The Portland daily press., 1875-04-30
South Carolina Correspondence.
A Southern sprIng.-The Il SO and the
Jasmine.-The Mercury among the Min.


| AIKEN, SOUTH CAROLINA, April 90 1875.
The arrival of the PREss-and the dismal ac
counts of your last snow storm, dear Mr. Edi-
| tor inspires me with strong desire to inflct
upon your readers a brief description of this
| charming place and climate.
A month ago, and the rain fell in torrents
Our first week was passed in constant revilings
of the sunny south. We filed our fre-places
| with pine knots-or fiat wood as the darkes
call then-not because of the cold, but because
of the cheering brightness of the fame We
walked on the piazza, and looked off on tn
| vast pine forests that stretched in monotomous
miles before our weary eyes-not another leaf
could be seen save the evergreens.
The rain ceased, the sun shone out,
as if by magic feathery mist
of tender greens and yellows rested on the
landscape; a soft brown haze shrouded each
gaunt trunk-spring had come, and with it q
wealth of bloom. The dainty yellow jasmine
climbing high up on the dusky pines, the wild
azaleas filling the swamps with rosy splendor.
and the Cherokee rose! Like Evangeline had
pursued my love faithfully and unweariedly.
One wise person told me that the Cherokee,
blossomed but at Christmas; another, hat
should not find it save near Charleston, anu
| thenj not until May. We still hoped on, and
one day unexpectedly came upon it, by the
roadside near a negro hut How can make
l you, by any poor words of mine, see this wild
rose of the Carolinas. An evergreen blossom
| ing all the year; the old foliage dark green,
| the new much lighter; snowy white blossoms
set thicky on long swinging branches-each
green leaf glossy as il Just washed by sum-
mer shower.
Then the Dogwood with its large white bios.
soms-its limbs stif1y extended, looking at a
distance as if they were piled with snow-the
Haw Tree, white too, but with dropping
branches, each tree pyramidal in shape, bear
ing in its season an acid berry largely used for
| jellies and when thus employed having much
of the guava flavor. Wild too, grows one Of
our garden treasures, the Calycanthus, or
Sweet Scented Shrub" and several varieties of
| our Phlox, here an evergreen, carpet the pine
woods. The weather for the past ten days has
been very warm, the thermometer among the
eighties and nineties, and we have lived out of
| doors. Even the invalids appear on the piazza
| to sun themselves and to drink in the delicious
l healing breath of the pines; for the dryness of
| the air makes this climate invaluable for all
pulmonary difficulties, and at this really excel
| lent hotel, kept of course by Northern man,
| one has much of home comfort and every care
| and attention.
Until lately we have been entirely spared
| that most painful sight-hopeless invalids.
Now however they are creeping slowly up
| from Florida, driven thence by the extreme
heat Here they can rest for another month
Among the odd sights all about us, are the
pigs roaming at their own sweet will through the
village streets and in the deep woods. They
are by no means the inoffensiye timid crea-
lures we are led to believe; this erratc mode
of life seems to have developed in them the
| inherent tendencies of the wild boar, their an
castor. and a Darwnan would find in their
| long slender snouts and long legs, ample sup
| mort for his theory, for here the animals are
| rarely fed, but grub for the smut grass and
| sweet roots, their only subsistence. our un-
| accustomed eyes rebel against the houses DuiIe
| them; to the general lack of order and thrift,
| unfortunately so characteristic OF southern
| Home'' The chimneys constructed on Inc
| outside of the houses would seem TO Dc neces,
1 sity of the climate, but the New England
housekeeper sighs for the missing Closets
| If in our drives we pass fine plantation,
| orderly and well cared for, we are sure 10 DO
| told that it is the property OF Northern man.
II
| trolls any capital, for most OF the southern
| nlanters in this neighborhood have gone 10
Chsreston to reside leaving their plantations 10
| be worked by negroes, making some amicaDie
| division of the profits =,
| Aiken, the grape culture was regarded as the
| most profitable and most certain OF all crops
| The wine was of excellent quality and was
| readily sold at remunerative prices. a vineyard
| of ten acres, by the easy labor of one man,
| Welded an income S2,000 After 1862 the
| owpers of vineyards were mostly in the army
| or if at home were forced to raise corn on :,
land occupied by the grapes. This OF .ne
was fatal to the viDes-all rotted course
! er failing Scappernong, the p"-. save the new
| requires only wire tr9 -ssIve grape-which
| must never be tr'r .lilS four feet high, and
| known to cc---. ..nmed. One vine has been
| duce ct -~yer an acre OF ground, and to pro-
.lxteen barrels of wineP'
The singular color of the soil here, varying
! from deep brick red to snowy white, the
chalk of this district, makes the lack of grass
and turf painfully apparent to the tired eyes;
| but thi deficiency is being rapidly supplied by
the wonderful appearance of the japan clover,
known few years since, only to botanists 1t
is the popular belief that it came with Sher
man into this country. 1t is rapid in its
growth, but only attains the height of about
four feet, and is gradually extending itself over
| the middle and mp country of Georgia and
South Carolina, crowding out the common
| grasses that have no value as forage.
| One of the prettiest and most attractive
| sights of Aiken are the colored laundresses at
| the spring washing in the open air under the
shade of the sweet gum trees, the bright fires
burning, the merry voices of the little darkeys,
and the half gay, half pathetic songs of their
busy mothers, all make picture not easily
forgotten by Northern eyes. The spring is
divided and the bleaching ground also. The
Baptists and Methodists have each their own
place, and neither is encroached upon by the
other.