The Montana post. [volume] (Virginia City, Montana Territory [i.e. Mont.]) 1864-1869, 1864-11-05
oThe Peer whites.Y

Professor Cairnes, in his very ysluabl
and generally accurate work on the Slsv
Power (pages 54 and 55) ssys: I'd a. ,,ys
I'm the Southern States, no less than fiv
millions of human beings are now said +
exist in a condition little removed from say
| age life, eking out wretched subsistenc
1 BY hunting, by fishing, by hiring themselve
out for occasional Jobs, and by plunder
Combining the restlessness and contsmp
for regular industry peculiar to the savage
with the vices of the proietaire of ciyiliset
communities, these people make up clas
at once degraded and dangerous and con
stantly Reinforced, as they are, by all tha
is idle, worthless and lawless among til,
population of the neigh5oring States, form
an inexhaustible preserve Of rnf;anism
ready at hand for all the worst purposes O
Southern ambition. y Such mr.,
the mean whites" or "white trash /" O
the Southern States. = This cla,,
comprises, as have said, five millions O.
human beings-about seven -tenths of tn,
whole white populations
| This opinion of Professor Cairnes il NJ
,''oubt held by fully nineteen-twentieths O.
the people of the Northern States and O
En-. la I'D. Having read Of, or seen, and
wretc. het specimens of humanity who ioite,
about II. . railway stations, or hover around
the laree !, laL tations on the great Southern
thorouehfare.. hey have jumped to the
conclusion tha. hey represent "seven'
tenths of the who, M-dite population " Of
the South! The very ID "a Is preposterous
for if it were SO, one-half " the southerr
people would be paupers, anu no coinmu'
nifty could exist which has ,'sut port tha'
proportion of non-producers. But 'tis MOI
SO. The great mass of "poor wh.' ties " are
superior (and say this with due de,i ,ibe.'a'
ton, and after sixteen years. acquaintaree
with them) to every other class Of uncult:-
waited men, save our Northern farmers, on
the globe. They all were born in this
country, and have imbibed from our insti-
tutions--distorted and perverted rs they
are ut the South--a sturdy inalp,3dence,
and all honest regard for each Others hts
which make them, though of Scotch, SEQ. ch-
Irish, or English descent, better sola;ers,
better citizens, and better men than HE
oyer.worked, ignorant, half-starved, turbu-
lent, and degraded peasantry whom Eng
land somiss1 upon the North to create riots,
rule in our elections, and support such pol
iticians as Fernando Wood.
There is 1T the South such q class as Mr..
Cairnes speaks Of. They are appropriately
called "mean trash," and 'seke out u
wretched subsistence by hunting, BY fish
ing, by hiring themselves out for occa sional
jobs, and by plunder," but they are u com.
paratively small class. The census shows
that they cannot number above half mill
lion.
These people do combine " the restless
ness and contempt for regular industry Pc.
culiar to the savage, with the vices of the
proletGire of civilized communities" are
sat once degraded and dangerous" !" and
form II "preservc of ruf6anism, ready ut
hand for all the worst purposes Of Southern
ambition" In fact, l was about 20 add
that all the rufianism of the South is con-
fined to them and the ''chivalry,' but will
not say it, for it would be strictly true.
To give the reader an idea of what these
"mean whites are, will glance for mo-
mens at their habits and ways of living.
Often their houses are the rude pole wig
vans of the Indian. shaped like a sugar
loaf--with merely hole at the top to let
the smoke out, and--the rain in ; but, gen.
erally, they live in small huts of rough logs,
through the crevices of which the wind, in
winter, whistles q most melancholy tune.
These huts are foored with nothing but
the ground-hardened with mauls, and hol-
lowed at the centre, as if to hold the rain
that comes in ut the roof-and their one
apartment is furnished with few rickety
chairs, pine log-hewn SIN Doth on the up
per side, and made to serve as a SOFIA
cracked skillet, dirty fryingIpan an old
fashioned rife, two or three sleepy dogs,
and bakers dozen of half.clad children,
with skins and hair colored like o tallow
candle dipped in tobacco-juice. In one
corner may be mud oven, half crumbled
back to its original earth, and in the others
two or three low beds, with corn shuck mat
tresses with tattered furnishings; but the
whole aspect of the place reminds one Of a
tolerably-kept swine-sty, or dog-kennel.
The character of the inmates Of these hor-
els is suited to their surroundings. They
are indolent, shiftless, and thieving given
to whisky-drinking, snuf-dipping, clay
eating, and all manner of social vices.
Brothers intermarry with sisters, fathers
cohabit with daughters, and husbands sell,
or barter away, their wives, Us freely as
they would their hounds, or as the planter
would his slaves. l have myself met n
number of these uhite women who had been
sold into prostitution by their natural pro-
tectors, for few dollars or good rife.
Their Incidence is almost past belief
They are literally "too lazy to come in
when it rains" \ traveller tells Of asking
shelter at one Of these shanties in a storm.
The rain was pouring in at the roof, and
the family were huddlsd about the only dry
spot on the floor. -... .,
'"Why dom. rou mend your roof?" the
traveller asked. -.
Stranger replied the host, :" We can't
do tit rains" o., 30 r.... I'D, ,....
"But it doesn't always rain-why not
M end it in dry weather"
"Why.wh-whot's the use O. mendin' it
when II dosn't leak 2" was the very sensi-
BILE reply. - ..''. IT,
Still, they have a mortal antipathy to
water. They never take it outwardly, un.
less the roof leaks, or they are caught out
in a rain storm; and never inwardly, unless
L il mixed with apple-jaek or whisky
Whisky is their STAPLE Beverage. BY e.-
changing deer or other game (their only
at sonie CROSS road grUggefs. they