The free press. (Poplarville, Miss.) 1890-19??, 1900-05-24
BILL APPS LETTER
Has a Good Word For the MANNED
Veterans.
LOUISVILLE WILL WELCOME THEM
harlow Man Rejoices That Dame Nature
Has Donned Her Attire of
Green.

Of course Atlanta will raise the
money to uniform the poor old Con-
federate veterans and pay their way to
Louisville. That battalion of one
armed, one-legged, one-eyed heroes OF
the lost cause will be the most signif-
cant feature of the reunion and will
make more lasting impression upon
the rising generation than anything
else. THAT is genuine" they will
say. Those old fellows were certainly
there and they have not repented of
it. In fact, they are proud of it. It
will teach the youth of the other side
that our boys were terribly in earnest
and that neither time nor poverty has
obliterated single feeling or emo
ton thaa possessed them when they
faced the guns of the enemy nearly
forty years ago. They are established
in the faith and will die, not believing
they were right, but knowing it. That
word ''believing" is misnomer, a
kind of compromise. 1t does not fit
'S' " CaAhCh We hCIC tlCA dnQ
we knowfit yet.
Believing is word that fits the
other side. A good many of their sol
dier boys believed they were right and
knew no better, for their politicians
fooled fhem, but more than half Of
them dident believe anything about it
and dident care, for they were hire
lings and fought for $40 month and
nothing else. They were hungry. It
seems to me if was northern man l
would say to my people, "We can't do
anything with those Confederate vet
Grams. Just let them alone. They
were conquered and that's ALL We
piled four to one on them and worethem
out, and that's all, but such fighters
the world never saw. They never had
but 700, 900 men in the field, all told,
from the beginning to the end of the
war, and they have put million of our
folks on the pension rolls, besides all
that they killed. Good gracious, boysl
Let's quit talking and quit Dragging,
and when them fellows down south
want reunion let's bid them God
speed and say, Go it, boysl We are
betting on you.
Get together by your campfres, as
it were, and retell your old war sto-
ries, and let the tears from your old
watery eyes glisten again, and after it
is all over then go back home and tell
it all to your wives and children, and
then-yes, and then-lay down and
die ," Well, that's just what the old vets
are doing. They are dying pretty fast
now and there will hardly be enough
left for another reunion. Our hope
and faith is that our boys will keep
the campfres burning and gather
around them and tell what their faith
ers did. Let those memories survive
the flight of time, just like the historic
and heroic deeds we read of. The
older the better. We have in our
family an old paper that gives an &C.
count Of the battle of Lexington dur
ing the first revolution and along the
margin across the top are pictured
seventeen collins, and on each coffin is
a name, gand one of these names is
very dear to us, for it is the name of
an ancestor who fell in that fight
That ancestor never fought for juster
cause or on greater provocation than
we did, and our children should be
proud Of it.
And so let the old battle SCARED
rs go to Louisville and have
heir last lovefeast Atlanta
money. We love to look
ed names OF the con-
dice that there are
y left who may
lot forgotten.
y charities,
allied on
4 be
u