The Abbeville banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1847-1869, 1857-05-07
EXTRACTS FROM IDLEw1LD LETTERS,

| EXTRACTS FROM IDLEWILD LETTERS.
Southern I!ypc Of Character. have of.
ten smiled since, at the forcLle impression
received of man rs wild animal-thc
first time have ever seen one in Just that
light-when planter rode to the wilder
ness bank Of the Alabama, to soc lis pass :;
his rough clothing and broadly sloucl,ed
l'at most picturesquely setting off his uercu-
lean frame, his gun over the pommcl of his
saddle, and his fine horse, SO completely
part Of him as to bc added undoubtedly to
his personal appearance. There is race of
these men at the South who differ from the
rest of us, as the giraffe, (Which his combi
nation of the cXccllencics Of the horse. the
camel, the OK and the Jeopardy differs from
all tie other quadrupeds of the DESERT
And, with their openar life, stump speak
ing' slavc-controling and other calls upon
their outward and visible dignity and au-
| thortat'vcness, there is a certain air of con-
sc'ous superiority and easy sclfrcliancc
which is wholly peculiar to them. AS the
elementary substratum of a national man.
ner, and developing too with the supcriori-
ty of stature which seems to he 4 magnolia
growth Of the climate, there is material. nj
least, for mankind's finest family on our
side of the water Let us keep our Amcri-
can eye upon it.
CHbons rs. Southern Men.-Un,il I
crossed from Havana to Savannah, ION INV
return from Martinique, five years ago. |
thought the quickest and strongest Of this
worlds contrasts was to bc found by cross
ing from Paris to London-thc Frenclman
! and John Bull being as Arctic and Antarc-
tic as imagination could any way straddlc.
But the ten or twelve hours, that bring one
from the Cubabyhood Of that Spanish Isle
to the Brobdignagnitude OF our Southern
| city, make still stronger call upon the
travellers incredulous wonder How is it
possible that, just by crossing a gulf, you
como to race Of people, any individual of
whom would cut up into three of the crowd
you have just left In nine cases out of
ten Cuban and Savanncse, running against
each other, the Cuban would knock his
head against the other mans knee pam
And how is the national pride so Indifferent,
l wonder! Why do not the dwindled
Span:arls, ("hidolyos" no longerD send
their boys over to intermary with those
who are remarkably MyA-dalgos at the
present day2 Tho first tall girl or two, of
course, would get but third of lusband
but heroic woman, we all know, is capable
Of enduring small allowance in man and
as successive generations would naturally
improve the stock, the martyrdom would
gradually lessen. Our Government, it is to
be hoped, Gf we ever fairly fillibust that
fertile isle,) will offer a bounty OH unequal
matches-the taller the comparative "bet-
ter half tho higher the premium.
SacannaA Cemcteyy.-With the degree
to which we love and need you, my dear
Morris, cannot say that hope they will
take you to that wonderfully beautiful &C.
metery at Savannah cannot say it, mean
without adding that hope they vii; bring
you back again! But as a traveller you
will go there, and as poet you will sigh
to come away. I think of you as walking
through those long and shaded aisles of
emerald light, at the moment that 1 am
writing. And what cathedral of soft,
melancholy, tender solcmnity are you find
ing in that wilderness Of lofty trees, to be
draperied so majestically with folds of ver-
dure! The velvet moss, that is so strange
an overgrowth Of every living thing, cover
ing also, you will have observed, the chains
Of enclosure around he grares-even the
iron Imprisonment of death softened and
denied, as it were, by the undying verdurc
with which every dark link is so tenderly
frightened? If ever there was q poem
to take walk in, and lie down ina poem
written in moss, foliage and shadows-it is
that strange burial-place! And, whatever
may be its effect on the strong and healthy,
should think that the feeling of inward
consent-of wishing that it were "time,"
and that death were ready, since here is so
wonderfully sweet spot in which to lie
down and be forgotten-wouId be irresista-
ble to the invalid walking there.
THE Pre-eminence Of Women.-Even af-
ter death, nature respects her inherent mod
esty, for drowned woman floats on her
| E,no a,.d g drorun ad m ON Hoats or, Lie hnal.