The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1872-03-20

Of the South at,, the present tine. We
have occasional elaborate piCthEes Of II
froms Several Southern writero, who find
itaot only soothing to their sensibilities
to deplore the lost golden age OF slavery,
bRt, most probably, profitable in peou-
8 hry sense. One OF these gentlemen,
in magazine OF the current month,
dips his pen in alternate tears and gall to
depict the deplorable condition OF the
young ladies aud gentlemen Of Virginia
deprived of their former corps of field
lnd household servants. There can be
little doubt that life in the Virginia plan
tations is the most suggestive eign of
the depth OF the change made by the
war, and one that appeals most nearly to
our sympathies. The culture {psrticu-
larly Of the women) was higher aud
broader than in any other Southern
State; the treatment of the slaves more
hnmane; tho hospitality as unstinted
and more enlightened, for it was capable
OF Offering food to the brain Of the guest
as well as his body. In spite Of the
peevish heat and resentment with which
our neighbors are apt to reject our over.
lures Of friendship, they cannot hinder
our warm and hearty recognition OF
their claims upon it, both before and
after our quarrel. No person of COM
mon sense denies either the compassion
due to their position. deprived of their
sole source OF income at the very period
when an exhaustive. crippling war rem
dered them least able to bear such loss.
But the Northerner, when he loses his
income, does not fall flat to the ground;
ms brains or hands or feet are ready to
help him; and If the negro, as source
of livelihood, crippled all these in his
master so as to make him the enfeebled.
resouroeless burden which he describes
himself to be, it was high time, for his
own sake, that the negro was taken from
him. J.
Z The lugubrious writer in Lippincon
begins his tale of woe by stating the
alarming failure in the wheat and other
crops, which he 'ascribes to the want Of
labor, the ''negroes invariably preferring
to work for anybody else than their old
masters significant fact, from which
any other eyes than those of an ardent
Southerner could draw the moral, and
which conflicts with the ancient tales Of
''patriarohal bonds and affection from
generation to generation"
Next we are told that, negro children
being no longer profitable, .'women
without incumbranoe" are preferred as
servants; consequently fewer black
children are born, and those few. what
with freedom and free schools. NE
reared in much less obedient manner
than in slavery. Probably our colored
brethren think they ought to have
learned obedience sufficiently by this
time. and are acquiring some other
virtue. But the climax of eloqnence
and patlios is given in the description of
the typical Virginia lady. Of ''jeweled
fingers, classic features, and absolute re-
pose OF manner-a woman of our pre-
ferred stock, our best strain Of blood
occupied in cooking, bed making, and,
finally. paper-hanging, tat the sight Of
which," bewails our jeremiah, 5.spro.
found pity welled up with my soul. f"
AS parallel picture, he presents the
brother of this lady, 'aqnilihe.nosed,
frm-chinned. Injured to battle, and
sighing for the good old war time, but
hoeing, ploughing and digging manfully
IN &be hot sun from morning 10 night. :"
Atwhich depressing spectacle the au utho or
''burns like fire." and relieves his heat
in the proper chivalric manner by q vol
ley of oaths against the abolitionists and
the Tribune.
We suspect that he will not carry his
audience altogether with him in his fer
vor or despair. Cooking, bed-making
and milking COWS are certainly not the
most desirable occupations for women of
culture and refinement; but there nre
very few such women, however wealthy,
living on farms in the North, who have
not been forced often to practice til. m
from the difficulty of obtuining SER
wants. Now, the Virginia lady for gene
. irations has had the chance of furnishing
aherself with trained servants, and if she
has failed to do 30, or to bind them to
her by any ties, either of association or
affection, other than that of force, she
certainly is as much to be blamed as
pitied. As for her brother, we heartily
congratulate the young fellow on having
taken to the plough and hoe SO vigo.
rously. When wo knew him years ugo,
dancing at Greenbrier, proving lis
knightly valor by galloping round field
at Berkeley. to thrust long pole through
q ring, gambling and swiggine mint
luleps at the Spottswood House, we
hardly would have hoped for 80 much
manly stuff in him. When this whole.
some fight with tho coil and sun shall
have brought ont the latent energy Of
his body, his brain, probably. will hayo