Pike County  Georgia Newspapers - Uncle Bob Peter's Pension 1896
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by
Lynn Cunningham  lcunnin1@bellsouth.net 

Table of Contents page: http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/pike.htm
Georgia Table of Contents: http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm


The Pike County Journal.
Zebulon, Pike County, Georgia, Jan. 24, 1896

Ineffably Happy
Uncle Bob Peters on a High Horse
Runs Down a Pension
Now He Laughs By Day and Beholds Beautiful Visions By Night

Happiness is said to be the ripples on the water that delight the eye as
they dance and scintillate in the sunlight. Joy is described as that
great moving undercurrent, profound and mighty, undisturbed by exterior
conditions.

If this distinction was correct, then it was the "reverent," old
fashioned joy with a big J that filled the heart of "Old Bob" Peters
when he drew his first pension last Saturday on account of indigent
pensioners.

Uncle Bob lives down in the mountains. His goods and chattels are a
steer and a cart. He never makes crops enough to subsist on and through
the fall [and] winter he manages to scrape up a dime here and there by
hauling a cart of lightwood to Zebulon. He has lived mighty hard for 30
years, and so slight have been the variations that a "aching void" in
the region of the stomach was his normal condition. He belonged strictly
to that latter class to whom Burns' referred when he wrote:
"Some ha' meat that canna' eat,
Some can eat that ha' no meat."

So on Saturday when Uncle Bob got his $60 check cashed he gave Judge
Blasingame $40 of the amount and said: "Now, jes' you keep that twel I
calls for it."

He then put $20 in his pocket and started out for Harper's store. He
stepped in at the door and bursted out in a laugh - the first big laugh
he had had in years, perhaps. He was first beginning to realize how rich
he was.

"Gi'me some of the bes' coffee you got," he said.

"Quarter's worth? Uncle Bob?"

"Quarter's worth the nation! Fix up two big dollars worth!"

As the coffee was being put in the scales the old man broke out in
another laugh. After the coffee was put up he wanted some meat.

"Gi'me the biggest side you got," and the laughing broke out afresh.

"Now hand out 20 yards of the finest caliker you got, and come on down
wi' six yards o' jeans. Money is no object with me. Got moore'n I've
ever had since the War. Not but $20 per capity in the New Nited State of
Georgia and me got $60." Then the laugh that burst from the old man's
lips was contagious. Everybody commenced to laugh.

Here the old man thought of his steer and he made for him. He untied the
animal from a hitching post and put the line in the wagon. Stepping up
in front, he gazed square into the steer's face, and then as gaze met
gaze, Uncle Bob could contain himself no longer and another inordinate
laugh burst forth. He then drove up to the store and loaded his goods
and proceeded the straightest way home.

The last seen of him as he was going away he was laughing and shaking
violently.

The Journal is glad Uncle Bob got his pension. It is a bigger thing to
him than anybody on earth. He deserves it and we hope he and his wife
will live long to enjoy this annual pension.

(Transcribed 11/17/02 Lynn Cunningham)

Note:
Company H, 44th Regiment, Georgia Volunteer Infantry, Army Of Northern
Virginia, C.S.A., Pike County, Georgia, Pike County Vols.:
Peters, Robert - Private March 4, 1862. Wounded at Richmond, Va. in
1862. (Born in Jones County, Ga. September 7, 1822.)