The Hartford Herald

Georgia Festus.
Foster Answers Stevens.

HARTFORD, Ky., NOV. 5, 1888.

EDITORS HERALD.—I see an article in your paper of October 24 from the Rev. R. A. Stevens from Beda, Ky. In answer to a reply made by me to Flavius in the Kentucky Progress. He begins by saying I take great liberty to personate him in a very unbecoming manner and without any cause. This is not true, for he admits the stamping to be wrong and begs pardon, and it was only in this connection, and in this paragraph only that I used terms that might be construed to refer to said R. A. Stevens, and I did mean him in this connection and no one else; but as for charging R. A. Stevens with having written Beda Budget, I did not do it, for I said I did not know who Flavius was, but I supposed it to be Dick, Tom or Harry. I did not say Dick Stevens or Dick Tate; but used the terms in the same way that they have been used thousands of times referring to this one, and that one, meaning a certain class; if the writer cannot conceive the term, if he will ask some sharp school boy, he can tell him. He says he has the highest regard for Willie Foster. it seems so: his regard is like the regard of the vulture for the new born lamb of the fold and this regard is only that he may feast upon it. He says the article was not written by him and that he did not know anything relating to the writing of said piece; but did say with his mouth that Foster's speech was well delivered and that he did well, but acknowledges the stampede against Foster and begs pardon: but it is said that actions speak louder than words: and so they do, for we heard him stamping to the contrary of the words of his mouth.

Now I will concede that you are a minister and know that scripture should harmonize, and how can we harmonize the above; saving one thing one day with his feet, and another thing another day with his mouth. If we hear a man preaching Methodism one day, Presbyterianism another day and Baptist doctrine another day, where next may we expect to find him?

O! Consistency thou art a jewel. He says, "Now John you have broken over and 'said hard things, you said my pen was dirty." Now in his own language quoted above he denies being Flavius; and I said the dirty little pen of Flavius and not Stevens; he uses the personal pronoun my in the possessive case and thereby admits that he was Flavius. He also says I intimated that he was not a gentleman. I deny any such intimation. I said instead of listening like a pious gentleman; but this did not exclude him from the class of gentlemen that stampede, and such other like things, but it was an intimation, excluding him from the class of pious gentlemen. He says, "again you call me 'Dick, Tom and Harry,'" I called Flavius by these names, and if you are not Flavius, why are you kicking against the pricks and using the pronoun me in the sense you do. The truth is this, if you had not stamped the floor nor sneezed through the Herald, you perhaps would be better off. After summing up his little missive in a little nut-shell I have concluded to give in conclusion a poem by Thos. Moore, entitled: "Orator Puff."

Mr. Orator Puff had two tones to his voice,
The one squeaking thus, and the other down so;
In each he so uttered, he gave you your choice;
For one-half was B flat, and the rest G below.

Oh! Oh! Orator Puff,
One voice for an orator's surely enough,
But he still talked away, spite of coughs and of frowns,
Cracking "fifty per cent," and "the depreciated pounds."

This a wag once, on hearing the orator say,
"My voice is war,"
—
remarked to him,—which of the two, pray,
Do you mean? for both are at war, anyhow.

Oh! Oh! Orator Puff
One voice for an orator's surely enough.

Remark homeward one (yawning) (ope-hoay) with kin,
And rehearsing his speech on the weight of the tin,
He tripped his own foot, and as sure as a gun,
"Sinking fund" the last words as he came down.

Oh! Oh! Orator Puff,
One voice for an orator's surely enough.

"No! help!" he exclaimed, in his fright, ho and she longs;
"Help the out!"
"Help you out!" said a penny who passed,
"what a bother:"
Why, there's two of you there; can't you help one another?

Oh! Oh! Orator Puff,
One voice for an orator's surely enough.

JOHN P. FOSTER.