Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1855-09-01

y bit more fervd sons Of Freedom than other people
and that, 30 far concerns the influence OF the
Muses here, there is, sure, not one out of ten
of these folks who can either read or write. The
ignorance that prevails is immense. sm far more
widely than usual acquainted with the intellectual
condition of the several great regions of our Union
and yet have never seen anything comparable t.
the happiness which these. my good neghbors,
and Ignorance is bliss" You see that can
(please the pgsD write what like of them, in
perfect safety from their dispeasure; for how
should they be offended at what's in print, when
they will never see, if they did, could not read
ttS
To do them justice, they as exempt as any
reasonable people could desire to DO from oil those
baleftl sophistications Of the human understanding
which acience induces and, depend upon it. 1T they
not Adam and Eve, had been our first parents, the
forbidden fruit of knowledge might for them have
remained unplucked until it all dropped from the
tree-unless indeed, the Evil One had cunnngy
WHISPERED to them the certainty of cider, or the
develish possibility of apple jack.
! Still, so5erly, nm perhaps wrong, anu these
good folks ought to be pitied, not laughed at, II
the guardian care Of their State ample as it is oi
the means of sufficient public educs cstion-has moi
reached them. Difficult as it is to extend 10 d
population so thin the appliances OF instruction
yet the neighborhoods inaccessible to him who Is
boastcd to lie everyw where "abroad"-the school
master--are really few; and sincere legislation, ,tha
abandoned the party business of demagogueism
the people, in order really to serve and advance
them, might have done much where nothing has
been effected.
Meanwhile, thus neglected, this manly popula
ton of the hill country is left to the education o.
nature whose school, in these wilds almost un
visited but by those who are learned only in oxen
and swne-pffers no very large range OF knowl
edge. A region more secluded there could hard
! ly be. Within. there no books from without
no avenue of information. For roads hardly exist
they are but little bridle-wnys and hog-paths
Along the more continuous valleys and the argei
streams you may pass with wheels; but not al
ways. and seldom far without IN axe, to remove
the timber-barricades, frequent and large which
the last e0ute of the wind is apt to have erec
ted out of the giant trees that everywhere over
shadow your route. In Short people hardly pass
about in vehicles at all to make your way even
on horseback is generally difficult, and on tht
whole, good legs are here the best locomotives.
| OF course a quarter through which nobody car
travel is a terra incogniia. In such lack OF trans
portation there is nothing to invite enterprise from
without to excite industry Within Barely to hive
is therefore all that men seem to sock here; and
rough abundance of the course and common neces
sites of life is all that is attained where, really
had they roads and capital, improvement and
wealth would spring up mt once. For frequen
tracts of fine farm lands lie hid among all the re
cesses of these hills their sides are fit for the bes
meadows of blue grass and timothy; and ever
their sleeper decli,ies are admirable sites toi
vineyards, which might here be created at little
cost tor, as the lands lie chiefly in large surveys
unproftably owned by absent proprietors, they
could be bought for song.