Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1860-11-05
Florida sCrael,er. ,,

In a letter froEl Florida to the New York
Commercial Advertiser, by Fitz Hugh Ludlow
thus describes a parsonage indigenous to the
section:
And see-what portent is that coming p
Florida alone could produce this creation. It
is a landed proprietor from the interior-but
people to the manor born do not call him by
this respectful name. They style him "piny
woods Cracker He is riding his own horse
IA small native pony, whose only curry
comb is the most convenient thornbush-
whose ears are Ofthe halElop variety--head
abased-and tsil-but no it is not fair to
speak slightingly Of the absent. It is to be
hoped that an equal regard to fairness moves
the landed proprietor to take turns with the
pony in carrying their united weight, for the
sand is deep, and whether horse or man be
the heavier is not obvious The man is
arrayed as for a fancy dress ball An i'm
mense sombrero Of braided palmetto shades
bis ratty little black eyes, long rueful cheeks
and bronzed beak-like nose. Beneath the
palmetto long grizzly locks straggle down
upon the torn and Particolored shoulders Of
what may ages ago have been a blue sack
coat, butts now. 50 shrunlen or outgrown that
its pockets come close under his arms, and its
tails futter about the small Of his back His
! trousers are Of blue and white bedtick. A
calico shirt, whose pattern is black spots on
a red ground, cost originally six cents per
yard beside the trouble of making up by the
landed proprietress and lady Crackeress Of the
/ backwOods cabin whence it emanated-and
| is thus too valuable to be concealed by any
vest The man who cut the bedtick panta-
| looms was not generous, but thsy are shorLan
/ permit US to see so much Of an original Florida
pair OF legs as iseomprised between the neigh
borhood Of the knee and that of the ancle.
4 At this latter point the members disappear
/ ron human view in a pair Of marvelously
/ roomy shoes, home manufactured Of the alli-
gator curiously checkered hide.
These last receptacles rest on the thills Of
/ a cart attached to the detected pony by cotton
/ ropes miraculously knotted-the said cart
/ apparently knocked together out Of yellow
/ pine boards by a iOlentthunderstorm, which
occurred in the early youth Of the landed pro-
| prietor The only objection TO this view OF
| the case is that the cart has wheels-5ut
| Florida is the country Of rare products, and
these rotary phenomena may be accounted
for on the supposition that they originally
grew and were added on to the boards as an
after thought Certainly no wheelwright Of
our acquaintance could ever saw out these
angular pieces OF timber and stick them
together under the impression that they were
( wheels. The landed proprietor sits on hi
horse in a heap-like human bag of meal
has a short pipe in bis mouth-a rope attached
at the lower end to his animals neck in on'
hand--a long black whip Of bullskin in the
other, with which at every step be expresses
his dissent TO the sentiment OF the old poet:
III had donkey what wouldn't go,
Do you think I'd wollop himl No MOI No u
As he jogs past a la possiilion" we lool
into that fOrtuitous colcourse Of bOards-th
cart. 1t Is about the size Of a candle box, bu
it carries freight-one small bundle Of corn
stalks to serve for the pony's fodder. Ant
with this, he has come thirty miles th-ougl
the sandisst roads of the piny woods Fanc.
I a Yankee going to see the " ta-own '-evel
] with such avehicle-and not carrying eTel
three cents worth ofgarden sass to trade 70
a pair Of knitting-needles.
Yesl The production is original Wear
! in Florida