The Tupelo journal., 1902-11-28
ARP AND HIS WIFE.
Alone in Big House Because Their
Daughters Are Away Visiting.
Bill Arp Tells Of Man Who Plays
X Leader and Whom He
Helped to Escape Capture by
Northern Authorities.

Lord Bacon said: wives are young
mems mistresses, companions for mid
die age and old mems nurses" There
is truth in that and my wife is nursing
me now. Our girls have gone off one
to a wedding and the other to Atlanta
on a visit. / told them to go, for they
a been penned up here with me for
four long months and their mother
said she would take care of me until
they returned. ! get along pretty we'll
during the day, but at night my cough
is distressing and my wife has to dose
me with various remedies until l get
to sleep. The rain has come at last
and purified the air and l feel better.
Yes, we two are alone in a great big
house. She sits in her accustomed cor
ner and sews most all day long, while
/ sit opposite in mine and write or read
aloud to her and when meal time
comes she sits at one end of the table
and l at the other, and that's all.
Old Father Gibbons came nine miles
yesterday to see me and to invite me
n my wife to his birthday dinner.
Next week he will be SO years old and
still gets about lively and takes a
comfort in meeting his friends and
abusing the Yankees. 1t is hard to re-
construct these old veterans, espe-
cially when they come from Virginia.
He and his brother moved to Georgia
just after the close of the war. He
settled i'll this county on a good farm
and his brother located in Rome. l
never was at the old gentleman's
house but twice and that was in 1866.
His brother was q game man and had
been a colonel in the confederate
army. When the carpet-baggers and
mean niggers overrun their section
and plundered every rebels home the
colonel organized a band of avengers
and played kuhluX among them and
whipped them and ran them off and
later they came back with federal Of
ticers and the colonel and his band had
to leave to save their lives. Not long
after the colonel had settled in Rome
the Virginia carpet-baggers got a mill
ltary orders for his arrest and trans
portation to Virginia for trial. A dep
uty marshal and another fellow came
secretly to Rome, but the colonel had
already been advised of their coming
and so onedark night about ten o'clock
he came to my house and told me his
peril and said he could go to his
brothers place in this county and hide
out until the pursuit had blown
over. So l hitched my horse to our
rockaway and we left in haste. l knew
the road to Kingston, and he knew the
rest of the way. 1t was about three
o'clock when we reached the place and
saw the gin house out in the field.
There we stopped and he took refuge
in it and told me to tie my horses out
in the bushes and then go down and
rouse up his brother. This is the
old mar who asked us to come and
dine with him. When l knocked at the
door he came in his night clothes and
said: "Who is that and what DO you
want?" l whispered my business and
told him to talk low, for we didn't
want the family or the negroes to
know anything. He put on his clothes
and went to his brother and l got in
my conveyance and made for Rome,
where l arrived about sunrise. The