
the golden egg. and proven thyself the
greater goose of the two.
Thou hast cut the pound of flesh from
round thy bleeding country's heart, and
bartAred it for Pickering currency.
Thy outsiders pasted with Aimsy
greenbacks, but within-like the tabled
apples on the Dead Seas shores all is
dust and ashes.
Oh, Freedmen's Bureau. Thou art a
by dra-headed monster.
A moral Caliban.
The ugly charon who daily ferries
starved freedmen across the river Styx.
A fearful Gorgon, whose kissing locks
have frightened agriculture from her
fruitful fields. -.
A crocodile, whose hypocritical tearg
shrivel whate'er they touch. =
A shirt OF Nessus, whose subtle poison
has stuck to the vitals those whom thou
pretendest to protect, .. @.~.E
L An Augean stable, whose putrid pre-
cincts all the waters of Al pheus and
Peneus would not cleanse. @*.
A venomous toad that squats in Con-
gressional halls, where men were once
proud to tread. y@.sEssE
A deadly adder whose broad trail has
left its quivering slime upon the land,
smothering the fountains of their pros
perity forever a... w.. .s..-..
An upas tree, within whose far-reach-
ing circle the disgusted saSttz
bring forth its fEiaiau gggs6h. -
An unfinished humbug, whose with |
ering sequel shall fall like red-hot shot |
upon the descendants of those who hatch. |
ed thee, even unto the hundredth gener-
alton. 49, a... saa9 ~ !
An earthly Hades DER whose portals
should be written, as Ger the antique
gates of He'll, "Let all who enter here
leave hope behind"
i The laughing stock of nations. |
III The jibe of the world. j. s
VI The butt of the universe. ss2as H.
d The ridicule Of all creation. .ss%5 .aa
5'-------e-oe- Et+ II %F I
a lady in. New York sent a reouest
to a friend to accomnanv bor - o.