The daily Green Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1861-1865, 1863-03-14
Mltsfellarlp.
The Poor W hites.

the wretched and degraded appearance OF class
Of people called by the shareholders, poor white
folks" and "the tallow-hced gentry" from their
nalid complexion. They live in wreched novels,
dress sIatternIy and are exceedingly filthy in their
habits. Many of them are clay or dirt-eaters,
which Is said to cause their peculiar complexion.
Ther children, at very early age, form THIS n
thy and disgusting habit, snd mere infants may be
found with their mouths filed with dirt. The
mud with which they dlub the intersceS between
the logs of their rude domcils, must be frequent
" renewed, as the occupants pick it all out in
very short time and eat it. This perncious prac
tice induces disease. The complexion becomes
male. similar to that occasioned by chronic ague
and fever.
Akin 10 this is the practice of snuff-dipping,
which is not confined exclusively to females OF the
moor white caste, though scarcely one in fifty of
this class is exempt from the disgusting habit.
The method is this: The female snutf-dipper takes
short stick, and wetting it with her saliva, dips It
i,to her snuff box, and then rubs the gathered
dnst all about her mouth and into the interstc3S
of her teeth where she allows it to remain until
ia strength has been fully absorbed Others hold
the stick thus loaded with snuff in the cheek,
Il la aud Of tobacco. and suck it with decided
relish while engaged 10 their ordinary avocations; +;
while Others simply fill the mouth with the snuff,
and initiate, to al! lntens and purposes, the chew
iuc propensities of the men. In the absence of
snuff tobacco in the plug or leaf is invariably re-
sorted to as a substitute. Oriental betel-chewing,
and the J4pluese fashion of blacking the teeth of
married ladies', are the hight of elegance compared
with snuff dipping. The habit leads to a speedy
decay of the teeth, and to nervous disorders OF
every kind. Those who indulge in it become
haggard at very early age.
The Petersburg (Va.) Express estimates the
number of women in that State as one hundred
and twenty five thousand, one hundred thousand
of whom are snuff clippers. Every five of these
will use two ounce paper Of snuff per day; that
is, to the hundred thousand dippers, two thousand
i've hundred pounds day, amounting, in one
year. to the enormous quantity OF nine hundred
and twelve thousand pounds. This practice pre-
walls generally, it says, among the poor whites
though some females of the higher classes are
guilty it.
The poor whites obtain their subsistence, as IA
as pracc able, in the primitive aboriginal mode
viz, oy hunting and fishing. When these meth
ods fail to aflrI supply, they cultivate a truck
patch, and some of them raise bale or two o
cotton, with the proceeds of the sale OF whic
hey buy whisky, tobacco, and few necessary al
icles When all other methods fail, they resor
to stealing, to which many of them are addicte
from choic4, as we'll as from necessity. They ar
exceeding siovenly in their habits, cleanliness be
ing rare virtue. Indolence is prevailing vic
and its Ampntable effects are everywhere visiblt
They fully obey the scriptural injunction, take n
thought for the morrow. Apresent supply, suft
cient to satisfy natures most urgent demand
being obtained, their care ceases, and they relap'
into stless inactivity. They herd together upo
the poor sand hills, the refuse land of the countr
which the rich STAKEHOLDER will not purchase, f
which elson they are sometimes called sand-hl
ers, and here they live, and their children, an
their children's children, through successive gen
ratons, in the same deplorabe condition
wretchedness and degradation.
They are exceedingly ignorant not one adj
in fifty can write not Que in twenty can rea
They can scarcely be said to speak the Engll
language, using patois which IS scarcely Int
lgible. An OLD lady thus related an incident
which her daughter" Sal" was the heroine.
I darter 81! Yesterday sot the hther to the dam:
tree, and elm up, and knocked some of the I
cest safest damsels ever seed in my born days
| once called to make some inquiry about t
rold, at small log tenement, inhabited by san
hitler and family. sheet was hanging upon
wall, containing the portraits of the Presidents
the United States. remarked to the lady OFT
house, that those were, believed, the pictures
the Presidents.
eyes !" she replied g they is, and I've hea
tell OF 'em long time. They must be gittl
mighty old, eff some of 'em ant dead. That tt
one" she continued, " is Gineral Washingto
I've hearn tell of him ever sence was gal. !
must be gittn up in years, Of he ait dead. ii
and Gaeral Jackson fit the British and Tories
New Orleans, and whipped 'em too."
She seemed to pride herself greatly on her
sOrlcal knowledge.