The Olivia Letters: Being Some History of Washington City for Forty Years as Told by the Letters of a Newspaper CorrespondentBriggs, Emily Edson
History
The Olivia Letters: Being Some History of Washington City for Forty Years as Told by the Letters of a Newspaper Correspondent
Briggs, Emily Edson
United States -- Politics and government -- 1865-1933; Washington (D.C.) -- History
Simeon Beard was followed by a Texan, Mr. Ruby, another member of
the proscribed family. How shall we describe this swarthy man, who
appeared to be made up of sharp, glittering points, and who seems
to bear the same relation to the human family that a dagger does
to other weapons? He had the indescribable sway of the body of the
children of the sunny climes. When his youthful face appeared it did
not seem possible that he had the essential requisites to address
such an audience, but surprise gave way to admiration and applause.
He spoke in behalf of Georgia, asking nothing for Texas. “Why is
it,” asked the speaker, “that the same atrocious state of affairs
does not exist in middle and western Texas as in Georgia to-day?”
Lowering his voice until it hissed, “I’ll tell you; when a Union man
was killed a rebel was made to bite the dust. Only one man was shot
in my neighborhood. He was a poor colored preacher who had started
a school. Some men disguised went in broad daylight and shot him in
the schoolroom. Mind ye, he was a poor man with no friends; but every
man engaged in that day’s work was hunted down. We killed them as we
would so many reptiles (raising his voice until it sounded like a
musical instrument); that is the way we stamped out treason in our
part of the world.”
A colored man of polished education followed this fierce and war-like
Texan. His words were admirably chosen. The glowing appeals flowing
from the lips of Messrs. Beard and Ruby seemed like the virgin ore
torn from the rocks where it had been imbedded for ages. The smooth,
handsome sentences of Professor Langston fell from his tongue like
coin from the mint, each word having an appreciable value. Professor
Langston is at present at the head of the law department in the
Howard University. He was born in Maryland, of slave parentage,
but was emancipated at a very early age, and received a thorough
classical education through the indulgence of his paternal ancestor.
After leaving college he studied law, and he now occupies one of
the most honorable positions in the country. Like all of his race
at the capital, he takes the deepest interest in the welfare of
the freedmen farther South. The delegation earnestly asks that the
Bingham-Farnsworth amendment, which is tacked on to the last law of
reconstruction, may be crushed in the Senate, as its passage would
hand the loyal element to the tender keeping of the late masters of
Andersonville and Salisbury.
OLIVIA.
THE TREASURY TRIO.
WYMAN, TUTTLE AND SPINNER GUARD THE TREASURY DEPOSITS--JEWELS IN
STORAGE.
WASHINGTON, _December 28, 1870_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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