The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1876-10-04

five years and plant nothing but wheat
I'll take another and work it on my
principle, and I'll bet you thousand dol
lars come out ahead in the end. And
then there are the locusts. 1 plant them
raise crops ofthem-and they, too, pay
better than tobacco or wheat.
About labor? Well, let me tell you
the negro works adm irably. | nevei
have any difficulty with mine-never had
in old slavery times. l never had over.
seers. The planters knew less than the
overseers did, ana the Overseers knew
less than the negroes. Those overseers
were nearly all Internal scoundres. Le-
gree was true type Of them. Sister
Harriet Beecher Stowe-God bless her
told the truth in her UEcle Toms Cabin
She started the abolition of slavery, and,
thank God! it is abolshed had eleven
sons and nephews in the war. Eight OF
them persisted. | would not call them
back if the curse of slavery was to come
with them. We always longed for its
abolition without Northern intervention.
l tell YOU, the prayers of the women of
Virginia assembled to heaven and availed
more there than the canting hypocrisy of
Garrison and Phillips"
looked in the face of the man who
talked to me in this unexpected style,
and asked him with my eyes if he was
the Virginian who hung John Brown,
signed the ordinance of secession and
commanded a brigade in the army that
fought for the Confederacy of which
slavery was the corner stone"
THE redemption is working out, con-
tinued Mr.. Wise; "but we want to work
it ourselves. We want to be let alone.
We can't come right at once; this gener-
alton must first pass away. Our young
men were brought up in ignorance.
Tobacco repeating the sentiment already
uttered, and, as before, taking an another
enormous bite at his plug, tobacco and
whiskey, tell you, have been their
ruin"
At this moment well dressed young
gentleman, who was introduced as Dr.,
came into the room to consult the Gov
ernor on a question that certainly a man
of ordinary knowledge could have de-
clded Tor himself without legal advice.
"Johnny," said Mr.. Wise, ''can you
spell apple pie?"
81 think SC" answered the young man.
"Why2"
because" replied the old lawyer, II
thought likely you couldn't, as you come
to ask me such a question. Now, see
here" he continued, turning to me, "this
is one of the boys | was speaking OF; you
see how little he knows"
Then he expatiated again upon the eli
mate and soil of Virginia, which he said
was the loveliest and best country in the
world-God's garden of the universe; and
after glowing eulogy with this for his
text, he was beginning to give opinion of
public men, when he suddenly switched
off on religious track, avowing himself
n sincere Christian. A gentleman told
me after ward that he once visited Wlse's
camp during the war, and there heard
the general offer up beautiful prayer OF
his own composing before his troops, and
then curse his hearers right and left
through the ranks. His style on this oc-
cason was somewhat similar. "The
Christian idea eff returning good for evil!
Socrates and Plato and Senaca never
dreamed Of it; Shakespeare himself never
could have conceived it. 1t was promul-
gated by divinity manifested IN the flesh
On" he suddenly added with series Of
oaths, 81 was talking of Thad. Stevens
he was the most unmitigated scoundrel
that ever lived. the Mephistopheles of
the whole pack; Seward was no states
man; Sumner-poor Sumner he was q
travesty of Latin and Greek; and as for
Grant he was mighty poor general
and u mighty sight worse statesman-a
serpent, sir-not one that pierces with
his tangs and brushes with his coil, but
sickening, shiny reptile"
have remembered perhaps one.tenth
of the subjects which he discussed during
nv visit OF two hours. He was just
drawing another from his ineXhaustibls
store when some gentlemen called on
matters of business, and l awaited myself
of the opportunity of bidding HIM good
bye after thanking him for his iDstruc-
tive discourse With all his eccentrici
ties, inconsistencies and contradictions, |
do not doubt the honesty of the opinions
he entertained for the moment, If he
had reversed them the next day, AS he
was not at all unlikely to do, | should
have given him the same credit again.
He was in active legal practice, and ought
to have been successful, for he was able to
argue for both plaintiff and defendant,
with their interests alike at heart. He
could charge the judge, instruct the jury
and render the verdict. In short, it
would have been an economy to let him
do the whole business Of the court.
j. &.
~, T,,.L Csnye,,,ber1Y 1915