The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1896-06-12

were cul mp iato mess pieces and dis |
tribttod aud the eamphres lighted. |
Ate store nearby ] purchased from d |
goad confederate some Sour au6 crack |
era and thousand pounds OF bacon.
1 had no trouble with him, Cor De said /
ghe boys must be fed ii II took every
thing be had. Invoked his good Of.
heea 10 make peace with the old man
aud his son, aud about dark they came
TO me aud said they would sake my re-
ceipt, but Il vas a gol darn cowardly
piece 81 business. And il did look
that way. wonder how they got their
wagons home.
But before long the good people Of
the valley got the hang of the business
end surrendered at discretion. never
had much trouble with those who we're
on our side.
One day I seized 400 barrels Of -four
In a merchant mill not far from Orange
Court House. The man was deeper
ately mad but i had heard that his
wife was a rebel 10 tho core, and so /
visited her and made q good impress
sion, for / was right good looking then.
She invited me to stay 10 supper, which
/ did, and played with her baby aud
captured al the family except her hue
band. He was q suspect and was on
both sides Of the'war. put q guard
over the mill that night or be would
have hauled tho -four away. 1t was
hard on those Virginia farmers, for II
one army dident take their substance
tho other would. For nearly four
years they we're between two fires, and
remained true to their great leaders.
What a blessing is law-the laws of
the land and the protection Of the
courts. Any law is better than no
law. We old'people remember when,
toward the close of the war, this part
of the country that had been desolated
by Sherman's bummers was infested by
so-called scouts who were mounted on
stolen horses and pretended TO be
commissioned to protect the women
and children and to get up supplies
for our army. Every vagabond and.
deserter joined them and they we're a
terror to the old and helpless. Ny
wife sometimes tells the children about
her refugee life, and how all her
brothers we're in the Virginia army,
and how her father, the elder
Judge Hutchins, was farming on
the Chattahoochee river, trying to
save something for the grand
children, and how one morning a band
of these so-ealled scouts came there
and demanded the keys of the smoke
house and said the army must be fed,
and how he tried to reason with and
told how many he had to feed at home,
and how little meat he had, but they
got rampant and said they would bEeak
down the door if he didn't surrender
the keys. He kept three double-barrel
shot guns we'll loaded, and when they
went round to the smoke. house he
went upstairs to q window and said in
determined voice: "Stop. Don't you
go any nearer to that door. II you
do will kill you. I am old and not
afraid to die, but / will kill some Of
you before do"
They saw the muzzle of the gun and
they knew the man and stopped. After
a brief consultation they retired. There
was my wife and six children and two
little orphans and score of little ne
groes, and these lawless men would
have taken the last morsel away from
them.
Friends sometimes we abuse the
law and the lawyers and the court, but
after all the law of the land is the
strongest bulwark of liberty and JUS
tice. Blackstone says that a mans
house is his castle, into which the king
of England dares not enter without
permission, but we remember when
vagabonds and thieves not only en-
tered but drove the inmates out. Let
us all sustain the law and courts and
leave them as blessed heritage to oar
children. BILL ARP, in Atlanta Con-
stitution.
WILL REDUCE REVENUE.