The free press. (Poplarville, Miss.) 1890-19??, 1901-06-13
BILL ARP'S LETTER
Barlow Man Discourses Interest
ingly on Memphis Reunion.
GATHERING WAS A GREAT OCCASION
Old Soldiers Were Happy In Recount.
ina Their War Experiences
and Laughter and Tears
CommingIed.

Forty years have passed since these
hurried to the front. No such array
of patriots were ever seen, for there
was not tory among them nor for,
eign hireling, and even the northern.
born citizens of the south volunteered
with one accord and cast their lives
and property in the common peril Of
their adopted state. To that class we
owe all the more honor, for it was
great heart struggle to sever the bonds
that bound them to their kindred and
the place of their birth. Forty years
have not effaced nor dimmed the mem
DRY of those four long years from the
minds of the veterans who gathered
at the Memphis reunion. AS time rolls
on they seem the more eager to con-
gregate and commune together; and,
7 ,ppily, there are none now to modest
or make them afraid.
Happily the soldiers of the blue and
the gray are becoming every year the
more considerate of the feelings and
principles of each other. The soldiers,
| say-those who fought against US
for the bravest are the tenderest. 1t
is the politicians who saw the battle
from afar, who still refuse to give US
back our flags and are still worrying
over the rebel brigadiers whom we
have sent to congress. But time is a
good doctor, and soft words take away
wrath.
That was grand convocation that
paraded the streets of Memphis.
Hearts beat rapidly and eyes were
moist with tears
while memory fingered Ger the sad
review
OF joys that faded like the morning
dew"
That was a beautiful prayer sent up
TO heaven by our beloved grand chap
lain. Rev. ]. William Jones, the faith
full bulwark of confederate history.
| know that the blue and the gray
clasped hands and hearts as he invok-
ed a blessing upon Mr.. and Mrs. Nc
Kinley and asked for her restoration
to health. I tell you, my brethren,
there is nothing small or selfish or
mean in the hearts of our great lead.
ers. In war and in peace they have
been and are gentlemen. There was
not Nero or a duke of Alva among
them nor a heartless destroyer of the
innocent nor violator of the laws of
Kindness to women and children. Our
soldiers fought good fight, on patri-
D. principles, and it rejoices us that
y ley have kept the faith and are as
true now to the nation as they were
then to the principles for which they
fought. Those principles are not
dead; and we believe that if this re-
publican government is preserved
from the domination of Imperialism,
with which it is threatened, it will be
the conservative spirit OF the south
that will do it. The spirit of eonstitu-
tional liberty is yet alive with us and
will be transmitted to our children. 1t
is high time that the northern preach
ers and teachers and editors were
learning a salutary lesson from these
annual reunions of the old confeder-
ates. If | had been federal soldier
and lived up there, it seems to me that
[ would say, MY brethren, those reb-
els must have been tremendously in
earnest There is no let up or abate-
ment in their faith. Forty years has
not humbled them one iota. We had
better make friends with such peo-
pie and divide honors and pensions,
too. They have carried an awful load
for all these years. They have to pay
a good part of the pensions to our SOL
diers and all Of the pensions to their
own and big tax to educate their ne
groes; and they had to endure the raw
ages and stealages of the carpet-bag-
se4s for years, but they never COM
plafny They fight back and defend
their honor, but, like the sons of Alno
mok, they never complain, Surely they
h are a great people. They suffer, and
are strong, and when the soldiers were
for Cuba and the Philippines
[they came at the tlrst call. Brethren
LETS stop all this anti-southern senti-
[ment and make our preachers and edi-
] tors stop it. There is no good in rub
bling an old sore. We don't know
/ what may happen, and we may need
4 those boys to save the country. The
old veterans are dying out, but their
| sons are the same old stock. The south
is fast coming to the front, and is de-
stined to be great power IN the
land, and if we keep on aggrayatlng
them with abuse, it is possible they
may get fighting mad some of these
DAYS and get up another civil war and
-and-and-whip us again, or come
pretty near it." That's what | would
say if wasent fool,
These are alarming times. Wars,
fires. floods. Awful calamities on land
and on the sea, explosions in mines,
wrecks on railroads, murders, suicides,
robberies, abductions of children, and,
worse than all, there seems to be no
stop to these horrible outrages OF bru-
tal negroes. Then there is the insub-