The Tupelo journal., 1903-06-19
ARP ON THE REUNION
Says Rebel Yell Burst Every Tele-
graph Wire il Southland.
Sorry for Poor Lunatic Veteran Who
Was Not Allowed to Go to New
OrIeans-Dep1ores Mississippi's
Invitation to Roosevelt.

81 am Jesus Christ, the carpenters
son. My mission is to save sinners. 1
fought in the civil war from Dalton to-
Jonesboro. Twice / have been presi-
dent of these United States since the
surrender and have attended all the re-
unions up to date, but now they have
got me penned up here as a Tennessee
lunatic and won't let me go to New
Orleans. / can't get. a, passport be-
cause / am Jesus Christ. Can't you do
something for me? / want to go and
rejoice with those who rejoice and
weep with those who weep"
That poor fellow has my sympathy.
Maybe if they had let him go with the
veterans it would have his rea-
son. l know it frightened up our boys
and now they can't talk about any
thing else. Was there ever such glow
ing, growing patriotism? 1t looks like
the number increases at every reunion
and that without pensions. The Grand
Army of the Republic has reunions,
but it is mainly to keep up the pension
| grab, the thing that Tom Benton called
1.-The bottomless gulf of charities and
gratuities."
l saw it stated the other day that 70
per cent. of the federal army were for
| eigners or foreign-born and were fight
ing only for bounty or booty or bum
comb, and they got it all and the pen
sions thrown in. Oh, that was a grand
gathering at New Orleans. 1t seems to
me that if / was a northern man L
would say: Look here, boys, we can't
do anything with those rebels down
south, and | move we quit trying.
We've been working on EN- for nearly
40 years and have never converted one
yet" AS they marched through New
Orleans 100, 900 strong you could hear
the same old rebel yell from ST. Charles
to Vicksburg. Old Father Mountcastle
told me it bursted every telegraph wire
south of Mason and Dixon's line and
away up in Pennsylvania the Western
Union had to cut down their poles for
a hundred miles.
But I'm distressed about Mississippi.
Who is Gov. Longino, anyhow? His
name is not in any biography that I've
got. l reckon it wasn't worth putting
in. l reckon he is a foreigner Dr. he
wouldn't have invited Roosevelt, the
slanderer, down to Jackson to help lay
the corner stone of the capitol. Roose-
welt said that jeff Davis was the arch
repudiator and while governor vetoed
the bill that made provision to pay the
repudiated debt, and he has never re-
tracted o a~pologized for hat lie. l
wonder if Longino knows that Gov.
McNut was the author of reputation
and gave as his reason that the money
was borrowed from Baron Rothschild,
in whose veins flowed the blood Of
Judas and Shylock, and whose mort
cages would confiscate Jul cotton
fields and make serfs of our children.
| That's what he said in his message,
but the legislature wouldn't vote for
it, and it took five years to get the bill
through. All this time Mr.. Davis was
fighting for his country in Mexico and
got desperately wounded at Buena
Vista and had to use crutches for six
years. He never was in the legislature
nor was he ever governor, and yet
Roosevelt the slanderer, let's the lie
stand and Longino invites him downto
lay the corner stone. Oh, my country!
When will all this toadyism and hypoc-
risy cease? Oh, Mississippi How are
the mighty fallen!
Now these utterances are my own
neither the editor nor any paper is re-
sponsible for them. My feelings and
emotions are all my own. / honor the
memory of Mr.. Davis and have pro-
found respect for his widow, and there
is no limit to my contempt for the
brute who put manacles on him or the
conceited historian who slanderedhim.
1t is a comfort to despise them both.
And now, three cheers for Indiana,
the champion state for lynching ne
groes when they commit outrages on
their women Not a week passes but
there is a fresh case and the people
turn out and scour the country for
kthe brute. And now they are driv-
ing all the negroes out of a county
where an outrage was committed. You
see they have no chain gangs up there
and but few negroes. Lynching has
almost stopped in Georgia because pun
ishment is more speedy and there is
a chain gang in sight in almost every
county, but let a s~ure-enough case
come up and a s~ure-enough lynching
will swiftly follow. There are more
than 1000 men in our state who have
not bowed the knee to Baal-and Rev.
Newell Dwight Hills shouldn't sleep
in a bed in my house unless he was sick
unto death.
But enough of all this. 1t sounds
like I am mad with somebody, but I am
not. We are all happy at my house
tonight, for our far-away boy is on
his way home. We have just had a
telegram from him and he will be here
tonight. He lives in Mexico City and
has been three long years since we
have seen him. This is Carl, the
youngest boy-the pet of his mother
the one she loves the best and prays
the longest for every night. He will
stay with US a few days and then go
away again and perhaps never see us
any more. My wife has been saving
the spring chickens for him and the
flowers are not to be cut till he comes,
and the Strawberries are still bearing
and the cake is in the oven. Nothing
is too precious for Carl and he and
Jesse will sing their cid songs and
rehearse their happy days when we