Guy Rivers: A Tale of GeorgiaSimms, William Gilmore
History
Guy Rivers: A Tale of Georgia
Simms, William Gilmore
Georgia -- History -- 1775-1865 -- Fiction; Gold mines and mining -- Fiction
"And now, Mr. Chairman, I will jist go a little into the particulars of
the rogueries and rascalities of this same Yankee. Now, in the first
place, he is a Yankee, and that's enough, itself, to bring him to
punishment--but we'll let that pass, and go to his other
transactions--for, as I reckon, it's quite punishment enough for that
offence, to be jist what he is. He has traded rotten stuffs about the
country, that went to pieces the first washing. He has traded calico
prints, warranted for fast colors, that ran faster than he ever ran
himself. He has sold us tin stuffs, that didn't stand hot water at all;
and then thinks to get off, by saying they were not made for our
climate. And let me ask, Mr. Chairman, if they wasn't made for our
climate, why did he bring 'em here? let him come to the scratch, and
answer that, neighbors--but he can't. Well, then, as you've all hearn,
he has traded clocks to us at money's worth, that one day ran faster
than a Virginny race-mare, and at the very next day, would strike lame,
and wouldn't go at all, neither for beating nor coaxing--and besides all
these doings, neighbors, if these an't quite enough to carry a skunk to
the horsepond, he has committed his abominations without number, all
through the country high and low--for hain't he lied and cheated, and
then had the mean cowardice to keep out of the way of the _regilators_,
who have been on the look-out for his tracks for the last half year?
Now, if these things an't _desarving_ of punishment, there's nobody fit
to be hung--there's nobody that ought to be whipped. Hickories oughtn't
to grow any longer, and the best thing the governor can do would be to
have all the jails burnt down from one eend of the country to the other.
The proof stands up agin Bunce, and there's no denying it; and it's no
use, no how, to let this fellow come among us, year after year, to play
the same old hand, take our money for his rascally goods, then go away
and laugh at us. And the question before us is jist what I have said,
and what shall we do with the critter? To show you that it's high time
to do something in the matter, look at this calico print, that looks, to
be sure, very well to the eye, except, as you see, here's a tree with
red leaves and yellow flowers--a most ridiculous notion, indeed, for who
ever seed a tree with sich colors here, in the very beginning of
summer?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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