The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1874-12-04
The Carpet Dagger.

the Eufaula (Ala.,) NesCs. of that char,
aeter, as given by Senator Norwood,
of Georgia, in his great speech in that
town on the Saturday preceding the cleo
ton day:
The reconstruction acts have wrought
unreasonable evils, bat, perhaps, the
creates tof all is the production of the
earp-t-bagger. l have great admiration
for the genius who first used that WORT,
carpet bugger What can be more ex-
pressive7 His like the world has neger
seen, from the days IF Cain, or of the
foltv thieves in the tabled time of ALI
Bahia. Like the winds, he blows and
we hear the sound thereof. but no man
knoweth whence he cOmeth or whittier
he gOeth.
Natural historians will be in doubt
how to class him. OrnitholOgists will
claim him. because, in many re poets,
he is bird vi prey, He lives only ON
corruption, aud takes his fight as SOON
rs the CARCASS Is picked In other par>
ticuIars, he resembles the migratory
crane. For, when driven by the trisIdI>
ty Of social ustracism from the North, he
flies with marvellous instinct TO the tor
rad and unctuOus embrace of his Afri-
can mates and peers among the sSamps
of our Southern shUre. As the crane
fills his craw, 80 this creature fills his
bag Tor the flight, and rs the crane, when
the DAYS grow hot, flaps his wings, and
sore ming through the ar, returns to
the north so this Ill-Omened bIped, y hen
times become warm IN the south, gaihS
ers up his legs and flying with screams
III ha a
en- head of the figure of Justice, Common
" known as the attorney general, and
browns the air with croaKiugs about
southern outrage and wrong In
other respects he is like the marsupial
family of quadruped+, for as they have q
pouch or bag in which they carry their
young, so he derives his name from the
bag he carries aud in which are stored
all his earthly possessions. The opus
sum is of the marsupial family, and the
caruet.bagger, ike that animal, does all
his travelling ut night.
Solomon was wise man, but he did
not know everything de was wrong in
SAYING There is nj hing new under the
sun" The world has swung on for
thousands Of years, through wars and
pestiience, through famine and plague,
has been visited by tempests and earth>
'uuakes, frogs and flies, murrain and
lice, but never, until the year of our
Lord 1867, was any portion of the globe
afflicted by a carpet Dagger. Solomon
dad not know him, nor dId David or JvTe~
Iniah conceiv1 OF such calamity If
thew had, the songs of David and the
book of Jeremiah would have been lost
to mankind, for they would have com
mittpd suicide at the very imagining OF
such a woe.
Though he sprung into existence soon
after the war, the carpet Dagger IS no
ofF-oring of that martial coIliOn. The
time was not gratis Htarte wn he was
Matched or Uttered There Is no look of
Mars. but there is infinite specuia tIun
in his ewes a reward As large as that
offered by the Roman emperor for a new
aud savury dish, could not tempt the
most abandoned. peUured negro 20
swear that he has ever known carpet
Dagger to face the fire whIch he has 50
otter drawn by his incendiiry wUrk
His courage ouZes out at his departing
heels. During any little unpleasans
ness" this pharisee becomes, as UY mag
ic, a puhlican, for he takes his stand
g. afar of " He Is no product OF war. de
is "ths canker of a quiet world aud
Of a peace " hich Is despUtlsm enforced by
bnynuets His valnr is discretIC "a; his
industry, perpetual strife and ms
elnunence " the parcel of a reckoning
of chances as be sm ellis ont path " bIch
may lead from the White House To a
cusLom house, a pOstoffice. the Internal
reSenue bureau, or perGhaLce, 70 either
wing of the federal capitol HIS shibOo~
lrth IS 'the Republican party. from
that party he sprung naturally as maggots
FROM putriiacti0n. His relation to that par
tv is shat of ri p to Il bIwd, for tbs
meritorious service is rewarded IN proper
ton e. the number of Innocent negro
victims he inveigles to crafty It's lust tor
power Like Is amba and Gerth ne news
er trays without wearing his masters
collar; and he ia equally content wheth-
er turned loose to chase like a sleuth>
hound The monarch of southern SOIL, or
called by a snap of the fingers 10 eat the
garbage of his party. Ills collar Is his
passport 20 roam at large, and it matters
not Nth what persistence he may break
into a southern gentieman's closet, his
master will not permit fhlm 20 be mug
zlpd, for he Is ''the OK that treadeth out
the corn as well a. " the ass that know
eth his masters crib.
Wherever two, three or more negroes
are gathered together in the name If
Grant, he, like leprous spot is seen,
and his cry, like the daughter Of the
horse .leech, is always give, give me
Office
Without Office be is nothing with Of I
fee he il q nuisance Out Of Office he is
a begasr; ia ofio. he grows rich till his |
ewes stick out with latness Out Of Of /
ice be Is. has in hand, the outside orna-
ment of every negro's cabin; a planta~ !
ton loafer and the nations lazarOni; in /
Office be is an adept in add ton, sub |
tra,tinn and silence" Out Of sfiee he !
is the orph an ward Of the administration
and generally the signspust of penury
IN Office he is the complaining suppIabt
for social equality with southern gentle
men.
His former neigLbors in the unknown
region whence be fvd, wonder, not at
his flight, but at his escape aud conceal
menL But when, as sometimes hap
pens, be reaches Washington labelled as
senator or representative + ON the pro-
vince Of Louisiana, or South Carolina.
or Alabama, or Mississippi, and invoieed
and consigned TO President GRAFT or
some Of bis henchmen, the romance Of
tie TRANSPORTATION so wells his identity,
that those neiehbors gsther in the Carl
toI. and with field glasses in hand they
wrangie and swear % in the galleries in
,prrv disDute whether the official autonn.