St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1902-09-20

| Ammo dOminl will tell. The other Gay
my doctor said I must take some ex-
ercise and he took his mother and
me up the river road for few miles
to the ruins of the Cooper iron works.
1t. was wild, weird, ghostly place on
the banks of the Etowah, where once
were rolling mills and foundry and
| furnaces and -four mills and tan yards
and hundreds of cottages, where hap
| py laborers and mechanics lived. But
Sherman's army burned and destroyed
everything, and since then most Of
the crumbling walls have fallen and
| the trees have grown up in their midst
and wild vines have climbed the trees
and nothing is visible but ruins and tho
sad spectacle of cruel and brutal
war. But this is one burning that, ac-
cording to the rules and usages Of
war, was justified, for these iron works
were making cannon for the confed-
eracy. It was the lonesome chimneys
of the poor all along his line of march
that marked his brutality and proved
his assertion that "War is hell"
But no more of this. While viewing
these ruins my memo4y went back to
the time when Joe Brown was gov
ernor and ordered that 5000 pixies
be made with spear point and side
blade curved downward like reap
hook and long handle in a socket,
so that our boys might take 'em COM
ing and going. If they didn't run we
were to spear 'em, and if they did run
we were to overtake 'em and hook 'em
back. That's what old man Lewis told
me, and he was the master mechanic
who made them, and he still lives near
here and is in his ssth year. Isaw him
to-day and he steps light and springy.
He is an Eunglishman. "Mr. Lewis"
said I, "why didn't the Georgia boys
use these pikes?' 'Well, you see,"
said he, "the old army officers who were
drilling our boys at Big Shanty looked
at these pixies and said to the COVER
nor: what will the enemy be doing
with their guns while our boys are rush
ing on them with these pixies? They
will shoot our boys down before they
can get to them and they made SO
much fun over the pixies that they
were refused. West Point wouldn't
have anything that was not used at
West Point" And so the further man
ufacture of pixies was stopped and
those that were made are now scat
tered all over the country as curios for
museums. A sister of mine says she
saw one of them not long ago in mu-
scum in Boston. But still I don't see
why spears are any more out of order
than bayonets when desperate
charge is to be made. "Charge bayo-
nets!" is in the West Point tactics, and
why not "Charge pikes?" They are
an awful looking weapon, and if they
were coming at me and my gun was
to miss fire I should drop it and run
like turkey. would rather be, bored
with bullet than stuck like a hog.
But it is all over now, and we have
beaten our spears into pruning hooks
according to Scripture and will not
learn war any more except when the
mulattoes and niggers refuse to give
up their lands to us. We want more
land for territory and more niggers
for subjects.
But I hear the dinner bell and must
go-not to partake of the feast, but to
say grace and preside and inhale the
savory odor of roast lamb and green
corn pudding and look at the peaches
and cream for desert. They let me do
that and give me nothing but soup
and rice for my share. My tomatoes
are now in their prime and it pleases
me to gather them in the early morn.
Ny largest weighed two pounds, lack
ing two ounces, and was beauty.
It was working them in the hot sun
and then filling up with ice water that
laid me Uphill Arp, in Atlanta Con-
stitution.