The south-western. [volume] (Shreveport, La.) 1852-1870, 1855-08-15

tell him that wldoWed husband, made Child
less by this hand, has sent thee to deserved
torments!" 6,
Then rushing upon the afrighted tories, he
plunged his knife indisc,lmlnately INTO those
who were nearest to him, until overpowered
by numbers, he fell to the floor, and n1utterng
between his clenched teeth: "Sarah!--Fcn-
Seance''
FoR SournEENERs 70 CoNs1DER.-The season
for the annual stampede for the north and east
is approaching. Again we are to see southern
homes deserted, not only by les etrangers, who
occupy them mostly for purely speculative pur-
poses, but tens of thousands of her sons will
again desert the south, and leave her to drltt
along as best she may, through long and
drearv summer, We verify beliere that this
annual emigrating epidemic detracts more from
the beauty, the wealth, the prosperity of the
south than any of the epidemic diseases which
have heretofore visited her, summer or winter.
This ruinous habit is building up cities, watering
places, railroads, canals, and steamboats,, anda
| caters, indeed, to every branch of business, III
the trading north and east. At the same time
beholding the fruits of this wasetu process,
northern enemies point jeeringly at the south,
and say to US in derision: Where are your
hourishing cities, springing suddenly from the
wilderness, like Aaddn's magical palace?
! Where are your manufactories-you prosper
Gus artisans and mechanics-your steamship
lnes-your splendid river palaces, your freight
bearing canals-your railroads extending to
every quarter? Show u.s. at home, the fruits OF
your boasted insitutiens-the advantages of
your favore system of Industsy2 Where are
they? The echoes from nothern busting quafs.
factories, workshops, bazaars, steamboats, and
railroads, answer where. We cannot point TO
the south for these fruits, but in northern city,
village and hamlet, we can sadly show where
the proceeds of southern labor and the riches
extracted from the teeming soil of the south
have been transplanted. Is it right, is it patri
otic, or is it polite, that southcrners should
persist in neglecting the soil whose products
feed and elothe and shower luxures upon them
as well as the tillers of that SOIL black though
they be, by whose perennial labor only is that
soil made to yield its riches up? No: they owe
it to that soil to improve and beautIfy it, they
owe it to those laborers who are dependent upon
their white masters socially and politically, to
meliorate their condition, promote their health
and comfort, their physical as well as moral
improvement, in all just and proper methods.
But these and similar ends cannot be attained
ifthe b]ighting practice and spirit Of absenteeism
is continued The south cannot much longer
bear this depicting process. She is already
pale, weak, and tottering from this exhausting
tax upon her resources. Evaporation may
turn to the spot whence it ascended, in genial
and timely showers. But the south is always
giving, seldom getting-pourng out in rivers,
receiving, if at ALL in rivulets Magnificent
, monuments, it is true, are built up out of her
treasure, her blood and her toil-but in other
lands.
Patriotism, that is worth anything, is essen
TALLY domestic in its origin, it begins at home,
f it looks ever to that dear centre, and the south
erner who would be called patriot, but not u
southern patriot, is worse than an infdel and
f more dangerous than an alien. Let him have
southern patriotism, and we will guarantee that
O all other needful patriotism will attend it. In
the south we have beautiful rivers and streams
+ we have lovely landscapes, we have sana.iye
f waters in abundance, we have picturesque sites
for country villas and summer residences. Why
not turn all these profuse natural advantages to-
account? But Ito paraphrase passage met
, with in our random readings) when the winter
campaign is over, travelling and watering places
, take the southern world of fashion from home
The pursuit is laborious one, the sacrifice of
, comfort is immense, and worse, the expense is
,
, the tinerants may. Alas for the south-hec'
E old fashioned fresides-her rural pleasures
her comfortable homes--her social intercourse
her genial hospitality! Are these things al
to fade into dim traditions under the blightng
effects of the systematic absenteesm of the
6 fashionable? Are they to become sesuch stuff
as dreams are made off, and only available as
embellishments for nambypamby romanccs? II
+boco f,p,i1iac who eoncilar
during the summer months to leave town, o.
an unwhoIesome climate, would but expend the
same amount of money now spent in travelling
year after year, upon the purchase Of a neat
country house, with few surrounding acres,
or, if those who have country houses, would
devote the same expense to home improvement
how greatly would their comfort and usefulness
be increased? 1t delights the Imagination to
revel amid the quiet little Edcas that might be
created by the hand of taste in every s.bosky
dell" and by the side of the wide clear river
of our beautiful country. A taste for horticul-
ture and the planting of trees might harno-
nize with taste for flowers, grottocs, and foun-
tains Whatever enhances the ties Of kindred~
and home, domestic comfort and eniormsGt,
goes far towards banshing dissipation and yicg
from society, to raise the standard of moral
WORTH and to implanC noble impulses. IL
places social intercourse on permanent basis.
1t is longer merely ceremonious, hoIlows and
heartess. How much better this than blind
surrender to the itnerating mania that scizcs
all ranks and strikes at the foundations of So
cety, by rendering home comparatively unat-
tractively, and by the continual shiftings and
separations attending it, causing men and w.
men to become, more or less, callous toward
ncighbors, and even kindred
This would 60 far towards rescuing the sou&n
from that sickly dependence which, if continued
must prove ultimately destructive. But, more
than this, we want independence of southern.
trade. We want southern ships, southern
steamers. We want southern ports trading d.
rectly with European ports. We ,"ant tbs
south to cease drifting bIindIy ol9 in the oIa
ruinous course. She is like asbesieged city.
with foes on every hand, and't is time she
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