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THE COUNTRYMAN.
TJRNVIOLD, 01., JANUARY 3, 1865.
A Quarter Sheet.
On account of the boys’ taking Christ
mas, we appear before our readers, this
week, in a quarter sheet. Last year, we
presented our readers with full fifty-two
numbers, the last issue appearing on the
27ih ult. But few of these were half
sheets. But we must always let our em
ployes take a holiday; and this accounts
for our small sheet, this week. The next
week, we will resume our usual size, and
hope to depart from it, as seldom as pos
sible.
Ransome to Joseph.
Dear Joseph—I thought I would write you a
letter,
To inform you of what I have lately been do
ing—
(By the way I would hint that no one could do
better) —
’Mid the storm that around us so hot has been
brewing.
Frotn the east part of Georgia, conceiving you
cut off,
I sent for the wise,and the learned of Augusta,
To devise the best plan, by which Sherman to
but oft
The track upon which he, ’mid braggingand
bluster,
Was making his way to the rolling Atlantic,
O’er the soil of the state with his pillage and
plunder.
I tell you what, Joe, that it made us all frantic,
To eat of this fruit of Jeff Davis’s blunder.
Well, after we held quite a long consultation,
And read everyclause of the Whole constitu
tion,
We concluded Ranae Wright (whose as smart
as the nation,
Though his foes shoot him oft with their shafts
lilliputiau)
Should sit himself down in the chair gube’na-
natorial,
And, crossing his legs with due sense of its
dignity,
Assume, for the nonce, powers quite dictatorial,
To provide for the curbing of Sherman’s ma
lignity
Now what must I do it wi*h, Joe, was the ques
tion—
What weapon potential could save this great
nation y
/‘How would Gov. Brown act ?” ’Twas a time
ly suggestion:
(3o I pitched in, ancj wrote out a long procla
mation.
I hope,my<iear sir, you’ll approve of my action,
And forgive me for taking up powers dicta
torial j n-
For I tell jou, my friend, ’twas no small satis
faction
To partake of the sweets of the life gube’na-
torial.
And as this was the only chance—sole oppor
tunity—
That ever I’d have for executive honors, *
How could I but yield to that fell importunity,
Which the voice of ambition, sir, forces up
on us ?
Joseph to Ransome.
Dear Ransome—I find, on returning to Macon,
The letter you wrote tp your Iriend,
And regret very much that the course, you
have taken,
Was wrong, in the middle and end.
Now, Ransome, how could such a fellow as you,
sir,
Assume to sit down in mt chair,
When everyone knows, ’tis notoriously true,
sir,
’Twont fit a small man as you are?
Did ever you read in the letters of Downing,
How Martin Van Buren once tried
On the coat of old Hickory, and came so near
drowning
Himself in the over-coat tide?
By just as much, sir, as the coat of old Jackson
Was entirely too large for poor Van,
By so much, I tell you, my friend, that there
lacks, on
Your bones, for the size of a man.
What, Ransome! you sit in the chair that I
honor 1
You sit in the chair that I grace ! •
Tell it not in the streets o( LaGrange, nor Mc-
' Donougl),
And hide all the brass on your face.
Why just as well take up a baby, and place him
On top of a raEE-mendous log.
Or catch up a wee bit ol tad-pole, and grace
him,
With the stool of a mighty big frog.
Wbat good has been done by the order you
wrote,
To stop Mr. Sherman bis spree y
Why, Ransome, ’taint worth, sir, the half of a
groat,
Because it weren’t written by me.
Well, things, now, Have eome to a beautiful
pass,
That the governor of Georgia can’t take
Any time of his own, but some outrageous ass
Will be guilty of—.such a mistake !
What, Ransome, can’t I be alloweti a few days.
To run off my coilards, and things,
Away from the yankee guns, pillage, and blaze,
But what so much trouble it brings?
Go back, my good boy, to your little command,
Rt suming your juvenile airs—
In very small things, keep taking a hand,
But let alone bigger aftairs.
Hark Philosophy.—“ He was a
truly brave fellow that said :
‘Consider no man capable of insult
ing you, who is mean enough to do it.
In this, you have the decided advan
tage. For whilst, by the insult, he
acknowledges you worthy of his no
tice, you, by your neglect, prove him
unworthy of yours.’
Such a man would make a better
soldier, in defence of any just cause,
than the loudest swaggerer ever heard
of.”
“Faith is the anchor of hope.”
Boggs <fc Grant.
“H. BOGGS. U. S. GRANT.
Boggs & G-rant, general agents for
selling, bartering, real or personal
property, notes, bonds, and other sen
curities, borrowing or loaning of money
on real estate, or other good security,
collecting of rents, renting of houses,
collecting of notes, bills, accounts, or
other demands. Office, No. 35, Pine
street, St. Louis, Mo.”
The above advertisement is goiug
the rounds of the northern papers, as
an illustration of the rapid promotion
which has befallen the junior member
of the firm,
H. BOGGS. U.S. grant.
Buggt, & Grant—just think of it—
in 1859, our Grant was quietly pursu
ing his avocation, as a ''eal estate, and
stock broker, in St. Louis : while, in
1864, lie is very unquietly conducting
operations before the rebellious city
of Richmond, as lieutenant general of
all the forces of the United States.
And yet—extraordinary as is the
change, from the peaceful pursuits of
the counting house, to the tented field
—from the general agency of stocks,
and bonds, to the general command of
yankee armies—we may observe, even
in the above modest announcement,
something of the grand and magnifi
cent character of the future lieutenant
general’s mind.
Observe the comprehensive sweep
of his financial intellect—how it em
braces everything connected with his
profession—how it provides for all
contingencies, in the way of buying,
and selling, stock-jobbing, and collect
ing. Nothing is omitted, nothing is
forgotten that can be done—without
capital. Perhaps it is only to this
trifling deficiency that we are to at
tribute the failure of the great cam
paign of Boggs & Grant, against the
pockets of confiding buyers and sell
ers. But for this, our Ulysses would,
undoubtedly, before this present time,
have surpassed Astor, or Girard, in
rictus, and equalled, perhaps, the
mythical opulence of Groesus. In this
vast and encircling scheme of finauce,
we behold the nascent lieutenant gen
eral.. In these able, and comprehen
sive devices, for getting other people’s
money, we see the analogue of those
ingenious and brilliant plans for con
quering other people’s territory, which,
it they have, sadly enough, come to
nought, have not failed for want ol in
genuity, and comprehensiveness, but
ouly because of the obdurate and quite
unreasonable resistance of one R. E.
Lee, and his tatterdemalion followers.
The rapid rise of the jumoi mem
ber of the firm of Boggs & Grant, is