Rensselaer Union, Volume 2, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 October 1869 — NASBY. [ARTICLE]

NASBY.

fProra the Toledo Blade] AH AFFETTINU INCIDENT AT VICKSIU Hole — THE IUKKEKENCK lIETWEES 1859 AND ISO#— vntimely dbatit or col. Leonidas SLAsnRR. Vixscitu,ilrtck 1* in the State nv Mississippi. I oct. », ih«s, t One uv the most affcctin residents wich ever come under my notis. transpired at the Southern Cross Hotel, in this city, yesterday. 1 hev wept oshens uv tears in my dajL and Ucv seen all sorts uv horrible dtatlis, out never one wich tcched my heart az the untimely decease uv Col. Leonidas Slasher uv the interior, wich took place yesterday. I regretted the Kernel’s death for meny reasons. I bed only made bis acquaintance five days, (he lied bin in town that ’time,) and hed consckently only succcoded in borcrin sl3 uv him ; $3 at One time and *5 at two other times. He lied money and wus flush with it; and I hed confidently counted on mibsistin on him for at least four weeks. Tmo his death settlea wat 1 borrered uv him, but that’s no oonsulaslien, Et soon cz he bed got well acquainted with me, h«’d a never thought uv askin me for it anyhow. In addishun to this greef wich is purely personal to myself, the Colonel wuz a chivalrous Southerner uv the old skool. He wuzn’t in the Confiederit servia hisself, but sich wuz his dcvoshen to the coz that he forced into the field ail the poor wliitea in his visinity, and huntid sich es woodnt go, out uv the country with dorgs. He wus a troo gentleman. lie wore ruffled shirts, took the Nationel Intelligencer and drank his brandy-and-water without water. The Kernel knowd that the war wuz over—that the South hod bin subjugated, and reconstructed, but hedn’t any ideq uv the changis wich hed takcq place. He bed lived on his plantashcn out uv the reech uv the world all this time. He sposed that reconstruction meant simply that ef-1m shood be elected to Congris, he wood hev to go to Washington to set insted uv Richmond, wich he expectid to do next yeer. The Kernel and I wpz in the orfis nv the hotel, when his bcamin eye liappinin to rest on the Register, it lighted onto this name :

“ Wendell Phillips—Boston, Mass.” The Kernel staggered ez tho he hed bin struck in the face. ” Wendsll Phillips! in Vixburg! Good Hcvcns! where is he ?” Capt. McVay, wich wuz settin by, pintcd to a tall, gaunt man, in a stove-pipe hat, wich wuz settin by. the stove readin the Noo York Herald, and remarks “ that must be him.” * The Kernel gritted his.teeth, and an expression uv intense pleasure rested onto his countenance. “Capten, git a rope. Major, see es that lamp post is high onuff to string this Yankee up to, and Ginpral, fit some uv the boys together iminejitly. ’JI help hang one more Yankee afore I die, anyhow!’’ __ i

And tha impetuous Kernel made for the spozed Phillips. He slapt him in the face, at wteh the Yankee rizand floored theKernek and St it they went, tooth and toempii —the tvnst small file I ever saw. They was finally dragged apart by the clerk of the hotel- and " the by-etaiulfO—*he two wuz arrested by a policeman handy by, and dragged off to a magistrate’s offis, when upon a liner in uv the eaett the Kernel wuz fined S2O and costs. ‘‘Wat is this?” he asked. “Fine mb* for lickin a Yankee* with we wuz about to "bang ? Why, Squire, do you knoOrlwho I am, and who he is ?” “ Sh! Sh! ” sed the Kernel’s friends, wich bed just rusht in. “ Pay yer fine—“it woodent do for iis*to hcv yeo let off for lickin a Ablishnist. The niggers wooelent like it, and it wood lose us their vote.

Payvapd say nothin.” ..rrj , ; “Wat! ” replied tnc Kernel, turnin pafek They sakl nothin, but paid the fine for him and hurried him away. The Kernel went to his room in a most fearful state uv mind, mutterin ez he walked, -‘ Can’t lick an Ablishnist in Vixburg! Fine me for lickin Ablishnists to please a set uv d—d niggers I Can’t lick an Ablishnist wat ■ When he got to his room he sat down and drawd a long sigh. Buryin his face into his hands, hc.wept a half hour, and then fell faintin from his chair. I picked the old man up and put him to bed," after wick I chafed his limbs with whiskey and put a bottle uvit to his lips arid mine. lie showd some signs uv life, and in pcrliaps an hour, cood utter words in a faint and feeble way.

* vv “* w " • “I—can't—hang—a Ab—lislmist any more ! Oh ! ” And the poor old man relapst. I struggled with him for fiftoen minits, when he again opened his eyes. This time he wuz calni tho’ he spoke with an evident effort. “Nasby," sed he in a hoarse whisper, “ it’s time I wuz gone. It’s time that the old stock cither died peaefly or committed eooicide. There ain’t no more room, for cm. I never thot ten years ago that the time wood ever come' when I coodnen.t hang a nigger or a Ablishnist in Mississippi ; but it hez come and I’m a comberer uv the ground. First my 1 " nigger’s is set free ; next, they vote; then I'm' fined for lickin a Ablishnist, and finally I'm told that I musn’t hang one uv em. Good Lord ! wat is there left to live foy{ Here, take this rope, take these pistols, and this bowie knife, and bang em up in remembrance uv me. I die sad and glad. Sad to think things is ez they is—glad to go ez I can’t better em.”

At this pint I fed him with a little whiskey out uv a spoon. 5 Hold my handsteddy,” sed he, “ while 1 write a note given yoo these keepsakes, that no one may question yoor rite to em.” He wrote this time on a leaf uvhis memorandum book, and makin a mosben ez tho he wuz t}' en * knot under some one’s ear, died, His last words wuz. “ Spades is trumps; black's the winnin soot.” _ I wept a tear or two and composed hie limbs. “ Here ” thot I, “is a victim uv tknalyciem. Here is an ornament to hiz sex, cut down in his old age by a change uv customs which he coodent endoor. Thank Heaven, I am strong enuff to endoor it” And havin arranged the body decently I altered his will in wich he bequeathed me hiz rope, pistol and knife, so ez to include hiz trunks and contents, and t&kein his pocklt book out uv his breeches I busted into a paroxysm uv grief in which I wuz found when the inmates uv the house arrived. * ' The sons uv the deceased came to Vlxburgh the next day and took the old gentleaiin’s remains awav, pay In »U his bills

iucloodm ffijO to umwJUdkl. u*4uaUl\re-, marked! ned lent him the day before his (intfL The pistolx knife **><J hi* trunks, with the extents, 1 sold—t|w vftpe which ncortfieiiMeM I shel alluz •keep'in affeckshunit remembranc uv the good old man. • Thus died Kernel Leonidas Hlasher., Tt wux impowible for liim tonurviva such a complete reversal uv everything, and it wuz perhaps us .well that he died oz he did. Peace to his ashes! His death is one more reason for my liatin Ablislinism, es nny otfior reason was nee.led. I diskivered afterward that Wendell Philips wazen’t in Viclcsbotg at aIL The regitterin, uv hi* name wuz a missable Joke of-* '■in the city, and the person pinted out az the great fanatic wuz a traveler for q conservative dry good* homo, m T%wi wuz a serious joke for all conserned. Petroleum V. Nxsnv, wits was t'oiHmiiftcir. . ft J * t 1 W d- it iL# VJ V•>