Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1857-03-04
Correspondence of the Spectator.
STEAMER FLORIDA, GULF OF MEXICO,
INaLnnnr,, IL 1857

STEAMER FLORIDA, OULF oF MEAlCO,
February II, 1857
Editors Spectator Rather to comply with
your request, and from this novel point for youl
correspondence, than from having anything wor
thy to communicate | drop you hasty epistle
Cant give you anything philosophical, or statis
tical under the circumstances" tut only rap
id random sketch which you may print or no
as you choose, and how it goes or how it fare:
let nobody know for nobody cares
For the general points of the route from Staun
here, | refer you to the guide-books, to be taker
as part of this letter, and rs furnishing ready
printed the usual staple of travelling epistles.-
In fact have experienced little OF the route ex
cept from such books, travelling being now-a
DAYS, as Thackeray says, "only arriving a
places" with railroad cars between, may add
Ny personal entertainment was mostly sup
Piled by some witty companions, and by lnd
crous attempts at sleeping by night, and "seeine
the country" by day. The scenery through the
Oarolinas, as you know from melancholy expe
rience, is unmitigated- trees; fully de-
scribed by my companion as much like Alpine
scenery-in the spelling. The only StrEiag ten
ture is the appearance of the turpe1tine trees oy
night; their white trunks, stripped of the bark
and cleaning in the moon-beans that stray
through their dark foliage seem in the funerea
gloom, like sheeted ghosts rising to reproach ou1
unhallowed intrusion on such secluded regions
but the same BarbourOus punster said they
ought to look like ghosts as they were the spirit:
of turpentine.
South Carolina lay mostly under water along
our route, at least. through the cypress swamps
and where the only animal and vegetable inhab
| itants must of necessity be mphibious-detinet
by some one as unable to live on land and dying
in the water. We were conSoled with the in
formation that much better land lay Oft the line
CT the railroads, which is devoutly to be hoped
Augusta, Ca, was interesting to me only II
the association of its name. Its one long, wide
street, where alone the business is acted, is sim
ply fatiguing in its extent and tedious in its de-
tails of small shops. Otherwise it is a place o
Importance as the great cotton mart OF its enter
prising State.
Macon and Columbus, Ga, are also cities o
size and consequence, and their broad, nnpavet
streets. with the drain down the middle tht
oxen in the wagons sleeping on the ground, al
give them peculiarly Southern character. Ih'
dwellings of the wealthy citizens are built in flint
taste, appropriate to the sultry cline, and sur
rounded by spreading lawns filed with shrubbery
Montgomery, tie metropolis of Alabama, i
another and the fairest specimen OF Southern
city. Its business aspect seems only subsidlar,
to its principal feature "a city OF beautiful
homes. The architecture of its public building
while good, is yet far inferior to that of its prl
yate residences which crown all its hills witt
beauty and rise like fairy structures from 1t
flowery grounds.
The trip down the Alabama river was no
eoual 10 its reputation. The unprecedented coli
winters had killed the flowers which, heretofor
perennial, had made it like the rivers Of Eden
And the water was now so low in its banks tha
we had better been travelling in tunnel thai
stretching on tiptoe to see over the cane-brake
that completely curtained out the country. N
handsome houses appeared on its margin-tha
most attractive feature of the James River il
Virginia. No fiocks, or herds, or other pastora
scenes greeted our searching but sentiments
gaze. None even of the promised richly plume
birds of the South were seen, save once only u
n solemn assembly of bnzzards celebrating tn
obseouies of departed cow-and they were no
the genuine article of buZzard even, but small
or sborter-tailed limitations, called here carrio
crows
Our entertainment was in watching the boat
nigeers loading the cotton-bales on the boat
The planters deliver the bales on the river bluff
whel,ce they are rolled rapidly down upon deck
and the boat-hands display great dexterty i
Guiding with iron hooks the heavy masses c
400 to 600 pounds each to their proper place.
Occasionally one is too much to manage an
plnnges over everything in its course, niger
Included. splash into the river, to give heavie
work as the consequence. The freight is charg
ed for by the bale, regardless of size--and henc
it was. as was told, the negro boat hands ca
the biz bales ''preacher's bales" because put U
large to save freight, although giving harde
work to the hands. A sad reproach on tn
country that pays its preachers so poorly as
force them to such unkind economy. The peo
pie ought, if possible, to be rebuked for it as tn
old county court of Augusta rebuked youn
Holmes for making old lawyer Jones swear S
terribly in court -
Mobile is a city of another sort from others j
the South. 1t is an old Spanish town, and th
streets are narrow and unpaved. except wit
oyster-shells. The houses are low, and interlo
with the few exceptions of new buildings, ,whlc
are of better class. The stores are mostl
small only those for the cotton commissio
houses which is in fact tile business of Mobile
!, amounting to about $20,000,000 annually. Th
citizens generally live here only to make fortune
and leave as soon as successful Meantime thei
summers are spent elsewhere, ana their winter
} in social festivities The Battle House is cne
the finest hotels in the Union. and great number
of Southern planters and northern invaids re
!, sort here, the latter tor health, and the forme
with their families to spend the winter in gaiet
: and rehearsal for the Springs life of the comm
summer. The population is decidedly mlxet
and speak all languages, German, French, Spar
isb. English and Yankee. | heard fat, greas
negro women in the streets iabbering Frenc
with facility that would be refreshing to ou
vouns ladies who are cutivating that same grace
ful accomplishment The most conspicuous ella:
of the inhabitants, however, are the goats-wh
stalk through every possible portion OF the cit
with gravity and consciousness OF importanc
that approaches the sublime.
The weather here now is very admirably cor
Quoted. The days are balmy and bright, an
the nirbts cool and charming. The birds sin
by day and the frogs by night and the air
redolent with the fragrance of flowers, and tn
bloom of fruit trees. We were supplied wit
one of the delicaces of the season here las
nioht-ratber rare with you-a genuine thunde
storm. and of the most approved pattern; it re
ally for hours "thundered like lightning, AM
l;rbtened like thunder" But to-day all is tn
brighter that the earth and the flowers are s.
newly washed with the showers
And now nm out on the broad Gulf-th
lonr colnmn of smoke streams from the steame
ike n black plume-the city of Mobile is sinking
from from the sight "below the church, below tn
hiIl M a. below the lighthouse top"-and nigh
continue to quote as appositely from the San
cient Marinern-for feel like him, "alone, aon
on a wide. wide sea-water, water everywher
and NM not n dyon TO drink But the sun is abou
sinking in the water to the west-a sight nev
ar saw before. though often have seen him ris
| ike n oiont ont of the eastern ocean. As
,,,y write q he is even now ''retring"-and with
dirnity and splendor becoming the powerful
limo Of dav as he "wraps drapery of clouds a
bout @ him and lies down Il hope) to pleasan
dreams" And now the night cometh when N
man can write on this boat-and several fellow