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Arp’s Letter.
I v.v,- Li ii. v room * us-von a g a*ta ; .'<♦
c>t ioltore. Tim mother ami cajltiran
wcra in her room and the door was
open, and about 9 oVbok I heard
<•". nv, rniiiUß, plenso tell
■;!. a story, We know our lesson;
please, mamma, toll ns ab >ut ecrtce
litun: away back whou you vre:o a girl,
or romothing about' the war."
Weil, don’t turn that chair car.
set ap straight; you will break a rock
er if yon don’t mind. That is rap
chair, and I want to keep it at;
meg as I live, i’va rocked many a
a'vikl in that chair, and seen sorrow
iml aadiiCi-m in it too. li the old ami
chair of a mother or grandmother
could talk, what a U'g history it could
tall.
• ‘'But, mamma, wo don’t want any
sorrow or sadness now, Eor anythiug
; bout chairs. Pka-e tell us about
vhen yon run Irem ths yankees, won’t
yon?’’ Oil, you worry me. You
now rhat I don’t love to talk about
the war nor the yaukeos. I wish
hat I could forget all about both. It
tenis to me that I lived twenty years
in those four of the wac But lot me
cell you about that chair and why I
call it my war chair. It is the only
hair we Raved from the wreck —ono
chair and one bedstead. We found
hem at a neighbor’s bouse when we
came back to Romo. The yankees car
- iod ever} thing else—carpets, bureaus,
oedsttads and bedding, tables, china
,:r.d pictures, and I don’t kn w what.
The house was fall of such things
and the smoko house and pautry were
fall to-ct. I had a beautiful woik-stand
that cost thirty dollars, and was a pres
out, and the yankee telegraph operator
shipped it to his home in Indiana, and
long a-tor the war was over he wrote
v .. a 1, ter and said that he had it and
iclt bad about it, and would return it
or buy it, just as we wished. So your
pi wrote him a nioe letter and thank
ed him for his good intention-*, and
asked him to send it back by express,
but be nevei heard from him any
more. He didn’t feel as bad as be
thought he did. He tvas Written to
again, but he played ’possum am!
made out like be was dead. He had
better not die it ho knows what is
good for him. These yankees got lots
of nice things from us and they lived
high. Theio were thirty nice, fat
bams in the smoke bouse and two
large cans of lea,' lard and a whole
barrel of soap. “Why, what made
you leave all those things, mamma?
Couldn’t you have gotten a wagon and
taken them along?’’
Why, children, wo had no wagoa,
and no time to get one. We didn’t
know we had ta go until about mid
night. The town and tbe 'suburbs
wore full of soldiers, enough we
thought to whip the whole yankee na
tion. W 7 by, wo had company to sup
per that night, and had lots of straw
berries and cream. sVe hadn't bean
to bed very long before were told to
get, for Gen. Johnston was falling
oack and our troops were all leaving
in a hurry, and the everlasting yan
iiees were coming right in. Just then
the}* began to throw their singing, siz
zing shells over the town to scare us
op and make ns movo around lively.
The shells twisted m tho air and scar
ed us almost to death. I nevei
thought about furniture or anything
,->[e, but getting my little children out
of danger. I haTsn’t got over it yet.
We got tangled up in the street among
our soldiers and the artillery and we
couldn’t move for two hours. By aad
by the town bridge was set o Sio to
k 2 ep tho yankees back until we could
get across the other river and burn
that bridge. Ob, it was an awful
fi'ght, but we won’t talk about that, I
had lather tell you how glad I was to
l yet back home again after eight
months of exile. Jhgbt long months
of runmeg about with hail a dozen
children who were about naked and
,iwavs hungry. Your pa was away
i/oidip'j cci-'irt at ..V ,n, and 1 had
. . !;.. j around from plate to place an i
impose on kindred and friends win
were sacred too. I toll you I was hap
py when we got back to our horn, de
.seine as k was. Wo live! herd an
rotix.li tor hwhile until wn g<t on
sheeting and that help us out v/omler
fully. Wa sold sheeting for chair
•/nil tables an 1 bedstead* and potatoes
and sorghum.
“Where did yen get it mamma?’ 1
Well, just before old Sherman run
r.s aw-y your pa msoagod to got a
bale of yu and wide a’meting; and he
hid it in tho &m*ke ho*. Oonfed- r
a'.e money hi and got oo bad that noboU*
wanted'it. It wouldn't buy anything
hardly. Salt was a g.eafc deal better
than money, and so was sugar and to
base ft, ami shining or avyihng to
make 0',./ by cut of; sheer were , p u i
id currency. Yur pa had two calf
skins, and ha tanned them with ashes
and rubbed about half tho hair off,
and got aa old cobbler to make shies
for my children, aad you saver saw
such things iu your lifo, but they were
a goed leal better than none. The
night we ran away that bale of shaet
ing was put is a wagoa that belonged
to a friend, who was running away,
too, and it was left several tails* away
with a good woman, who set it m iu
the fence corner of her room, and put
a vallance over it aad a looking-glass
on the top, like it was a dressing-table
and so the yankees didn't find is. B it
when we come home we had tbe brie
hauled in, and went to trading on it
for it was bettor than greenbacks, but
there wasn't much to buy in all that
region—no corn or flour or eattlf.
Your pa went down ia Alabama ami
got ten bushels of corn, and kept i
bid oat ia the country, and had only
half a busfaet ground at a time.
“What for, mamma, was he afrii.l
oi?“
Why ths deserters aad the robbers
who were prowling all over tho coun
try, liko buzzards after dead horses.
