The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1869-01-15
COLUMBIA, S. G..
Friday Morning. January Is. 1869.
North nnd South I'm a New Light.

North nnt South I'm a New Light.
The tortoise may again outstrip ihe hare
In the race for solid wealth, it seems 10
improbable that the South may, after all
pass the North. The former is in severa
repects better fitted for the trial. It has gra
duated in the school of adversely, and com,
out spare indeed in flesh, but with wind
and nerve, and muscle in capital trim. The
North, on the contrary, has reyeled in the
delights of dissipation, and shows all the
signs of revelry and sumptuous living. II
is sleek and finely clad. but with nerves un
strung, and disposed to short breathing
The Southern planter was precipitated
roughly to the bottom. He lost everything
The labor he had relied upon was taken
from him. The comfort in which he had
been reared suddenly vanished. He suf
fered the pangs of poverty and despair.
Compelled to struggle for his bread, he be.
gan life anew under its most dispiriting as
poets. Necessity made him thrifty, tempe
rate and Industrious. Having neither
money nor credit, he was compelled to
train his appetite to simple fare, and to
adapt his ways to circumstances OF the
hardest kind. The lesson was an un-
pleasant one, but it has yielded good re-
suits. The planter of to-day is not the
planter of ten years ago. He has learned
to work, to buy no more thon he can pay
for, and to confne his wants within COM
paratively narrow limits. Hard times have
lost their terrors for him. They have
taughs him to regulate his expenditure by
his means, and. with this lesson learned he
has little to ecar. Il lie has not wealth, he
has none OF the drawbacks incident to its
possession. An inflated currency does not
demoralize him; and all the habits growing
out of the war tend toward simplicity of
taste In food and Dress In commenting on
this subject, the New York Times says:
eve at the North, though more pleasant
y situated, cannot look on the future quite
so complacently. Ours has for years past
been school of extravaganza. The good,
old-fashioned habits are gone, and in their
place we have fondness for grand living
and grand enterprises. We have fine houses,
mngnificently furnished, with expensive
tables and costumes to match. The econo-
my we read about has been banished We
get INTO deDC one Wilt another, and with
people abroad. An inflated currency has
familiarized us with high prices, and the
war expenditures of the Government with
plenty of currency. The Government ex-
penditures have ceased. but the currency
romans; and we keep up splendid appear
ances by speculation, and our spirits by
resolutely refusing to think of danger or
to talk of pay in real money. We are not
fools enough not to know that there are
business and financial rocks ahead, and that
the present style of living cannot last for
ever; but we deliberately prefer not to con-
template these things, or in any manner to
prepare for them. We may have to go under
for little, but there is no use in making
ourselves miserable before the time. It will
be time to look the evil in the face when we
cannot hide from it any longer"
Are we wrong in suggesting that, despite
the present apparent disparity, the South
ern on-grower may find himself richer
than the Northern speculator; or in think.
ing that in view OF disorganized finances,
the North may possibly feel any future
pinch u little more keenly than the less
boastful South?
The reports from Paris declare that the
conference is getting along harmoniously,
and that the Turkish and Grecian Ambassa-
fin