Rensselaer Union, Volume 3, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 January 1871 — NASBY. [ARTICLE]

NASBY.

(From the Toledo Blade.] MR. NASBY RETURN! NO THE CoIlNgBH— , 1118 RECEPTION AT Ills OLD UOMs*rt ' THE STAND TUB CORNERS TOOK AGAINMJ ; INNOVATORS —THE USES OF OLI> IKON.; Cowtbdrit X Roam, ) [Wlcb l» in the Ktate uv Kentucky,] r ' January Htb, 1871. I ." Home again ! home again! from a furrin shore!" Thank Hevin, I'm wunst more on fitmilycr ground-—among people wich I know thoroly, and who know aud approhlieate me. “My foot is on my na live heath, and my name’s McGregor!' 1 Thunk the Lord for Kentucky, and pert Ikelerly thank the Lord for that pcrtikeler village in it—Confedrit X Roads! I arrived here last night at precisely eight o'clock, from Washington. Kite here I desire to express my opinion uv the Railroad offlshels betwixt Washington and Louisville. There isnt a man among em wich is actooated by humane impulses —not one wich hez the finer feelings of humanity. The brootality with wich the conductor wood order two uv ther ininyuns to secze me and drop me off their tranes bccoz I didnt hev the rekisit funds ta pay fare, wuz hidjus in the extreme. And I cant say much more-for the passen gers—pertikelerly them wich sat in seats contiguous. The irate conductor wood frown—the brakemen ez they seezed me wood wear a pleased expression, but the passengers wood lass outrite. Sich trfflin witli one's poverty is inhuman. But the soulless corporashuhs coodent pervent me from walkin on ther tracks—nor rood the conductors git me off tlicr trains till 1 hed rid a haff a dozen miles. Joodishus and vehement swearin that 1 hed a ticket about me somewhere—and a protracted search for it wunst saved me 8 miles uv tejus walkin. Foot-sore and weary, I at last hove in site uv the Cross-Roads and made all speed for the Centre. All wuz still! The houses on each side uv the street wuz dark (for they won’t yoose coal oil, and sense they hev bin bereft uv their niggers, they hevnt rained hogs enuff to afford lard for lamps), but jist abed, shinin like a beekon lite, wuz the cheerful winders uv Basc'om’s, all ablaze. Ez I seed them winders, I cood realize the ■ feclins uv the tempest-tost mariner makin harbor, or a traveler on the great desert approachin an .oasis in wicli there wuz a gushin spring uv water. It wuz Bascom’s! - Ther wuz the fapiilyer clap-board a hangin by one nail! there wuz old Evans a bcin histed out becoz he took a drink without bavin the money to pay for it.' Everythin wuz natcral and normal. Newer! neerer! I cood gaze thro them winders! Ther wuz Bascom behind the liar a leenin on his elbows: there was Dekin Pogram a sittin on a cheer by the fire, with a glass uv hot whisky in his hand—ther wuz McPelter, Issaker Gavifl, Pennibacker—all, all uv ema sittin by the fire, and all uv em wijAp hot whisky in ther hands. I entered, but none ux em recognized in the travel-worn stranger the once rosy Nasby, and none uv em moved. “Don’t yoo know me—Nasby!” “Git out yoo imposter!” sed they all iu korious. “It is—no! it isn't—and yet '" sed Bascom, “I’ll test hirtt. Whisky did yoo say!" and he sot out the familyer bottle. It wuz a critickle moment—my identity wuz at stake. Assomin the bland old ex ; pression, I poured the glass full and drank it off without a wink. “G. W.” sed I with my old majestic wave uv the hand, “ G. W. mark it down.” “ ’Tis he 1 ’tis he!” ejaculated Bascom. No other man livin kin do that in that way. Take another?* Wich I did. The delite uv Deekin Pogram at seein me wuz tetchin. The old man throwd his wastid arms about my neck, spillin. his likker down my back inside uv wher my shirt collar ought to hev bin, atj/l wep for joy. The stream, uv hot whiskey meandered slowly down my body. “I wood prefer it shood go down inside,” I sed, “but never mind. It’s not all wastid—l shell absorb some uv it.” Kernel McPelter, Elder Pennibacker and Issaker Gavitt crowded up and congratulated me on my return in the miwt corjel manner. “We knowd yood come back!” sed Issaker, “ no one ever leaves the Cross Roads wich don’t come back.” “Troo! too troo!” remarkt that cuss, Joe Bigler, who entered at the moment, “ the man wich lives six years with sicli ez yoo, and acquired yoor habits, can’t live anywhere else, that is within the bounds uv civilizasheii.”

