ch are based upon
charges of artillery, which have forgotten to bring any charges with
them.

Yours, retreatingly,

ORPHEUS C. KERR.

LETTER LXXXIX.

SHOWING HOW THE GREAT CITY OF ROME HAS BEEN RUINED BY THE WAR;
CITING A NOTABLE INSTANCE OF CONTEMPT OF COURT; DESCRIBING REAR
ADMIRAL HEAD'S WONDERFUL IMPROVEMENT IN SWIVEL GUNS; AND PROVING
THAT ALL IS NOW READY FOR THE REDUCTION OF FORT PIANO.

WASHINGTON, D.C., March 29th, 1863.

After due consideration of the different points of the Compass, and a
fair estimate of the claims of each to superiority, I am inclined to
give the preference to the Great North-west. It is to the Great
North-west that we are indebted for our best facilities of sunset; some
of the greatest hogs of the day come from Cincinnati; the principal
smells of the age belong to Chicago, and the whiskey of Louisville has
almost entirely superseded the pump of our forefathers. Hence, my boy,
it was with a feeling akin to reverence that I witnessed the arrival in
Accomac of a delegation of high moral Democratic chaps from the Great
North-west, the other day; their mission being, to protest against all
further continuation of a war which was degenerated into a mere
bloodshed for the sake of New England; and to suggest that a convention
of all the States be at once held in Kentucky, to arrange a peace that
shall be acceptable to the Great North-west. I was asking the
thoughtful chairman of the delegation what were his particular
grievances, and says he:

"This war is ruining much valuable Real Estate in the Great North-west,
of which I and my fellow-beings are proprietors; and cannot continue
without proving the entire destruction of some of our largest cities.
Just before this war broke out," says the thoughtful chap,
impressively, "I gave a three-years' note of seven hundred and sixteen
dollars and fifteen cents for the city of Rome, situated on the future
line of the Atlantic and Pacific Canal, and divided into four hundred
water-lots of five fathoms each. As soon as the Atlantic and Pacific
Canal was built, the water would have been drawn off by means of
eighteen large hydraulic pumps supported by Eastern capital, leaving
the lots all ready for building purposes. The main street would then
have been graded, and paved with the new patent Connecticut
sub-drainage pavement, and would have extended two miles in a perfectly
straight line, with a horse-railroad through the cen