New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1871-11-30
EgSee our inducements to friends to procure
for the New NATIONAL ERA.
A representative Virginia Viii
lage.

We have no disposition to hold up to public
scrutiny the vices Of the Southern people for
the purpose of increasing the contempt which
they are doing so much to bring upon them
selves, or to lessen that feeling Of good will
and practical aid the Northern people were so
ready to extend to them, but which they are
doing so much to repel. Though we feel con.
stantly called upon to denounce their crimes,
expose their vices, and ridicule their follies,
we are influenced by higher motive than one
of hatred for their great wrongs to our race or
of revenge for their great crimes against the
nation. 1t is the terrible ignorance that every
where prevails throughout the South--a con-
dition to which the "poor white trash" of that
section cling with almost death-like tenacity-
that has kept them many centuries behind
every other civilized country in civilization
and progress. They shut out the light of in-
telligence as they would desolatng pestlence.
If they, by free schools, the PRESS and the
pulpit, could have had their intellectual visions
so far opened that they could see themselves as
others see them, they might long since have
started on a career of improvement that would
have placed them far ahead of any other portion
of the Union in material prosperity if not in in
| telleetual development. 1t is more in the hope
Of contributing something-however small our
mite may be-towards opening the eyes of the
Southern people to their degraded condition,
that we expend so much .'virtuous indgna-
ton upon them, than to crafty any personal
feeling. Having especial reference to this ere
| formatory' purpose, we devoted an article two
weeks ago to the exposure of the continued
folly and ingra.itude of the Southern people in
| their business operations Immediately after the
collapse Of the rebellion. Last week we gave
| picture of their farming, showing how stu
pidly they cling to old habits and old modes
and below we present description of one OF
their market towns, which is fair representa-
ton, in every respect, of hundreds of others.
These pictures will show our readers why the
Southern people were easily led into rebel
lion, and why they so cordially hate the North
and their Government. Like the previous
ones, it is from the correspondent Of the New
York Times:
"Twenty- five years ago q young man, &C
c6mpanied by his wife, commenced hotel-keep-
two grown-up boys, still keeps the hotel. The
furniture, with exceptions of amendments and
mendings occasioned by the war; now to be
found In the rooms, was bought by the husband
a quarter of a century since, and it satisfies
those who use it now as it satisfied those who
used il then. The sign board has been repaint-
ed once in that time. There were never asy
carpets in it to be renewed, except in the pr-
vate rooms of the family there they have
- L.,
the patches and darns have overcome the orig
inal, and nothing but patches and darns remain.
There are broken nosed pitchers and cracked
wash bowls i'm the bedrooms. The curtains
ut the windows have hung doubtless
since the surrender, and now the smoke of
pipes and the dust of the turnpike begrimes
them until the original color lost The bed
clothing Is better and more comfortable than
the surroundings would lead one to anticipate,
and is occasionally clean, but the mattresses
are stained, darned. and sunken. The dining
tables are covered with oil cloth. The fable
ware and cutlery is composed of the remnants
of a dozen or more different purchases or
"sets." There is bell on the roof which
sounds the call for meals. There are two regu-
lar boarders. There are one hundred or more
transient guests at dinner on sc court" or other
public days." The food is mainly corn
bread, butter, chickory coffee, milk, fried
chicken bacon, ana occasionally nam, with
fresh beef on the average twice, and fresh
mutton once a month. AS the guests of
this hotel live, so do the people of the town
generally, except that in some Of the private
houses, whose inmates are exceptionally in
telligent, things" are cleaner. There are
three stores, in none of which can you find a
greater luxury in the eating line than box of
French sardlnes-in truth, Potomac smelt.
There is one blacksmith shop, one tailoring
establishment, one shoe maker, one carpenter,
one wheelwright, and jack at-all trades. The
bar keeper at the hotel asks his customers to
wait for their drains on Sunday morning while
he builds the fire and sweeps out the church.
The undertaken. who is the carpenter and
joiner, is also the county jailer The mail
carrier is the general business agent for every
body at the railway station, twenty-four miles
away The postmaster is tailor, and keeps a
candy shop One of the two physicians, an
excellent one, by the way, is the only druggist
IN section of country twenty-6v miles square.
There is no local preacher, although in a
town of the same size in Pennsylvania or
New York, there would be three or
four. There is no livery stable. The
merchants keep groceries, caiicoes, &C., &C.,
such as are to be found in country stores gener-
ally; but when your wife waD s a spool of floss
you must send to the city" for it. The mails