The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1868-03-19

penalty of the law, such as murder in
all its degrees, even including forms to
which the instincts of the human heart
are opposed, as of parents by children
and children by parents. That higher
spirit which seems native to the inhab-
itants of warmer climates, and which
was displayed in the case of the plant
ers in traditional valor and chiyal-
rous sensitiveness to injury and insult,
declined in this class into a prevailing
ferocity, which too often was evinced
in the most signal instances of personal
violence and outrage. Their personal
encounters, prowess in which was al
most the sole object of their pride and
ambition, left their traces in the hideOus
Disagreement ofmany a ruffianly coun-
tenance, and cases of murder have
been known, so marked by wantonness,
that iuries have hesitated to convict,
almost willing to believe that the utter
absence of motive must, of itself, have
proved the insanity of the wretches who
seemed merely to have Obeyed the
wicked caprice of a savage disposition.
"a promiscuous debauchery proved
their insensibility to the obligations of
virtue, or to a feeling of modesty; and
the history of many localities was dis
graced by instaces Of the grossest and
most revolving incest.
"To complete the melancholy pic
ture, that must be added which enhan-
ced all their vicious prOpensities, the
almost universal prevalence of intem-
perance to degree which knew no
limits or restraint, except from the in
suficiency Of the means"
A dark picture, truly. but ride of a
few miles through our "piney woods"
any fine day, will give you glimpse of
the living reality from which it is
sketched.
Here we come upon one of their cab
ins In the midst ofthe forest, with its
little clearing Gf "deadening" the pines
makes clearing) surrounded by di-
Iapidated fence of rails or brush. You
need not 90 in. The whole family is
arrayed OIL the '1ot" stupidity staring
at us.
The master of the house, a blear-eyed,
sullen, ferocious looking fellow, with a
bushy beard and unkempt hair, sitting
on log, calls offthe dogs, three or four
of which threaten us from the roadside.
They are as lank as their master, and
nearly as asill-looking. The mother and
two or three grown-up girls, in home
made cotton, somewhat the worse for
wear, and with dirty bare feet and
ankles, block up the doorway. They
are rather less sinister in their phyiscg-
nomical expression, but scarcely less
ugly and untidy than the head of the
family. The children form an interme-
diate groupin the tabIeau, and are not
unworthy of their parentage. Their
hair is almost invariably of a yellowish
white tint, and their complexion is Of
the same hue, their faces having the ap-
pearance Of half-dried clay. You will
look in vain for the faintest tinge of
healthy color on cheek or lip. No roses
bloom here, nor lilies either, for their
pallor is not whiteness.
You may find red-faced men occa-
siOnally, where bad whisky can be had
but blooming women and children,
never; andit must be remembered that
l am not writing in the unhealthful re-
gions ofthe slow country" or referring
to the denizens of swampy and mala-
rious districts, but describing these
people as see them going and coming
every day among the pines, in one OF
the most salubrious regions in the
world. Itwould not be proper to describe
them as walking cOrpses, for their ap-
pearance is far more sickly than that Of
a dead person. They seem to be VIC
TINS of a permanent torpidity, nothing
being alive in them except the lowest
instincts and passions of human nature.
The heads of these people are small
broad at the base and narrow above,
with low foreheads, usually hidden I'M
der coarse bushy or long straight hair.
Their eyes are small and dull; thin
noses, often of the class called "snub,' y
and always coarScIy cut their mouths
gross; and their chins weak and retreat
ing. Every feature bears record Of
their abasement-an authentic and leg
ible inscription commemorative of hu-
man decadence.
What is to be the ultimate destiny Of
this singularly unfortunate class Of
people7
MIR. Seabrook, in the article from
which I have already quoted, predicts
their gradual elevation under the new
order of things consequent upon the
abolition of slavery and the define oi
the planter class. He argues that the
opportunities for employment now
opened will breed habits of industry
and that with them will come higher
aspirations, desire for education, and
an appreciation of the comforts and re.
fnements ofcivilized life. Already
he saws, "their services are for the frs
time in general demand, and simulta
neously all over the country many o
them have been taken into employment
They are recovering the place from
which they too long have been driven
and this point reached, they will stretcl
upward to higher aims and better at
tainments.
Let us hone so. .-Ex. ED. Down Il