Edgefield Advertiser

Lo! the "Ferryman."

"A chieftain to the Highlands bound,
Cries 'Boatman, do not tarry!
And I'll give thee a silver pound
To row us o'er the ferry.'"

Our attention has been specially directed to a well-worded tirade recently published in the Independent Press of Abbeville. The individuals upon whom the vials of somebody's wrath have been here poured out, belong to that class of working bipeds denominated "editors." As we seem to be included among the anathematized, it will probably be expected that we should say a word or two why sentence of extermination should not be pronounced upon us. The expectation is a vain one, however. The castigations we are receiving remind us that the day is past when a common citizen could criticise his Congressman's course with impunity. He who dares do such a thing now must start for it under a double-twisted lash. It seems. And so we can but cry out, with folded arms and bended knee, "Miserere! miserere!" humbly trusting that our learned masters will calm our chagrined bosom by some such condescending response as "Pax vobiscum!" How blind, how presumptuous have we been! From the stand-point of returning reason upon which we have been placed by our well-timed stripes, we see now how presuming we were a little while ago in daring to indicate that we differed from one who had spent an entire season in Washington city—rashly essaying to express ourself indiscreetly upon the propriety or non-propriety of a declaration made in the Halls of Congress by our immediate Representative there—daring to hope that he would guard against any extraneous influences that might lead him insensibly away from his earlier cherished political notions—and even venturing to murmur somewhat above our breath at the seeming nationality of his tendencies. Well, thank our stars, we have been lashed back to our place, all in good time: and although our skin might not perhaps "hold shucks" just now, if we may be allowed that homely expression, yet, oh Gratitude! we are not utterly demolished after all. With so narrow and so fortunate an escape before our mental vision, we can but say, in the absence of any thing like a temple or a votive altar, that we solemnly asseverate upon this pair of old gaiter-boots, which have done us good service in time, but are now sadly out at the toes, that we will try, and try, and try to be a good boy in future, to mind our own business and to abstain from doubting the infallibility of all those who have been blessed with four months' experience in Congress.

But, despite this strain which sickens us even though we use it in jest, the writer in the "Press" has subscribed himself "Ferryman." It appears. We could but muse for a moment upon first seeing this queer signature. What can the man mean, we mentally enquired. And then Campbell's poem of "Lord Ullin's Daughter" crossed our thoughts. And we remembered how tight pushed the "chief of Ulva's isle" was, and how the Ferryman's assistance was prompt. ly rendered to help him on his way. And the analogy between that case and the present was quite strong enough to enable us to locate this unusual soubriquet.

Having both romping and badinage aside, we close with one or two remarks of a more serious cast.

Before having heard that we were personally held up to ridicule by Capt. Brooks, our own brother believed we were going to vote for him. This is enough to show that we were concerned in no systematic effort to oust him from his seat in the Halls of Federal Legislation.

After our comments upon those particular views of his from which we differed, we stated in our paper that we believed his error was but an "indiscretion," and that his course in the main had been a creditable one. This is enough to prove that we were actuated in the matter by no spite of any kind—much less by the spirit of an "electioneering crusader;" for such a spirit would not surely have stopped where we did.

In fine, we are conscious of rectitude and fairness in all that we have written or said in this matter, and therefore disregard all that "Ferryman" or his principal have thought proper to write or say of us.