Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1867-07-08
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ICorrsspondence Of Ohio Statesman.l

= ~ = CORRESPONDENCE of Ohio Statesman.I 4
Mr.. EDITOR: Were you ever on Sand
I HiAg Yes, you say, many q one. But ]
mean,SAND HILL in nomiae--a greatly eleva-
ted ridge, similar TO little mountain
extending eastward for several miles from
about the center of Guernsey county, be-
yond Bsrnesville into Belmont. Now,ifyo
never have been in this place of noted pros
pect and were you privileged to ride along
1T to-day, as was recently, your ejacula-
,,tions on the beauty, fertility and extent OF
landscape all around would be both fire.
quent and emphatic, or else you are more
stoical in temperament than majority Of
lyonr readers take you to be. Receive,
then, from my heavy pen, brief inveuto-
ry of particulars in the grand picture there
spread out e, view, and IL you do not say
that no treeless, fenceless, hilless, monotin-
oIis plain of the West however extended,
T. can equal it in excellence, the fault of the
81 failure will be in the agent, not the object
of description. 10
Imagine yourself on noble steed-a
regular Palfrean in color, form and blood
], riding along the wide road that crowns the
summit of this hill through its whole
length, having upon each hand a grand
/ prospect of ten or fifteen miles. covered
with well-fmproved farms, over the rolling
fields of which thousands of fine sheep
roam at will-alSo cattle, and horses, and
hogs of the most approved and profitable
t'bloods" Goats toO,-Cashmere goats
with fleeces long, and white, and precious
as silk spun from silver, appear, here and
there, on the farms of such farmers as as
pire to rank as progressives in the great
conrt of Cereas. .. $50
% The sheephav lost their fieeces and seem
.swhite as snow" as they meekly feed on
the clover, white as themselves, and fra
grant of the rose, and yielding the "raw
material" for honey to swarms of busy bees
that hum from morn till night around.
How mysterious are the works of nature,
that sends two animals so dissimilar in ORR
r gin, form, size and disposition as a sheep
and a bee, to the same pasture to procure
elements to work into robes for the back,
and luxury for the taste of man! Wool
and honey, articles which every farmer here
takes pride in showing you, were
once in vegetable form and grew in
these green fields! Then the beef, the
beef! this would make a John Bull smile
and the cool milk, and butter and rich
cream, brought fresh and clean from the
aspiring g-house," and the Strawberries and
raspberrieS, and the green peas, and the
the young chickens, and the floats, and the
jJellles and the jams, and the-but when
shall stop? Well, from riding along OH
that proudly-moving palfry on the broad
summit of Sand Hill, looking with admira-
tion on landscapes, farms and stock, we have
suddenly digressed to dining-rooms and
dinners. Not much difference either, Mr..
Editor. for if ever you in reality take the
ride that / trust you are now taking in
fancy, you will find the above bill of fare,
with nameless etceterd, spread before you
when you come to dine in any leading
farmers residence in this region. I'M
provements meet the eye everywhere.
Muscle seems at discount-mind rules.
The plows, harrow, rakes, hoes forks, SHOW
els, all of different and improved patterns
from those Used in the boyhood of the old
farmers of our day.
But to see them now, reap rake, pitch,
thrash; clean, neirdbile! what change! all
done with horses that in my morning of
life, ran idle in the pasture, all through
wheat harvest, standing under some shade
tree stamping the flies from their legs, or
driving them from their sides with flexible
{ tails, and SOLDERING lips, half famished tor
water that we, who were Oyerweary in the
hot field, often failed to furnish. So, if they
are worked more now, they fare better.
It is better, too, with their masters, who
having less use for their muscles than for
merly, make more use of their minds. In
belllxSilce, uOdlbu,i podCc, udpplil0SS anu
wealth are the result. blessed are the
people that are in such a. condition. 4
Yes, and then the churches, and common
school houses and even academies and COL
leges of this highly favored region, add
greatlylto it's desirableness as place of
residence. The effect cf, these is evident
in the good morals and manners of the cit
izens. Indeed certain amount of wealth
seems indispensable to the order and
good citizenship of any neighborhood.
Poverty is not conducive to morality.
The uery poor in community seldom feel
responsibility as to anything good, either
secular, educational or Christian. Such, if
they are not a curse to, are too often clog
: on, society. In section of country settled
as is Sand Hill, this drawback does not OBJ
tain; the farms being about equal in size,
there is no room or necessity for much ten
dIatTy. and the farmers are too much on a
par in wealth to easily supplant each other
. by purchase. They have got that neither
poverty nor riches'' degreesof wealth that,
(from the famous prayer,) we would sup
4 pose the most conducive possible to inde-
pendence and content. Society, both NOR
ally and socially, in such place differs
as radically frOm that in most new settle
ments in. the west, as these grand old grass
covered hills with their rocky eyebrows
gushing fountains and rural magnificence,
differ from the swamp, quagmire and pond.
& lands that are more frequently the rule
thanlthe exception in States touching the
, Mississippi. .-
s.s And yet, strange to say, even here in this
semi-eden, notwithstanding all its supera-
bounding advantages, both physically and
sesthetically, there are a few discontented,
miserable souls, who wish to leave in order
to get ..more land for their children - as
if God ever designed these to be settled
around them as satellites around the sun.
L fear the motive cause here is not kindness
hllt tdOvPt0usnesS-thati is To he owners of
a large. than of com paratively small farms.
Verify they do often get their reward in
loss of health, loss of morals, or educational
or Christian privileges, loss in garden or
orchard luxuries, or in flowing fountains,
or in the loss of life, or in the loss of all
these.
But how this subject grows on my hands.
Excuse length. This is the first commu-
nicatton YOU have received from Sand Hill.
1t will not be the last. This place shall be
known, and become justly famous, too, if
my poor pen has power. Would like to
tell you of the politics of its people-that
they are of a nai1ed character-plenty of
the good old Democratic element to keep the
community from civil putrifaction (what-
ever be the eXigencies of the State), and
quite enough of the Radical to ruin it or
any other community, if not held in rigid
check by the lovers of the Constitutional
order and law. The only blight in this re-
.eion is its political Tadicalism, but this is
rapidly sinking into the condition
of the famous mackerel," if we
except the ;. shlning.''. 1t has all
the strength without the sweetness of
skinned milk. 1t is gradually toning
down. Its buckram is gone. Negro suf-
frage has taken the starch out of it. 1t
willis daily with this worm at its root.
i.Can't go it," Is the cry-nor Hayes either,
for he is not right on sleeps wool. There
is point in this pocket argument. The