The National tribune., 1892-05-19

E,ISG.ahNAW ~ elsewhere. let emer-
b x XGSSS@a, gencies be what they
Robespierre, to show his great gallantry,
chivalry, and patriotism, became a private
mark you) in that company, though, rs pre-
viously stated, on the approach of the enemy
he evacuated in an opposite direction.
While upon drill he was placed next to a
man who wore tremendous 13-inch shoe.
When upon march, and the order was given,
Left left!" the man with big foot either
couldn't or wouldn't keep step, and every now
and then one of those pedal extremties. as fiat
as founder, would come down like a pile
driver on Robespierre's petite foot (the hand
soonest thing about HIM; then the little Spitz
would turn and snap and snap and lecture big
foot, who looked as wise as Solomon when he
decided the paternity between the two mothers.
Then Spitz would step out of the ranks, by per-
mission OF the Captain, for they had
STRICT MILITARY DISCIPLINE,
ain their minds; and then Robespierre would
march up and down in front of the company,
giving the command, Left, left!" Big-foot
paying the strictest attention all the time; and
then he himself would take turn ct command
Ing, making with his plantations big indenta-
tons in the soft sand, equal to Jumbo's. But,
strange to say, Jumbo, when he got back into
line in the of the didapper sptz pur-
posely feigned the impossiblity Of keeping
step, and apparently it was as impossible for
him to do so as 1t was for Copperfeld to say his
lessons when Murdstone was teaching him.
Every drill day Big foot was as sure to
! slip on Robespierre's feminine foot as the time
arrived or opportunity presented, and he must
| have had ocular and lasting remembrances OF
| Jumbo in painful corns or bunions. But as
judgment must always come, the finale
arrived in this episode also. Sptz evac-
uated in disorder upon the approach of
| the Federals, who captured and held the
place for months after the final surrender, and,
! like Othello, it's occupation had vanished into
the vaporings of thin air; the aforesaid home
| guard had become non est However, the OPP
portunity afforded Jumbo big foot his supreme
delight in showing his contempt for the afore-
said diGapper.
Now when the Confederate authorities saw
that they had to give up the town and could
| take nothing with them. the doors of the great
| storehouses were thrown open and the citizens
were told to help themselves, regardless of
color or previous condition of servitude." No
"innocuous disuetude" ensued, but the rabble
went into the invitation with will, and now,
it being an individual matter,
THEY MADE HAY" WHILE THE GRUB sHoNE.
Knowing as well as did the suffering of the
Confederate armies, they actually, TO my
knowledge having eaten rats and picked corn
out from the droppings Of horses, dcvourng
both with the avidity and appetite OF a wolf
10 see the amount of stores on hand, with my
knowledge, above expressed. Great hogs-
heads, tier upon tier, of sugar; stacks upon
stacks of sacks of coffee filed to the brm, bar
relS OF -four piled TO the highup rafters of those
immense buildings, barrels of moasscs, sacks
of corn, meal, oats. bales of hay and
fodder, mountains of bacon, all, mark you,
covered with salt resembling miniature white
mountain or suga'l loaf and barrels of vinegar,
not forgetting the ever present drunk juice,
sometimes deplumed "rotgut ~; spices, pepper,
ginger, drugs, medicines. ETC., etc.
And now the moving commenced. each one
for himself, and the cry to Get there
Eli and leave Dennis; but soon partnerships
were formed, and men of wealth, living In fine
and handsomely FURNISHED houses, worked
"side by side" with greasy, woody, sweating,
gourd- vine-smelling "niggers," who a week
previous, had they have dared to speak to a
white man without calling him master and
dofing their hat, would have been, more than
likely, summarily chastised; but dollars and
cents and selfinterest. Inconsistent, hypocrit-
ical humanity. Oh! how quickly it will and
does make birds Of feather" and bed-fel-
lows, and kin. All kinds of vehicles were soon
brought into requisition, as well as stretchers-
Indian Mexican, and all sorts of modes of
transportation, not emitting the wheelbarrow.
The wheeled vehicles were pushed and pulled
by men; but few horses at that crisis were left
remaining and
TREY WERE OF THE SCRUB
or "Sancho- Panza" style. Many were the
Kingdoms that would have been given as tho
price of horse that day, but they were minus
the kingdom rs well as the horse. There were
thousands of fveg gallon jugs filed with as de-
licious golden sirup as was ever manufactured
In Louisiana, and was balanced la Blondin OH
the heads of the black "mammies" and
"aunties," being retained and balanced there
as steadily as the Goddess of Liberty" on the
dome of our National Capitol. Thus securing
the "sweetening" first, and then grabbing two
large hams in each hand, they would march
as triumphantiy to their homes as though they
were some great conquering hero. White fe-
males of the poorer classes were occupied and
attracted in the general grab, and they secured
plenteously of the goodies, but nary lug of
that sweetness could they tote" On their
heads
One old colored uncle, like the old man who
wanted to fight in the Continental army, and
was refused, being told that he was too old,
told the commanding officer that he might go |
to the devil, and also told the aforesaid officer
that he and his little army might go to -; as |
for him he intended to fight the Brtishers on |
his own hook. Was that old patriarch patriot |
from the North or the South? Who can an |
swer? Now, if necessity be the mother of
invention" our old darby uncle alluded to |
was equal to the emergency. He had no part |
own hook he took six clear-sides of "sow- |
belly" weighing easily 20 pounds each, cut |
Sits In them, running each hand through two |
of them, and securing the other two in the |
grasp of each hand, and triumphantly paraded |
off with his captured six pieces of bacon For
tunately at this crisis he espied q son of his,
some ten or dozen years of age, and made an
improvement by dumping his bacon in an
empty lot, in charge of his son, while he re.
turned, and thus
ADDED TO HIS STORE,
or commissary. again and again. Others soon
caught on to this old uncles racket, and ere
long all lots that were vacant were utilized
for the same purposes.
Fortunately, there happened to be no quar-
reling, strife or fighting of any kind. there be-
ing an implied, unwritten "squatter sover-
eighty law" first come, first served, the do
main" being eminent" to the first who Sc
cured It.
l shall never forget the seriousness as we'll
as righteousness of that scene. Soon these i'm
mense storehouse buildings were depleted of
their vast storage, the supplies being trans-
ferred from tho vacant lots In an incredibly
short time to the homes of the captors, thus
making one Of the greatest distributions of
lifes necessaries in the agrarian sense.
And now the Federal troops approach, colors
dying bands playing, triumphantly entering
with all tho pomp and paraphcrnala Of glo
rious ~ war, citizens Of oil colors viewing the
saAna No shoufiug mn ayultotiop and baara