Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1897-01-17
HOOKING BAcKWARK." :"
or the soiiloquy of Retrospective Old
 Man,

once was young, and now am
 old. A long time lies behind me.
 And Memory, that friend or enemy
 ot Age, according as one orders his
 conduct, is busy with me tonight.
 and with her as my telescope I am
 reviewing all my past.
 The panorama is filled with light and shade, with sun shine and storm. Let me see how the record stands. 1 will make an inventory Of the main events. My youth was passed eontentedly among my native Kentucky hills and valleys. Being poor hard labor was my lot; and yet, the parental home brought me all those dear and simple pleasures which come to the honest laboring poor. My parents educated me in morals, not in books. Great authors had no place in the library. The Bible, the speller, the Children of the Abbey, Robinson Crusoe, Don Quixote and weekly newspaper the Louisville Journal-were about all the home had ln it in the way of literature. At 19 I felt desire to lift myself up in the world, and thought the only way to doit, by fair means, was to out work other people. adopted the motto: "Labor before pleasure, and "all honesty and no chicanery."
 At p I entered the race of life, and began to measure myself along with other men and things in the affairs about me. At the start I had youth, health, integrity, faith in mankind, hope in myself aud free and happy country. With tAese as my constant companions, went forward, nothing doubting. Money came almost at the bidding; friends, real and pretended, fiocked about me. Men high in sta tion and public estimation bade me welcome at their doors. Fair women smiled and seemed pleased at my asten- tions, and one of them gave herself to me in marriage, and made most devoted wife. My home was not only cheerful, but grew beautiful under her management.
 At the age of 70 weslth had accu- mulated, friends had multiplied. l was asked to i'll honorable stations. Fortune smiled upon me from every direction, without wrinkle in her brow. had succeeded, and it was 8 great pleasure to aid others who. were struggling to better .. their. fortunes. None who applied for aid were sent away empty. l felt more pleasure in giving than in receiving. I was in the prime Of manhood. The future seemed full of peace and plen- ty to me and mine.
 In the midst of this fullness of the present and hopeful prospect of the future, without note of warning, change came-an awful change. Men gifted with rare eloquence and almost matchless persuasive powers went up and down the Southland and infamed the passions of their fellows by telling them that they and their section of the coun- try were wronged and trampled upon by the North. The war fever seized the minds of the young men, and bore down all opposition. The public ear was closed to all reason could say. At first there was strong dissent by the more considerate, but their council was not needed. "War, or cur rights in the territories, be- came the general voice in the South. Union in the South begat union in the North. No argument could stay the passions of the contend ing factions. Then psace spread her white wings and left the land, and savage war, internecins war, took her place. Brother stood against brother, father against son. In every city and village the citizen was converted into the soldier, and marched to the inspiring strains of serill pipe and kept step to the measured beat of the drum. Great armies, on both sides, were mus tered and set in the field, and charged with the duty of destroying