The Shasta courier., 1867-09-21
SHASTA COURIER.
The Pine Woods and :. Poor Whites, of
Louisiana.


The correspondent of the Rochester my. J
Express gives a lively sketch Of the pine
wood regions of Louisiana. aud of the poor
whites who inbabit them We extract the
following portion
Away up in the piney woods-almost out
of civilization, and almost among full
blooded barbarians-in the land where school
houses and churches are unknown, but where
poor whisky, besotted ignorance, reasonable
lawlessness and malignant hatred of every
thing that savors of =" the Yanks" abounds-
your correspondent finds himself this bright
beautiful morning, acting in the double
capacity of a Government official and an
organizer of the great Republican Party
This is the great pine region of the State
and is prolific in that production alone. For
miles and miles naught can be observed but
these tall trees, stretching their limbs to
heaven. aud singing mournful requium as
the wind plays through their evergreen
branches.
The inhabitants are but few, and they are
clustered together in little gatherings that
can hardly be dignifed with the name of
vilIares-while their occupation is milking
and attending to their herds of goats and
cows. hunting the deer and wild hog. and
haunting the village grocery, where mostly
they do congregate, and where generally
they will be found guzzing "red eye,"
abusing the Yanks, and talking over the
crops and prospects. They are class fa-
miliarly known as the "piney woods poor
whites" and are about as low in the scale of
humanity as it is possible for mankind to
reach. The females dip snuff, chew and
smoke tobocco, and eat dirt-a compound of
vile habits that induces physique suggest
i've of mummes rather than human beings
The latter vce-that of eating dirt-is COM
mon to all classes, and begets emaciaton
idiocy and a complexion the color of the
food Ignorance predominates in every di-
rection. They raise little corn-iust
enough for " dodgers" which, with milk and
vegetables, nothing in this land that. with a
little labor, m ght be made to TEEN with
plenty, but hog and hominy."
1t has been my lot to travel pretty thor
oughly over the Southern country, but never
before have seen such a lamentable state of
decentralization and ignorance as | find in
this pine wood region. All that is human of
humanity has been educated out Of them,
until they have become the lowest possible
type of their race. Talk to them of the
possibilities of labor in the fruitful country,
and they hiss out in reply, "Oh, yOu 'uns
are Yanks; yer sch are used to workin'
we are Southerners our niggers do our
work :" and in truth they do. The freedmen
are the only inhabitants of this section who
are at all above board, as the only planta-
tions that | have seen over an extent of
fifty miles of country, were carried on by
colored men.
MURPHIEs vs.. ST. CLAIRs.-A certain
gentleman of the Milesan persuasian, who
has achieved some little newspaper notoriety,
and the initials of whose last name, if put
together, would spell Murphy, for some rea-
son or other, and much to the disgust Of his
brother Irshmen, changed his time honored
patrouymic to the more hyfalutin' cognomen
of st. Clair. Everyone knows how it hurts
an Irishman's feelings to see brother Irish
man " 20 back on the ould sod," and it may
be sure that he got many sharp rap over
the knuckles. as the saying is for the change
of name. Some time during the war, our
hero was stopping at M House, as was
also a dashing young Irish officer of our
army They CHANGED to be ciS a-ris at table,
and Major j, who always goes in for a
ioke, whether at his own expense or some
one else's, thought the opportunity was too
good to be lost, so he sings out to the waiter:
Patrick" Pat came Bring me ST.
Clair" said the Major, in his matter-of- fact
way
"A which. sur" said Pat.
IA St. Clair, said don't you under
stand the American dIaect?
Pat, sorely bothered, scratched his head,
and replied;
- Shure, Ameriky is a quare country,
and never heard thin things axed for be-
fore, sur, at ALL"
Well, Patrick" quoth our joker, with
the air of one about to impart useful knowl
edge, " it is a potato | want we used to call
them Murphes' at home but believe the
polite name for them in this country is ST.
Clair"
The Major hit hard this time at least. for
the owner of the polite name left the table,
amid the understandable roaro of the compa-
ny, who understood and fully appreciated the
joke, and believe that was his last appear
ance on that stage.