They robbed everybody who bad any
thing. One night they came in town
and robbed old Llr. Q dan, and he
made so ranch fuss about it that Mr
Oreuborg ran there, and the rob
bar shot,hi:a and killed him for com
iug. They hung men up by the neelt
to make theta give up their geld or
their silverware. One night they hung
up a little Dutchman, and as his toes
juat touched the ground he scream id
out: ‘sviag avay, eying avay, I tells
you notting-*, but I meet* ynn in hell,
all the same, and den I svings you
uy.”
“Did they kill him,, mamma?”
No, children. He was so brave
they let him go. But the funniest
thing you ever saw was your pa’s
store, about the close of the war.
He and Robert Hargrove had the
biggest store in. town, and they
had $20,000 worth of goods in it.
Y qu ought to have seen the stock;
it was just immense.”
“Why, where did they get tho
goods, mamma?” "
Well, there was a man in jail in
Selma, and he wrote to your pa to
come down and get him out, and
he would give him SIO,OOO, So
your pa went, and he got the mon
ey, and he gave half of it for a
pound of opium, and the other half
for four dozen cotton cards—that
Is, without handles or backs, and
he brought the whole stock home
in a little valise, and spread it out
in the big store. Mr. Hargrove put
in a half box of tobacco for $5,000
and a few bunches of factory yarn
for $5,000 more, and they went to
trading. You could have put the
whole stock in a big wheelbarrow.
They sold to the opium-eaters for
$5 an ounce in gold, and the cards
at S2OO a pairiti Confederate mon
ey, But they bartered the most of
them for chickens and potatoes
and sorghum, and that’s the way
we lived.
“Mamma, what did you all sleep
on when you first got home?”
Why, we borrowed a couple of
beds, and all of us spread out on
the floor. We cooked in a skillet,
but we had so little to cook we
didn’t want a stove. We had no
sugar nor coffee, nor milk, nsj
flour. Your pa hoard of a now some
where, and gave .13,000 fer her,
Confederate money was almost as
plenty as tho leaves on the trees.
Everybody had a pocketful. Hun
dred dollar bills were common,
but they wouldn’t buy anything,
hardly. So mo of the cavalry used
to give one of them for a drink or
mean whisky. Before the mone;,
got so ba 1, your grandpa sold liis
farm for $50,000 and moved away
down Hie country to get out of
trouble, He invested Lis money
in cotton in Columbus, and Wil
son’s raiders came along and burn
ed it all up. Boor man! But he
was like J ob. lie never lost his in
tegrity nor his cheerful disposition.
I never heard him complain about
anything.
“Tell on mamma.”
Well, you must know that old
Sherman wanted to make war hor
rible and make the people tired of
it, so lie took away all their horses
and mules and cattle and hogs and
corn and wheat and everything
they had to live on except what
they hid in the swamps. Most all
the men were oIF in the army and
the women and children oil the
bast they could, and hid out some
things until the yankees went
away. Sam Jones and a few dare
devils like him prowled around at
night and stole horses and mules
and run them off to the swamps.
Sam was nothing but a boy, but
they say that he stole over a hun
dred,aud he gave them all away to
the poor folks. You see he got a suit
of old yankee blue clothes, and
went about among the guards who
had charge of tho extra horses and
made out like he was a yankee,
too, and he generally had a bottle
of whisky and a deck of cards and
gambled with them and got them
drunk, and before morning he
would have half a dozen horses
and mules away oil somewhere,
He was as mischievous then as he
is now, though it was of a differ
ent kind. He was fighting the yan
kees then, and he is fighting Ihe
‘old boy’ now. and there isn’t so
much difference alter all- Why,
you ought to have seen our smoke
house, when we got home. They
had converted it into a bakery and
had the finest bread troughs you
ever heard of, They mad them out
of ihe Presbyterian church pews,
and they built a great, long stable
on our lot out of the church timber.
Their horse troughs were made out
of the pews, and the pulpit was
scattered around. We cleaned out
the smoke house and dug up the
dirt and boiled it down and made
! salt of it. Smoke house dirt that
i has received the drippings of salted
meat for years makes splendid ta
ble salt when clarified. We made
right good coffee out of dried sweet
potatoes. I used to make hats for
the boys out of the old scraps of
cashmere. Your pa built a fence
and a boat without a nail. He bor
ed holes in the plank and pinned
them on with wood-pins. The war
made us powerful shifty, as Cobe
says, and so we got along pretty
well. The children all kept well
and strong until the war -was over
and the doctors came home from
the army. And there Avere no law
suits nor courts until the lawyers
came back.
• k You hays to thank the yankees
for that much, don’t you, mam
ma?”
No, I don’t thank the yankees
for they run raa and my
children all over this country like
j we were dogs. Your pa makes out
'like he has forgiven them, and is
trying to harmonize and all that;
but they have never apologized to
me yet, rior shown any humility or
repentance, , J
Hardman. & Comp’y.
rw W ■*
DEALERS IN
Ha-rdwarl & CutlcrY.
O ur Lllo of Stoves, Tinware, Agricultural Implements, Etc., can not bs
found ia better Quality and Durability, elsewhere. We also keep a good ue
of guns for the Fall tra !o. Cull and examine our slock and prices. B.
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FROM
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ATHENS, GEORGIA.
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W. A- QuiHiaa & So>
harmony Gove,
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And Plantation s upplies-
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Athens Music House,
114 Clayton Street, Next Door to Postoffice, Athens, Georgia.
Haselton & Dozier, Proprietors.
And all kinds of Musical Instruments at the very lowest prices for Cach,
or on the Installment plan.
Written guarantee on al! instruments sold. Special reduced rates to church
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Keeps always cn hand the oeet makes of
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