The Houma courier. (Houma, La.) 1878-1939, 1896-06-27
OLD FATHER TIME.
Bin Arp Says That He Is q Good
Doctor.
he softens nnd soothes the Passions and
Aaperlties OF Lifo-The past and
Present-Mr. ROuss In
vited South.

Old Ealnef Lime IS q Notwithstanding 1
creature with his scythe in his hand and
nothing on but his bones, but he is a
good doctor. Long before he cuts us
down he begins to soften and soothe
the passions and asperities Of life and
TO prepare our better nature for the
only solution of life's problem, which
Is love to God and to our fellow-men,
but very few old men carry bitterness
to the grave. One day / observed an
old man for whose talents the COM
munity had great respect talking to
q friend. His eyes flashed and every
linament Of his face betokened anger.
As he struck the end of his cane TO the
pavement he said: 81 ought to have
killed the scoundrel." Cautiously /
approached and inquired: Had a diff
Guilty with somebody, colonel?" "Oh,"
said he, II was just telling Brown about
q little affair that happened abopt-let
me see7-yes, just As years ago" But
even he mellowed down some years be-
fore he died. Now, if we lived as long
as Noah or Methusaleh, or al long
as Abraham, we might feed and cherish
bitterness for a hundred years, but
three score years and ten is too brief a
time to be wasted in passions.
T~hirty-one years have passed since
the war, and 1 was Illuminating over the
difference between now and then. We
veterans remember when we we're all
accused of treason and many of our
leaders had to flee the country for fear
aR $1,000 81 4-snl n-l ,o-1a-o-,4sa-.
and death. When to possess or exhibit
q confederate flag provoked imprison-
ment; when we had to defend the lost
cause or lament it's failure in whispers,
and when every man who was worth
$4,000 had his property contiscated un-
less he ~petitioned for pardon and paid
well for it. The pardon brokers at
| Washington made millions out of our
wealthy citizens.
But time has diluted the bitterness
of those who were our most malignant
enemies. Reflection has tempered the
prejGdices of our northern brethren,
and now we see Gen. Gordon and Gen.
Longstreet given glad and willing well
Ecome as they discourse temporarily
| anu u 0AAlllAy vi O1NC Wal A0D GAuoGS
and its results. Nowhere is the carpet
Dagger who figured in reconstruction
times more denounced and despised
than at the north. More than all this,
a monument has been built on northern
ground in memory Of the confederate
dead. Brotherly unions Of the blue
and the gray have been held at various
times and places, and thousands of the
grand army are moving southwark and
f~raternizing with our people. There
is only n sore that does not heal, and
that is the hard fact that while we pay
our own pensions we have to help topay
theirs, and get nothing back. The
estimate is that it takes half q million
annually for Georgia to pension hel
confederate widows and disabled sol
diers, and ten times as much to pay
her part of the union pensions. Thii
SIS, 1000, 900 goes into their hopper. and
we get no toll. But even this will pas
away. Old Father Time is slow u!
there, but he is sure. Unpensioned sol
diers don't live as long as those wh'
feed on government pap, and there arr
not near as many of them. We see i
stated that there are now less thar
100000 confederate survivors. 1 tolC
that to a federal general in Florid;
not long ago, and he Illuminated over i
some time and said: tYou rebels Tough
so hard and endured 50 muchyou brokl
down your constitutions. Stonewal
Jackson's fool cavalry, I know, mus
have worn their legs off up to thei
knees, like Munchausen's famous hunt
ing dog
But after SO long a time the heroisn
of the south is looming up and the los
cause shines before the world in a clear
or and more 1ustrous light. No san
man speaks of us as traitors now, ant
we are permitted with a kindly grac'
to honor our dead ald build monument.
to our heroes. Patriotism and courag
ere honored everywhere. There are, o
course, . few heartless souls in ever,
community who care nothing for tn
sacred memories Of the war, and witt
rious JUNCTION excIaim: "Oh, let th,
dead past bury its dead. Look not back
but forward. We have no time for senti
ment." Such men will never defen'
their country o help to save q state
A people without sentiment will neve
have any heroes. DIR. johnson, tn
greatest philosopher that ever lived
said: "That man Is little to be envie,
whose patriotism would not gain fore
upon the plain of Marathon. Even re
iigion, which is animated only by faitl
and hope viii glide by degrees out of tn
mind unless it be invigorated by call
10 worship and the salutary influenc
Of example" Never was anything NOR
truthfully said. The good citizen mus
keep his patriotism alive by cherlshinI
the memories of the wars in which the.
er their fathers we're engaged. Owe
: 1000 years have passed since the Ather
Ians defeated the great army of Darius
but Marathon is still memorable III SON
and story. It is the watchword O
patriotism. A generation has passes
dnce the battle of Gettysburg, but til
) ralor of the American soldiers of bot
armies, as displayed in that blood
Hght, will shine in history as long a
there are people to writc, or people t
: read. We q glad that Col Garnettha
; come south to work for the memorie
. Of the lost cause, and to tell US abou
/, Gettysburg. Did not our hearts bur