Pomeroy weekly telegraph. [volume] (Pomeroy, Meigs County, Ohio) 1860-1866, 1861-04-19
FINDING A NEW HOME.
he 'GooR WHITE TRASH OF THE SOUTH.

freight creaking and humping at oxen
pace over the street stones It is sdown
country" who has just crossed the Ohio
river, and for the first time in his life
g breathes the air and treads the soil of
/ Freedom.
Say, neighbor, which is the best road
to GIT out into the State of Indiana?"
The needful directions being given,
the worn-looking man, dusty, slouchy,
and pitiful, drags his feet onward
Slowly and wearily the oxen wag their
heads, and pull the crazy vehicle to-
5 ward the North Star. Two horses, bony,
: aud with patched harness of ropes,
leather, and old plough chains, lead tn e
teams. On one of them sits an aston
ishingly small boy, holding the reins,
his bare legs and feet dangling, and his
I dirty stolid face shaded by the skeleton
of an old straw hat that descended from
his grandfather. The wagon is covered
with patched canvass, and the patches
are patched again, and the newest patches
torn into holes. The day is warm for
the season, and the sides of the cover is
tucked up to let air in upon the six
children that are packed in among the
bags of bran and bedding. Twelve
twinkling eyes look out almost fercely
on passers and wayside objects, as if half
frightened, half suspicious of being
caught, cooked, and eaten up by Black
| Republicans. The same prove1b that
gives luck to the fool makes the poor
man father of many children. 1t is
wonderful to look at these, all apparently
so near the same age as to suggest three
at a birth, and then at the young slab
sided draggled woman, holding Oh to
the tail of the wagon to keep up her
wearied pace with the moving household.
But girls are married and become
mothers almost before they cease to be
children, in thinly settled parts of the
country, where women are scarce; and
they breed rapidly in the rude state
where all the energies Of life are given
to the animal nature and none to in
tellectual culture.
My companion conceived warm in
terest for this emigrating family, and
also had some curiosity to crafty as to
their whence, whittier and why. SO he
| ISil OSillINt III L iSH lullulCS anu GC-dD-
peared with an arHload of cakes which
he gave to the woman, who was struck
dumb by such rare and spontaneous
gift. Her face, however, expressed real
gratitude. He then stepped to the side
of. the wagon, and held up a stick of
candy to the astonished twelve twink
ling eyes, which twinkled immediately
with less ferceness and more pleasure
Six sticks with that beautiful spiral red
streak on the white ground, which is so
much prettier than rainbow to all
children, converted the troop into
laughing suckers, and opened the door
wide to conversation with the father of
the flock
''Going North, [ see
YES, sir"
"From the South?"
"les, sir-about hundred miles be-
low Louisville, on the Nashville turn
pike" "
"Well, you've got lot of boys and
girls there that will be able to work
after while. Going to look for land?"
"That's what I'm calculatin' on-or
to getwork of some kind-work is plenty,
[ reckon, in the North And it ain t
no use tryin' to live any longer down
where | come from"
My friend had said enough. a
southern man will give twenty answers
to one question, while Yankee gives
twenty questions to one answer.
81 left Virginia FIVE years ago to come
North, but stopped and bought farm
of fifty acres of land down in Kentucky,
and paid seven hundred dollars for it
Had 20 acres in corn this season, and
didn t get q clear bushel to the acre..
Drouth killed everything. It wasn't
much better last year; and the year be-
fore that rain killed everything. So I
determined to come North. l had no
niggers to work my land, and no money
to buy 'em. 'Taint no use for poor
man to try and live down there know
good many that's bound to starve if
they don't come away. They'll starve
this winter, if they don't get help. I
tried to sell my land, but I couldn't get
anything for it; so | rented it out for
two years at $40 year and I'm going
to Try the North, where everything isn't
overrun with niggers."
This was the poor mans history,
given nearly in his own words. To
some particular Inquiries he answered
with such facts as are abundantly set
forth in Mr.. Olmstead's S works on South
ern life. He was thoroughly wearied
out with successive years of hard work
and at finding that every year made him
poorer and sunk him deeper into the
ditch of helplessness He repeated, un-
prompted, and with great emphasis, 81
tell youit's no use for poor white peo-
pie trying to get along in that country.
They re leaving it as fast as they can;
they must leave it. They're actually
starvin worse and worse every year"
S. and myself had set out for walk
IN another direction, and were. led nearly
two miles out Of our way by this encoun-
ter. The last that we saw of the house
hold team 1t was toiling over the top of
hill, measuring its way by slow steps
to land where labor is respectable, and
where the children of the poorest
laborer enjoy the opportunity of COM
mon school education.
Some days ago, [ saw at the New AL
bany railroad depot another family Of
Southern emisrants The man was su-
perintending the transfer of his entire
property from the wagon to the cars
All told, it was not one horse load
His wife Stood near with seven children
round her, the youngest baby in the
arms Of the eldest daughter. They had
look of ''strangers in strange land
that attracted my sympathy, and [
asked the mother if they were travelling
northward. She answered in the affirm
ative; that they were from Kentucky,
q hnmt 50 rnilnS frnnn lnniSrilla Her