The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1878-08-29
[By Request.l
Southern Affairs.

Southern Affairs.
| EDITOR PRESS Mycousin Bertram, VIII
has been for the past ten years in the en-
ployment of leading mercantile house il
| Vicksburg, gave us in his late v sit to hi
| Virginia friends, much information as to tn
state OF the country in which we are all s.
deeply interested, and give your leader
some extracts from his remarks, as I tlinl
| they furnish much food for thought.
Bertram speaks very hopefully of the re
vival of prosperity in the South, and says
since work began upon the Mississippi levees
there are many signs of improvement ii
business. He is profoundly impressed with
the great need OF internal improvement in
the South, which can only be accomplished
by the aid Of the general government, and
thinks all our public men should be instruct.
ed by the people to work for this worthy
object The Southwest is fast waking up to
this idea, and Bertram thinks the working
of this new feeling among the masses, will
be visible in Congress at no distant day.and
ate old party lines and prejudces. Already
Mr.. Chalmers, one of the rising men of the
South, ha called upon his constituents to
observe that northern Democrats will do
nothing to aid in the. material development
of the South, and urges his people to forget
past issues and, following the fashion set
them by the thrifty citizens OF the north to
combine them for the good of their own Sec
ton.
.Bertram thinks that the opening OF the
channel of the Mississippi, and the tendency
of Western men to send freights by water
to the eastern markets had much to do with
the railroad trouble of 1877, as the rapid fall
ing off in business compelled the companies
to lower wages, and this, in turn produced
the strikes. vanderbilt's late purchase Of
several additional roads, signifled that one
railroad can now do all the carrying once
performed by four and that the railroad
King could better afford to own all the lines
than to allow competition any longer. 1t Is
said that freight can never be carried from
the northwest to New York by way OF New
Orleans, cheaper than it can 90 by land
across the continent. One steam tug lately
passed down the mighty river towing trelgh:
in barges, which, if taken by rail would
have filled twenty-three hundred cars. The
towns along the river are all coming to life
with this revival OF trade, and New Orleans
and other cities already begin to cast off the
sack-cloth and ashes, which the desolations
of war have So long caused them to wear,
again our beloved South shows signs OF re-
joicing, and ''the wilderness and the solitary
place begin to blossom as the rose."
The revival ofprosperity in the Southwest,
depresses the Northeast in proportion, and
a great struggle may be foretold between
the railroad rulers of the North and the wa
ter-carriers Of the South,
With commercial recuperation every in
terest of the South improves, except shat Ct
the old arstocrat, whose evil star forbids him,
like the hapless Bourbon, 'to learn any
thing or forget anything" Enervated by
the luxurious training of his early life, en-
FILTERED by his misfortunes, and hopelessly
possessed with the perverted doctrine of
state-rights, which still induces him to re-
sist all government aid for his suffering
country, he clings obstinately to the idols OF
his youth, while the ruin, which he knows
not how to avert, stares him in the face, and
his gray hairs are fast going down with sor-
row to the grave.
The new corners into the lane, chiefly
government and northern men, and the ov-
erseer class of the country, all indeed who
are capable of selfhelp, are fast raising to
affluence, while in almost every case the ex-
slave holders are sinking, yearly, deeper In
poverty and wretchedness. One firm In
Memphis holds mortgages, which they will
soon be compelled to close, upon thirty val
liable plantations, all these debts having
been contracted because the unhappy lord
Of the soil cannot change his habits of life,
blinded by prejudice and the slave Of luxury
he cannot or will not adapt himself to the
new order of things, and is destined to
learn, alas, too late, that God ''has rent the
kingdom from his hand to give it to anoth
er.''-ORRA I.ANGHoRN, IN LyncAburg
Press.