New Orleans daily crescent., 1860-08-02

A NEW ROMANCE.


derful and romantic By high colorixg and eNaage-
ration. This was before the age of railroads,
steamships, and magnetic telegraphs before the
press had given to the world so many booas of
travel and VIXEN cur ideas of distant regions and
peoples were obtaired mostly by hearsay. The
author of q Gulliver7s Travels y ridiouled thispre
pcnsity, and to some extens put a stop to it. Bat
the old privilege of the traveller into distant
countries to heighten the interest of his narrktive
by making strange stories out of triiitng circum-
stances, and so emhelishing his account Of per-
sonal adventures as to cause the auditor to open
wide his eyes with astonishment, exists yet, it ap
pears, in a considerable degree. At least, he so
conclude from book inst about to be published
in New York by one Frederick Law Glmstead, de-
scrptive of the travels of that gentleman in Texas
Mississippi, Virginia, and other States qf the
South.
A foretaste of this wonderful book has been
gigen US in the shape of liberal extracts from it
in the columns of the New York Tribune and Even
ing Post. These extracts relate mostly to hdven
lures in Mississpp-to the incidents Of his journey
his moving accidents by food and field his en-
counters with the people, Of all sorts and descrip
tions-and his views Of negro slavery, as derived
sfrom personal observation. MFR. Frederick Law
have picked up all the facts and incidents that he
narrates in this volume. He has found out more
about slavery and about the South, in the course
of few weeks travel than many Of our Oldest
citizens who have lived in the South all their lives
have ever dreamed Of.
IN illustration of Mr.. 0mstead's style, md the
fertility Of his inventive powers, we give the fol-
! lowing extract, purporting to be an account of
conversation he had with Mississippi negro:
A PIous SLAVE Soon I met ragged old negro,
of whom asked the way, and at what house within
twelve miles had better stop. He advised me to
go to one more than twelve miles distant.
g SUPPOSE" said /, a can stop at any house
along the road here, can't I2i' They all take in
Travellers"
Yes SIR if you'll take rough fare, such as trav-
elers has to, sometimes. They're all damned ras
Gals along dis road for ten or twelve miles, and
you'll git nothin' but rough fare But say massa,
rough fares good enough for dis world, amt it,
massas Dis world amt nothin': dis Is he'll, dis is,
calls it; hell to what's comm arter, ha ha Ef
you's prepared? you says. ! don't look mucf's if
/ was prepared, does l. nor talk like it nuther.
De Lord he cum to me in my cabin in de night time,
in de year 49,
g WhatN a55u
.sDe Lord, massa de Dressed Lord He cum
to me in de night time in de year As, and he says
to me- says he, " I'll spare you five years longer,
old boy.' So when 80 cum round Thought my
time had cum sure but as | didn't die, / reckon
be saved, dough don't look much like it ha ha!
hO. ho de Lord am my rock, and lie shall not per-
wall over me. | will lie down in green pastures
and take up my bed in hell yet will not His mercy
circumwent me. Got some tobaecy, master?'
Now no one at all familiar with the style Of talk
Of the negro race in the South will believe that any
such conversation as that related by Mr. olmstead
ever occurred. He has taken his cue evidently
from the broad carfcatures of the negro race we
see in the travelling Ethiopian opera troupes. The
conversation is like that Of Bones ana Julius on
the stage, when one asks the other "coumbus.''
It is more like the ordinary talk of negro on
Mississippi plantation than it is like CAoctaw or
Chinese. Who ever knew genuine negro that
had any idea Of time or Of distanee3 Who ever
heard one speak publicly of whole community
being set Of rascals2 Who ever knew one to say
"perwailn y or e eircumwentWi Who ever knew
one to indalge in the confusion of metaphor dis
played in the two or three concluding sentences
quoted? Mr.. 0lmstead has evidently LOST sight of
the first rule of all successful story.tellets-to keep
probability in view. 3 @
In another place this veraeious chlonicer de-
tails the difficulties of obtaining food and lodging
in Virginia, between Lynchburg and Farmville. 1t
seems that sick traveller, going along between
those points, applied for entertainment at four diff
ferent houses, and was fatly refused at all of them.
In vain lie pleaded that he was weak and faint--in
vain he urged that the night was dark and he did
not know the road. He was turned off Huccessvely
from four different houses, and surIily told to go
on his way, sick as he was and dark as was the
night.
Does Mr.. 0lmstead expect anybody to believe
this scandalous story? Can he think that his read
ers are so erednlous, that this Wholesale SANDER
upon the generous and well-known hospitality of
the Old Dominion will be accepted by them as the
truth
These are specimens of the new bPok which is
about to be given to the public, purPorting to be
descriptive of Southern manners Southern institu-
tions and Southern society. We do not suppose
Mr., 0lmstead writes this book for thu purpose of
infiaming the prejudices already too bitter and in
every instance unjust which exist ID his section
against the people and the institutions of the South.
Certainly in the present condition of affairs, polit-
ical and social, we must regard its appearance to
say the least of 1t, as ill-timed and Unnecessary
and not the least suspicious circumstance CON
nected with it is the commendaton bestowed upon
the volume by such papers as the Tribune and
Evening Post.
pOTTTfCAT. IrE.hHS