The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1896-05-22
BILL ARP'S LETTER.
VIZ ELIMINATES on THE TEMPER
ANCE or FATHER TIME.
The Old Man Is Slow, But lie is Un-
errlnEiy Sure.

ing creature VIII MS hcytub IN AIS
hand and nothing on but his bones,
bat no is a good doctor. Long before
he cuts us down he begins 10 soften
and soolhe the passions and nsporitles
0f life and 10 prepare our better ma.
ture for the only solution Of hfe'sprob-
lem, which is love 10 God and 10 oar fell
low men, but very few old men carry
bitterness to the grave One day /
observed an old man for whose talents
the community had great respect talk
ing TO a friend. His eyes flashed and
every lineament Of his face betokened
anger. AS he struck the end Of his
cane 10 the pavement he said: 81
ought TO have killed the Bcoundrel."
Cautiously / approached and inquired:
Had a difficulty with somebody,
colonel2" "Oh," said he, 81 was
just telling Brown about a little affair
that happened about-let me see
yes, just forty-fve years ago." But
even he mellowed down some years be-
fore he died. Now, if we lived as
long as Noah or Methusaleb, or even
as long as Abraham, we might feed
and cherish bitterness for q numbered
years, but three score years and ten is
too brief a time to be wasted in pas
sions.
Thirty-one years have passed since
the war, and / was Eliminating over
the difference between now and then.
We veterans remember when we were
all accused of treason and many of our
leaders had to fee the country for fear
of arrest and trial and condemnation
and death. When to possess or exhibit
confederate flag provoked imprison-
ment; when we had to defend the lost
cause or lament its failure in whispers,
and when every man who was worth
$4,000 had his property confscated
unless he petitioned for pardon and
paid we'll for it. Tho pardon brokers
at Washington made millions out of
our wealthy citizens.
But Time has diluted the bitterness
of those who wer our most malignant
enemies. Reflection has tempered tho
preiudioes of our northern brethren,
and now we see General Gordon and
General Longstreet given glad and
willing welcome as they discourse tenn
peratelY and truthfully of the war, its
causes and its results. Nowhere is the
carpet Dagger who figured in recon-
stIuction times more denounced and de-
spised than at the north. More than
all this, monument has been built on
northern ground in memory of the
confederate dead. Brotherly unions
of the bl2e and the gray have been
held at various times and places, and
thousands of the grand army are NOV
ing southwark and fraternizing with
our people. There is only one sore
that does not heal, and that is the hard
fact that while we pay our own pensions
we have to help to pay theirs and get
nothing back. The estimate is that it
takes half million annually for Geor-
gia to pension her confederate widows
and disabled soldiers, and ten times as
much to pay her part of the union pen
sions. This five millions goes into their
hopper and we get no toll. But even
this will pass away. Old Father Time is
slow up there, but he is sure. Unpen-
stoned soldiers don't live as long as
those who feed on government pap,
and there are not near az many of
them. We see it stated that there are
now less than one hundred thousand
confederate survivors. I told that to
q federal general in Florida not long
ago, and he ruminated over it some
time and said: ''You rebels fought so
hard and endured so much you broke
down your constitutions. Stonewall
Jackson's fool calvary, know, must
have worn their legs off up to their
knees, like Munchausen's famous hunt
ing dog"
But after so long time the heroism
of the south is looming up and the lost
cause shines before the world in q
clearer and more lustrous light. No
sane man speaks of us as traitors now,
and we are permitted with kindly
grace to honor our dead and build
monuments to our heroes. Patriotism
and courage are honored everywhere.
There are, of course, few heartless
souls in every community who care
nothing for the sacred memories of the
war, and with pious unction exOlaim,
"Oh, let the dead past bury its dead.
Look not back, but forward. We have
no time for sentiment" Such men
will never defend their country nor help
to save a state. A people without
sentiment will never have any heroes.
DR.. johnson, the greatest philosopher
that ever lived, said: '"That man is
little to be envied whose patriotism
would not gain force upon the plain OF
Marathon. Even religion, which is
animated only by faith and hope will
glide by degrees ont of the mind I'M
less it be iDvigorated by calls to wor-
ship and the salutary influence Of ex-
ample" Never was anything more
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