The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1903-01-08

"A healthy LlVEk means pure
blood. ---M
Pure blood means health.
Health means happiness.
Take no Substitute. All Druggists
Resentment of my country's fate
Within my fllial breast shall
beat;
And spite of her insulting foe,
Ny sympathizing verse shall flow
"Mourn, hapless Caledonia, mourn,
Thy banished peace, thy laurels
torn
The above lines give a very good
description Of our own country,
especially Georgia, after the war.
General Sherman was heard to
boastfully say "that a crow follow
ing in the wake of his army would
have to carry his provisions with
him."
After that memorable meeting OF
Grant and Lee Appomattox, and
lie fate of our country was no long.
,er doubt, the Southern soldier
realized that all was lost save
honor, he homeward turned his face,
a great majority of whom had not
seen their homes and loved ones for
four long years. 1t was late in the
spring of 1865 before the foremost
of the soldiers reached home and
they continued to drop in until the
latte: part of June. | cannot con-
ceive of a more disconsolate or more
discouraging picture than the re-
turn of those soldiers at that time.
| There was only one thing to cheer
him, and that was the happy greet
ing of his loved ones at home that
he was soon to meet. He found the
negroes free and insolent, his home
destroyed by the rayages of war,
his wife and children or his aged
father and mother, as the case may
be, in want for the necessaries of
life; the stock driven awavor killed,
and chaos reigned supreme; but
with that intrepid bravery with
which he faced a foe for four years,
he went to work to recoup his
broken fortune, and phoenix-like,
rose from his own ashes.
This was the beginning of the
reconstruction period in the south.
If the people could have been let
alone they would have solved the
problem themselves Of re-establish-
ment to their place in the union, but
such was not to be. Our conquer
ors added insult to injury. They
placed the baiIot-box in the hands
of ignorant negroes, not SO much to
help the negro, or for the good of
the government, but to humiliate
and imtimidate the white people. 1t
has been said that three armies fol-
low every great war: an army of
widows and orphans, an army of
cripples and an army of thieves.
This proved to be veritabld fact
in our case. The North not content
with heaping gnominy on us with
our home productive negro, but
horde of vampires-birds of prey,
known as the "Carpetbaggers' !,
came down upon us like a
great flock of vultures. Any
body who has never seen a
genuine Carpetbagger can have
any just conception Of one of those
creatures. You might take all OF
Dickens vile characters, UriahHeep,
Pecksnif, Quilp, Ralph Nickelby,
Jonas ChuselWit, Silas Weeg, and
all the others, and stew them down
together and they would not be as
mean and contemplate as one of
those crane-legged, gander-footed,
side-whiskered, nasal tWanged Car
petbaggefs. They were worse than
the broth the witches bfeWed for
Macbeth.
"Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the caldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt and toe of frog,
Wool of bat and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork and blind worm S
sting,
Lizards leg and oWlet's wing
For charm of powerful trouble,
Like hell-broth-boil and bubble.
Thus it was; these were the con-
ditions the Southern people had to
meet in the reconstruction days.
The aforesaid Carpetbaggers we're
made Governors, Judges, Senators.
Congressman, Legislators, and
Sheriffs; in fact, nearly all the best
officers for honors and emoluments
were held by them; but they placed
Ignorant negroes over the white
r>not,fo FIR ct,~L oEE<<r- :, Z - ~:x.4~c+x,