Martinsburg gazette. [volume] (Martinsburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1833-1855, 1843-05-11
MlSOiklLlh.AN IkOUSo
RURAL LIFE IN SOUTH CAROLYN
by WIN. c. BRYANT, ESQ.

Barm,oeH District, S. c., March 29th, 1843.
Since last wrote, have passed three
weeks in the interior OF South Carolina;
visited Columbia, the capital Of the State,
pretty town; roamed over considera-
Bile part of Barnwell District, with some
part of the neighbour G one of Orange.
burg; enjoyed the hospitality of the plant
ers- very agreeable and intelligent men;
been out in a raccoon hunt; be,n present
at a corn shocking; listened to negro bal
Iais, negro jokes, and the banjo; witnes.
sed negro dances; seen two alligators at
least, and eaten bushels of hominy.
Whoever comes out on tho railroad 10
this district, a distance Of seventy miles
or more, il he were to judge only by
what he seesin his passage, might natural.
w take South Carolina for one vast pine
forest, with here and there clearing
made by some enterprising settler, and
would wonder where the cotton which
clothes so many millions of the human
race, is produced. The railroad keeps
on track Of s'erile sand, overgrown
with pines; passing, here and there, along
the edge oil a morass, or crossing stream
Of yellow water. A lonely log house
under these old tress, is sigh. for sore
eyes; and only two or three plantations,
properly so called, meet the eye in the
whole distance. The cultivated and
more productive lands lie apart from this
tract, near streams, interspersed with
more frequent ponds and marshes. Here
you find plantations comprising several
thousands Of acres, a considerable part Of
which always lies in forest, cotton and
corn fields of vast extent, and negro
village on every plantation, at a respect
full distance from the habta,ion OF the
proprietor. Every green tree Of the oak
family and others, which mentioned IN
nv last letter, are generally planted a
bout the mansions. Some of them are
surrounded with dreary clearings, full OF
the standing trunks of dead pines: others
are pleasantly situated in the edge of
woods, intersected by winding paths. A
ramble, or a ride a rider on hand gal.
lop il should be-ih these pine woods, on
a fine March day, when the weather has all
the spirit of our March days without It's
severity, is one of the most delightful re-
creations in the world. The paths are
upon white sand, which when not fire.
quently travelled, is very firm under foot;
on all sides you are surrounded by noble
stems of trees, towering to an immense
height, from whose submits, far above
you, the wind is drawing deep and grand
harmonies; and often your way is beside
a marsh verdent with magnolias, with the
yellow iessamine, now IN flower and fiji
ling the air with fragrance; the bamboo
briar, an evergreen creeper, and various
other plants, which never shed their
leaves in winter. These woods abound
in game, which, you will believe me when
say, had rather start than shoot
hocks of turtle doves, nd rabbits, rising
and scudding before you: little fiocks oil
quails, partridges they call them here,
chirping almost under your horses feet:
wild ducks swimming in the pools, and
wild turkes, which are frequently shot by
the practised sportsman.
But you must hear of the corn shuik'
ling. The one at which was present
was given on purpose that might witness
the humoss Of the Carolina negroes. A
huge fire of "light-wood," was made
near the courthouse. Lightwood is the
wood of the long leaved pine, and is SO
called not because il is light, for II is al
most the heaviest wood in the world, but
because il gives more light than any other
fuel. In clearing land, the pines are CIR.
died and suffered to stand, the other po.-
ton of the wood decays and falls off; the
Inner part which is saturated with tur-
pentine, remains upright for years and
constitutes the planters provision Of fuel.
When a supply is wanted, onso of thess