Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1891-02-15
AN oYSTeRMAN REPLIES.
Mathews County Defended from Farm
er's Attack.
Hnrurrnr IIrrr Enhrnaru G 1901
To NE EdiiOr Of Me DISPATCH :

To he Editor of The Dispatch:
Nv attention has just been called to
yery remarkable letter dated Mathews
Courthouse, Va, January 16, 1891, reflect
ing very unjustly on the oystermen of
Tidewater Virginia, and especially OF this
county, published IN your paper OF the
90th January, 1891.
What could have been the motive Of
your correspondent thus TO misrepresent
and maign his own countymen / am at o
loss 20 conjecture. He must be of lsh-
maelitish extraction, as his hand seems to
be raised against everything and every
body except the farmers, and as farmer
he seems to be failure.
Now to his assertions. He says: Look
at the land of Tidewater, from the Poto-
mac to the capes, grown in .plne-bushes
and sedge, and the squalid huts of the
oystermen; look at the numerous whiskey-
shops at the forks of almost every cross
road and ON every creek; 60 to one Of
them on a stormy day and see the motley
crowd assembled there.p
AS to the lands from the Potomac to the
Capes, having never seen them, am sure
he knows nothing. Being considered a
one-horse farmer only bg courtesy and being
closely confined TO its duties, every row
being his, he could not be expected to
know. believe. however, he has always
on hand luxuriant crop Of broom-sedge
and pines.
This is a prohibition county, and ! defy
him to point to whiskey-shop within its
limits. If he occasionally gets sly nibble
it is more than / can.
1.-THE motley crowd" alluded to is the
bone and muscle as well as the solid men
of our county-an honest, peaceable. law
abiding, industrious, and thrifty people,
and appeal to our honorable senator, j,
N. Stubs, for the truth of this assertion.
As TO their "huts and squalid misery?"
From this place l notice a great many two
story painted dwellings forty and fifty feet
long owned by oystermen; also, very CON-
Portable single-story room-and-passage
houses, such as he lives in, surrounded by
gardens of fruit and vegetables IN abun-
dance; small farms well titled. with some
of the finest horses and turnouts in the
county, but no hroom-sedge to compete
with his staple crop.
These people owe no taxes, but are vain
enough To believe they can measure up IN
dollars and moral standing even with our
esteemed friend. These are the people
who bring into our county about three
fourths of the money in circulation, won
by their sweat and toll through heat. cold,
and storm from the bottom of tho Chesa-
peake, and these are they that make up
his motley crowd"
Stealing oysters out Of cover pro-
vokes laughter. II would be q fool indeed
to risk himself at so short range of shot
guns, for he knows his hide would be
punctured as sitter and capture sure.
Reflections on our Board Of Supervisors
need no yiRdication at my hands.
THE motley crowdn have no land. but
hey only have dogsa and cattle that depredats
on our good neighbor, andwon't even catch
bis foxes for him. suggest that he trap I
few, and, like Samson of old, tie few FIRE
brands to their tails and loose them in hi
field of sedge. aud invite his motley
neighbors TO the hunt that they may cap
turs some OF the fleeing ones to cook Will
their taters" but then he would have
ing truck from tho old harss.
Your correspondent should come out o
his pines sometimes and learn that thesi
degraded oysternen are Everywhere OK