The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1875-08-13
And That's the Way He Felt.

He had a wooden leg, says the Eieks
burg Herald, three fingers were gone from
the left hand, and he had to use crutch.
In the dusk of the evening he sat down on
dry-goods box on the street corner, and
striking the ground with his cruteh, he ex-
claimed:
"Well, old pard, the wars over ! Gimme
your hand-shake hard p
He shook the crutch with healty good
will, and continued
:tThere's no more Reb-no more Yank !!
We're all Americans, and standing shoul-
der to shoulder-South Carolina alongside
Massachusetts-we can slick the boots off II
any nation under the sun p
He waited while and then went on:
"No more skirmishes-no more fouts !!
Uncle Robert IS dead, General Grant
wants peace, and they're melting upswords
and bayonets to make cotton-mill ma
chinery We're about through camping
oat, old pard, and we haint't sorry-not a
bit =
He leaned the crutch against the box,
lifted his wooden leg, and said:
"Lost good leg up at Fredericksburg
when I was under Barksdale. and Burn
side thought he could whip old Uncle
Robert and Stonewall Jackson together !!
Good Lord but wasn't it hot that day,
when the Yanks laid their pontoons and
got mp and got for us And when we
got up and got for them, wasn't it red
hot "
He stopped to ponder for while, and his
voice was softer as he said
"But forgive 'em took the chances
and lost I'm reaching out now to shake
hands with the Yank who shot me, and / II
divide my tobacco half and half with him !!
Tt was big war. Yank and Reb stood
right up and showed pluck, but it's time
to forgive and forget"
He cut "a chew off his plug, took of his
battered hat and looked at it, and contin-
ued
we the big American nation? Isn't this
here United States the biggest plantation
ON the river, and is there nation in the
| world that dares knock the chip off our
shoulders?
Maryland, ny Maryland.
Michigan, my Michigan,
He put down his leg, looked at his Grip
pied hand, and soliloquized
'.Three fingers gone-oand used up but
I'm satisfied. Folks who go to war expect
| to feel bullets. We stood up to the Yanks
they stood up to us-it was a fair fout,
and we got licked. Two fingers hain't as
good as five, but they are good enough to
shake hands with Come up here, you
Yanks, and grip me! We raise cotton
down here-you raise corn up there-lets
], trade y
He lifted his crucl,, struck it down hard,
and went on:
'Dnrn family who'll fight each other
We've got the biggest and best country
that ever laid ont doors, and if any foreign
despot throws a club at the American eagle,
ven shoulder arms and shoothim in to the
middle of next week
He sat and pondered while the shadows
grew deeper, and by-and-by he said :
"There's lots Of graves down here
there's heaps o. war orphans up North
I'm clipped up and half sick, but I'm going
to git up and hit the onery cuss who dares
say word ag'i in either. We've got through
fighting we're shaking hands now, ani
durn the man who says a word to inter
rupt the harmony It's one family-olt
Uncle Sans boys and gals and babies, and
we're going to live in the same house, eai
at the same table, and turn out biggel
crops than any other ranch on the globe
He rose up to go, raped on the box witt
his erntch, and continued
Resolved, That this glorious old famil.
stick right togetller In the old homestead
for the next million years 10 come r.
Olive Logan has been to see the Presi
dents grandchild. She says she kissed it.
toes. Who, but d women. would have beer
guilty of such toedyism as that