Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1857-01-08
Price Two cents.
GBe qailg SPY.
From the London News.
The Southern States of the American
Union.

SELMA, Alabama, Nov. IS, 1856.
Any one who comes to America with the
notion commonly prevalent in England touch
| ing railway travelling in this country, will
| find himself rather agreeably disappointed.
| He will look for fifteen mics an hour as the
I highest speed ne is likely to attain; he will
| find himself carried along at the rate of TWEEN.
| ty-ive or thirty. He will expect to be jolted
into pulp, to be thrown off the rails at least
once day. and very probably stabbed twice
or thrice, after having declined variety of
| challenges to mortal combat In all those
respects, likewise, he will find that he has
been laboring under decisions. American
railway travelling, at least on the great lines,
is smooth, reasonably safe, tolerably punctual,
and on the whole peaceful for tho, s....,-,.
But after five days of itSS;,, 80. i;.tIa ~
. .erESl OF cessallon, S4nay be allowed to men
tloh one OF TWO OF Its drawbacks, promising at
the outset that ssSev are drawhacts inserera.
ole lroun he state of society, and admit of no
relAeuy that l can think Of short of total
frelnoQeling Of the latter. Coming southwark
Itoh New York to Philadelphia, there is not
mich, save the total absence of verdure, to
E5mlnd you that you are not at home in the
old country. To be sure it is rather odd to
hnd yourself rolling along the principal street
OF a town in an express train, with bell
tolling fnnerally on the top of the locomotive,
and children playing pitch. and-toss close to
| the track. 1t seems rather strange to see
fashionably dressed lady in the seat behind
cab, who is chewing quid whenever he is
not slipping brandy, and who insists, with
sense of propriety which cannot be too highly
commended, upon having the window open,
that he may expsctorate through it, but, on
| the whole, the main features of what one
sees are essentially English Houses, streets,
/ signs, dress, language, demeanor, are much
the same in new as in Old England. The
sun shines more brightly and the air is purer
and the accent little more nasal, in the lor.
mer than in the latter, but there is scarce any
thing SO outlandish as to jar upon the suscep-
tollItIes of anybody but an untrayeled cock
ney. 1t is only when one enters Maryland
that American peeuliarities first strike an
Englishman forcbly. 1 travelled down from
Baltimore to Norfolk, in Virginia, by one of
the Chesapeake Bay steamers, and for the first
time lighted on gang of slaves, going South
IN custody of regular trader, Maryland is
one of the great slave breeding States of the
| Union. and supplies yearly large quota of
the bone and s;new which gather IN the har-
vests of Louisiana and Mississippi. Her room
! tribution on this occasion was com posed who'll
! ly of lads and girls from Il to 20 years OF age,
well clad, andapparently well fed. They sat
| in circle all the evening in the middle OF the
maindeck. under the dim light of lamp
swinging from the ceiling, their arms round
one another's waists, some of the younger
ones sleeping with their heads on their elders
knees, the majority singing snatches of meth
Odlst hymns. They were seldom able to get
out more than one or two lines of the words,
but this never caused any stop in the music.
The leader put in the first thing that came !,
into his head, and the others followed up his
strain.
Thus the line,
eve are passing away like a long Summers day.
Should be followed by
g I took my broder by be hand
And led him to de promised land"
Groups Of white men surrounded them,
discussing their points in connection with the
markets and politics; and the slaves didn't
seem to feel in the least abashad by their scru-
tiny, or affected by their own situation,
though it would be hard to imagine cloudier
future than that of boy or girl just entering
life in the hands of negro dealer bound
South. The first time one comes in contact
with degraded race ones nerves are always
tried more or less. One never likes to find
ones self in the company of convicts. The
presence of individuals whom crime or mis-
fortune has busted, and in whom society has
set the stamp of accommodation, or depriv-
ed of all the ordinary incentives to exertion
and to enterprise, and of all the better and
agreeable. l was not reconciled to it by the
assurance of bystander that the niggers were
the happiest creatures in the world, and if
they were permitted, would sing and dance
all day long. a sis r8
From this point white servants or walters
were no more TO be seen. Niggers every.
where, niggers of all shades and all varities,
| sulky looking niggers, merry nggers, sad mig
| gers, niggers bright with intelligence, niggers
IL
| niggers barely endurable, but all cowed, SUBJ
missiye, and attentive. Their humility was
| the more striking from its contrast with the
! independent bearing of the whites, the per-
| feet equality which seems to reign between
| all who have no negro blood in their veins.
| In Virginia and North and South Carolina,
l was in what is popularity supposed to be the
alistocralic region of the American Union.
| Here, the Southern papers assure us are to be
| found the American 'gentlemen" par excel
| leRce, as distinguished from the Northern rO-
turiers, the "small listed farmers 'sand greasy
mechanics of Massachusetts and Connecti-
cut, whom Stree society," is seornfully de-
scribed producing in abundance. am
| giving my Impressions of course, only of the
surface Of society, and only Of that portion Of
| its surface with which one comes in contact
in railways and steamboats, but the fact is
that, at least to the traveller on the wing, the
arlstocratlc element IN the population IS no-
where visible. From Baltimore to Mont.
| gomery, in this State, in no species of con-
veyance did l meet with more than two per-
sons who, judging from dress, manners and
conversation, would in Old England DO
called 'tgentleman." l confne this obser-
walton, specially to the slave region. It is not
true of New England. There may be hum
dred and one reasons, every one of them
good one, why my experience has been Pc
culiarly unfortunate, but my fellow passen.
gers from Baltimore southwark bore no man.
ner of resemblance to anything which tbs
| loosest and widest radical in the Old World
would call "gentlemanly.' They were dirty,
| dc toute maniere. They were stability dress.
| ed; they chewed tobacco, and spat its juice
| in showers they talked slang; they seemed
never to have washed any portion Of their
| persons in their lives. 7ea9s
In South Carolina, the chosen home of
chivalry, sat in carriage in which the mud
formed by years Of dust aud oceans of saliva
was three inches deep IN the floor, in com.
pany with men into whose presence most
English ladies would be afraid to venture.
sat at breakfast and dinner side by side with
individuals who, whatever their other quail
tiles, had certainly no more claims to gantili-
ty than chimney-sweeps or cab-drivers and
we were waited ON with Difference and as.
siduity with our English Johns would do well
to initiate, by negroes, who certainly, in all