Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1874-12-06
WHAT BRET HATTIE SAYS OF US.

Gath" writes from Washington 20
the Chicago Tribune:
The poet, Bret HaFte, the most felicit-
Gus shOrt-stOry writer since Hawthorn,
hss just returned from the south, where
he has been lectuTing at Atlanta, Macon,
Miledgeyille, and other places. His re-
fined nature and Indifference to politics
gives him some value as a critic of
things below the line Of war. He said
to me:
"Those people have suffered beyond
any idea / have entertained, bat / do
not see how the present generation is to
recover. l never got rid Of The idea that
l was IN foreign country, and often,
proceeding to talk with some man su-
periOr 10 his neighbOrhOod, / found that
We had no point of agreement as TO a
primary principle. Our very thoughts
have been planted in unlike soils.
Entering a cemetery Of the COnfed-
crate dead il -" said Harte, 81
was touched with this remarkable sign
over the portal:
We mourn our dead, Perkins and
Smith
~ called my friend, the town mans
attention 70 the powerful contest of Per-
kins and Smith; and then the matter
y - "a l'.e%tAENs lucy hGAc a CbuDlc VI
Yankees, looking out for something to
speculate in, and by that time the coun-
try had been picked clean; so they be-
gan TO stir up the impulses of patriotic
bereavement and organize Confederate
| cemeteries. Poor fellows! They are in
the infancy of that kind of sharp-witted-
ness which has built up the riches Of the
north.
''Their women Of the superior fami-
/ lies" said Harte, i'surpass ours in real
/ intrinsic strength, and are very far su-
/ perior to their men. l never heard such
English spoken as at some of the pri-
vate houses / visited. PTOpTiety with
out frigidityJ and classical amiability,
met me very frequently. at the same
time, some of the little convenience
without which we could not get along,
are wholly absent from households
otherwise very perfect. Their cuisine
might be Temedied.
Georgia is a superb State, with such
I latitude Of climate and scenery that ii
reminded me of California. / saw some
views there, atmospheric, fiOrid and
scenic, thatI neverssw surpassed. And,
| ia character, costume, and that name
less aerial relation of people and things,
which makes effects, the south is much
better adapted to illustration in litera-
ture than the north.
"Why, at --, as | sat in the hotel
in that drowsy, satisfying air, felt that,
il were to stay there year, I would
be just like the rest of the people, and
want TO put my legs higher than my
head, and hardly talk, so much was the
effortU
Harte thought one evil Of the south
was the surplus Of political discussions
The press was net enough a news press,
but redundant in controversy and polit-
zeal personality. He also thought the
northern people were ignorant of the
south. For my part" he said, 81 had
not the faintest idea OF the eOuntry.n
Near the classic isle Of Lemnos, in the
Greek aTebRpelagO,is the comparatively
unknown island of Agios Strait. The
latter island has lately been ravaged by
locus.s, and the local authorities decided
that the pest was the result Of WITCH
craft. Seven Objectionable old women
were, therefore, arrested for witcheraft
and thrown into prison. There they re-
manned for several weeks, while the
lOcusts continued their ravages undis-
mayed by the punishment which had
fallen upon the witches. The au-
thorities having discovered that mild
measures had no influence upon either
witches or locusts, they were about to
bury the miserable old women alive,
when the unbslieving Turk, who was