Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1862-12-12
el.uaosas at the ..s1nnY sou.ls5
.E SOUTH AS SEEN BY AN ENGLISH TRAVELLER.

Mr. V. G. Baxter, NJ. P, who travelled
through this country few years since deIiv-
cred an address at Dundee (ocotand,) on the
9TH of November, in which he denounced the
rebellion, and gave his personal recoiIectioBs OF
Southern life and character. We copy the
following interesting passages:
If one leave out Of view the establishments
of the more opulent owners OF the soil, gen
tlemen of refinement and education. who have
travelled, and appreciate the lnxuries aud ele-
ganeies of life. the want of domestic comfort
in the households of the South is most lament
ably conpicious. Away from the great streams
of travel you may wander along the bJeways
of the land for months without once obtain
ing a sleeping apartment either clean or pro-
vided with necessary furniture, suffciency of
oas or maize for yoEr horse, or any better
food for yourself than the most indigestible
kind of corn bread. Tea and sugar carpets
and chests Of drawers, proper cooking utensils
even private rooms and wash hand basins are
not to be found in the houses, or rather bowels
of hundreds who own slaves and consider them
selves to belong to the white aristocracy.
There are undoubtedly many wealthy men
both in their plantation and in the large towns;
but their number is qnite Insignificant in eem-
parison with that OF those who are destitute
of one half of those things which even a Ia
borer iB the Northern States regards as the
Inecessaries OF lfe. The colossal fortunes of
the South have been wrung from the poor
whites quite as much as from the slaves. Both
suffer to render complete those establishments
which certain British visitors extol 1t is i'm
possible to deny that the poorer planters live
very meanly-aIways on the c9arsest food
often Strengthened for enough of that-never
possessed of money for the purchase of civil
lied comrorts-fr frequently clad and housed in
manner so miserable that those who have
not seen such dwellings with their own eyes
could scarcely be expected TO credita faithful
description of them. Even in the mansions of
those not ground down by poverty, one finds
wanting not few Of those things which mod
ern ideas render necessary to a comfortable
and refined existence. These mansions them
selves are few and far between, the great ma
jority of the whites now living dilapidated
cabins, where one would scarcely imagine that
an Anglo-SaXon in this nineteenth century
would dwell. In support Of this statement,
Mr. Baxter here quoted an abstract from a
letter, written by an Illinois farmer to Mr..
Olmstead, whose admirable book on Louisiana
and Texas was well worthy the study of all
who took an interest in the future of America
or the welfare of the human race.
The condition of what are called the slow
whites" is still more deploraole. They live in
the rudest sort of log cabins without furniture,
raising few potatoes and a little maize, and
depending for the means of obtaining scanty
clothing. tobacco and drinking nomiually on
Jumping and job work, but more commonly on
illicit transactions and inStigating the negroes
to steal. In my own journal find frequent
illusions 10 the wrechedness and discomfort
everywhere observable in the Southern States,
such remarks as "the breakfast was horrible, :"
"the viands at dinner were iDdescribably Ras-
ty," "the stage-coach was the dirtiest l ever
saw" nothing could exceed the badness of the
inn," occurring constantly I will quote only
one short sentence written in Alabama, which
is faithful representation Of my observations
and feelings at the time. and certainly further
experiece does not in the least incline me TO
modify the the description: "The consequences
| (of slavery are everywhere apparent; cities
not improving, houses i'll built and going to
ruin, fences out of repair, railroads eompara-
| lively few in number and badly managed, I'M
passable roads, dear travelling, dirty hotels,
estates producing less and less every year, pop
ulation scarcely increasing, in some places even
on the decline, murders, drunken quarrels,
outrages of every day occurrence-peOple by