The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1902-11-05

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county. found this camp heaven
compared with the other. The sick
md wounded under charge of DR..
VOCAL, humane and exemplary gen.
tlcman, were we'll fed and cared for in
every respect, and he governed his
camp with lcnicncy and was loved by
all. [ belonged to detail to flush
the sewer ditchcs around hospital
rooms with water every morning.
This only took onehalf hour. Then
my old friend Guitars and myself
spent the balance Of the day making
trlnkets and selling same to said x
c"rslon parties and earning for day
work from eight to ten dollars every
day Our fare was beef, loaf bread,
vegetables and lemonade, just as the
sick got.
The Yankees allowed two minstrel
troupcs, gotten up entirely by the
prisoners, that gave performances once
week each. Tuesday and Thursday
nights. They dressed bcardless in
ladies apparel, had nice uniforms all
around, and gave splendid perfor-
manccs, cracking many witty jokes on
Yankees, which were very much en-
Joycd by the Yankee 1iccrs, who at
tended in body every night, special
seats being reserved for them. Gull
lars and myself with many other pris-
oners, attended also every night.
The performances were splendid, mu-
sic and all. 1t was a great relief to
the monotony of prison life. The
Yankees furnished the house for the
mintrcls gratis.
Guitars aud myself also bought
fiddle, Whitfield and made out of q
cracker box, by prisoner with his
pocket knife. We bought strings
from the Yankee sutlcr who kept
almost everything or would order it.
With this fiddle we had deal of fun.
We would lay off work from our trim
ket business late in the evening and
with our fiddle in hand (for we were
both country fiddlers) we would get
out OF our tent and strike up a qua
drille and have regular stag dance
by the prisoners. After and in addi-
ton to this, we had employed an old
phrenologist, who was good talker,
at dollar day, to give phrenologi-
cal examinations of heads and read
character by the science of phrenology.
This performance was FREQ to any one
who would submit to an examination.
And with the fiddle and our scientist
we had much fun.
My article is too long. 1 must pass
from incidents of prison, which con-
stituted the silver lining to my cloud
OF prison life and relate my ocean voy-
age from Point Lookout to Savannah.
Ca, and co home, but in this voyage
am alone, or at least my old friend
Guitars is absent. He having received
his parole before I did. AS his name
began with G and mine with 8 alpha.
bctioally arranged Let me add here
that the regular prison was the dirti-
est and filthicst place it ever fell my
lot to live in; dirt and vermin abound
ed, the prisoners had no change of
clothing and it was impossible TO keep
clean though We were allowed to bathe
in the Chesapeake Bay. Let me add
before passing, that I saw Masonic
finger rings, made Of guttapercha, in
laid with Masonic implements of gold
plate, readily bring % dollars, of
course in greenbacks. These rings
were beautifully carved and made by
prisoners who were professional jew
elers at home. The ingenuity dis
played by Southern prisoners in trim
ket work was simply wonderful and
exploded the idea that American in
genuity belonged only to Yankees.
The confinement of one in prison had
about the same effect upon his me-
chanical genius as the confinement of
the other by the Northern winters
snow.
But yet 5efore passing out of prison,
candor compcls me in making true
report of prison life, to chronicle the
fact that all Of the baser traits of hu-
man character were cxenpli6cd By
some prisoners, under the sore temp
tations and privations Of prison life.
They would lie, swindle and steal the
scant rations from fellow prisoners in
the most adrcit way, and do many de-
grading things that would bring O
blush of shame to their comrsde's s
cheeks. Space forbids mentioning
these things, many. including mode of
l.