The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1888-12-27
rEAIxrAEx 0MTExAs.
"a II Old Rebel Endulges in the Pleasure
OF Free Speech
Anpiston Hot Bias


OF Free speech.
tAnriston Hot Blast.
ENNIS. TIN. Nov. q. 1883.
Editor Hot Blast. viii you tolerate a IeIter
froma western reader bearing III mind thai
luxury OF free speech is enjoyed a little more
fully in the State Of Texas than in the glorious
commonwealth of Alabama: This is intended
for SO rt of graveyard talk, not TO be repeate ed
ontsde of the family. Remembering that The
Hot Blast is and has been prot+ ctionist from
away back, and that it, was struck amidshi, ~
the Presidents message delivered in the month
of December. in the year of grace 1887 remem
berlng too that it did not bow in meek suDmis-
sion thereto until after the st. Louis conven
ton, a few free and easy expressions may be in
order. although the like have never been held
in high es eem by the Bourbon Jumbo
The comments of The Hot Biost upon The re-
cent lugubrious utterepces of senator Mo,aan
before the legislature OF alabama have some
thing 10 do in calling cut The observations that
are here made. You are correct: the SCI ator
does not represent the progress of his site
But he does most truly and faithfully stand
forth as an exponent of the want of opjuion
The absence OF enterprise, The hopeless dead.
ness OF the "black belt" Bowling low In the
august presence of the great senator h lingering
10 do him honor the best that can be said Is
that he represents the iossiliterous ore Of Ala
Da ma politics.
In the mid summer of this year yours truly
had reason to visit the state of Alabsma
Things fell under his observation that would
scarce y have escaped the senses of a biind m an
IL was the height The dull season of the year
between the miudle of July and the middle
OF August. In the northern part of the state
IN those towns where industry has become di-
verstied; where peopl- VINO used to be idle
are getting work atgood- wages where lands
that used to be worthless have become vain
able where siaid and solemn townsof the old
time have become busting cities; where Old
fields and mountain fastnesses have become
The busy 5bCdes OF men. women, and children:
In all these places people were content cheer
tut, and busy. No idleis were to he seen about
the streets. At midday hush seemed to have
fallen ever all these towns An occasional
country wagon with some produce of the farm
showed up, and men issued forth from neigh
f.i tlsrc
or vegetables or melons which the countrymen
had brought to town, And the granger dis
posed of mis- load al prices that made his heart
glad. This much is known for it was seen. Then.
when the hands turned out after the Stops and
factories were closed. Or relays of men tool. the
places of those who had been at work during
tie day. those We're lively towns. he stleets
were as:ir and stores were thr0nged with men
ana women who had money or credit, ana
these bore away baskets and bundles, Their
faces were cheerful their speech manly and
indsp pendent heir clothes clean, new, and sub
stantlai. Business 1uen in these towns,
nentering the old times and also that The
prosperity which had come that portion OF
Alabama had come with the abandonment of
old and The adoption OF new industrial notions
covertly ianle nted HAT the new south had
been bullied by the old into the adoption of the
tafl1 reform notions of the President. They
would vote with the party, so they sad but
really, they did not lhiLk The Mills bill the
ns st Thing for the country 1t was noticeable,
100, IN all those paris that the freedman was
ihhleh good hunlor.- 'ItS been better for us OF
late years" SO he testified. "Dese new irun
wedges dan we did on de fallins. Dais plenty
OF wuk fer ev'y body that wants to do any
Thug, an CT de culiud folks don I git along its
dey own fault
And then, too, the traveller fell into the hands
OF some of the chiefs of the manufacturing
tribes, and they steered him through their es-
taoiishlnents. Some of these struck the
auloIea eye OF the stranger as being colossal.
mere Is majesty in an iroa plant; fortune in
one OF the SIN Oke-st acks. The huge proportions
OF o. US Other parts would argue that the work
mao oeeh designed and finished by Titans. They
make pjg-iron there. When the streams of
noIteh metal are ~iprred into troughs and
| lfenches at night. there are few finer pictures
ol me orthodox hell. The puffibg, sweating
| Ire edman that steer the red hot currents and
| make them obey the laws of the establishment
need little help of in agination to be fashioned
into ina s Of Tartarus. sThere. said an ex.con.
| federate colonel. one Of the proprietors of the
! establishment "there, said he, pointing to a
best mer in Alabama. He served with me in
| the army. and motioning to his empty sleeve,
'he was on hand taxing me off the field in less
than ten minutes after was wounded. That
| man has been as a brother to me since my boy
hood He has good eye. good Judgment. and
| is honest. We give him three dollars per day;
! he has been with us from the first; he owns his
house, supports a large family. and has COM
| Portable bank account He has not lost a day
| in four ears Whether il is eight. or ten. or
| twelve, orsiXteen hours day it is all the same
him. He is always here. Ilck is a model
| man" All hands about tie place seemed
| cupied. busy TO their utmost, and while these
| compliments were being paid him Jack was
| petJlDS lulO q IeU NOT Etit III the base OF the
| furnace and caressing something on the inside
| of il with long iron prod. Visits to other es-
adjustments brought stories of thrift and faith
| full service: they showed, too, a broad gagged
good will between master and man.
