The south-western. [volume] (Shreveport, La.) 1852-1870, 1858-09-29
For the Geuth-W ester

/ you line in reference to a remarkable article
/ that appeared in the Caddo Gazette, of the 4th
ult., signed H., which only came to my notice
| this week.
=@@Yo GU see, it opened my eyes wonderfully on
various points, wherein | had been painfully
/ mystified. / was at that same camp meeting
| was unsophisteated enough to suppose that
people went there with religious motives, and
to hear the truths of the gospel. So, dressing
my mind in becoming reverence, and my body
with my accustomed plainness, I wendell my
way up 10 lions hill.
was conscious Of what it saw. Twas surround
ed by a sea Of f1ounces that threatened to en-
gulph me at every autter. blaze of jewelgy
flashed before my astonished eyes; the hum oil
merry voices, and musical laughter, greeted
my wondering ears. Laces f1oated from bare
arms; feathers waved joyously; flowers Joggled
up and down in the general glee: miniature
bonnets elung with drowning tenaclty to pretty
necks and grappled their nondescript adorn-
ments into silky hair. Gentlemen trailed ia
the wake of hounced pyramids as they sailed
about, or huddled in groups under umbrellas,
: which seemed tiresome business to me, when
there were seats plenty in tlu ''arbor,, and nc
need of umbrellas. Pretty bipeds, with peach
fuzz under their noses, lsped pretty words tc
pretty maids, who listened with pretty import
and clustering bullys stared at the ladies and
criticised everybody
But saw still more that surprised me.
saw ladies dressing for breakfast, dressing lol
dinner, dressing for supper, and dressing 1ol
spreachng," with a commendable show piper
severance and industry, just as the ladies do II
those novels which have furnished Il. with sc
many elegant adjectives.
Well, | went to preaching too, and heard the
venerable clergy Of whom he speaks, and mos
heartily subscribe to anything said in eulogy
of them.
But what opened my eyes more particularly
6 was that ''portion'' of HIS "communlcaton,
wherein he takes it for granted "the Doctor
feelings will be interested, and which he
writes for the ''beneft OF all who did not see as
he did" He went to "see'' did he? Well, be-
tween you and me, don't you think that if he
had drank and Toasted upon the rich protuslor
of Gods choicest gift as heralded from the pull
pit, it would have been more appropriate. They
stirred the deep ''fods' of his heart, butt they
had stared '.stirred,' don't you reckon there
would have been more "good done.'
H. says he ''neyer saw such good order ano
attention prevail" &c. His opinion may be as
: good as any outsiders could be. His peregrl
nations around the carbon fully qualified him
to Judge of erternM appearances. But won
der if he heard the we'll merlted and tearlessfy
applied reproof that came from ''the stand tc
those inatentiye non-interested saunterers
) who were walking about, or lounglng agalns
the posts. Perhaps they came "to see, anc
will understand all about the ''varied graces o
an Empress;" those "clear blue eyes, and the
"soul-speaking blue eyes, and those *'sott blue
eyes, that "stole so imperceptibly' into 'the
deep folds Of his ''heart!''-the same 'tdeeI
folds" that the preaching ''stirred." Perhaps
they can understand about those 'long lashes
that retire. before the gaze of admiration. -
Whittier do they ''retire?'
The scene changes from the azure day te
darkness and then we have ''mldnight eyes
where the storm cloud sleeps" Is the lady
high tempered? Then "piercing black eyes
flashing like lightning;'-to accompany the
above mentioned storm, Isuppose. There was
a "brunette'' there, and another, with & DARK
complexion''-I saw several of those. Il. /:
evidently high a preciator of female beauty
and has great faith in the potent power of fiat
terry; but has forgotten that in angling for goc
fish the bait should be SO skfully arranged as
to hide the hook. He says it would take til
''eap year, to enumerate all he saw with his
wonderful powers of vision. Does that yea,
suggest itself to him, as having any bearing
upon his fate?
! But, he thinks, he has ''said enough" (!!) te
make somebody ''regret" that they 'didn
go'-to ''see" the girls. OF course, no one
will regret that they didn't hear the sermons
II. evidently considers camp ground on pal
with convivial party, himself a penny-a,line
newspaper reporter, and counts off the ladies al
so much head They feel the honor, no doub
they've "got their names in print" From
all of which, I've learned that camp meeting
is considered by some ladies as fine place tc
dress, and by some gentlemen, as the place tc
''see" the ladies; which is the point of differ.
ence between H. and l.
THE EXPENSES. negro of the cap
tured Africans is bound to cost Uncle Sam all
be is worth, if he were sold to pay expenses
First, there is lieutenant Maffit, with the United
States brig Dolphin, cruising round in the gull
at considerable expense. Then there is the S2t
a head that the captors have right to claim
from the public treasury Then there is the
cost Of their keep until }her case is acted upon
by competent tribunal. This will be no SNAIL
item, for those that are sick must be doctored
and those that are we'll must be fed, and those
that are naked must have some sort of clothing
Then there are the costs of the legal proceed
ings. Then the cost of carrying the poor devils
back in the most expensive national vesse
ahoat. Then it seems that the Colonization
society will kindly take charge of them in Lii
IBERIA one year for the modest sum of fifty thou
sand dollars. The cost of these Africans viii
be about four hundred dollars head to the
United States. That kind of philanthropy
won't pay. The Colonization society is liberal
1t won't have tokeep much more than two hun
dred and fifty negroes, for we question if more
than that number ever reach Africa alive Two
hundred dollars a head for a years keeping O
Africans in Africa is some Uncle Sam has te
pay round]y, and all round
This Colonization society we have always
looked upon as humbug. It don't amount tc
anything, and it costs great deal in money
and great deal more in hypocrisy. AS 70,
the removing the colored population of the Uni