The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1880-01-22

cons SO cover ed with little Yankee flags
that he couldn't hardly see EN-. ms
away off in the country In the town, they
tell me all the soldier companies tote the
Yankee flag not because they are obleeged
to. but becausc Mcy prefer 1t. They even
lore it, for all [ know. DOrn an NOrfOh,
the Tr1inia girls are mo- ran mad to marry
Yankee officers hGn they 'c"s tcto the wor,
IF thnt's possible. | hear, too, that Memo
rial Dav i, little better than a farce; each
family decorating its graves and those of a
few great officers, leaving the private sol
diers, that did the fighting, naked and bare.
Don't that show that the heart is gone out
of thing? Strikes me SO.
Now all these things put together make
up about the biggest sign that was ever
hung up for men to read.
made the biggest crop Of tobacco last
year that I've made since the war, and al
though tobacco is low and the average OF
my crop not good, [ thought on the strength
of it | might as we'll 60 down to Richmend.
l wa prepared for a change, but great
Fathers! not such a change. All the old
hotels, old banks. old sto's, &C., with one
or two exceptions, gone. All the old law,
yers, preachers, merchants and nearly all
the old editors, gons-clear gone. Every
thing new, everybody new. The people
looked to me like Yankees, and the town
like q Yankee town, though | never saw
one and wouldn't when l was a man Of pro
perry, with land in plenty and a hundred
niggers, mostly young and likely men at
that. was q stranger in my own land,
and if it hadn't been for old Eford Bentley
and Jeems Lyons, and some tobacco men,
sons of my old playmates, I'd q cut my
throat. They tell me there is skeersly q
native-born Virginian in business in Rich
mond, and them that is can't compete with
foreigners that come from the ends of the
earth, from Cape Cod to Chiny and Peru.
Virginians nave gone into the professions
pretty generally, and with the exception
here and there Of a lawyer and a doctor,
they are just making living, and that's
about all. Some few tobacco manufacturers
there is mo- dead po' respectable people in
Richmond than in any other town of its size
on earth.
l thought I could stand agood deal
after seeing all l saw and enduring Uith bit
little cussin' the ringing of a bell ereey time l
took a .julep: but the first place [ settled
down in for a good chat was a drug sto'
Some half-dezen gentlemen, all Virginians,
was thar. and the talk fell on slavery, and,
if you believe me, every single solitary man
Of them a~pozogissa for 1t and said they "as
"Pay for your niggers. you internal Yam
KEGS !" I said to myself as [ walked off.
I'll see you dead first. [ reckon the last
man of you would think in a sin to take the
money if it was offered to you. Plague
take the whole degenerate race of idiots,
stock, lock and barrel of you. If they could
rise up out of their graves this day, your
forefathers would spit on you and disown
you"
Then l recognized fully the change that
not Virginians, they are not good red
herring Yankees-they are nobody In par
ticular.
AS | was going along, thinking these saw
age and gloomy thoughts, my heart com
| pletely broke, l come across one of the most
prominent men in the State. He was de-
lighted to see me.
0"Why, you old scoundrel, " he says, what
brings you to Richmond? Z"
Business"
"Going to give us a speech? Got any
good political articles in your pocket? The
Enquirer is dead, you must remember"
Eyes, and l wish was dead too"
"Well, well, )" he says, that sort of talk
will never do. Come straight to my house.
Why didn't you come at first where is your
baggage? Come; Pm all alone stay a week,
a month with me; it will be like old times,
and it will be a real kindness in you to
come"
That was a different sort of talk from any
l had heard it cheered me and warmed me
through and through. | went with him.
We had a toddy or too before dinner. All
of a sudden, in comes a peart little fellow,
with a game face, brimful of interest, and a
hearty taking way that carried everything
before him. My, friend whispered to me
that he was perhaps the most promising
young man in the State, already influential
in politics and in a position to make him
self a leader of public opinion: | was de-
lighted to see him, and seized his hand.
why, boy said |, know about you
from A to lizard; know your family; danced
with your mother when she was a belle in
Williamsburg. I'm glad to see you.
They tell me you were a good soldier, the
Yankees had you prisoner on Johnson l.
land, you got exchanged and went straight
L honI RI frht1nr roI nnI Go .