The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1898-04-26

Sad memories come over us aDOlI 1llS
time The tocsin of impending war
carries US back thirty-seVen years, Whei
Georgia and the South every Wnere was
in y state of feverish eXcltement-Wheh
the roll of drum and the thrilling noteS
of the fife were heard in cities ana
towns and recruiting camps ana men,
women and children all seemed to Dr.
wild with patriotic enthusiasm. only
the aged men and women We're serious
and solemn and silently smothered
their apprehcnsions. After the state
had seeded it was hardly safe for a
man to talk for the Union. Here ana
there could be heard a bold, defiant voice
like that of Pettigrew, the great lawyer,
who. when asked by a countryman the
road that would lead him to the lunatic
,.svlum. e~xclaimed: Any road, sir;
every road, sir; all the roads, SIR. lac
whole state IS one vast lunatc asylum
The war fever is as contagious as the
smallpox. and is an epidemic for winch
there is no cure but blood.
April is n historic month. In April
the first guns of the war We're fired ana
Fort Sumter fell and surrendered. In
April President Lincoln called for lj.-
900 men to suppress the refelllOn. IN
ADrll y lrHlIl.sl StCfutu from lut ~
and General Robert e. Lee seeded from
his allegiance to the United States army
and rendered his sword to his State and
the Confedcracy. In April President
Davis autographed Governor Brown for
three companies to march Immediately
to Norfolk, and in twenty-four hours Il
battalion was Oh the ears and arrived
there before the Virginia troops did.
And. last of all. in April Lee and John
ston both surrendered their armies and
the war was over. There is a world of
history, sad, thrilling and glorious his
tory between the beginning and the
end. Who that was in it can forget 1t?
1T grows brighter and grander as TN.
years roll on. No wonder the surviving
veterans wish to meet once more. For
thirty wears their glorious deeds have
been tossed about as treason and rebel
Ion and n crime, but these old soldiers
have never surrendered their convictions
nor felt ashamed of their sacrifice. And
so let them gather in Atlanta in July
and have one more embrace and con-
federate again i'll memories of battles
lost and battles won and hardShips in
Vulnerable, and at the last 4 sad but
sweet return to home and kindred-:l
home desOlated and a kindred hinned
by death.
Every train brings news noW-neWs
of impending war-but we are not cx
cited like we We're then. We remember
when there was no telegraph wire to
Rome and the daily signal came with
the daily train from Kingston. II
Wiley Hardin, the old engineer. gave
three long, loud, cheering whistles on
his approach to town everybody wake:
up for good news and exchanged greet
ings. Lee has whipped 'em again." was
-In u-otahu-nnl and tho nnnnln n 1prin!
TO the depot to meet the train and get
all the good Of it. Two whistles from
RE engine was Indifferent news and one
was bad and sad, but did not come
often, for old Bob Lee and StonewalI
whipped them as often MS they got Al
them and would have been whipping
them yet if our boy children had grown
mp Il little faster. We almost robbed
the cradle and the grave for soldiers, and
even then got only one for three foes
1 shall always think they ought to have
tOted fair with us and fought us TIVE
To one instead of three-don't You?
w2nldn't have a pension that took three
to one to win-would YOU? When | wa.
Il schoolboy | had a fight with anotllei
boy and two of my friends dubbed II
and sortcr helped me. and | never fell
SO ashamed Of anything in my life.
But old Georgia has never discounted
her gratitude tO her soldiers or their wild
ows. She is Il long ways ay:ead of he
sister States. Last year she paid more
to them than all the other Southcrl
States combined paid to theirs. Nir
ginia paid to hers $4,000. Alabam;
$4,000, North Carolina $4,000, Soutl
Carolina $4,000. Florida $65, 900. Ten
nessee $6S.UO0, Mississippi $4,000, Ar
kansas $4,000, kentucky nothing an,
Texas S3S, 600, while Georgia paid owe
$500, 900.
Now while we can boast of this, yet
am free to say and dare to say, for
ann not a candidate for anything l:mitet
or unlimited, that our pension laws ar,
NOT just and need reforming-Georgi.
has oyerdone the thing. Pensions SHOULD
he awarded to the needy, and the need.
only. The grand juries of the countie
should distribute the pension fund an
make selection OF the poor soldiers an,
the poor widows, and be required to ad
% per cent to the fund apportioned b
the state. Considering the general d.
preston, the state is paying too mucl
1t should be reduced at least One-hal1
and let the counties make M part of tn
deficiency. Where is the justice or til
propriety of paying a man 500 a yea
who is worth $4,000 or $4,000 whil
many poor invalid soldiers who Tough
just as hard and endured just as much
but did not lose an arm or q leg ge
nothing. | see that both Atkinson an
Berner, in their declarations, speak G
the rewards that We're promised th
soldiers. That is Il mistake-nothin
was promised nor was anything expected
They fought for their country and SO
month and hard tack and bacon c
beef, and that was all they expected. Tn
word pensions was not in their dictiol
nrV know a widow U-hncn h,,cbnp
was killed at Bull Run, and she does nj
need her pension and at first decline
to receive it, but changed her mind IN
gives it all to widows who are need,
The grand juries of the counties kno,
who should be the beneficiaries of IL
pension fund and if they nave to add !.
per cent to it they would be careful
see that it WIS not misapplied.
seems to me that a leak of at least S1O(