"Swingin round the cirkle" : $b His ideas of men, politics, and things, as set forth in his letters to the public press, during the year 1866.
John Locke · en
Deekin Parkins sed he must bear his unworthy testimony agin these
disturbers. They hed--he knowd whereof he spoke--hired a female woman
from Massachusetts to teach their children! He hed bin in their
skool-room, and with his own eyes witnest it.
Bascom, the grocery keeper, hed bin shocked at their conduct. He wuz
convinct that a nigger wuz a beast. They come to the Corners to sell the
produx of their lands; do they leave their money at his bar? Nary! They
spend sum uv it at the store uv a disorganizer from Illinoy, who is here
interferin with the biznis uv troo Southern men, but he hed never seed
one uv em inside his door. He hed no pashence with em, and believed
suthin shood be done to rid the community uv sich yooseless inhabitance.
Ef they ever git votes they'r agin us. No man who dodges my bar ever
votes straight Dimocrisy.
Ginral Punt moved that this meetin do to wunst proceed to the
settlement, and clean em out. They wuz a reproach to Kentucky. Of
course, ez they were heathens and savages, sich goods ez they hed wood
fall to the righteous, uv whom we wuz which, and he insisted upon a fair
divide. All he wanted wuz a bureau and a set uv chairs he hed seen.
The motion wuz amendid to inclood Pollock, the Illinoy store-keeper, and
it wuz to wunst acted upon.
Pollock wuz reconstructed first. Filled with zeal for the right, his
door wuz bustid in, and in a jiffy the goods wich he wuz a contaminatin
our people with wuz distributed among the people, each takin sich ez
sooted em. Wun man sejested that ez they wuz made by Yankees, and
brought south by Yankees, that there wuz contaminashen in the touch uv
em, and that they be burned, but he wuz hooted down, our people seein a
distinction. The contaminashen wuz in payin for em; gittin em
gratooitusly took the cuss off.
Elated, the crowd started for the settlement. I never saw more zeal
manifested. A half hour brought us there, and then a scene ensood wich
filled me with joy onspeekable. The niggers wuz routed out, and their
goods wuz bundled after em. The Bibles and skool books wuz destroyed
first, coz we hed no use for them; their chairs, tables, and bureaus,
clothin and beddin, wuz distributed. A wooman hed the impudence to beg
for suthin she fancied, when the righteous zeal uv my next door
neighbor, Pettus, biled over, and he struck her. Her husband, forgettin
his color, struck Pettus, and the outrage wuz completed. _A nigger hed
raised his hand agin a white man!_