The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1902-11-14
Faithful Nurse" Watches Over
Him While Girls Go Visiting.
A STORY OF RECONSTRUCTION DAYS
William Blhs Hypoorltes and Frauds
IN General and incidentally Takes
Another Shot at President
Roosevelt.

" D"OoH 9dlu wives are young
mems mistresses, companions for
middle age and old mems nurses
There is truth in that and my wife
IS nursing me now. Our girls have
gone of, one to a wedding and the
other to Atlanta on a visit. told
them to 90, for they had 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 well during the day. but
At Eight my cough is Distressing and
ny wife has to dose me with various
remedies until 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 corner AMI sews
most all day long, while l sit opposite
II mine and write or read aloud 10
her and when meal time comes she
sits at one end of the table and | al
tbe other.
Old Father Gibbons came . miles
yesterday to zee me aud to iyite me
ind my wife to his birthday dinnec
Next week he will be 50 years old AMI
still gets about liye.5 and takes a
comfort in meeti1s his friends ami
abusing the yankees. Il Is hard to re-
construct these old veterans, especial
~ when they come frorn Virginia. He
and his brother novel to Georgia Just
afer the close of the war. He settled
In this county on a good farm and his
brother located in Rome. never was
at the old gentlemans house but once,
and that was in 1866. His brother was
game man and had been a colonel
in the confederate army. When the
carpet-baggers and mean niggers over
ran their section and plundered every
rebels home the colonel organized a
Land of avengers and played kukluX
among hem and whipped them and
ran them off and later they came back
with federal officers and the colonel
and his band had to leave to save
their lives. Not long after the colonel
had settled in Rome the Virginia car
pet-baggers got a military order for
his arrest and transportation to Vir-
ginia for trial. A deputy marshal and
another fellow came secretly to Rome,
but the colonel had already been az
vised of their coming and so one dark
night about 10 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 pur-
suit bloWed 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. It
was about 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
horse out in the bushes and then go
down and rouse up his brother. This
is the old man who asked us to come
and dine with him. When | knocked
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 ne
groes 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 sun.
rise. The colonel kept hid in the gin
house under the cotton for nearly a
month and then dared to return for
the officers had departed. I never sec
this fine old Virginia gentleman but
what | think of that ride and the mar.
row escape his brother made. Verify
reconstruction was worse than war
But it Is all over now, thank the good
Lord, and we can hold our reunions
and carry our battle-torn banners and
build our monuments and lay the cor
ner stone for Winnie Davis and lynch
the brutes that assault our wives anc
daughters, and as Governor Oates sale
to our defamers in congress. "What
are you going to do about it?" And as
!, for lynching, I repeat what l have
said before, Let the good work &c
on. Lynch eml Hang EN-! Shoot EN-!
Burn 'em!" Israel Putnam went into
a cave with torch to shoot the vol
that had devoured the lambs of hi'
flock and just so would I lynch thu
brutes who outrage our women. He Il
not a human. He is a brute, beas
and these demonstrations by govern
ors and judges and sheriffs are hypo
critical and perfunctory. In thei