Colonel Carter of Cartersville | Page 5

drawer in a table on
his right, producing three small clay pipes with reed stems and a

buckskin bag of tobacco. This he poured out on a plate, breaking the
coarser grains with the palms of his hands, and filling the pipes with the
greatest care.
Fitz watched him curiously, and when he reached for the third pipe,
said:--
"No, Colonel, none for me; smoke a cigar--got a pocketful."
"Smoke yo' own cigars, will you, and in the presence of a Virginian? I
don't believe you have got a drop of Irish blood left in yo' veins, or you
would take this pipe."
"Too strong for me," remonstrated Fitz.
"Throw that villainous device away, I say, Fitz, and surprise yo' nostrils
with a whiff of this. Virginia tobacco, suh,--raised at
Cartersville,--cured by my own servants. No? Well, you will, Major.
Here, try that; every breath of it is a nosegay," said the colonel, turning
to me.
"But, Colonel," continued Fitz, with a sly twinkle in his eye, "your
tobacco pays no tax. With a debt like ours it is the duty of every good
citizen to pay his share of it. Half the cost of this cigar goes to the
Government."
It was a red flag to the colonel, and he laid down his pipe and faced Fitz
squarely.
"Tax! On our own productions, suh! Raised on our own land! Are you
again forgettin' that you are an Irishman and becomin' one of these
money-makin' Yankees? Haven't we suffe'd enough--robbed of our
property, our lands confiscated, our slaves torn from us; nothin' left but
our honor and the shoes we stand in!"
[Illustration]
The colonel on cross-examination could not locate any particular

wholesale robbery, but it did not check the flow of his indignation.
"Take, for instance, the town of Caartersville: look at that peaceful
village which for mo' than a hundred years has enjoyed the privileges
of free government; and not only Caartersville, but all our section of
the State."
"Well, what's the matter with Cartersville?" asked Fitz, lighting his
cigar.
"Mattah, suh! Just look at the degradation it fell into hardly ten years
ago. A Yankee jedge jurisdictin' our laws, a Yankee sheriff enfo'cin'
'em, and a Yankee postmaster distributin' letters and sellin' postage
stamps."
"But they were elected all right, Colonel, and represented the will of the
people."
"What people? Yo' people, not mine. No, my dear Fitz; the
Administration succeeding the war treated us shamefully, and will go
down to postehity as infamous."
The colonel here left his chair and began pacing the floor, his
indignation rising at every step.
"To give you an idea, suh," he continued, "of what we Southern people
suffe'd immediately after the fall of the Confederacy, let me state a case
that came under my own observation.
"Colonel Temple Talcott of F'okeer County, Virginia, came into
Talcottville one mornin', suh,--a town settled by his ancestors,--ridin'
upon his horse--or rather a mule belongin' to his overseer. Colonel
Talcott, suh, belonged to one of the vehy fust families in Virginia. He
was a son of Jedge Thaxton Talcott, and grandson of General Snowden
Stafford Talcott of the Revolutionary War. Now, suh, let me tell you
right here that the Talcott blood is as blue as the sky, and that every
gentleman bearin' the name is known all over the county as a man
whose honor is dearer to him than his life, and whose word is as good

as his bond. Well, suh, on this mornin' Colonel Talcott left his
plantation in charge of his overseer,--he was workin' it on shares,--and
rode through his estates to his ancestral town, some five miles distant.
It is true, suh, these estates were no longer in his name, but that had no
bearin' on the events that followed; he ought to have owned them, and
would have done so but for some vehy ungentlemanly fo'closure
proceedin's which occurred immediately after the war.
"On arriving at Talcottville the colonel dismounted, handed the reins to
his servant,--or perhaps one of the niggers around the do',--and entered
the post-office. Now, suh, let me tell you that one month befo', the
Government, contrary to the express wishes of a great many of our
leadin' citizens, had sent a Yankee postmaster to Talcottville to
administer the postal affairs of that town. No sooner had this man taken
possession than he began to be exclusive, suh, and to put on airs. The
vehy fust air he put on was to build a fence in his office and compel our
people to transact their business through a hole. This in itself was vehy
gallin', suh, for up to that time the mail had always been dumped out on
the table in the stage office and every gentleman had he'ped himself.
The next thing was the closin'