Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1870-04-05
Letter from New York.
CHARLOTTESVILLE, \. Y, March IS.

y
Mr.. EARLE,
Dear Sir:-In your issue of
March 22d there are some errors in a piece
entitled sunny South" | wish to correct,
or, at least to notice. | too am Vermont
er,--born, raised, and educated on her soil,
r. connected with some of her honored
famiiies,-and l think not entirely IN
known myself | have spent several years
In the South,-since the war have travelled
over large section Of it,-been acquainted
with gentlemen and families from Virgin
ia, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama,
Mississippi, Louisiana, Missouri and Tex
as,-stopped at their houses, rode over
their felds,-examined their stock, and even
bought and sold my share | think, there
fore, I am as well qualified to judge cor
rectly of their condition intellectually, 50
cialIy, politically, and in farming capacity
As the one from whom you quote
Probably as the letter was private"
from which the extract was made it was
written for some peculiar purpose not re
yealed in print,-with no intention of be-
ing published, and do not suppose the
writer expected any one to either read or
believe it, except the person to whom it
was addressed. But, being published, the
sacredncss of privacy can no longer screen
it from criticism and exposure.
He says stupidity and ignorance are
/ indelibly stamped upon the miserable, rag
/ ged, filthy whites" Now | do not know
in what circle the writer moved, but one
thing ! will say,-a ragged, filthy white,
/ | never saw there. For seven years | was
/ connected with a Collegiate Institute in
! the South, and cleaner, more polite, ac-
! complished, and studious class of scholars
I have not met in our Northern schools,
/ though for years | have been connected
with the leading institutions in Vermont
and New York, and their parents at home
or abroad were the fit parents Of the tidy
children. Their dresses to-day are not as
! expensive nor their ornaments as costly as
ten wears ago, for their wealth departed in
the war, yet, plainly and neatly dressed
they are scrupulously caseful of their ap-
pearance,
"Were l offered a plantation of 10000
acres, anywhere between Petersburg and
Charleston, on condition | would live on
it, l would consider myself insulted y
Wen done the writer must be a modest as
well as truthful man, to judge by the size
of the farm to which he aspires, large
enough to give over IS respectable farmers
their 800 acres each-about as much as one
man can properly attend. But he need
not fear, the Southerner is not the man to
willingly or even Intentionally insult any
one much less to insult by the gift of land
to one who doubtless would prove so disa-
greeable neighbor. Perhaps the gentle
man is an exception, but as a general rule
the traducer is captious, litigious, and
would sadly fear for the boundary of my
100 acres if it were contiguous to his 20, 600.
Was the gentleman raised on that myth
ical farm where they chad to grind the
noses of their sheep to enable them to get
a spire of grass among the thickly strown
rocks that he says so soberly-'I never
saw an acre of pasture or meadow from
Petersburg to Charleston, a distance OF
more than 430 miles," This account diff
ters 50 widely from that of Others who have
passed over the same section we scarcely
know how to explain his error unless he
were hunting Illicit distilleries among the
hills, and we really hope his distorted Wis
ion was not owing to the double sight SC
frequently attending their discovery, Of
frequent imbibings from the bottle
"The cattle lap up the grass as dog
laps water" A grand discovery in Natur
al History. Would it not be we'll to advise
him to write an article on it for some o
the Scientific Societies with which our cit
les abound? Unfortunately for him Bar
nun is burned, but, perhaps, if he woul(
write minute description of the new spe
: cies Wood or the Central Park Commission
t will give him special stall for exhibition
g if Boston does not procure the novel.
g His account of the size of the horses ant
D cattle must be taken with considerable sci
| wage, for if we remember correctly tn,
: section he describes was rayaged by tn
=. war and nearly all the horses were takel
/ and the cattle taken or destroyed Tha
!. they have any is a proof Of their energ,
| IL. = L
q years ago he would have found horses tina
f in symmetry, beauty. and swiftress rivalet
: the best of Our Vermont breeds For tn
same reason selvage must be allowed b.
honest men for the backward appearance
in material wealth or civilization" of tn
| section. But elsewhere 1t is not so. The
! are not wealthy now, and their homes hav
not the gorgeous furniture of Stewart o
= Fiske-to which doubtless the writer ha
been accustomed from his youth, and con
" sequently the plain but tasty adjoining
. appear tame and beggariy will ventur
= this assertion,-Let any real gentleman o
!, lady go there, call at their houses, and en-
u ter into a sensible conversation with tn
u inmates, neither he nor she will find ther
I; "a hundred years behind the north in ev
T. erything pertaining to material wealth G
r civilization"
% Outside of the cities the whole Sout