The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-02-10

aoOut 1NOftucfu ScHt4Saucns
"Oh, they can't b. quite like the gentlemen
here; for they let mt.n common people get az
fairs into their OWN han1s, and choose each
other even to go to Gongr,ss, papa says. Now
zoe, mean he and The Bpys, when they're old
enough, and the oflae gentlemen, make them
speeches and give ttein sreat at election-time,
and tell them whomSt3 vose for and they have
to mind and do n;s1scagse, if they didn't, We
would take our pakrcesge fight away, and, then,
in hard season, the couldn't get anything to
eat ometimes--mues-sess to drink-and SO, in
this district the Reps tentative has always been
an Aspenwall or Hychsmaurice, or a Glenn
ent, for good many ssntaries, believe And
then, you know, our wcrkiag people here are al
NEST ell of them slaves; .lnd we never think of
letting them vote, any more than our cows and
horses. Here's this Esfe, .now, for instance, he
never can vote, thoug.- he's cleyerer now than
grown-up gentlemen S.aD-t even read but he
can write, and cipher, Andedrsw most beautiful
ly; and the boys tutes is teaching him math-
ematics and chemistry -xhough it's great
secret, because it's against the law, so please
don't tell, will you? ard by and by, if he be-
HAYES well, papa will have him taught mechan-
les, and put him over our factories. Does my
Cousin Constance speak : conventional
Herman went off aeain,in a second series of
spasms, but managed 81 the midst of them to
answer, that she had Eever done so as yet, and
to ask whether publis speaking was another
Northern custom which Miss Rose Rochemaurice
proposed to introduce smcng the ladies of South
Carolina.
:" / have not made up my mind" returned
she, contemplatively. :" am fond of it myself.
You see that stump ofa lvo-oak used for
merly to hop up on thai, and address the chill
of r,lo tasio ~
up servants as / thGagi-s proper-sometimes
extempore, and sometimes out of the Class
book found in the garrett; and it was most
exciting but the oveEseer went spying round
the quarters, and herd the negroes talking
afterwards, and said tEat told them too much
about liberty. 1t was very impertinent in him
to interfere and, if aae permitted him to join
the audience, he woulc have heard me always
explain to them most enE satically that the parts
about freemen only AL, white men; but the
matter was misrepressnted to papa think
Harry was at the bottom of it, and l was too
proud to explain. THIS my voice was sienced,
and papa even went SO for: as to throw the nice
old Classbook into the. FIRE, He gave me a new
in it and didn't like it half. SO we'll, and sat
down and dogleaved al the leaves on purpose"
/ The child's tongue szsfaed bewitched. 1t was
impossible TO keep it front dangerous topics
and Herman was relieved when the hooking
birds nest appeared, ard effected a diversion,
" Here we are Hide behind those orange
trees, while see if sht.-is at home. Put me up,
Rafe." The boy stoo Jed, and held his hand
low, as if to lift her oS horseback. Into the
palm she sprang, as light ts shuttle-cock, and
up into the tree, and tom branch to branch,
among the large light plSnes of lilac blossoms.
She peepsd down throngs them into the orange
tree beneath, clapped her bands in dumb show,
and came down, NowtDr. Arden" she whis-
pered, you may take. yeaf turn. There's her
nest, just behind that twfg of blossoms.
She sits and smells OF. III, All day long I'll call
her of, to get some sugar; and then you can
see the eggs" She stole 90 little distance, on
the side Of the tree oppt ese to that on which
the party were in sptt took handful Of
sugar from her pocksL End twittervd With q
wonderfully imisatiG'sof some of the notes
Of the bird, which instantly few off towards her
and, after she had thrown aside the picturesque
green head-dress, which seel7ed TO puzzle it al
first, ate, pecking the sugar eagerly hos-. he!
hand and lips. Hermsns forgot the nest il
watching her, but was glad, Notwithstanding
when her father came up with the horses, and
peremptoFiy resisting her entFeaty that she
might send RATE for her pony, and ride with
them, ordered him to attend her and her sistel
back to the school-room.
The sun now was sometimes obscured by q
sultry haze, and sometimes broke through again
| with his accumulated heat. The ride was hot
tedious, sad somewhat dreary. Colonel Roche
maurice, howsves, al What in him lay to emil
ven it by his conversation, saeSiqS a minc
highly but only specifically cultivated wnethsi
from q natural shallowness, or for want of the
spb-soil plough of a struggling manhood, SCI
| to make its own Tay in the world, among Its
struggling equals, Herman e9gia not determine
| He could easily understand from bis Own sep
sations, in this short sojoura, how easily AND
soon one born to be the master of others might
cease to be the master of himself, unnerved
mentally as well as physically, in the soft Ian
| guor of that delicious land, where every sight
| and sound, and scent, seemed wooing him to
| forget his inward in his oHtwsfq iiip Fl 2 com
munity where the same influences which bore
directly upon his own life and character bore
upon him indirectly also through the lives and
characters of his neighbors /; and where Nature
and Fortune knelt together at his feet TO Otter
him evsry luxury that selfish heart could de
sire, unearned al any adequate price of whole
| some, bracing, countefscttpg toll. The COlone
was well versed in the history, palitics, anG
lighter literature Of this country, and not iii n
| that of England, France, Italy, and Spain. HI
even hsA on exhibition still some evidently ia
vorite, but hsekneyed, scraps Of Latin and
Greek, which he had picked Up il biz youth q
Northern college. But be appeared to NAYS
satisfied himself, for the most part, with retain
ing passive Impressions of the thoughts Of Other
men, instead of being stimulated by theil
thoughts to think for himself. Some shrewd
ness he had, but little sagscity; and there was
something piteous if not pitiful, in his utter in
ability to turn over any theory in his mind, and
see any other side of It than that which came
nearest to his oxa interests or prejudices His
intellect had been sarfaiied, rather than nour
| ished, by what it had fed upos,
Whether it promotes one persons welfare tc
appropriate to himself by force, all the leisure
and literature Of ten persons, much further thar
il would to appropriate to himself if he could
all the sleep and food of ten persons, we shall
not now stop to consider. But Herman, in list
enlng to his hosts narrow, worn out, aRd Of -cas
platitudes upon government and society, could
not but doubt the advantage to either party
OF that sharp division not of labor pre-
ciseiy, but rather of labor and leisure so highly
recommended of late by certain sapient South
rons, which Is, TO leave I'll of the labor on one
side to class of workss /, and all of the leisure
on the other to a class of thinkers, steskars and
writer's.
He doubted it still moe when, leaving behind
the fragrant shade of thu pines, they came upon
a cotton-feld and ths workers in it, women
6rst-a pack of women, working apder the gen
tie rule of " the chivaIry" of our country-if to
be fat is to be prospefoJs, very prosperous
to be british is to be Ieaceful, very peaceful
They were clad in u form of gowns which
seemed once to have been brown, but which
we're DOW grim with filth. These were restrained
about their monstro9s Afrite figures by two
handsome passing FQuad the middle of Their
thick waists, and anoshsr just above the hips