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

: 1 - - -.
BY WAY OF RIcHMoND,' :, BY EDMUND
~ 9i s-Bgd sGoKIRKE. IL .saa.d lasq
Professor cairnes, in his very valu-
able and generally accurate work On the
Slave PoWerp lpages- 81, 55, says:
ssIn the Southern States no less than
| FIVE millions of human beings are now
said to exists in a condition little re-
moved from savage ]ife,, eking out a
!, wretched subsistence by hunting, or fish
& ing, by hiring themselves out for tocca-
q sional jobs, and zplunder. Combining e
+ the restlessnessl and contempt for regu-
j lar industry peculiar to the savage, with
the vices of the prolataire Of civilized
communities, these people make up
a class at once degraded and danger
GUS and constantly reinforced as they
are by all that is idle, worthless and law
Hess among the population Of the neigh
i boring States, from an inexhaustible
preserve Of rufianism, ready at hana for
Eall the worst purposes Of Southern ambi-
tion. = < X Such are the mean whites,
or white trash, of the Southern States.
XXX This class comprises, as I have
said,. five millions of human beings
about seven-tenths of the whole white
population" :" sr. a~,s
This opinion of Professor Cairnes is no
doubt held by fully nineteen-tw entieths
of the people of the Northern States and
Iof England. But it is great-a very
| great error. Having READ Of, or seen,
i the wretched specimens Of humanity who
loiter about the railway stations, or hov-
er around the large plantations on the
great Southern thoroug ghfares, they have
jumped to the conclusion that they re-
| present .'tseven-t -tenths of the whole white
/ population" of the Southi The very
| idea is preposterous-for if it were SO,
/ one-half Of the Southern people would be
paupers, and no community could exist
! which had to support that proportion of
non-producers.. BUTT, is not so. The
great mass Of "poor whites are superi-
or (and say this with due deli Liberation,
and after sixteen years acquaintance with
them) to every other class of uncultiva-
ted men, save our Northern farmers on
the globe. They all were born in this
country, and have imbibed from cur in
stitutions- distorted and perverted as
they are at the South-a sturdy inde-
pendence, and an honest regard for each
others rights, which make them, though
of Scotch, Scotch Irish, or England de-
scent, better soldiers, better citizens,
and better men, than the over-worked,
ignorant, halfstarved, turbulent, and
degraded peasantry of Europe.
There as at the, South such a class as
Mr. Cairnes speaks Of. They are appro-
priately called 'smeap trash,'' and ''eke
. out a subsistence by hunting, by fishing,
by hiring themselves out for occasional
jobs, and by plunder,D but they are COM
paratively small class. The census shows
that they cannot ''all number aboyerhalf a
million.
These people do combine "the rest
lessness and contempt for regular indus
try peculiar to the savage, with the vices
of the proletaire of civilized cummun-
ties, are sat once degraded and dan
| gerous," and form ''preserve of ruff
anism, ready at hand for. all the worst
purposes Of Southern ambition" In fact
was about to add thatsaltathe rufian-
ism of thegSouth is confined to them and
to the ttchiyalry,P' butI will not say it,
for it would not be strictly true. se3 sa-
To give the. reader an idea of what
these ';mean whites" are, [ will glance
! for moment at their habits and ways
of living. Often their houses are the
rude pole wigwams of the Indian -shap,
ed like, a sugar loaf-with NEARLY hole
at the top to let the smoke out, and
the rain in; but generally they live in
| small huts Of rough logs, through the
crevices Of which the wind, in winter,
| Whistles a most melancholy tune. These
hnts are foored with nothing but the
ground hardened with mauls, and hol-
flowed at the centre, as If to hold the
rain that come in at the .roof-and their
one apartment is furnished with few
rickety chairs, pine log-hewn smooth
on the upper side, and made to serve as
SOFIA cracked skillet dirty frying
pan, an old-fashioned rifle, two or, three
sleepy dogs, and bakers dozen of half
clad children, with skins and hair color
ed ike tallow candle dipped in tobacJ
co-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 -shuek mattresses and
tattered furnishings; but the whole as
pect Of the place reminds one strongly of
a tolerablyFkept swine, sly or dog kennel
! The character of the inmates Of these
4 novels is suited to their surroundings
They are indolent, shiftiess, and THEY
ing given to- whiskey drinking, snuff
dipping. clay-eating, and all manner of
social vices. age55gIf nj sve ga
i Their indolence is almost past belief
I They areiiterally sttoo lazy to come in
| when it rains,'7 A traveller tells of ask