The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1877-06-06
Gag, Clag, Jag, and this Writer.
"REMINISCENCES BY AN EY-AB-
BEFILLIAN OF FORTY
YEARS.

The above James will call to mind
at a glance four young men of your
town who figured early in the forties-
the three first as young NJ. DIS, the
latter ''unknown." } ny, however,
or.ly became so during the year 1911,
while Gag and Clay had been so for
some time, without doing any good or
any harm. Tlleyall stayed iii the same
Office, and the two former were not the
kindest to Jag, and, | always thought,
because they saw in him Il man they
knew would count" and who was
"betting on himself" Well, Jag had
to graduate somewhere, and at the sug-
gesti0n of his preceptor, he selected
Burlington, Vermont. When leaving
home, it was the first time he had been
away fiom his mothers apron strings.
He vas modest in department, reticent
and retiring. He went by private con
veyancc to Aiken, where he took the
cars. The world, away from his old
haunts, looked new and beautiful.
The poetry, latent and unknown to
him or any other, wellrd up to Aiken
and increased to Charleston in u flame
as he sailed out, and by the time lie
reached the upper Hudson lie was in
Il state Of perfect illumination. He
'dotted" down in his diary, as lie nov
ed along, what lie saw and felt, and
when he reached his terrnini, he show
ed it to comrades, who told of it. and
all editor called for ii aud grusped it
for publication, to which the innocent
author yielded, and was presented with
forty numbers, which he mailed to
friends, acquaintance, and others
about home, without noticing the col
umns filled elsewhere with Abolition
ism, not popular "in those days" in
Abbeville. Long after the print I re-
ceivcd one in manuscript, and felt so
much the compliment [ showed it to
Gag and Olag. They were indignant
ut it showed ME theirs in print, word
for word, denounced it as an outrage
on two points: First, printed in Il
vile sheet, and second, copied with
pen and sent to q dull, prose stick
this writer. They more than intinat-
ed further that there was something
sinister about it, there being others OF
the same an of this writer and more
liable to change; but that gave no Of
Tense in this masculine direction. An
answer was requested and they begged
and imp!0red me to let them do it in
my name. In an evil hour | yielded,
as did All ancient relative OF mine,
with less excuse, rs his was provoked
by the seductions Of female influence,
and my very consolation to-day is, that
the lash that eXc0riated n.y. cuticlc
flayed also to the bone that of my be-
trayers and seducers. They went to
work joyously and deta6ed every oc-
currence for months with loaded
down with adjectives. and were ready
at the end OF the week for the mail.
They read it to me with my name
signed to it. Jag had said to me MY
dear friend, you AN scarcely imagine
the feelings that swclled my bosom as
standing upon the deck of the gallant
bark she nobly ploughed the waves
out of Charleston larbOr, with the tall
spires of the city and the palmettoes
dimly fading in the distance" To
which my scducrrs gave all offset by
dc scribiNg q thunderstorm and upset
of buggy which had beiallen me, add
ing thus: 'This enables me 10 appre-
ciatc the ecstatic felicity that must
have perforated your diaphragm as
your pedal eNtrcmilicS first touched
the tagged sidewalks of Broadway"
The whole thing Was shameful brutal,
and for which the parties Of the second
part, including myself, should have
been hung. Jag had fallen back to
New York to finish Oft, US advised,
and my (their) answer reached him
there. 1t took then, four days, each
wy, for Il letter. He received it,
caught at II glance the point, and with
an ct TT Brute feeling, he p%inioned for
a loftier flight, and in fifteen minutes
time he gave me the SM day this:
NEW York, April T., 1874.
IVY Dear Friend: To-day | rcceiv-
ed your hypcrbolical conglossation Of
%c0ngencric inability to perfection and
equatorial supcrlluity. / could but
admire its perfection of logic, its skat-
ing up rainbows and launching out
upon the ocean wave. In fine, it
would be as difficult to trace the n.y.
percene, yea. sNpcrcine paraphrenalia
you present, as it would be the niean-
derings of Il minnow through the broad
expanse.
"TlIe cunoiUc cannot he u proper
judge of your jcu ~ esprit, but it will,
when transcribed into my ephemera,
stand among the monuments of Amer
lean literature and cloquence.' | hope
the scenes 50 eayly described may be
the grand t%hcsaurium of all your ter
reslrial felicity and when ho"ry-
healed Gabriel shall thunder forth ] is
memorundum-dido, may he who RAISED
y pyramid Of glory upon the cloud
paved battlements Of thunder
storm then wave his golden locks in
triumph of u blissful Immortality.
Such sir, from Il heart that actuatps
friendship for you and yours, would
be glad to hear from you again.
LAS ever, yours, JAG"
! glanced at it and handed it to Gag
aud Clag, who read it with heads
touching. You may have seen folks
lightning-struck, and if not, so sur
prised that they could gyrate without
speaking. They stuck it in my peck
ct, Whispering, "Mum 3 the word"
I break the silence after thirty-tWO
years have elapsed.
Gag and Gag are, l know not where,
but lag is living in the far West, and
has long since written his ame high
on the scroll of his profession.