The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1869-01-12
Letter From Pat Flanagan.
pp,Sny Gap TITNNEI,.


; Misther Edithor: '
lam a poor laboring man, working
on the railroad, and was thinkin' tha
maybe you might print what l woul'
write. for it's the Gods truth, livery
word of it. Shure you know it woni'
be a great thing for poor railroad fa
to see his name in print, and II yor
do, be Cora, Pll sind the paper home
to the ould Dart, to let them see what 9
man Pm Citing to be Amiriky.sssa
bocklish. it will suit. Mywife Blddyan
me agrees pretty fair, only barrin the
time whin we are out of tay, mate ano
flonr. Now nv wife Biddy is tarln poll
tisLnn and sinsible woman sittin be the
fire tonight. Pat" siz she, "the toEr
barrels empty, there's no mate or tsy 10
the house. What will we do at all
.Divil a one of US knows what Will we
do.n sez |, and the poor cratur burst
ont a erwin. "Och, Pat" sez she don't
von mind when you shouldered your
gnn ashore, to go aud fight for the
| TTnisn. whin our poor little Aileen put
her little arums around your ligs and
cried as if her heart would break to
know that her poor fathur was goln'
10 the warsi You know, Pat, how the
big bugs tould you that they'd give me
and the wee thing plinty to ate file you
wur gone to fight fur yur country:
Shure YOU lift us in good faith, seem
as YOU had the wurd of gintlemin that
yur wife and child was to have plinty,
and a while after you wint away we'd
the salt tears a stramin' out O. our eyes.
| wint to thin fur mate and
bread. Nivir a bit of ather did they
give me, but they tould me to go and
wash for the soldiers. Shure | had To
do it whin the child was cryin for bread.
Well with cowld and hunger poor
Aileen died. No coffin, no winding
sheet, had to bury the poor child me-
self. The man that promised you Pat
not to lit us suffer nivir came anear us
whin you like a gomag as you was
wint to fight that they might stay at
home and make their blood money"
"Yis," says she, "what are you now,
half starved, hard worked from six to
six for one dollar and thirty-five cints
q day, and mate tia clntS pound, tay
two dollars, -four thirteen dollars bar
rell, shanty rint dollars a month, q
box of matches wild q sthamp on it, and
| if / want bottle of midicine for poor
| little Jimmy in the cradle there that's
sick, shure there's sthamp on that too,
and if the poor child dies, may God
forbid the same, there will be a sthamp
on his coffin, and the weeney sheet that
will cover his poor little body will be
stamped" BY this time Biddy was
awful: with the tears running down
her cheeks she commenced agin:
And that's not the worst of it, Pat" /"
siz she; "you're not as good as nagur !!
Thin pious gintlemen, that has such a
rucksiun livery winther at Wheelin'
siz you're not worth givin' vote to;
that man that ye wint to to git your
name down to vote, tould you, you
couldn't vote, bekase you was workin'
on the railroad. Afther you nearly
losin' your life for thin they won't lit
you vote, thanks to Squire Werniger of
Clarksburg, bad luck to thin. Pat"
sz she, "Pll niver behave word one lv
thin siz agin."
Now, you see, sir, livery word that
Biddy sz is thrue. Poor crathure, she's
seen so much thruble during the war;
that whin 81" thinks of it she can't
keep in. / wint out to fight for the
country that was good to me and livery
poor man; that give us good laws, low
taxes, plinty of work, and, thank God
pliuty to ate and wear; country that
was made by good min and ruled by
good min, until the min whose fore
fathers come over in the Maytlower got
n hould of it, and thin, by GOgstay
they turned the cOorse of the ship OF
State and sint her high and dry on the
coast of the Africans, an sorra one o
me wud cry if Ply ymouth Rock had
riyen somerset on boord ef the May
flower, and all wint together to the bot
tom of the say.
won't fight any more, for why, sich
poor fellows as me has to pay fer the
wars with our blood, and afther the war
with our hard-earned money to pay the
bloated bOndhOlders. We have TO give
thin our money for which we have toll
ed and shweat, which would save our
wives and children from hunger and
could. know that we have to pay the
office seekers, the placemin, pensioners
and all the blackguards who are fightin'
for villaiuy and daylight robbery.
Will, | hope Gineral Grant may act
dacint and thry fur better days; ii he
only don't do like the Orangemen at
Limerick, whin the poor fellows surren-
thurcd, and he promised thin fair play
and broke his wurd. | wus thinkin'
l,,'t l.n
to promise what he did to Gineral
Lee, and thin whin he had 1t in his pow
er to brake his promise. Lit Gineral
Grant do what he promised as sojer
and gintleman, and livery honest man
in the coHnthry will throw up caubeen
and shout hooroor for Gineral Grant.
l forget to tell you that I'm goin to
turn pedlar, or to call it politely, a
Knight of the pack. got Itish linen
table cloths made by the Yankees, and
the divil q one of them iver seen Ire
land no more thin my cOachman, that
niver cracked a whip for me.
Biddy is lookin' over my shoulder at
what I'm sayin' to you, and she siz,
" Pat, till the gintleman that you will
write to him whin you're peddlin', no
matther where you are, so Pat, that ]
can see your name in print, and if iver
he's passin' this way till him to call and
I'll meet him at the door wild a ceade
mile falthaugh."
Mrs. Biddy Flanagan and the young
Flanigans sinds their compliments to
you. PAT FLANAGAN.
2. S.-If yoR see Squire Warninger
till him that Pat Flanagan is undher
much favor to him for fixing it SO he
couldent vote. 2. +.