share uv the estate, and he lived high, jist, my
brethren, ez yoor boys do, or rather, did, when they went to Noo
Orleans, in the days when yoo hed a nigger or two wich yoo cood sell to
supply em with money. He played draw poker and faro; he drank fancy
drinks, and boarded at big hotels; and he follered after strange women,
wich'll bust a man quicker nor any one small sin the devil hez yet
invented, ez yoor pastor kin testify. Uv course, his pile give out, and
he got down, my friends, did this ingenuous yooth, to rags and
wretchedness, and ended in being an overseer uv swine. What did he do?
He ariz and went to his father, and the old man saw him afar off, and
went out to meet him, and fell onto his neck, and give him a order for a
soot of clothes and a pair uv boots, and put a ring onto his finger, and
made a feast, killin for the purpose the fatted calf wich he hed saved
for another occasion.

"My friends, you kin find in the Skripter suthin applicable to every
occasion, and this parable fits the present time like a ready-made coat.
The South is the Prodigal Son. We went out from our father's house on a
expedition wich heznt proved altogether a success. We spent our share uv
the estate, and a little more. We run through with our means, and hev
cum down to rags, and dirt, and filth, and hunger. We are, and hev bin
some time, a chawin husks. We run out after them twin harlots, Slavery
and State Rights, and they've cleaned us out. Our pockets are empty. No
more doth the pleasant half-dollar jingle in sweet unison agin its
fellows. Our wallets is barren uv postal currency, and the
grocery-keepers mourn, and refuse to be comforted, becoz we are not. We
hev got to the husk stage uv our woe, and wood be tendin hogs, ef the
armies, wich past through these countries, hed left us any. We hev kum
back. In rags and dirt we hev wended our way to Washington, and ask to
be taken back. Now, why don't our father, the Government, fulfil the
Skripter? Why don't it see us afar off, and run out to meet us? Why
don't it put onto us a purple robe? Where's the ring for our finger, and
the shoes for our feet? and where's the fatted calf he ought to kill? My
brethren, them Ablishnists is worse than infiddles--while they preach
the gospel they won't practise it. For my part, I--"

At this point a sargent, belongin to that infernal Burow, who wuz in the
awdience, with enough uv soldiers to make opposin uv him unpleasant, sed
he hed bin a sort