Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-04-07
THE SRLF.ExILED SOUTHERNER


THE SELF-EXILED SOUTHERNEE
A Startling Picture of Want, DIseass
and Despair from South America.
The Lima correspondent of the New
York World writes as follows
Immediately after the collapse of the
| Southern Confederacy hundreds of the ad-
| herents of the "lost cause, many Of whom
had been distinguished soldiers in the
armies of Lee and Johnston, and many Of
whom previous to the war had been large
and successful planters, imagining that an
existence within the limits of the United
States was absolutely uncomfortable, emf
grated with their families to various parts
of South America. These colonistS were
prevailed on to believe that in Brazil and
Buenos Ayers on the South Atlantic, and
Peru and Chill on the South Pacific
seaboard, they would find a climate
and country suited to their luxurious tastes;
in fact, they almost conceived the transplant
tation of their lOwlands Of Louisiana and
the glades of Florida and the Carolinas to
the banks of the Rio de la Plata and the
Parana, or to the mild valleys and genial
slopes of the Andes. Among many very
estimable gentlemen, comprising tobacco
growers from Virginia, cotton planters from
the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama and Mis-
sissippi, besides extensive sugar planters
from the. celebrated Red river country of
Louisiana and Texas, deluded with pro-
spect of repairing their broken fortunes, left
what remained Of their once happy homes
and emigrated to the land of the Indo-
Spaniard and mongrelized Portuguese. 1t is
a well known fac5 that in consequence of
this great exodus from the Southern
States, countless acres of the finest
land in the Southern country were
given over to the rule and ruin
of the New England carpet-bagger and
the cotton field negro. Whole districts,
once fourishing and overlooking with the
unparalleled products of remarkably fer
tile and happy country, were left almost I'M
inhabited or sacrificed for a mere song.
Nearly eight years have elapsed since the
tide of Southern emigration was turned
toward the lands south of the equatorial
line, and in all there have been many hun
dreds who at that time have Telinquished
their comparatively comfortable homes in
the South for questionable residences in the
land of a lasciyious, mongrelized!a land treach-
colonists from the South have since been
Taught terrible lesson by the saddest ex-
perienca, and there are but few Of the
many who now remain upon either the
Atlantic or Pacific coast who do not most
heartily regret the step they were foolishly in
duced to take. In Brazil, in Peru, or in Chile,
in Rio de JaGeiro, Lima or Valparaiso, not
a day passes but in some remote and re-
pulsive quarter of these gay cities are to be
seen exiles from the South, who once rev.
elled in luxury and afiiuence, and who are
now reduced to the most extreme want and
penury. Hundreds of these selfeXiles were
brought to the notice of your correspond
ent while attached to the United States
Consulate in the north of Peru, many Of
whom had appealed, but appealed in vain,
to their old government for assistance,
which was, however, pOwerless to aid them.
Again, not a few have been seen in the
streets of Santiago, in the low precincts of
CallaO and Guayaquil, who were evidently
in the last stages of restitution. Want,
despair, drink, and its attendant evils,
have brought them to what they are. In
this enervating climate, even did they know
how to work and could obtain it,
their constitutions, impaired and en-
feebled by months of exposure and
hardship, would lily bear the burden of hard
labor. Many of the Southern colonists, it
is true, still manage to keep up respecta-
bic appearance, but after all it is sort of
''out-at-the-elbows, down-at-the-heep re-
spectability, while sadder still the vast ma
jOTity are to be met with whose appearance
most surely indicates that they are making
the pitiful effort to drown their miseTieS in
potent libatiOns of the most villaniOus and
vilest decOctionS that human ingenuity-or
rather deviltry-ever devised. In an out
Of-the-Way quarter in Valparaiso, ia one Of
the lowest precincts Of the city, known to
the maritime community as "the main
top" whose brothels and drinking booths
are the resort of foreign sailors aud the
lowest class Of the native population, part
Congo, part Indian, part Spaniard, and
not a small portion Chinese, stands a
dilapidated building that could scarcely be
dignifed with the name of dwelling. This
miserable, riekety old howell presents more
filthy and repulsiye appearance than the
lieus of the Five Points in days gone by.
Above the door is cOnspicuOusly emblazon-
ed the legend, "In DiXie's land we made
our stand" which without a doubt pro-
claims the nationality Of the proprietor,
while sign in glazing capitals just below
it, wherein is inscribed "Tha Alabama
Free and Easy" indicates with equal GER
tainty the character Of the establishment in
question. At the bar of the distinguished
Gillian brothel, surrounded by the most
depraved Of both sexes, and dispensing the
vilest native drinks to as vile a set
of scOundrelS as ever went IN
hung, is what is left of a man who was not
a dozen years ago a power in the land-a
man who was once delegate in Congress,
as well as a prominent officer in the Con
federate army. His story is not dissimilar
from that Of others of bis former rank il
South America. Having lost almost all his
worldly goods by the war, he was tempted
by visions of hastily acquired wealth, and
freedom from all labor, to emigrate to Ecua-
dor. Thence he went to Peru, and finally
to Chile, sinking lower and lower III the
social scale at each migration. His bright
dreams dispelled, honor and the memory
of what be once was were insufficient
impulses to deter him from falling to
the lowest depths of a miserable and de-
PRAYED existence. The above is far from
being an exaggerated picture: it is only one
Instance of the result of North American
emigration to the Southern continent; yet
there are hundreds of just such incidents
that can be related of the lives of these men
on both coasts-incidents that in truth form
sad episodes in the history of a people with
whom we are wont to associate all that is
brave, all that is generous and all that is
honorable.
-
THERE are now planted in New Jersey,
according to the most reliable authorities,
5000 acres with cranberries. Two years
from now they will be in full bearing, when
that State viii take the lead in cranberry
culture, as. she did few years ago with
strawberries, raspberries and blackberries.
LET us enter a Geneyan music store.
What an array Of instruments, of all shapes
and models The gentlemanly salesman
invites me to be seated. l accept his court
esy, and 10, the chair begins tc play, son
yoGder rock reclining" | place my foot
upon stool, which stands invitingly near,
and from its little body floats out upon the
air the nrattiast of Sfraussio sUaltznc ssnn