Memphis Has Changed (1867)
A “Dab” at Memphis
Extract of a letter from a Memphis merchant, to a merchant of Galveston, Texas;
“Memphis is mightily changed from what it was when you and I lived here together before the war. It is filled up with German-Jews, Germans, day-go Italians, Irish, Freedmen, and a pretty ‘strong’ sweet-smelling infusion of Radical Puritan Yankees. Such a grand conglomerate of sharp-sutting, deep-gouging, devil-take-the-hindmost, almighty dollar worshipers, you perhaps never saw. The war developed all the latent meanness’s in men’s natures.
The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.), 26 Jan. 1867, Page 2. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.