The Opelousas journal. [volume] (Opelousas, La.) 1868-1878, 1873-08-02
THE DOCTRINE OF COMPENSATION.

This doctrine extending visibly as it
does through the whole system of Ma
ture is certainly recognized by the reve-
rent seeker or explorer of the great
Mothers mysteries. When q flower
falls and decays he awaits confidently
it's resurrection beneath the sunshine
and breezes of spring. If a branch is
riven from the tree he looks with equal
certainty for it's restoration by a new
sprout, OF an increased vitality of To-
liage. In fact, even if the parent stem
lies PROSTATE in the dust, he knows
that in some new and multitudinous
forms the tenacious vitality will awaken,
and the principle of compensation
triumph over destruction.
Yet take this same man in the COM
plex relations of human life, and in the
bewilderment of great and crushing
events, he forgets the lessons he has
learned in the forests, under the eternal
stars, and in the track of the whirlwind.
Ifyou should tell such a man that a
deal of good has been evoked by the
ruin and disasters Of the late war, he
would laugh you to scOrn. Yet we can
plainly perceive a steady and gradual
improv ement evoked from apparent
| destruction. Idle dreamers have been
| cast against that hard, sharp angle Of
necessity which in all ages and i'll all
| countries shapes mans most perfect
I work from his most pressing needs.
The South is certainly rising up to
itsnew work. No n can open a paper
now without noticing new agricultural
associations, and as in the fruit growers
meeting a week " so ago, men meet
to discuss thoroughly and intelligently
the properties of. soil, the products best
suited to it and the climate, and in fact
all the multiform questions which grow
out of scientific tillage of the earth.
So We contend that to-day in spite of
poverty and evil legislation, of ham,
pered industries, of unfavorable seasons,
and a labor problem which looms up
gigantic and terrible-in spite of all
this, we stand in this year of grace on a
higher plane Of progress than at any
previous time when our cotton and
cane fields yielded every year a prince
ly income to the pOssessors.
Of course, many people will call this
a mad assertion. They are, however,
precisely the kind of folks who have al
ways prevented the country from be-
coming self-sustaining. Men who can
only see prosperity in cotton and sugar,
and nothing else Before the war, if
they had the purse of Fortunatus, every
cent they drew out of it was spent in
buying more cotton OIL cane land, and
more negroes to work it. Since the
war, with the old madness still upon
them, they have plunged into inextri-
cable debt to keep up the old delusion
Minor industries which would have Civ,
en- them food, have been disregarded
But these men belong to IN old efett
civilization, and are giving place to The
new order.
It will not retain great waste bodies
of land fast merging into a primeVa
wilderness. 1t will not depend upor
a single crop for a successful season
It viii not butcher land by ignoran1
cultivation, and take the whole pro
ceeds of a crop to pay for the necessi
ties of life which could have been pro
vided at home. In fine, the new ordel
is the order of intellectual develop,
ment. Who can say that a few years o
successful workings will not give The
country fit compensation for all it
losses !?