Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1873-05-31
LETTER FROM ASHLAND CITY.

4sdcnslliC, toi tuC lCdcOn tidt Il you
have been there, you know as well as
any one else what is there, and if you
have not, you ought to go, and we don't
wish to anticipate. But things occur
on the way there, that ought to be pre-
served as scraps of the worlds history.
Therefore be advised that our unas-
Stunning city sent up quite delegation
last Sunday, on board the staunch and
seaworthy craft commanded by Pap"
and known as the John Lumsden. l
am sorry to say that your humble SER
want was not of the party, for doubtless
he missed treat that he would APP
preciate in days to come (He does
not mean "benzine," but the fun and
frolic the boys enioyed.)
By previous arrangement, the Lums-
den was to be at our wharf in daylight
on Sunday to take up all who might
desire to go. From early dawn all
were on the qui vive for her. About
9 o'clock her deep-toned and sonorous
whistle was heard, and many were
the conjectures as to her wherea-
bouts. some locating her at every point
from GAINESVILLE to the mouth of Har-
peth. About noon those intending to
go, commenced vending their way to
the river, attended by their friends to
wish them pleasant trip and safe re-
turn. At half past two she made her
appearance round the bend, loaded
down, not with Lincoln men," but
with the staff of life and party of
happy excursionists. Among the num-
Der were not few of Clarksvillians
(not villains from Clarksville). She
soon made the landing, and party of
thirty-two ladies and gentlemen from
Ashland City and vicinity, boarded the
Lumsden en- route for the village at
the head of the island shute, known
as Nashville; for the purpose of seeing
the Exposition. By some means un-
known to your correspondent, the boys
learned that Jim Tarpley had a bank
on the boat (now you must know that
Jim's is not specie paying bank, but
he honors all drafts with liquid cur
rency), and they determined to make a
run on the aforesaid institution, and if
possible, bust the concern. And it is
said by those who ought to know that
they actually succeeded. Although
he had to yield to the great pressure,
yet he died game, and never threw up
the sponge until the last installment
had been issued. And then, instead
of one bank, phoenix like there arose
from his ashes at least a dozen who
supposed they had the financial ability
to start specie paying banks. For in
stance clerk in one of our stores i'm
agined that in the short space of few
minutes he had passed through all the
grades from Junior to head clerk, and
finally was the head of the largest
wholesale and retail store on the Cum
berland, outside the City of Rocks,
and that his former employer was his
clerk. Again, young gentleman en-
gagged in the saloon business here i'm
agined himself a wholesale liquor
dealer, with a score of clerks and sub
ordinates, and regiment of customers
whose varied and pressing orders oc-
cupied all his time. Another, who is
engaged in manufacturing here on a
respectable scale, working some dozen
or fifteen hands, conceived the idea
that he was carrying on the largest es-
adjustment of the kind in the State
said he was working one hundred and
sixty hands, and was on his way to buy
more machinery that he might increase
his force to two hundred. 1t is said
when he delivered this speech that he
threw his weight on his left pedal ex-
tremity, the ri ht extended forward
his thumbs stuck in the arm holes OF
his vest while his face was not unlike
one of the signal lights suspended in
front of steamboat chimneys from dark
until dawn. One other instance of the
happy effect of busting the bank is re-
lated of gentleman engaged in me-
chanical pursuits on a small scale: AS
soon as his last check had been honor
ed. he began to put on airs, and not
only imagined, but so declared the fact
to be, that he was carrying on the
largest establishment for the manufac-
ture of agricultural implements in the
South, and if any one doubted his word
just let him come to Ashland City and
go in the rear of IS store, and there
his works could be seen, which were
fully twenty feet wide, forty feet long
and one story high. Having thus adj
vertised his business, he, like all his
predecessors, called for the key to his
room, and retired amid the plaudits of
his admiring hearers.
| Upon the whole, the boys said they
had a gay time, and although they
broke Tarpley, they say he would not
stay broke, but recruited at Nashville,
and as they saw on the down trip that
he was prepared tohonor their checks,
they were like the Dutchman, when
they found he had the funds, they did
not wish to withdraw their deposits,
and as they further saw there was no
chance to keep a bank broken that
paid in this kind of currency, they did
not make another run. They had quite
an exciting time all the way up, as the
Lumsden and Siiyarthorn were in
sight of each other all the time, and
sometimes side by side. The former,
however, was first to make the landing,
getting the advantage of the Thorn
III passing through the bridge
The boys all got back safe and sound,
none of them having been called upon
to contribute anything to the support
of the government of Nashville, and
as yet all are strangers to his Honor,
Judge Dnling. They commenced COM