The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1886-05-20
BILL ARP.
Mr. Arp Visits Atlanta and Sees tho Elk
President and Hears the Rebel Yell.
atlanta Constitution.

ALtG7tU CORStltutlOR
We are even now and little ahead
There's nobody hurt on our side, and
! hope we haven't trod on anybody's toes
Our brethren up North have had many q
Jubilee at our expense, and we looked on
with sad good will and said nothing
In fact, some of our people joined them
in paying tribute to their heroes. !
couldent do that. I reckon lacked
philosophy or policy or something
When a rooster fights and gets whipped
and has to run, he is not going to crow
for the bird that whipped him, but if be
crows at all he will get over the fence
and flap his wings and crow for himself
on the SLY. Just after the war our people
we're terribly hacked, and went about
whispering and wondering what was to
come next. We we're a used up commu-
nifty for we had fought out of vittles and
clothes and everything, and had nothing
to get nothing with. Our land was desc
late, our women were sad and our chill.
dren hungry, and the prospect before us
vas gloomy, indeed. Con6scation and
expatriation and foul domination brood
ed over us, and so one day when I
couldn't stand it any longer, ventured
to crow and wrote letter of defiance to
Artemus Ward, and told him l was just
obliged to say something or bust. Well,
felt better after had given them
fellows piece of my mind, and just so
the South feels better now that she has
had her jubilee, and think we will all
behave ourselves, and be calm and
serene for the next FIVE years. We just
wanted chance to flap our wings and
crow once more, and we have done it.
The sight of JEFF Davis was enough to
make an old rebel crow, and the sight of
Miss Winnie enough to make all the
young rebels crow, and SO we all crowed
together. I thought that our old boys
had forgotten the rebel yell, but they
haven't. never saw as many big mouths
open at one time in my life as saw in
Atlanta. DR.. Hillyer told me that the
Southern boys had bigger windpipes than
the Northerners, and they learned to
yell from hollering at the dogs when
they were hunting GOODS and possums.
Maybe so. But do know that they can
make an awful fuss when they arc ex.
cited.
These demonstrations come so sudden
ly upon us thc.. nobody had time to think
about what would be becoming beha-
vior for subjugated people, and so they
just let the spirit move them. When
we heard that Mr.. Davis had consented
to go to Montgomery, we thought that
there would be nothing unusual and
that the old rebs would weep little as
they took him by the hand, or looked
upon his noble, patriotic face, but nobody
anticipated such an ovation, such love
feast, such campmeeting revival. 1t
swelled and expounded all along the
line and filled the air and enthused the
people everywhere, and by the time it
got to Atlanta the magnetism was ire
sistible, and I say now with all sincerity
that if our worst enemies at the North
had been there they would have caught
the wild enthusiasm that was in the
atmosphere and opened one side Of their
mouths if not the other. I wish that
Whitelaw Reid and Murat Halstead had
been there. The patriotic scene would
have made Christians of them for that
day certain. Sometimes when read
the lies in their papers wish that | was
away off on an uninhabited island with
them one at time. / would reason and
preach and exhort with him about his
sins and his ISLANDERS and his unbeief for
about two hours, and then if he diden't
recant and repent I would, as last
resort, maui the grace into his unbeliev-
ing soul and send him home reformed
man.
The love of country that dwells in the
hearts of homogeneous people is a
beautiful and wonderful thing. 1t is to
be nourished and encouraged and never
scorned. 1t is founded upon the love of
home, its sacredness, its shelter and its
charms. I wish everybody had home,
not simply habitation, but q home. 1
beliye that it would be the strongest
safeguard of liberty and the bulwark of
law and justice in the land. "This is
my home, my fortress, my castle" would
be the talisman that would make patri-
OTIS. But when poor man is knocked
about from place to place and his humble
wife has no flowers or vines or fruits that
she can call her own, and the life of the
family is but one monotonous struggle
from day to day and year to year to get
bread and meat and clothing, how can
we expect them to feel an interest in our
country or its laws. The government
has done great wrong to our people.
There were lands, millions of acres, that
would have been homes for the millions,
but they have been squandered. They
have enriched people already rich, and
even foreigners, yes foreign nobility,
have been permitted to buy up millions
of acres in the West and now they hold
them for speculation.
General Longstreet was an actor in
the great drama that has just passed.
With pride and qualification our people
looked upon the old veteran as he sat
like martial chieftain upon his horse.
I heard many an old soldier say: "God
bless him I wish could take him by
the hand" l have never ceased 10 hon
or and to love him. We thought lie had
left US, but no-his heart was all the
while with his people, and 1t is with them