Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1879-03-08
BILL ARp's SUNDAY CHAT.
He Steps Up to Ben Butler and Talks of
Old War Claims. E

NNAA1 NAA@A
He don't make any noise about it, but
he cures maladies that nobody else
can. He sets things to rights and
brings things to pass hat seemed al
most impossible. His pendulum is
always swinging even or odd, good or
bad, Jack in the bush, cut him down,
here she goes and there she goes, but
it is the grand regulator of all sub
loonary things. Father time brings
pestilence and war, makes nations to
rise and fall, deposes kings and cheats
presidents out of their offices, and al
lows the good and the brave to be
slandered by the mean and the little,
but by and by it all turns out right.
1t looks dark for awhile, but the light
of history uncovers it. Sometimes it
takes him a hundred years to cure a
bad case-sOmetimes fifty-sometimes
less, accordin' to the natur and magni-
tude of the trouble, but it took him
only fifteen to bring Ben Butler to his
right mind. Ben Butler is a great
man. Like Bob Toombs, he was
born great, and he improved upon
what nature had done for him, but a
screw got loose in Ben's philanthropy
and he quit praying for his Southern
brethren, fellow-sinners though they
were.
Somebody has said that great men
are full of contradiction - that they
are great in some things, but very
small in others. Well, | reckon that
so, considerin that Sam johnson wore
a shirt five weeks without washin' and
Isaac Newton cut three holes in the
door, one for the old cat and two for
the kittens, and Lord Bacon took
brides, and Shakespeare stole a deer,
and DemOsthenes and Frederick the
Great run away in their first battle,
and Henry Clay bucked the tiger, aud
General Jackson bet a big plantation
and niggers on a horse race, and
Bcecher, we'll hc-I don't know what
he did nor what he didn't, but I'm
afeerd he's been 4 little loose in the
socket. But, after all, none of EN-
nor any other great man ever stole
spoons. It's not in the nature of things.
Ben Butler never stole 'em. | never
did believe it, and I'm glad the accu-
sation didn't come from our side. He
may have stole a railroad, or a big
plantation, or a State treasury, but he
never stole spoons. | would have con-
tradicted it long ago, but he didn't
seem to care anything about it
and woulden't do it himself. He's two
great a man to notice SANDER. We
read his last speech over three times
aud he coulden't have made it if he
took the spoons. If somebody put en-
in his overcoat pocket when he was a
little absent minded, he dident know
it. It's the best speech that's been
made since Sunset Cox plead for us in
1866. It's based on the Fundamental
rock Of high justice. Its what we've
been waiting fer and hoping for, and
what | have for years avowed would
come before all the One-eyed, and one
armed and o~ne-legged rebels died out.
Its a sign of returning sense of what
is right and honorable, and Ben. But
Ter, the worst abused man in christen.
dom, is the first enemy, so-called, who
has the manliness to acknowledge il.
| honor him for it. | wish | could
have heard him say it, for | would
have hollored amen and glory and
embraced him, shure. 1t wasent a lona
speech, nor a big speech, nor a speech
liked up for a sensation, but it was an
unexpected, unprecedented, unpre,
tending gushing forth of kind anC
cOnsiderate emotions. He wants al
the MANNED and disabled soldiers O.
the late war put on the same footing
North and South. lle wants all tn,
States to make up their war expenses
and let the general government assum,
EN-, like 1t was done after the reyOlu
tionary war.
Well, that's fair, that's right, that.
honorable, that's the way to settle III
this fuss, that's the way to establish
peace and good will and eternal loyalt.
to the constitution and the Union
! When that's done Bob Tombs vii
: knock at the door with his hat of
See if he don't. Let all the dqa
horses and mules and cattle 60. for i
, would break Cresus or Golconda
pay for EN- but may be if the Stat
: gets paid that money could be divide
. out among the losers as far as it woul
go. If they didn't get but five pc
/ cent, it's that much more than they
. ever get from congress. The Frcnc
: spoliation billwas before EN- for thirt
. years, but it didn't die a more prC
tracted death than will these 10y
Y Southern claims.
Ben Buffers speech didn't max
much noise. lie said It in such
q conversational, honest way they hare
( ly knew what he did say. Yond,
what Blaine thinks, and what Loga
4 says. But it don't matter. They
n follow suit in time, for the people al
moving in that direction, Th
southern outrage, bloody-shirt, kl
klux business is playing out. Blair
ll& Co., tried to rcsurrect the 0
d corpse, but it wouldcnt rise worth
cent. Fifteen years will smoth
most any common mans malice, but
n don't believe Butler eyer had any
q speak Of. He went into the war, b
he never tried to hurt us bad. He Z
% ways speaks kindly of Mr.. Dav
N Like Horace Greeley, he is full
d tho milk Of human kindness aud low
N peace better than wal. lie hone
d the brave of both sides, and is
2. friend to Joe Johnston and Cord
ie and all the Southern heroes. Hurr
for Butler, | say. BILL Arr.
DO The day before a Turkish girl
49, -- -NH VI