, 1879-07-03
,,,r nNasby" Got His Start.

,,o, very poor man ",A ana
w.. no vndlav Jettersonian, in Fin,
) j5',., y. Jefferson county, Ohio, If there
r'N, ,r,de of poverty from which there
any s7rtbcr descent, editing a news
'5Ho tn IN sparscly settled country is
nEl was on that grade, and
de 9'" 10 the further end Of it, too. ]
vel, ~, W. avn type, carried my paper from
SET u! ,,o office on my shoulder to the
t1e s%s ';n, office, worked OIL my paper on II
Pfll,'n1l n1l hand press, and wrote or scis-
rl'H Ont m of exchanges everything the
SNsa " contained About the time the
'ls'I IroLe ont | was existing i'll this
va. vi =, when | heard of a paper being
e,.;,,lated for signatures, petitioning the
I',rS IT',,I,Inturc to prohibit negroes from
Ley "a into the State, and asking for
v S.I.I,tion to remove all the coIored pop
;.;on F, tbe State contained What was
.s'n aar known as copperheadism was an
!-nortant rnT element in our State political
I,ory l,t Of the time. Twas then, as now,
-T psn,bEcan, and the petition was not
I,,"abt Nv" to me. | heard Of it, and hear
", .,sIso that a shiftleSs, worthless fellow
.a'@sd Levi Flenner-whose parents, by
I" % vov were both in the almshouse as
nrntv charges-was circulating it, |
ado m nv mind to see the paper.
TSs Thu satire Of the situation struck me at
,nr The few negroes we had in Fin.
iov were Woodworking, law-abiding
men, and to remove them from the State
and leave Levi there, was IA preposterous
mtrace on the fitness Of things. One
,rbt in a country drug store, where
r,ople rather, as you know, in country
rrDs, met Levi. saw paper in
E,pocket, and as | knew the dirty cuss
Eger read newspaper at all grabbed
Mas the petition. And 50 it was. |
hal it aloud with comments, and, as |
Esl and nterpolated my own remarks,
EtN the affiatus of the situation, and
kle up my mind to write the Nasty let
h. That week | published the first
Ie 1t was las those that followed it
Ep not) locally colored, even 10
he names of Levi and the few col
kei men living in Findlay. The first
Lpr was dated Wingert's Corners,
Ivford county, one of the rankest
ITprhead sections in Ohio A preach
\ few Sundays before, in that local
b had the tementy to pray from his
tlptfor the safety and preservation of
h Federal Government That night
vas warned to drop that sort Of busi-
Isl and the next Sunday a mob came
NTH a dozen teams of oxen and pulled
echurch to pieces. | will do the mob
EiustiCe to say that they were consid-
Eaa enough to ask the congregation to
pe walk before the work Of dcmoli-
gmms begun.
ltell you it was hot zines then in
bio, and Nallandingham was the
ndet Of a gospel that eminently
natened to divide the State on the
stlOn OF secession and Union. The
eat argument Of the Copperheads
AlSt the negro at that time was, first,
N as the Union army invaded the
ie States the negroes would flock to
eNOrth; and, second, that once in the
Hh they would enter into competition
Aaad destroy the rights of the white
@ In the Chinese question the
N Arguments, Orientalized, are now
%Ryamped. Why, in 1861. there
sa Democratic church organized in
which gave new dispensation of
W, indeed. kept up the letters
Winserts Corners for some time.
a"' letter travelled everywhere. IL
1me first thing | remember having
KnqaOted at all from the Findlay JEFF.
~al0G' and | was very proud of it,
few letters had been published,
4% halStead, editor, of the Cincin.
commercial, hunted me up and of.
me S2O a week for letter from
sSnS 1t was simply boundIess
l"Fllty to me, had never hoped,
Im my widest dreams to possess so
W. money, and that is the way got
,a 'Hrt as Petroleum V, Nasby.-