Morning journal and courier., 1880-09-08
Price Four Cents.

| ble horses, with negro driver who 'sknew l the river" We found the stream quite low and determined to ford it and save our four | ''bits. Dashing into the stream. which at thls point runs rapidly, we reached the mid 1 die safely. Here the current was very strong | and the horses plunged ahead for minute unsteadily, then stopped and refused to move The water was coming into the body of tbe wagon, and it looked as if we were booked Tor sail down to the Gulf. "Whip lem uptn we cr,ed to our driver, and rising to his feet and clutching his lines and Ione brck ub;T he piled it to the team vigorously. lashino the poor beasts at the same time with biS tongue They plunged on first one startino then the other, until finally trace broke square lt or ana there we were. Hunting up strong hemp cord from among my twine. f handed 1t to the driver and told him to Oct out and tie up the trace. tsMy God. bosS ,, he protested, ''dis is all de close cot and can't get dem wet" FtYou must. ,, I said
 " the only chance for us to get to shore, and we can't stay here.'' So out into the water he plunged, the current nearly washing him away, fshed out the broken trace and in few minutes had it well repaired "And now, " said l, Ego to your horses bits and lead them, and will use the whip and we'll try em agaln. This time they pulled to- gether, and in few minutes we were on the bank glad enough to be saved a cold water bath. We took solemn oath never to trv to ford the Tombigbee again. Before the Mobile and Ohio railroad was built Gainesville had population of about 5000, and was great depot for shipping cotton down the river. and also iiyeI9 business point, having a Iarpe extent of territory to supply with goods Many New Englanders and New Workers were beye before the war, and found here now a MT. Snow, who some thirty years since resided Ir New Haven. The old settlers here mourn the deeadence of the old town. The late cen sus finds but about 700 people where fan years since there were about ,OOO. The old hotel where l write, built twenty-six years ago by Colonel Robert G. McMahon, famiH- arly called f'Colonsl Bob" would accommo- date hundred guests, and I am told that the spaclous dining room, capable of seating at least eighty persons, was often filed NovI sit down with six or eight as an average num- Der The building is fast going to decay, ders and rats. 'fColonel Bob :" who has IatA. ly passed away, was among those who mourned deeply the decline of the town he so loved. speak of him particularly because he was type of the old-fashioned Southern gentleman. met him three wears ago, when I first visited Ga;nesyii1o and he impressed me deeply Large in ner. son, tall and weighing about 225 pounds he sat at the head of his table in the Iarpe din ing room and dispensed the eatabIes with a lavlsh hand He seated me at his right and filled my plate to overfowing with the oood - things of the land. After dinner we had A cigar on the verandah and pleasant talk miss him now from his place. and the hotel seems lonely without him. He was hosnitaI fly and Kindness personifed and never would turn pennuess wanderer away hungry, and many beats" took advantage of him and su1ndled him out of weeks of board bills Coi. Bob' kept scrap book, and unlike most scrap books, it contained matter to interest every one. I have bored over if for hours, and shall do so again I have no 1InGo in its pages clippings from papers all over the Umon, extending back forty or forty-five years Autographs of hundreds of the old citizens or Sumter county, most of whom have, like him, passed away specimens of Contlnentai money over 100 years old ''wild cat" State bank scrip ''wild cat' railroad scrip; all denominations of Confederate notes from $1 to $500; Confederate bonds and coupons an original Virginia note of hand 12S years old 7; a letter written in 17O7 with ink, perfectly plain and paper well pre- served letters and documents of the war of 1872; Confederate and United States post office stamps, from the first used to the pres ent; and clippings from Southern papers glvlng their accounts of the first battle of Bull Run and other engagements an orioi- nal letter of Aaron Burr, etc., etc. Opposite the Confederate bills I find the following lines, which some of your readers may like to read:
 Representing nothing on Gods earth now,
 And naught in the waters below it.
 Az a pledge of the nation that's dead and gene
 Keep it, dear friends and show it.
 Show 1t to those who will lend an ear
 To the tale this paper tell
 Of liberty born of the patriots dream
 Of storm cradled nation that fell,
 Too poor to possess the precious ores
 And too much of a stranger to borrow
 We issue to-day our promise to pay,
 And hoped to redeem on the morrow
 The days rolled on and weeks became years,
 But our coffers empty still:
 Coin was that the Treasury quaked
 II dollar should drop in the till
 But the faith that was in strong indeed,
 And our poverty well discerned = And these little cheeks represented the ray
 That our suffering volunteers earned.
 We knew it had hardly value in gold
 Yet as gold our soldiers received it
 It gazed in our eyes with promise to pay,
 And each of our patriots believed 1t.
 But our boys thought little of promise or pay,
 Or bills that were overdue;
 We knew if it brought bread to-day
 Twas the best our country could do.
 Keep it; 1t tells our history OCT.
 From the birth of the dream to the last
 Modest and born of the angel Hope
 Like the hope of success it passed.
 In another place copy receipted bill for dry goods purchased in 1864, as follows
 Col. R. G. McMahon
 To W. H. Decordon & Co. Dr. June 8. Braid for M F. s. .,.........:. % July l. 294 yds calico @ $105< paper needles. s.............. 50 Sept. 13 pair shoes s6 %
 s4s4 12 Showing the purchasing power in 1864 of Confederate currency.
 From clippings from papers printed here in 1841, make the following extracts, to show your younger readers who never heard much about slavery, how human beings with dark skins were sold like cattle in ''the good old slavery days" now, thank God forever gone, and honestly think that there is not one person in hundred here in Alabama would ever wish again to an auction of human flesh and blood, or to see human be- ngs in bondage as before.
 From the Republican Pilot, Gainesvile.I
 TRUSTEES SALE.
 By virtue of deed in trust made to the under igned by George Wright. on the 18th of March. A. he office of the clerk of the County Clerk of Sumter rooeed to sell to the highest bidder for cash, on Sat- rday, the 17th of April next before the postoce in clock m. and four o'clock p. m., the following escribed negroes:
 Eber, aged about 25 years
 Eli, aged about 2S years.
 Ezekiel aged about 23 years.
 Ewen, aged about Is years.
 Ezra aged about 16 years
 ROBERT CR1swELr, Trustees March 8, 1s41l
 FOOT NOTE R. G. MCMAHON George P. Wright coal black free negro and a sll them.
 sHERIFT's BALE. By virtue of writ of UenditiOna erp0nGs issued rom the Circuit Court of Lawrence county will ose for public sale to the highest bidder for be- the P. O. door in the town of Gainesville on the Monday in April next, the following property to = it: One negro woman named Polly, about 40 years Id one boy named Gus. about 16 years old !; and rl named Letty about 14 years old. Levied on aa property of F. c. Jason, deceased satisfy said Tit in favor of Speiring, Maxwell < Jones vs said unison s. H. THoMPsoN, D. Sheriff. March 26. 1841
 I could make further extracts, but these ill suffice. His family guard the book and alue it highly. have found the people of ainesville very. pleasant and sociabIe, and ave spent two Sundays here very agreeably, etween the two taking " hat we drummers Ill wagon trip to and through Pickens, rich cotton county, which I will describe, ,gether with description of the cotton lant, it's cultivation, picking and growing otton, &c., in my next.
 Very truly, O. H. CLAIRE. Mrs George Osborne of Hartford will