National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1874-04-14
THE POET-BANKER'S VIEWS
A TALR WITH EDMUND CLARENCE
STEDAIN

LITERARY MEN-BosToN AND NEW YoRE
CoMPARED-THE ACADEMY OF DEsIGl
AND THE FINANCIAL PROBLEM.
Mr.. Stedman, although q native of Ne,
England, and during recent years resident O
New York, has many sincere friends and ad
mirers in this city, and wherever the author o
"Alice Of Monmouth and "The Blameless
Pnnce" is known.
The conversation with Edmund Clarence
stedman reported below will interest our in
telligent readers as an expression of the opin
ions of one Of the most established of America
younger poets, a ready observer and SCUM
thinker, relative to the condition of an import
ant section of our country, and the compared
powers and fame Of several of.our new men ii
the ranks Of literature.
Mr.. Stedman is on his way home from triI
to the far South, and during call upon hin
at Wizards by representative of THE Ma
TIoNAL REPUBLICAN, the following pleasant
conversation ensued:
Reporter. You have been absent from New
York sometime?
Mr.. Stedman. Since the middle of February
have visited several of the Southern States
but the greater portion of my time has beer
spent In Florida.
Reporter. What are your impressions of the
latter STATED
Mr.. Stedman. It- is my impression that
Florida is going to be largely settled by people
from the North, among them many wealthy
people who will have only their winter resi-
dences there. Jacksonville, the principal city
is now controlled, 80 far as its business is con
cerned, by Northern men,. The best hotels arc
kept by landlords from the North. During the
winter Florida has been visited by many thou
sands ofNorthern people-not all invalids BY
any means, but many of them pleasure seekers
St. Augustine, on the sea-shorc, is already o
winter Newport; men like Black, Aspcnwall
Edgar Morris and other wealthy Northerners
art building villas there.
Reporter. What is your impression of the
climatel
Mr.. Stedman. doubt if consumptives who
resort there in crowds are benefited by the ell
mate of Florida except as they escape the ex-
IRENE rigor of the Northern winter. The
changes there in the spring are just as violent
as in New York-thermometer at 800 one day
and very facilitating, and the next down to
500. The first day consumptiyes weaken and
the next catch cold without great care; but
these changes are on a scale of so degrees
warmer Gs contrasted with corresponding
changes in New York.
Reporter. Are there any considerable num-
Der of Northern people already permanently
settled there!
Mr.. Stedman. Yes; thousands Of them, and
much more extended hotel accommodations
arc needed, especially at St. Augustine, Mag
noiia, and other fayorite points. By the way,
Magnolia is the most beautiful resort on St.
Johns river. 1t was established by DR.. Seth
Rogers, formerly surgeon of Higginson's black
regiment, an admirable thinker as we'll as
physician, an intimate friend of Bartol, Was
son and other New England liberals. The
place is thronged with down-east people
mostly Unitarians-and with New Workers, the
friends of DR.. Bellows and DR.. rockingham.
Reporter. Did you see Mrs. Harriet Beecher
Stowel
Mr.. Stedman, No. Her residence is among
the orange groves at Mandarin. 1t looks very
romantic and picturesque from the river. 1t
strikes traveller there, as significant fact,
in the whirligig of fortune that this woman
whose early romance did SO much to make
Florida a free State, should be passing the
ripper years of her life upon plantation" of
her own and one so closely resembling the
ideal spot depicted by herself in "Uncle Toms
Cabin"
Reporter. What is your opinion, Mr.. Sted-
man, of the political condition of the South
generally?
Mr. Stn6man nm nomDallod to oclrnouI
edge that the white men fIom the North, who
are in power in the sea-board States of the
South, are, as general thing, men who could
never have attained to similar positions in the
section from which they came. They do not
fairly represent our intelligence, industry, or
manners, and have made their way for the most
part
"By ways that are dark and tricks that are vain"
Reporter. Rather rough, on the carpet-bag-
gers.
Mr.. stedman. Although was an old abo-
litionist, must confess that those States in
which the Southern whites have retained the
management principally in their own hands, of
which Georgia is q notable example, are far
more prosperous than those States managed
by a combination of adventures from both the
North and South, of which South Carolina may
be mentioned as at the other extreme.
Reporter. Why, how are the people in
Georgia?
Mr.. stedman. In Georgia the people are &C.
tive, hopeful, and the towns are prosperous and
growing and real estate is advancing. On the
contrary, in South Carolina real estate is
offered at less than one-half its intrinsic value,
and the people seem to have all their pluck
taken out of them by the frightful burden of
taxation aud State debt. The change is appar-
ent the moment you cross the border.
Reporter. take it that the Southerners
thisl
Mr.. Stedman. The Southerners are partly to
blame. Northern gentlemen will not go where
they are not wanted. And they received no
welcome at the South in the years Immediately
subsequent to the war. Our meaner classes, on
the Lther hand, 1ocked there and forced their
way into business and politics. The misfortune
was that at first the South mistook these peo-
pie as fair specimens of Northern men. 1t has
now found out its mistake and is giving hearty
welcome TO Northerners of enterprise and
standing.
Reporter. You have a picture in your hand.
Whose is it3
Mr.. stedman. 1t is q photograph of Randsll,
the Southern Tyrteus, who wrote "Maryland,
my Maryland" and "Stonewall Jsckson's
Way" He edits an extreme Southern news
paper, at Augusta, Ga. He is a real poet,
with truly lyrical flow, and in this letter to
me, you see he says:
sit is said that If left to the soldiers on either
side of the line of battle, the Union would
have been easily restored without infamy and
without heart-burning. have often thought
that II left to the literary men heart-burning
would have persisted long ago, and only affec-
ton and true national pride remain"
And this is the feeling throughout the South
of each class towards members of its own
class and profession at the North.
Reporter. Generally speaking, the South is
prosperous
Mr.. Stedman. The South, in my judgment,
is at the edge Of an era of great prosperity, in
those States whose political condition will per-
NIT new business enterprises. The cotton
manufacturing establishments in the vicinage
Of Augusta are wonderfully successful, paying
quarterly dividends; and almost without ex-
ception accommodating large surpluses. There
Is room and market for many more estab-