Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1869-06-02
THE CHRONICLE.
LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
NUMBER ONE.
RALEIGH, n. C.. Nav 3. 1869.


EDITORW. r. CHRoNICLE:-Ihave
reached here from tour over large
portion of the South. The general
: State of affairs is in a hopeful condi-
ton, and it is believed will improve as
time rolls on.
Raleigh is a quaint old town of
about seven thousand inhabitants
. Everything about the place bears the
impress of hundred years agO-Of
the days of pack horses, saddle bags,
big fire places, tallOw candles, coon
skin caps, knee breeches and swallow
tail coats. The period of the RevoIu-
ton is still here. The fashions of that
day still prevail. One has but to shut
his eyes a second to fancy Greene and
COrnwallis laundering through the
State. Nothing modern is seen. The
sand box and goose Quill have not vet
been replaced by blotting paper and
the steel pen. Foxis Book of Martyrs
and the Patent Office Reports are the
standard works of every library. Da-
balls arithmetic is the orthodox
mathematics of all the schools. A
spirit of calm, ineffable listlessness
everywhere prevails. The town is
; spiritless, inactive, dead. Old COWS,
with their tails laid lazily across their
backs, loaf about the village and chew
their cuds with happy serenity; en-
terprising porkers subsoil the streets
with cheerful zeal, cordially approved
by all concerned, predatory mules
prowl gravely about stealing straw and
cOrn-stalks from the market carts that
supply the place. Nobody disturbs
them. Nobody cares. The mission
of the North Carolinian on the earth
is to make tar. What cheese is to the
farmer of old Trumbull, shoes to a
Massachusetts Yankee, iron to a Pitts
burger, sheep to Vermonter, hogs to
Cincinnatian, cotton to an Alabami-
an, tar is to the native of this State
He is born for nothing else. From
the moment of pulling babyhoOd, when
he is first able to set by the fire and
play with burning pine knot, till he
possibly becomes in old age a wealthy
wholesale dealer, he thinks of nothing,
dreams of nothing, lives for nothing,
save to deal in the products of the pine
tree. The tar kit is his unit of valve.
His neighbours position, in his estima-
ton, socially and otherwise, depends
on the number of these he possesses.
Eastern and Western North Carolina
have always been antagonistic on the
slavery question-never in sympathy
with each other.
The farther we reeede from the re-
bellion the better will matters become. |
A great change has taken place since |
| the November election. The victory |
of Grant convinced the people of the |
| South of the utter impossibility of |
resurrecting the old regime. The |
| course of President johnson led many !
to believe that they could possibly re- |
establish slavery under another name, /
and inaugurate state of affairs not I
/ dissimilar to that which existed prior |
! to the rebellion, and much iniquitous /
\ legislation, universal discomfort and |
violence, and general refusal to ac-
cept the admitted results of the war
| followed. But now they see the great |
northern war party of the recent strug-
| gle, triumphant at the polls, and they /
begin to feel that the policy it inaugu-
rated and the principles for which it
contended are destined to be the gov
/ erning ideas of the administration
/ for the next four years, and probably
/ for all coming time; and there is a
| growing disposition among the
thoughtful of their number, to accept
the situation eheerfully, and do the
| best they can under the new state of
affairs. But, on the other hand, there /
| is large majority that never think,
that are governed entirely by preju-
dice and passion, that are still bitter
and will be so for. years to come.
Lands cheap all through the South,
and the openings in many places for
northern capital and enterprise are
good, but as a rule there is little yet
to warrant northern man in coming
hither, especially if he comes as amer
chant, doctor, lawyer, or in any call
ing, the success of which depends in
a measure on his popularity in the
community in which he may reside.
know this to be the truth from actual
experience, JOHN w. FoRNEY to the
contrary Notwithstanding.
That gentleman has lately made a !
flying trip through the South, in COM
pany with q party of capitalist, and !
his rosy accounts have been heralded ,
far and wide as representatives of the {
real state of affair here. They were !
untrue. FORNEY is at the head of a /
large southern land association, and
he is anxious to sell as much as posi-
BILE. His account of the millennium
about to lake place here is all bosh.-
If the lion and the lamb lie down to- ,
gether here very soon, the lamb will !
be inside the lion. would advise no !
one to come here from the North, un-
unless he comes in a colony. Better :
by far go to the great, rich, loyal west, /
where land is cheaper and better than ,
here, where labor is honorable, and $
the people are all in sympathy with I
the Union cause.
No man wants to reside among peO- /
pie where he is completely ostracised. !
Such is the case with every northern I
man south. The men here will meet ,
him on the street or in the counting !
room in business way, and possibly I
be friendly enough if they think they !
can make some money out of him, !
but beyond that there is great gulf !
over which he cannot pass. As soon I
would Turk admit man into his J
harem, as would a southerner receive
Yankee into his family. The :
women are worse than the men, ;
Women, however, the world over, are :
always better or worse than men, and !
in this case they are far more ugly, !
bitter and spiteful. The best citizens !
are the late rebel soldiers. They are /
disposed to let by cones be by cones; 7
the worst citizens are the preachers of :
the gospel. 1t is the Gods truth .
They do more to engender hatred to- Z
ward the North than almost anything I
else. AS an illustration, one of them /
in preaching a recent whang-dOOdle |
sermon to his flock in this place, an I
nounced that his own congregation /
would set in the body of the church, !
strangers, members of other churches, q
in the side pews, and negroes and h
army officers in the gallery Several \
officers who were present, promptly a
left the house and have not since at q
tended the reverend gentleman's e
church. t
Sometimes these southern folks have i
to receive the horIid Yankees in their n
houses, as when they keep boarders." +
A Yankee dollar is as good as arebePs, L
and a vast deal more certain, they I
have found out, and so they receive q
him, though under a sort of moral d
and social protest; and let me say that Z
excepting boarding house" is now 0
the role of much of the decayed S
female aristocracy of the South. Like C
keeping a good hotel, it requires ex- 8
perfence and special genius in that t
direction. These qualifications the a
women of the South do not possess. P
n . III l..