The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1878-12-19

gately speaking they have gathered nc
moss. The hot Southern blood circulated
at the fever temperature of its climate,
and so horse-racing and fox-hunting,
Christmas festivals and negro barbecues
during winter, and then the sitting sum-
mer seemed a pent up prison and the
Southern lord repaired to Northern re-
sorts, or opened his mountain villa, or lei
the ocean waves sigh to his nightly vigils,
while his yacht glided and danced by
day, amid the fronded islands of the
coast. This we know is changed. The
gliding yacht has declined to the drag
ging smack, the fiery racer has been
tanned to the plodding team, and the
Southern planter, who, spy glass in hand,
surveyed from his balcony the distant
field of operation, and signaled his wishes
through driving overseets must descend
to the foreman Of the :furrow, who shall
regulate the task he exacts from his Ia
borers by the vigor he imparts In his
leading row. - 1"h '2u... s.
The instability of these stranded fac.
tors and intermediate forces has proved
that the South is peculiarly an agricultu-
raj country, and that its fields and natu-
raj resources are extensive enough to
utilize all surplus labor of the cities, and
that when production ceases all the
wheels of progress and prosperity come
to halt. ......
It. is sadly known fact that at the
close of the war every man that could
"pick up his feet" stacked hoe and
shovel and beat a dead march to CONNER
cial centres. Not only was it dishearten-
ing to re-establish blasted hearths and
devastated fields, but it was unnatural
for men habituated to four years of slug
gish repose, and who had only reused to
action when forced by command or slim
ulated by excitement, to suddenly be
rallied no more, but nerve themselves to
the hardest of manual labor by the sweat
of their brow.
Moreover, the South had boarded be-
cause there was nothing to e1pend upon.
The accumulation of cotton poured forth
and its inflated proceeds flowed back in
all the attractive forms of novelty and
luxury to q people, long deprived. ;Itiis
said that nif e. citizen Of this globe were
removed to a smaller sphere he could,
unclogged by graviation, leap sixty feet
in the air, and so the Southern people of
that period who stood on the small basis
of paper currency, could leap strangely
high into prices and proceeds, and thus
at this strained, excessive standard they
plunged-into commercial unnaturalness.
It had its natural effects. The surplus
cotton whirled into Northern factories,
Northern produce Nhirled back, great
prospects seemed dawning. Men bought
largely, credited largely, and advanced
| to visionary careless adventurers who
speculate1 iu the products of,theisoil::s.t
We have traced its course and termi-
nation. .-.... .,,..
The surplus cotton became exhausted,
the empty Southern counters had been
replenished, then oyerstocked; the chill
dren in the wilderness having consumed
the. mapna which their Moses and Aaron
factors doled out to them, cried out for
more, and when itwas denied them, some
literally went in search of quail while
others returned to the supposed flesh pots
of the cities.
But the system Of small farms already
recognized and>being adopted will regen.
crate the Southern States. 1t is we'll
enough for cities to cry aloud and rear
up manufactures, but as long as millions
of acres and lucrative fields lie unculti-
waited, building factories to employ sur
plus labor is like generating gas to
breathe artificial instead of natural air.
Georgia is leading in the direction OF
improvement, having established agri-
cultural colleges and an agricultural de-
partment at its capital, for improvement
must come by educating the higher
Iiclassesin science and skilled labor, which
studies were neglected during the slave
period for the more abstract problems of
politics and human relations. But when
the master spirits of the South rally to
the original. and grandest calling of earth
the crowd will quickly fall in line, for
the law of assimilation is strong, ruling
even the habits and thoughts of the
masses, and when this army invades the
agricultural field the contest over nature
is easy and sure. -.
Old landmarks are being removed, old
characteristics are being efaced, and
while these observations are drawn from
local standpoint, we consider them Of
general application for ab uno disct
onlnes.
Nor do we darken counsel without
knowledge, for intelligent observer:
affirm that where a planter is discovered
sitting in the shade and directing his
operations, the inference is clear that this
man is being supported by one of the re;
naming factors. His buildings are de,
caying, his fences falling down, and it is
onlya question of time as to this mar
holding reception in the bankrupt court
where he will serve his creditors on the
homestead and exemption.
But where farmer appears in the fur
row, followed by his children, where the
home patch is absorbing and expanding
| into fields, beneath the firm and steady
advance of this worthy pioneer, the vii
derness and solitary place shall be glad
and the desert shall rejoice and blossom