Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1864-10-22
Letter from New England.
NoRwALk. Or. Oct. IL Is

NORwALK, CT, Oct. II, 1864
You bowed me out ofyour sanctum, re-
member, with an invitation to write from
the front In the name of the blue cloth
I wear, L protest that l don't consider Con
necticut the front But don't you suppose
J. D. & Co. fondly hoped to push the front
up here? And wasn't 1t along this line"
that the fight began, with Yankee ideas
pelting Southern "institutions y Oh,
these wicked radicals What q cosy time
the world would have if people wouldn't
think, or disturb folks by their preaching
There is no doubt that great many
Ninevites wished Jonah would let them
alone. Then these Yankee notions are
very yeasty affairs, will spread, and are
hard to kill. Have you seen how that
great latter-day philosopher, Josh Billings,
puts some of them2:-
YANKEE NosHUNs noshun that
skeuel houses are cheaper than stats
prisons.
The noshun that men are a better crop
to raise than anything else.
The nOshun that people who have
brains enough kant be governed by any
body but themselves.
The noshun that if you kant make a
man think az you do, try to make him do
az you think.
The noshun that the United States is
liable az emmy time to be doubled, but amt
liable at emmy time to be divided.
The noshun that Uncle Sam can thrash
his own children when tina need it.
l believe Mr.. Beecher lays down the
doctrine that it is matter of little conse-
quence when or where man Is born, il he
is only thoroughly born. should accept
that with some limitations | wouldn't
care to be born down South about these
times, and be named JEFF Davis; snd
think It is q good thing to be born in New
Englsnd-f one moves west early enough.
To live there till the hills cramp yOu-till
you think no books are worth reading that
are not made in Boston-tll you esteem
Theodore Psrl1er's old clothes more highly
than sny preacher west of the Hudson
river-is undesirable. There is purer re-
Iigion and meaner COpperheadism, larger
| gener. sites and littler meannessss, in New
England, than anywhere else, l do believe.
Your representative Yankee banters for
the half cent in his bargains, sticks to his
opinions tighter than to his money and
calls no man master. You must render
quid pro quo for all you get out Of
him-noney, service or discipleship-
He is uncOuth, narrow and close
fisted-he has to be, to grub living
from his stony farms and send his
boys through college. The westcrner
makes money more easily and cares less
for it, expands on his praiFies to larg-
or, weekday development; but lacks in the
finer spiritual instinct and emotion that is,
after ali, the essence of genuine life. Yet
own, like him better. Culture, juice
and ripeness, viii come by and by.
Farming is looking up in New England.
Cattle shows, agricultural papers, and the
nineteenth century, generally, are working
in between these hills But if ] wanted 10
lead a dull and plodding existence, with
the least of variety, sunshine aud richness,
I would be one Of these FOund-shouldered
farmers back in the country" who go to
the Post Office twice week, work early
and late six days, read the Tribune market
reports Saturday evening, and sleep through
the sermon on Sunday. l do not present
this as the portrait Of most Connecticut
farmers, but I do know many who could
sit for it.
Crops are coming IN finely this fall. No
can the farmers JON in the common
complaint sf high prices The bushel
Of corn or pound of butter buys as much
sugar or cashmere here az it ever did. To-
bacco raising, ] find, is turning the heads
of our puritan agrieulturalists, and the wide
waxy-bladed weed waves on every Con
necticut bottom. My staid Baptist uncle,
always ready for stubborn fight against
the powers Of evil-when they come in any
other shape than tObaccO-lets out his land
for its culture on shares. That part of
the crop which accrued TO to him last year
as rented, brought nearly $3.50 per acre,
more than his farm would bring in open
market and this year be will get more.
Think of that ye chewers of "Solaea'' or
burners of "Killickiniok !" And speaking
of large returns from the soil reminds me
Of an acre of strawberries here among
the hills that skirt the ground Its owner
has shrewd eye To the weakness of the
New York palate, and his returns from the
single acre this summer were 81, 400, one
thousand of it being clean, net profit. But
may be this Will not seem large to the
vine growers Of Kelly's Island, or Lake
county. know they used to tell large
stories Ofthis sort sometimes.
Two years ago it excited ones fighting
propensities terribly, to witness the ram
pant Copperhesdism in Connecticut. Ny
toes itehed in my boots, continually. There
were the rich nabobs, who had waxed Sat
and gross with "Southera trade who
prayed 20 be dsiiYeled from the devil and
abolitionists, who went to church if the
minister would preach the gospel instead
of politics, and who msrshalied the votes
Of all their employees for the democratic
ticket. The other wing were the frank and
file Of the great unwashed and unterrifed
those who always swallow anything label
led Democratic whether it IS Whiskey,
Free Evilism, or Squatter Sovereignty.
There ID an old proverb about the leopard
and his spots, you know, and there always
will be Democratic party but these
TWO wings are growing less. There is not
so much clustering voting in the cars, not
20 much blatant treason on the streets.
The millennium seems a great ways of, but
believe it's coming-l
J.B.T.M.
Apple Brandy Did it'll