The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1895-05-01

The following letter from Bill Arp,
the famous Georgia humorous. ex-
plains itself:
Mr. Slickman-S Sir: ! received your
letter asking for 25 cents TO help build
a monument to General Sherman, the
hero of the march to the sea. and
wanting me to send three other names
and warning me not to break the
chain. etc. l VIII 60 asfar as any rebel
so-called to keep the peace and bury
the past and be friendly; but you must
excuse me. | have lived all my life
in the path of that march to the sea,
and for thirty years l have been strain
ing my mind to see the heroism in it,
and I can't do it. 1t just shows how
blinded we poor mortals are. All the
heroism see is in the retreat OF Joe
Johnston, who, with 10000 men, re-
sisted that march of Sherman with
three times that number and killed
more, man for man. thai he had SOL
diers. There IS where the herolsm
comes. But we will make fair
compromise with you. Ii you and
your boys will contribute 25 cents each
for monument to Joe Johnston. the
real hero of the march to the sea, we
will let you build one to Sherman and
say nothing about it. We thought
that the time was about out for brag-
ging, but if you are determinedto keep
it up let's tote fair. It seems to us
that it requires a good deal of cheek
to brag about an army of near three
millions of men whipping an army of
three-quarters of a million in four
years time. I wouldn't mention it If |
were you. We are very tired of all
this ridiculous gush about the Grand
Army of the Republic, especially
when you know 0: ought to
know that you have on the pension
rolls more men than we had IN our
army during the war. You can't
knock the truth out with monuments.
We will help you build monument
to all the brave soldiers who fought on
either side and we will bury the toma-
hawk and say hurrah for Americans,
but we take no stock in Tecumseh
Sherman, nor any other Sherman that
is kin to him. We would if we could.
but somehow or other we can't. SO
YOU will please excuse mefor breaking
the chain. Some of these days, when
this everlasting panic is over, we Will
build monument toold Joe Johnston
that will tell the truth and commemo-
rate the heroism of that march to the
sea.
This reminds me of old John Sher-
man, the statesman, so-called, and OF
little paper-covered book that is called
Coins Financial School" and is 60
ing the grand rounds on its silver mis-
sion. 1t did not come from our side of
the country, but it is capturing the peo-
ple I don't know who is behind it, but
lido know that it is the brightest, clear
est and most attractive book on the sill
yer side that has been placed before
the American people, and If not an
swered in an effective, convincing way
will sweep this Western country as
fires sweep the praries. It willnot do
for the gold standard folks to say,
"Oh, it is all bosh and is paid for by the
silTerites." The book must be an
swered. Maybe it can't be. I don't
know. I can't answer a position IN 1t
and am an average man. The truth
is, I am afraid to believe all that's in it
for fear somebody will call me fool;
1 asked Joe Chandler Harris about 1t
Yesterday and what he knew about w:
II. Harvey, who wrote it. He smiled
and said: Harvey is silver crank,
just like I am. They call me crank,
but nobdy can answer the argument
on the silver side, and hence their
| only reply is that the book is a hum
bug-a deceitful snare and all that,
but the book is taking the Western
and Southern country. They cannot
print them as fast as they are called
| for. You will find them on all the
railroads. but as yet they have not got
| in the book stores. It is said that 25O,-
900 copies have already been sold. The
simple colloouial style Of questions
and answers and the Illustrations cap
ture the common people.
Now, there are whole lot OF US
who have been reading both sides OF
the newspapers for year or so, and
we have got all mixed up and come to
the conclusion that nobody knows
much about it. But this little book
has told us more than all the newspa-
pers, and if somebody don't publish a
reply to it I'm afraid we will all slide
down the silver toboggan and stay
there. Coin says that the value OF all
the property in the United States is
| eeS 6n0 00O 0O0 and the Indebtedness of
the nation is s17, 900, 900, 900, and he
gives all the figures in detail: Well,
# that's so, we are busted and the ap-
pointment of national receiver is IN
order. He says the railroads alone
owe S., 900, 900, 900 to Europe and the
annual interest is S240, 000, 900, payable
in gold. He says that every kind OF
property has been shrinking IN value
since the crime of 1878 that old John
Sherman was the author of. The
crime of demonetizing silver by an act
passed between midnight and day,
when everybody was drunk or asleep
and even General Grant said he didn't
know that he had signed any such an
act. It takes twice as much property
now to pay a debt as it did five years
ago, and as we all owe nearly as much
as we don't owe, the country is about
bankrupt, and afew thousand million
aires will own the whole concern. This
is the picture he draws, and to read it
and believe it makes a man feel like
taking his double barrel shotgun and
Joining the army, of bread winners.
The masses of the people are in debt
and while property shrinks. the debts
swell and taxes increase until they are
a burden. The people realize this.