Down into the cotton Countrywide black belt
| There under. spreading shade trees business
men brooded over momentous issues involved
| in games of checkers. The white ana black
/ men on the boards were touched with diff
! dence as II the fate Of an empire depended on
| every move. Ill favored idiers. black and
| white. SUNK through back streets and alleys
X nots and groups OF mOuky men complained
| OF hard times at street corners and in stores.
| Leading citizens locked malcoDtent and eeedy.
| Rags hung upon stalWaft limbs. black and
| white, and the air of the underling rested upon
many WHO under different conditions might
| have PXu1ted in Amer lean msnhcod. Bnt there
| were lots of friends of senator Morgan in that
| section
The Presidents message was regarded as a
| thing OF beauty and the Mills bin as q living
joy They did not admre the protective tariff
! nor the up-country that was flourishing under
/ it, Field hands were leaving the plantations
| and going mp there under the alurement OF
| better wages; those people in the iron region
| enjoyed an undue advantage over them. When
| the stranger limited that the north country was
the progressive portion OF the state: that under
| the protective system it hal been aw skened
! toa new life: that continuance of existing
/ conditions w uld work great good to the state
at large. his auditors looked feirceiy at i'm, de-
| nounced protection as q Yankee invention, fell
back upon the war. the reconstruction era. mig
| gers and carpet-baggerS, and then-and then
| discussion was at an end But Senator Nor
| gan represents that part OF the state, and that
| part of the state dictates The policies of the
| commonwealth for Alabaoa; that part of the
| state shuts its eyes to the living present and
| luXuriates III the memories ard traditions of
| the dead past. The politicians of that section
| stiied the voices OF the protection Democrats
aneered vt Mr.. Randall the great sage of the
party; scorned the sp1 it OF progress. and joine
| with hearty hue and cry in tue mad rush to con-
fusion and defeat. Now that the ectiOn has
been lost. now That the .eins OF power have
| been reckiessiy tossed into other hands, these
men strike idI.1 attituass az photographers and
occult causes OF the disaster. 1t has never
strucF the M that il was rank, unmii igated fcs-
si!isn, dominant, and int0lefaEt in council
| low grade Intelligence 10 high places. But the
common people know II; the eX confederate
| priyateg know 1t; for the same men have led
| them to defeat SO often that. veterans they
are. they cannot be imposed upon by uuskili-
full generals after the fight is over and they have
viewed the battle-ground for themselves. Dis
cipline may carry them into all iti-pa nned
| campaign. but they have far 100 much exper-
fence 10 be wholly blind TO the hlunderS that lost
the battle This talk may be a little mutnous
| but mutiny is rot SO grave an oftense as it once
| WAS.
Well well; and was not that fine corps OF
n iss ionarles that went north to teach those
people the beauties OF tariff reform" Think Of
it, ram pant free traders posing as patrons oI
| prott etion Mr.. Mills and ais associates from
the south, which has made ter greatest pro
gress in the past few years instructing the op.
ulent north in the ways of industrial wisdom
There is still another view to be taken of tbs
work of til csc missionaries. Republican ora
tors followed hot on their trails with biograph
zeal sketches from the congressional directory
with speeches made by them in former CAM
pa1suS, Win congressional fecGfHS no EtHei
recorus showing That their southern teacher.
had been disuntonisls iii the old time: tn Il
they had been secessonists in 80 an Ct, al
WAY free trader -aEQ that they were itadels
of the bata1iOns that had killed by tens Of
thousands The fathers ana sons and brothers OF
these same northern men. They showed that
mourning had visited the homes of those PEG
pie by the death OF friends and relatives wine
had lost their lives i'll combating the errors
and mistakes that bad been made by these
same tutors i'll former years. What wbAieealt
/ ignorance OF human nature was it that did no
know that capital would he made OF such over
sights supposing such thing as doubtful
southern stste, what Would have been the ef
feet of a drove Of rabid Republicans OF the an
tt. slavery and war pefiodSparadngt thu ough th
land political campaigners" Would not oul
ensangninea confederate undergarmencs have
kissed many II breeze:
This letter Is too long; more than you car
stand at. q single dose. most likely but it give
expression to the hearty disgust of
AN OLD REBEL.