The weekly echo. [volume] (Lake Charles, Parish of Calcasieu, La.) 1868-1876, 1876-03-09
GOING HOME.

I
river. Around the bend at the Wyomls-
sing, near the cave at the mill on the OPP
posite side of the Schuylkill, an aged col
ored man was sitting on a stone eating
an ''evening" meal that had no doubt
been begged from neighboring farm
house. The stranger was a type OF the
real, genuine southern slave. His hair
was gray, his form rather bent, his little
eyes encamped in a cluster Of wrinkles !;
his nose broad, and an expression OF
honesty, kindness of heart, geniaIity
that could not be hid, but that burst re-
splendent through cloud of sorrow that
seemed to mantle him from his old black
hat to the well-worn boots on his feet.
"My name is Henry, sab, Uncle Hem
ry dey used to call me when I was Twin
whar [ was raised" was the reply he
made to the reporters question.
"Dat was down in Georgia, sab, a
long time ago. Use been gitten around
de norf since de war, but is gwine to try
to go along home agin, if can, before
desc old bones wear out and dere's muffin
left O me-"
"Want to get back south again, do
your"
" Yes, sab. 1t kind O. creeps i'll my
bones to go home again. call it home,
but it's long ways off. Was born thir-
ty miles below Savannah, and belonged
to Colonel Higgins, Colonel Archibald
Higgins, of the Pine Hill plantation.
Ever been darY
Uncle Henry was told ono"
"Pse been to many places in Gods
garden, sab, but now, in my old years, I
dun no airy a place like de old home
down dar. When General Sherman done
gone away from Atlanta, massa was kill
ed and de niggars was freed. [ cum
norf wild my son, but he's dead, sab, and
dars no mo- room for me heah. Use got
chilern Twin down dar sone'ers, least
dey was Twin when we cum norf."
Can you sing Way down upon the
Suwanee River Uncle Henry?" The
old mans eyes fairly sparkled and glist-
ened in tears as he replied:
Dat good old toon, how could I ever
fOrgit it? No indeed, not me forgit!
Dat was writ years ago, sab, but when
sing it now, away from old home, l mag
inc it was writ fo' me right now. 0, ii
tell you, massa, dars plenty niggers in
de world singing dat old toon what's ies'
like dis here old uncle, got no home, and
wishin' dey was back again wild massa
and missis. Swanee ribber, far, far
away" And the aged traveller wiped
away tears with his coat-sleeve as his
memory ran back in the years that are
past to the happy days he spent among
the sugar-cane and cotton in the sunny
land of Georgia. 1t was a sad picture
and not met with often. He spoke of
many other good old songs the darkies
used to sing, and would have continued
his history further had not the shades of
evening suggested a departure. Uncle
Henry was ''helped" along, but whittier
he drifted, or whether he will ever reach
dat good old home" he spoke of, is hard
to tell
"Good-by, sab, dc Lord bless vou's
all, were the last words he said as our
carriage left him far back ia the twi-
light.
WHAT THE SOUTH HAS DONE The
Louisville Courier-Journal reveals the
startling 'act that since the Inauguration
Of the national government there has
been spent about one hundred and ninety
million dollars Of pablo money ON public
improvements in the northern states
while the expenditures in the south
have not exceeded seventeen million dol.
lars. 1t adds that this is the mora sur.
prising when we remember that tho
southern states have at all times CIV.
cepting during the war, furnished one
half TO three-fourths Of the EXCHANGE
with which we have paid our foreign
debts, and that, in default Of southern
productions, the supply Of gold and III.
yer would be inadequate to pay the
annual interest charges on the national
debt, and the government Of the United
States would inevitably have dishonored
rs foreign obligations.
1T is said that 1900, 600 hove. j.