Rensselaer Union, Volume 1, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 September 1869 — NASBY. [ARTICLE]

NASBY.

flfreMfr.Tqtodo ■*>«-] MB. NAMY MCrfm A LETTER now niK OU> AKD STEADFAST FRIEND, DEACON FOeRAM, IN WHICH THE DEACON SETS FORTH THE CONDITION OF AFFAIR" AT THE CORNERS. rtm'i •Tatbbm. Bourn Co., i AnenrtM. IM(W. f The following epistle reached me yesterday. I rcccved it with mingled cmostama. Ka I gaaed at the familyer stamp onto the cnvelo|»e, wioh I bad yoozed so many time*, I kissed it in extacy—ez 1 thot that it wuz inflicted onto the paper by the hand uv a nigger, indignashen scczcd me. But paasin this I opened the envelope and read ex follows: Coironun X Ro ins, ) (With If the State nv Kentncky.) Augnst the ll»lh. 1H». I Mr Dear; Deah Friend Absence it is said conkers love, but that wont work in yoor case. I hed tried to forget yoo and hed well nigh succeeded, but in overhaulin some papers yesterday, I happened to come across some of yoor notes of hand for small amounts borrowed uv me at different times, and I realized to-wuhst the force nv the old line •• The lost to file, to men<y dear." And I bust out into a flood uv tears. But enuff nv thia I sot out to give yoo the news uv the Corners. Crops is a totle feilyoor here. The season hez bin favorable, but we liev bin so entirely ’without labor that we put in but very little seed. At the time we ought to hev hed our corn plantid, Issaker Gavitt, Kernel McPelter, Elder Pennibacker and our sons wuz scourin the country to get enuff niggers to plant for us, but ez they each Bed land uv their own, they woodent do it. So uv course there wuz none uv any account put in. The little that wuz put in wont amdUßt to nothin ex we coodent get no niggers to tend it, durin the growin season, ana the weeds took possession uv it entirely. Joe Bigler sejested that cf we’d spend half the time plantin uv it that we did holdin mectins to devise ways to get nigger labor, we'd hev a bustin crop. But yoo know Josef; he’s lost cariktcr; he works with his own hands. One uv the most tetcliin sites I ever beheld wuz at Bascom’s early in May. jist after our committee had returned' from a frootlis search after hands to do our plantin. The entire Corners wuz present; but there wuz a settled gloom onto ther faces wich even the refreshments they wuz consooming coodent entirely dissipate. They wuz grouped about the bar-room ez yoosual. Elder Pennibacker wuz a leanin in a chair with his back to a barrel; Issaker Gavitt wuz on his back.on a tabic in the corner, and the others wuz asittinon kegs in various parts uv the room.

“Wo is us!” sighed the Elder, puttin his feet onto a keg, that he mite rest easier, and pensivelv squirtin tobacco joose at a fly on the wall opposite, “ where is the liter to plant the porn! We she! starve.” “Alas!” sighed the Deekin, shifting his seat to get so that, he rood cock liis feet agin the wall. “ Alas! the minits is creeping on, day succeeds day, and no aim in yet” “Yes,” replied Issaker Gavitt, rollin over onto his belly, and histin hisself up onto his elbows, “’this is the froots uv Ablishnism. Ten years ago when we lied our niggers we bed our corn all in by this time, and wuz ready to put etn to plowin on it out. Now that we are dependent onto our labor—” And Issaker groaned and rolled over onto his back. And so -we sot and sot and mourned. The result uv wich is that there aint an acre uv good corn in the entire section. Wood that the Ablishnists, wich brot all this onto hs cood see the rooin they have wrought

