Insted of puttin' you to the trouble of goin' away from home for a
little excitement, you can set rite in the heart of your own country,
and enjoy the fun.

A man by the name of NERO, was once said to do some tall fiddlin' when
Rome was burnin'.

While the patriotic fires of your people is clusterin' around you (?) my
advice is, to cote the words of Unkle EDWARD:

"Hang up your fiddle and your bow,
Lay down your shovel and the hoe.
Where the woodbine twineth
There's a place for Unkle LEW,
With UGEENY and little LEWIS for to go."

The foregoin' is rather more sarcastikle than troothful.

It laserates my venerable heart-strings, most noble Pea-cracker, to see
how you've been lickt.

You have probly found out by this time, that the mantle of your grate
unkle has passed into the hands of some other family.

The grate BONYPART was called the Gray Eyed man of Destiny, altho' I
don't know what country that is in, as the village of Destiny haint on
any of the war maps.

I should judge, however, onless there is a change in the program, that
when this "cruel war is over," you will wear the belt as the champion