Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1864-10-27


roof, and the family were huddled about
the only dry spot on the floor. t2sa
"Why don't you mend your roof?'' the
traveller asked. ~ '7'e
''strangsr, replied the host, "we
can't do tit rains" s1L3}
''But it doesn't always rain-Why
not mend it in dry weather p eaT
'"Why, wh-whot's the use o. mend
in it when it doan't leak 2" was the
very sensible reply.
Still, they have mortal antipathy to
water. They never take it outwardly,
unless the roof leaks. or they are caught
in rain-storm, and never inwardly, lun-
less it is mixed with apple, jack or whis-
key. Whiskey is their staple beverage.
By exchanging deer or other game (their
only currency at some cross-road dog
gerry, they obtain plentiful supplies of a
vile fluid, which is compounded Of log
wood, strychnine, juniper berries, and
alcohol, and 'seirculates'' among them.
under the appropriate name of t'Tangle-
foot" "Blueruin," "Red- Eye, "Bust-
head" and s'Knock- 'em-stiff" IF the
vender of this vile stuff did not dilute it
freely with water-so freely that it rare
ly fails to itself '.get tight in cold
wea.her-the race Of 'smeap Southern
whites would soon be swept from the
earth. AS it is, they seem to thrive and
fatten upon it old men, doing in the
chimney corner, and little children, tot
ting about the floor, drink it as if it
were water. L.. ~
6 A Northerner was once forced to dine
at one of these novels. Missing the Gus
tomary "whiskey kag" from. the table,
he said to the housewife:H 7is4 :,
Cant Can 3 yqu give give me H a mug Of f1zi" Knock
Il can't, stranger" was, her reply
4 nain't nary dap ter speer r.!!''7 y i
"None to spare Why / see bar
rel Of it there in the corner !"aoJ
"a barr'luv it3!'' exclaimed the wo-.
man, ''why, whot's thet fur lone wild
der an SEWN chillen? We shall be ma
tion dry fore winters over - i.
Not one in a thousand ofthese people
can read, and not one in ten thousand
can write, / have known many IRhlg new
er saw book or newspaper, and some
who never heard Of Bible or spelling
book. AS consequence Of such igno-
rance, they have very crude notions Of
God and religious, duty. <
To these ''mean whites, . Mr.. Cairnc's
description appropriately applies, and it
applies only to them. The great mass
Of poor whites, as I have said, are a
very different people. The poor white
man labors, the mean white man does
not labor and labor marks the distinc-
ton between them. Labor makes one
hardy, industrious .and interprising,
law-abiding and useful citizen idleness
makes the other thievipg, vicious, law
breaking, and Of ''no sort ofaccount'' to
himself or society. III II
The laboring whites comprise two
thirds of the free population ofthe South,
and they have done more for it's materi-
al progress than all its ''chiyalry'' and
all its slaves. They have done more,
because they have worked under the
stimulus of freedom, and because they
vastly outnumber the other classes
The census shows that on the first Of
June, 1860, they were in the fourteen
slaves states, exclusive of Delaware, one
million three hundred and fifty nine
thousand six hundred and fifty FIVE white
males engaged in agricultural and other
outdoor enployments. Of this number,
nine hundred and one thousand one hun
dred and two are classed as farmers >
---men who titled their own land !; two
hundred and thirty thousand one hun
dred and forty six are 'classed as ''far-
mers''--men who till the land of others;
and two hundred and twenty eight thous-
and four hundred and seven are classed
ass.laborers'' men engaged in out door
work other than the tillage ofland. The
farmers are not to be confounded with
the planters--men who work large tracts
of land and large bodies Of slaves, but
do not work themselves-for the census
takes distinct account of the latter. They
number only eighty-fve thousand five
hundred and fifty eight, but--such has
been the working of'the peculiar institu-
tion-they own nearly three fourths of the
negroes and landed property Of the
South. These one million three hundred
and odd thousand of laboring white men
represent population of about six mil
lion; and if we add to them the four hun
drcd thousand represented by TIE plant
ers, and the one million represented by
men in trade, manufactures and the pro-
fessions, there can hardly rem ain, in a
total population oflless than eight mil
lion, sive millions of human beings, who
eke out wretehed subsistence by hunt
ing, by fishing, and hiring themselves
out for occasional jobs, and by plunder"' ;"
Half a million-the number [ before
astated-is vastly nearer the truth.
Little is known at the North of this
large working population, for the reason