The prevailin topic uv discussion sence }roo left us hez bin the trouble with Polock and a AblUlin friend uv hizzen who lives in Springfield, Illinoy, the rest in place uv that human goriller, A. Linkin, MpfWffibut uv the bond question. Yoo ""remember three years ago the Corporashenisbood its bonds bearin 6 percent., for $2,000 to bild a lock-up; and a yeer later when it wuz found nessary to gravel the road betwixt the Corners and the stashen at Secessionville, so ez to redoose the freight on the whisky consumed by us, we iahood bonds bearin eight per cent to the amount of $4,000, both ishoos runnin twenty-five veers. These bonds were taken by Pollock and this friend uv hizzen. Last veer we paid the interest on these bonds, but this yeer the people felt that the burden wuz too heavy. They could not reconcile theirselves to the idea uv sweafin to support in idle luxury the bloated bondholders, and the ponulis mur mured agin it. Wat to do we didn’t know, till finally Elder Pennebacker, who borrows my paper regulerly, remarked: “ Eureker—l’ve got it.” He hed bin readin the Dimocratic proposition to tax bonds, and a lite dawned onto him. “We’ll tax these bonds of Pollock’s!” sed the Elder, “and thus releeve ourselves uv this thraldom to the money-power. Thank Heaven the people hevn't yet parted with all their power.” The segestion wuz acted onto io-wunst. The Council wuz assembled, and by a yoonanymus vote an ordinance wuz’ passed levyin a tax uv eight cents onto the dollar on all bonds ishood by the corporashun for moneys borrowed uv'all sorts.. Pollock wuz away when the ordinance wuz passed, and it so happened that he returned the very day that his interest wuz due. liftmejitly he proceeded to the Trezrer’s office, wich is Captin McPelter’s, with his coopons. Captin McPelter receeved him blandly, and, puttin the coopons away, tendered him in 100 thereof a receept for $320 taxes on them sed bonds. “ Wat is this*” ejakilated the astonished Pollock.

"Taxes!” returned McPelter, smilinly. "We hev assessed a tax onto our bonds uv eight ceiits onto the dollar, wich, it happens, is just what yoor interest is. We skorn repudiation—we shel pay principal and interest—but hev the rite to tax bonds, and tax em we will.” f “Is the tax eight cents on the dollar on all bonds uv the corporashen ?” asked Pollock.

“ Trooly it is,” sed McPelter. “ I hold also the bonds ishooed a year before these for buildin a lock-up, but wich only bear six per cent. The tax pays the interest and two per cent over—what will you do with that two per cent ?” “Do with it?” exclaimed McPelter. “Why, we shel apply it to the payment uv the principal, uv course. The entire revenoo uv the corporation is pledged to the extinguishment uv its debt, and we shel not be recreant to our trust.” Pollock went away, but McPelter hed a new idea. He immejitly called the Council together, and sejested that the taxon the bonds ought to be twelve instead uv eight per cent., ez that tax would not only pay the intrest on the 8 per cent, bonds but wood extinguish the bonds theirselves. The six per cent, bonds would not only be eaten up, but would leave Pollock in debt to ®2 r P ora8 hen long before they wuz doo. The way uv eacnpe from our froubles wuz so very plain t hat the Council to-wunst acceded to it: nd notis wuz given Pollock uv the nev ckshen Immejitlythe craven v retch wantid to Mell the bonds to the city .it half ther face. y>nt the proposition wuz rejectid with a reeolgosbn rebooktn him for the Corners wood not live upto its obligations. “Ez much ec we loathe yoo,” remarked Elder Pennibacker, the Municipal Fresh dent, M we shall pay your bends, dollar for

dollar, principal and interest—requiring | yoo, however, Co tear rich .taxation ez may be levied onto yoo." “ But ez the tax eats up both interest and principal, wliat do I get for my money ?’’ askt the stiff-neekt man. “The protection uv our laws!" thun dered Pennebacker. The people was so indignant at this Alilishmst meddler for his objcctin to so ekitable a'proccedin that they mobbed his "lore and wood hev hung him, but for the interference uv Joe Bigler, who is alluz where he ain't wantid. Ez it wuz he wuz arrestidfor breedin dlsturimnees and fined S2O. He tendered, in payment uv his fine, a corporashun tend, but the Justis refoozed, very properly, to take it, and held him till he shelled out a greenback from his ill-gotten hoards. Pollock feels sore, but we don’t. Relieved from these bonds, the Corners will hev no taxes to pay, and we confidently expect a return uv the prosperity to wiaiP we hev bin so long a stranger. F Yours with affeckshun J Elioeß Poons*. P S.—Es you do get into a good thnfe and kin-sparc it, do remit, a porshen at leasd uv wat you owe me. Times is lite here. ’ E. P. Ez I finisht his movin epistle, I cood not help thankin the Lord that in one spot at least, the Democracy practis wlmt they preach. Thank Heaven for Kentucky. Petroleum V. Nasby, (Wich wuz Post Master.)