The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-02-22
Bill Apps Letter.

nanaoe dora ferentes" That
- r. Romans said when the Gre
aions brought them present. Beware
r. creeks when they come with
O,,,s !" suspected Mark Hanna when
e. introduced that bill. He is Greek
"a no is from Ohio. Bewarel But he
rnade a bad breaek. He was trying 20
oct ahead of Teddy, and failed. Bring
On another horse, Mark We were willing
for your folks to pension our old darkies,
but your bill would have salivated half
the population, and included the 10000
YOU stole from us before the war. Our
old negroes are the best we have got
They are still humble and trusty. Ny
wife bought three shuck foot mats from
one yesterday and got another to put
a split bottom in a chair. We would re-
ioice to see these old negroes handle
some pension money. An old woman got
s24 yesterday for her husbands service,
and / asked her what he done, and she
said ne kept the officers of his company
in chickens all the way from Chattanooga
to Savannah. Our old cook, Aunt Ann,
said the colored people were powerful
fond of chicken, too and If her old man
could not get a chicken any other way,
he would go to town and buy one.
But it looks now like Teddy's hand has
busted on the race problem. He can't
solve it. The North is worse puzzled over
it than ever. and Secretary Root has
spoken out in meeting and says that So
cial equality and offce-holding has to
be abandoned. Bishop Turner declares
that the whole problem is in more I'M
settled condition than it has been in
ri nd hnv ha h1
to Africa That is all right, but we
want those who brought them here to be
made to take them back. Confiscate
Fanuel Hall and sell it out for enough
money to build one ship, and name it
the Jolly Bachelor" which was the first
slave ship that brought them here. Load
it down with a cargo of buck and buck
esses under thirty years of age. When
Turner begins to ship EN- from this part
of the country We want to pick 'em.
There are about fifty trifling vagabonds
hanging around this town and we can't
kill 'em off with smallpox or anything
else. Two of our doctors went to the
Niger school to vaccinate EN- and took
the police and locked the DOORS but the
coons all jumped out of the windows
and some ran under the house and some
ran home and some hid in hollow log
or behind fences and the doctors did not
get half of them. But we are getting
along fairly we'll with our negroes, our
household servants, the cook and washer
woman and their children. They were all
brought up here and vaccinated. Ne
groes In daily contact with their white
employees give no trouble. They are re-
spectful and industrious. They do not
want to go to Africa and they not
going 1t is this restless floating popu
lation that we want to get rid of. There
are young white men not much better
and the Philippines just suits them ex-
actly.
But | am easy now, getting better
except on rainy days when the east wind
prevails-the same old east wind that
one of Jobs friends complained about
when he said, SHOULD a wise man fill
his belly with the east wind" / am
getting stronger in my underpins. Not
long ago they were swollen so badly
that away in the dead hours of the night,
while l was nodding in my chair l got
up to see what time it was, l lost my
perpendicular and my legs gave way and
l fell in the fire with the chair on top
of me. My wife heard the racket and
jumped from her bed and pulled me out.
/ did not get burned, but bruised up my
shoulder where l struck the CRATE. And
last night while l was suffering in the
abdominal regions she got hot water
bag and placed ii where 1t could do
most good and l went off to sleep and
slept the sleep of the just until break
fast time, when all of a sudden the bag
burst and the hot water scalded me
amazing before l could wake up. l hal
loed for help and broke up the break
fast, for they all came running and had
to strip off my garments and change
the sheets and everything and had liked
to have skinned me as clean as hog.
Ard so between fire and hot water |
consider myself an injured person. but
my wife thinks the scalding did me good
and increased the alacrity of my move
ments
But l am still calm and serene again
and enjoying the good reading sent me
by my good friends, Or ]. Win Jones
and T. X. Oglesby. Both books arc
mastery indications >of the South and
between these two men l feel like / am
poised between the pillars of Hercules
Every truth is doubled plated and every
rivet clinched Then there is my good
old friend Dr. Ward, of Winona, Miss
who stands in the breach and defends
us from all assaults. We have not had
since the war so much good Southern
literature as We have now There are
George C. Smith and DIR. Massey and
Jim Galloway and Wallace Putnam Reid
who are full OF memories of the good old
times and the good old people. How
sweetly did Dr. Masseys sketch of Judge
William C. Dawson carry me back to my
college days when his boys. Oscar and
Edgar. were my college mates and the
good old men used to come to Athens
to see them and fondle over them and
used to talk to us in our Phi Kappa So
ciety and gave us affectionate counsel
These biographical sketches of our noble
men are most delightful reading, es-
pecially TO those who like myself were
the contemporaries, of many of them.
But l must stop now and rest. 1t viii
not do for an old man to strain his
mind. Every little while my wife says
Now, get up and walk about some" ant
| DO it. She wants me to dance the
Elephantiosis or the Buzzard Lope. anC
says | am getting better and better
every day. But some of these old poem:
kceo running in nv mind.