I foiitul things at tho Corners very much ezTliad left em. My pertikler friends wuz all livin, and goin on percisely ez they alluz hed. Joe Bigler was still alive, and wuz recognized ez the leader uv the niggers at the Corners, and Pollock wuz still retailin goods to em._ They hed bed several exciting seasons. Pollock hed bought, a veer ago, a waterpower on Buck Creek, neer the village, and a farm adjinin, and he made a serious effort to start an iron works on it. The innovatin wretch hed gone on to Massychoosits —hed enlisted a passel uv Yankee capitalists in the enterprise, and they hed abslootly gone on and built the buildin and got in the heft uv the machinery, and wuz gatherin up operatives in the East to set it in operashen. Issaker Gavitt diskivered one day that the few mechanics they hed read noosepapers, and Bascom found that ther wuzu’t a Dimocrat among em. The Corners lelt outraged, uv course, and a meetin wuz called to take measures to stop it rite where it wuz. Pollock and Joe Bigler sneaked into the meetin and undertook to talk em out uv it. “ It’ll double the price uv yoor land!” sed Pollock. “ And give the Ablishnists more valuashen to tax us on!” sung out Issaker Gavitt. “ Ez I shel never leeve my land—” commonest Pogram. “ It’s leevin yoo deevlish fast, owing to yoor chronic thirst,” interrupted Joe Bigler. “ Deekin, wats the yoose uv yoor speekin in the land interest? Es yoor venerable bilers hold together a few short months Bascom will hev wat few akers you hev left. Let him represent it.” *• Ez I shel never leeve my land,” continyood the venerable Deekin, “ wat do I keer wat its valyoo is.” “ It’ll Weak up our customs,” sed Pennibacker. “ They’ll git turnpikes and raleroads and skoolhouses in next, and then wat quiet will we hev.” “ But, Bascom, it’ll make more customers for yoor bar,” sung out Bigler. “ Troo, but thcr'e’d be more groceries to supply em. No! I hev all that I kin take keef uv and I don’t want I}O more. Down with these interlopers.” ." .... “ Down with the interlopersl’’ sang but all uv em, and headed by the venerable old Pogram, they went for the Works. They hacked down tho corner-posts—-they tore off the -roof, they ripped Out the machinery that wuz in it. and broke it up and wuz about to throw it into the Creek, when Bascom shouted in a loud voice: “ Old iron is worth two cents a pound at my bar!” Deekin Pogram stood with a sekshun uv a wheel uplifted ready to hurl it into the water, but at these magic ‘words he held his hands. “G. W.,” said the agid saint. “G. W. will yoo give us likker at reglar rates for sich iron ez we bring yoo, or will yoo mock our yernins by takin the iron and givin us i credit for it on account. G..W.speak! ” | “I’ll give likker for it? ” exclaimed Bascom. “ I’d rather do that than to keep on chargyi.” “ Immejitly ther wuz a scramble for the the iron—it wood buy likker and wuz at wunst a preshus metal. In ther zeal to gather

It they coine to blows. Issaker Gavitt and Kernel McPelter fought over a piece that weighed ten pounds, and that old ass, Ehler J‘eunebackcr, nearly drownded hissclf divin for a seckahun uv a balance wheel that he hed previously thrown into 15 Let uv water. lie wuz pulled out nearly dead and Vt epin perfusely. "It weighed 3QP txiundn," he gasped “Es I cood hev nuscil it, 1 cood hev kep com fable four days.” They last at him, but it wuz. wrong, and hed I bin there 1 shood hev relxxiked em. I know wat it is to go witlumt my regler rashens, and wat a crooel disappointment it is to see four days’ supply within site, but jest out of reach. I snood hev gone for t hat iron myself. Theyjnade a cleen-thing of the Works. They tore down the buildin andy tore up the dam, and destroyed the cabins uv the workmen. ■ The company and Pollock became disheartened, and wisely concloodid not to rebild, and so the Corners wuz < saved. The Radicals hed attempted to hev the nitrgera vote and a mishnary sosiely hed undertook to build a skool-house. The niggers did vote, for Joe Bigler stood at the poles threatenin to shoot the judges es the vote uv a single one of em wuz refoosed, but it didn’t amount to anything. The judges took the box to a quiet place where Joe coodn't gel at em and threw out every one uv ther votes. The skoolhouse was more easily disposed uv. Ez fast ez the mishnaries wood bild a bildin, it wood mysteriously take fire at 3 a. m. and quietly consoom. The Sosiety got tired uv tryin to revolooshcnizc the Corners and abandonedlt.' Ez these things wuz told me, I wept tecrsuvjoy. ” Yoo hev kept the faith,” I sed “ jest ez well ez tho I hed bin with yoo. Bless you!—bless you !” We didn't break up till late in the nite. In honor uv my arrival Deckin Rogram squandered tho last peace uv cast-iron he hed left —a part uv a lathe wich he hed bin savin for some desprit emergency. I went home with him and am yet domiciled under his hospitable roof. Wat I shel finally do aint settled. I may organize a church —tin people wanted me to start a grocery in opposition to Bascom, but when? askt em to advance the capital they askt wherefore ? “Es I hed capital,” they .all exclaimed in unisou, “ I’d start a greraery myself.” And then I found that the reason whv they wantid a hew grosery wuz Bascom's growin indisposishen to give long credit, ,wich the Corners must hev. I kin see nothing in it. Bascom hez aireddy a first mortgage on all the land for five miles about, and ez they ain’t got no niggers to work, uv course they get no crops uv any account. Bascom sez es tliey want a church organizashen he will keep me in in likker, that is modritly, pervided the others will give me wat little I want to eat, and I spose that’s wat I slid hev to do till suthin better turns up. But thank Heaven lam here, and it will be singler es I don’t find enuff to drink, and to eat,

And to wear.

PETROLEUM V. NASBY,

(Wich wqz Postmaster.)