157. CLVII.
THE DECEASE OF ELDER PENNIBACKER.
Post Offis, Confedrit × Roads }
(wich is in the Stait uv Kentucky),
January 25, 1868.
Wun by wun we go! Wun by wun the tall oaks totter and
fall! We view their prostrate forms a second, they sink into
the earth and are lost to site, tho to memry dear, forever.
Then around the old stump the young sprouts grow up more
vigorouser than ever.
I ain't slingin these moral reflecshuns for nothin. I never
waste the pathetics. Whenever a man is pulled drowndid
from the creek in this visinity, wich happens frekently, there
bein three distilleries onto it, I never weep until I see whether
he belongs to my congregrashun. It requires too much uv an
effort to weep, to do it on all okkashuns.
Elder Abslum Pennibacker, to-wunst the strength and ornament
uv the meetin house uv wich I hev bin for two yeers the
pastor, departid this life at 2 P. M. this afternoon. For him I
weep, for him the teers is flowin over the paper onto wich
these lines is penned. I am writin em in the presence uv the
wife and children uv the deceest, and it does em good to see
me affectid. When one kin confer satisfaction at so little
trouble ez carryin an onion in his pocket handkerchief, he
wood be a broot indeed ef he did not prove hisself ekal to
the occasion.
Elder Pennibacker wuz born in Pennsylvany, uv real old
Democratic stock. He wuz born amid the scenes uv the war
uv Independence, and he growed up with Revolooshenary
memries inspirin him. His father fought in the Revolooshen,
havin come all the way across the Atlantic to do it. He wuz
a Hessian, and therefore wuzn't penshuned by the Amerikin
Government. But at the Fourth uv Jooly celebrashens, the
old man wuz invited to sit on the stand, the yomanry uv that
secshun not knowin that it made any difference ez to the side
he took in the struggle.
Young Abslum growd up amid exslent inflooences. Ther
wuzn't no skools in the visinity in his infancy, and jist ez he
mite hev bin contaminated by em, his father moved to Kentucky,
wher he wuz safe from all sich. The old gentleman
dyin, Abslum inherited the paternal akers, and paternal niggers,
and become a man among men. The genius uv the man
now began to develop. Untrameled by the narrer views uv
his paternal ancester, he boldly launcht out for hisself. He
early distinguished hisself by his inventive genius, wich took
the real Kentucky shoot. Twas him wich conceeved the idea
uv braidin small wire into the lashes uv nigger whips; and not
satisfied with that, he, after a month's hard study brought out
the improvement in the nigger-paddle uv borin holes into it.
He hed a desprit struggle to get it adoptid. The blind planters
uv the neighborhood hed faith in the old paddle, plain, and the
Elder wuz forst to demonstrate, by actooal experiment on his
niggers, its sooperiority. He killed two in doin it, but he triumphed.
It wuz found that more chastisement cood be inflicted
with it in a given time, than by the old method, and
that it lasted longer.
I need not say wat his politics wuz. He wuz never nothin
but a Dimocrat. He commenst his career votin three times for
Jackson, and the candidates wich follered in succession hed no
cause to complain uv his zeel. Under Bookanan his faithfulnis
wuz rewardid. The postoffis wich I now hold wuz given him,
and he discharged the dooties faithfully and to the best uv his
ability. Ez he coodent read, he put wat letters wich arriv out
into a box outside, lettin every one who come take one ef they
wantid to. The paper wich come to the offis for Deekin
Pogram he learned to distribbit in two weeks. The out-goin
mail he dumped into a Looisville bag, feelin a great load wuz
off his mind when it departid. He held the offis till they
wanted him to make out a quarterly report. He wuz nonplussed.
He either hed to buy a nigger who cood read and
write, or resign, and he resigned.
The Elder wuz the happy possessor uv three hundred niggers.
They wuz probably the best lot uv niggers in Kentucky.
He hed three shades uv color. The trader cood find anything
in the line uv a nigger, up to these three, that he wantid, on
his plantashen. There wuz the pure Congo, the agil mulatto,
and the comely quadroon. Ther wuz no higher mix than the
quadroon, for it will be remembered the family hedn't bin
slave-owners but two generashens. They hed accomplished a
great deal, however, for the time they hed hed em.
The Elder hed bin in failin health ever since 1862. In that
year he embarkt into a speculashun wich bid fair to make him
wun uv the wealthiest men in the State, and wood, hed things
bin continyood normal. Ther wuz niggers runnin to the Fedral
camps from all parts uv the State, and the Elder conceeved
the idea uv goin to the sed camps and claimin uv em. The
offiser in command wuz so anxious to consiliate him that he
wood gladly give em up, without bein pertikiler about proofs,
and the Elder gathered, in that way, in two months, over a
hundred. It required a good deel of ridin, and that fatigue,
combined with the exposure incident to bushwhackin Fedral
pickets, wich wuz guardin his fences and sich, brought on a
spell uv sickness from which he never fully recovered. The
Emancipashen Proclamashen nearly finisht him, and he lingered
along, a broken man, ontil Johnson's 22d uv Febrooary speech,
wich acted ez a tonic onto him. He revived, but the effeck
wuz temporary. Ez the Conservatives made headway, he
came up, and ez Congris triumphed, he went down, and thus
he lived like a candle in a tin lantern, flickrin or quiet, ez the
wind blowd. He pluckt up amazinly after the eleckshuns last
fall, but alas, the treachery uv Meade and the re-instatement
uv Stanton wuz two blows from wich he cood not hope to
recover. And so, yesterday at 2 P. M., wich in this case
means post mortem, he died.
“Send in Sairey!” sed he, and a favorite mulatto woman uv
hizzen who, owin to the fact uv her havin eight children who
wuz quadroons, hed stayed onto the place, wuz sent for. She
sot on the bed, and the Elder's head wuz placed in her lap.
“Give me my munney,” sed he, and a box uv Confedrit scrip
wuz given him. And so, with his head in Sairey's lap, fingerin
Confedrit scrip and takin likker out uv a spoon, he passed
gently away. It wuz a troo Kentucky deparcher. “This is
the eend of life!” sed I. “May my eend be like his,” murmured
Deekin Pogram, and all wuz o'er.
There wuz trouble immejitly. When the Elder's will wuz
read I wuz disappointed to find that he hed not remembered
me, and Mrs. Pennibacker wuz also disappointed to find that
the Elder hed left the half uv his estate to Sairey; and his
wife, Sairey, and the people uv the Corners to wich he
wuz indebted in small sums, wuz disappinted to find that
Bascom hed a mortgage on everything the Elder possessed, uv
quite its valyoo. Bascom, I bleeve, hez a mortgage onto every
foot uv ground within ten miles uv here. He wood hev a
mortgage onto my property, I make no doubt, ef I hed any.
But I ain't, halleloogy! We buried the Elder to-day. It wuz
a large funeral. In the front wuz his children, by his wife,
then the entire Corners; and back uv them more than forty
yaller niggers, who hed bin hizzen. Wat drawd em to his
tomb? Wuz it instink? Who kin tell? But a pillar hez
fallen; I am too sad to write more.
Petroleum V. Nasby, P. M.
(wich is Postmaster).
