New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1868-05-13

70 the Trivial pursuits, the useless oS0uH
tons the Improbable distractions the
feuds and schisms and brOils that formerly
occupied their minds, but on the contrary
now devote their attention to the acqulsi-
ton of scientific knowledge, and to the
useful mechanic arts which have opened to
us the secrets Of the natural world-Which
have enabled US to master its elements,
; which have enabled rs to subdue and to
employ as our servants the secret and in
visible but mighty forces Of nature, like
steam and electricity and which, while
they have diminished the toll and misery Of
mankind, have multiplied their enjoyments
and opportunities? Bear in mind also,
that the benefits Of this scientific knowledge
and of these wonderful mechanic arts are
no longer confined to an aristocratic or
slaveholding class, but are at last begin
ming to be spread abroad for the benefit o.
all, like the air we breathe, or like the
moisture which, drawn up from the
earth by the sun in invisible buckets,
is waited over the earth in the
form OF beautiful clouds, to be poured ont
at last upon the thirsty hills for the benefit
of all in the falling rain and the infnitesi-
nal dew.
Consider, also, not only the prejudice
but even the active opposition with which
almost every Improvement has been met.
We have in mind Pennsylvania Dutch
man, yet living in Central New York, who
declared fifty years age that he did not
wish to live longer than to witness the
completion Of the Erie canal. He was as
mad as q March hare at the mere mention
Of Clinton's Ditch. The farmer had been
in the habit Of teaming his wheat all the
way down to Albany, a distance Of one
hundred and sixty miles, and was fortunate
if he did not have to sell one of his horses
to make up the actual loss by the trip.
What will you do,' said he, " with your
wheat, your horses, and oats? They will
not be worth raising ~ Yet the Erie
canal has done more TO develop the re-
sources Of the country than any other
single Improvement.
The first steamboat descended the Hud- |
son on the 18th of August, 1897 1t is
said that an old minister in the Mohawk val
ley preached against it and attempted to
prove that in the number seventeen, the
day Of the month, were typifed the seven |
heads and ten horns Of the Beast of Revela-
ton; while another old clergyman in Scho-
harie county declared that Fulton himself
was an incarnation Of Lucifer, and invoked |
against him and his inventions the beasts
Of the Apocalypse.
Now there are plenty of Just such |
crOakers left in the South, and especially |
among the planters. They give their
thoughts and their attention to things
that were worn out years ago. And while
they are bothering their brains and wasting
precious time over such absurd questions
as "The Origin of the Negro Race" "Cursed
be Canaan" Ham and the Posterity of
Ham, "Onesimus' and all those other old
issues which once kicked up the very big
gest kind of fuss in this country, but are
now obsolete and laid away in the grave
forever, the ,shrewd Yankee has pro-
jected new railroad, laid out city,
raised crop Of sorghum, or invented a
steam harrow.
Now, the result Of all this is that SO far
as improvements are concerned the South
is at least fifty years behind the North.
lf'One goes North during the harvest time,
all the way between New Orleans and
Cairo he will see people toiling with their
poor implements and worse methods
work. the greatest disad-
vantage; while from the Mississippi to the
Hudson almost continuously he viii hear
the cheerful music Of mowers and reapers.
While everywhere else the people are
adopting the new methods Of agriculture
lad those new lahor-ssEing machines that
lift the toll from the shoulders
Of hard-worked men and women,
and place it upon iron and
weod and coal; while even in Egypt
there are no less than three hundred steam
plows employed in the cultivation Of
cotton, the Louisiana planter, for the most
part, sticks to his old methods, to his old
sweeps and scrapers and bull-tongues, and
to the old plantation hoe,
clumsy nondescript implement, the weight
OF which is supposed to be essential to
the chOpping motion in the hands of the
laborer and the original of which Noah
doubtless preserved in the ark for Ham and
his pOsterity. The planter still tries to
borrow money to cultivate five hundred or
a thousand acres Of land in the loose and
thriftless manner characteristic of slave
times. He stili clings to the possession Of
the ITO him) worthless acres as the only thing
That now distinguishes him from the poor
whites and the freedmen, and would, in
most instances, consider it positive deg
radiation to become the snug farmer Of a
hundred acres of ground.
1
EMPLOYMENT FOB WOMEN.
With the changed character of our in