The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1885-05-21
Bill Arp's Letter.

OF Liberty, clay county, missouri
T 1 wonder if the Home and Farm
e has got any subscribers away uI
= there?
1t is curious how our thoughts
do wander, and how we can some
times trace them back to theil
source, and so will tell you what
made me think of fLiberty. 1 was
thinking about the poor and how
they were getting along in this ter
rible weather-this winter of sleet
and snow, when it is hard for those
who are well off to keep comforta-
ble Then my thoughts wandered
away back to the winter of '61-2,
when the soldiers suffered so in
Virginia, for they were not used to
tents and freezing winds and little
chimney's made of turf, and from
those memories l found my
thoughts in a reverie about the
war and its hardships a nd honors;
and then 1about Sherman's march
of destruction and desolation
through the beautiful region where
l live, and how we have called it
"Sherman's belt' ever since, for he
burned up our villages and killed
our cattle, and carried off our
horses, and left no sign of habita-
tion except the solitary chimneys
that stood up here and there like
mournful emblems OF a monstrous
hall; he lett a solitude and called
it peace. Then l thought of the
the starving women and children
he left behind him, and of the scat
tered fugitives returning to their
homes after the war had closed,
finding nothing to live upon and
wherewith to rebuild or replant,
and how a little corn was a treas
ure worth more than gold and pair
of shoes or an old garment was a
godseRd; and how we had to sleep
on the floor and be thankful we had
a shelter. There was but one cow
left in all our country and she was
hid out on tep Of mountain until
the vandals passed through. Our
people were already exhausted and
had used up and worn out most
everything before Sherman came,
but after he left them they felt
like they had been rich and didn't
know it.
Falstaf said, "there was but
shirt and half in all his compa-
ny" aud our women and children
were not much better off. There
was little corn down the river
outside of the belt, but the trouble
was we had no transportation and
when we did manage to secure a
few bushels we had to hide it out
from the robbers and thieves,
who, under the name of regulators,
were perambulatlng the country on
stolen horses and in soldiers
clothes. 1t was horrible ordeal,
this lawlessness and desolation
mixed, but in course of time the
railsoad was rebuilt, and our north
ern friends heard of our troubles,
and so one day the mail brought
me letter from Liberty, a town
away up in Clay county, Missouri
and there was a check enclosed-a a
check for three thousand dollars!
thN U was W pOANAGoO SOA IL anu ]
for our people, just think
of it! So 600 from a people we did
not know and had never heard of,
and all of it from one little village.
l wish l had the letter now. l sent
it to Gov. Jenkins with the check
enclosed, and he bought the corn
and had it distributed to our peo-
pie. A thousand times have l
thought of that people and the
name of Liberty, in the county of
Clay, in the state OF Missouri, has
charm to memory that will never be {
or broken.
l wonder if those generous peo-
pie live there yet, and are there
many like them in that section? I
1t. is the only place ever thought
Of moving to if should move any
where. / like Missouri anyhow !
Hers are a noble people-that is !
all the old stock are. l don'tsknow
so much about the modern mixture G
that has focked in from all coun-
tries, but | reckon they are all |
right tool hope so. Missouri has .
a curious history. For fifty years I
she was thing to be bartered and I
sold and swapped around like a
school-boy swaps a knife. She 7
first belonged to France, then :
France and Spain, then Spain and :
and then to Spain again, '
and next to France and by France r
was sold to Uncle Sam IN 1903. :
She was even allowed to keep her
own name, which was Louisiana
for Louisiana as now known was
then called Orleans--and 1t does :
look like st. Louis ought to be in
Louisiana now. But the pres
ent Louisiana got into the union
first and stole the name and was
under it, and so 1t will |
have to stick, l reckon. Missouri ,
had to get another name, and so
she looked upon her great river and /
took that name, which they say
means river of mud That is the
wrong name, too, for it Is really
the Mississippi and is twice as big !
as the other fork. "Michc Sepe"
means the father OF waters and it
ought to have that name all the
way up. But the different tribes
named the rivers in scraps and
pieces like jointed snake. There
is the Mobile river, about thirty
miles long, and then it becomes
the Alabama up to Montgomery and
the Coosa up to Rome, and so on.
I was thinking what a power
Spain might have been among the
nations of the earth if she had
known how to tske care of and nour
ish what she had. At one time she
owned Missouri and Iowa and Ar !
kansas and Kansas, and Nebraska
and Louisiana and Florida and she
lost all this territory and she got ,
nothing for it, and new can hardly
keep her hold on Cuba. She is a
example of the downfall of
nations and it all came from bad ,
1t ought to be les
son to our people, and a warning ,