The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1879-09-10

New EBglanders and Seutkeraers.
HENRY wATTERsoN's STUDY OF THE
TWO KINDS OF PEOPLE.
In one of his letters from Block Is
land to the Louisville Courier Journal,
Mr.. Henry Watterson writes:
There is one thing which has i'm
pressed me, unexpected as it were, in
the excursions which have made from
this lovely little island to points Of
note and interest along the New Eng
lander coast KNEW the people to be
we'll to do, bat never before have I
been SO struck by the vast aggregation
of wealth. New England il 800 years
old. Its people were not perhaps,
originally more thrifty than the early
settlers of Virginia and the Carolinas,
but they happened to pick hard soil
and to encounter long winters. They
were obliged to work and to store M.
Thus the habit of labor and the pro-
cess of accumulation began. These
have continued ever since. On the
Southern seaboard short winters and
an easy soil produced the opposite re-
suits; and the negro greatly assisted
them. Slavery being gone, and time
having worn the soil Of the South down
to sort of equality with that of New
England, may We hope that the newly
developed necessities will create a new
character, and, in its order, bring up
the lost average ofour once more pros
porous sectioni fear not. The New
Englander has prodigious start; and,
as John Happy used to say "A starts
start" There 10 no reason why New
London, for example, should not be
as great q city a. New York, except
that it isn't. Norfolk has advantages
over either, yet, as long rs our great
est city is seaport New York will bo
our greatest city and that means; for,
struggle as the island may, it can never
overcome the disproportion which this
amazing city holds over oil the other
commercial capitals Of the world, Lon
don not excepted, At Newport my
driver, ford Celt with a turn for
picturesque description, observed -
"Ab, cir, times is not what they was in
the ovid days, whiu the Southerners
came; the masther wild bis body. SER
Won't; tho mistress wild her maid; an
aich Of the children wild q nurse apiece,
and they slung their money about like
wather--sure they did! These new
people, they stick their money in
brick ~ mortar, an b v'niver q Quar-.
ter of dollar to give poor lad aitier
for drink or for civillty." ! gave this
"poor lad" a dollar moro than he had
a right to charge for his "civility, " per-
haps-but was neither hoaxed By his
story or it's purposes, nor misled by
its moral. We never had great deal
of ready money in the South, aud what
we had we eqnanhered. We had plen-
ty of fun, debts and niggers, We went
in for glory; and for fifty years we paid
tribute to these people as We are doing
now. They had no constitutional
scruples which stood in the way Of q
light house or q breakwater. They
sent men to Washington who knew
how to stick their hands into the tren-
sury, and if one Of them happened 10
get back empty handed, they set him
aside and sent some else. The people
Ell masse became a race Of practical
politicians. While the South was toy
ing with the ruffles on its shirt, and
twirling it's silver-headed cane, New
England was "fxing" itself. It isynew
"fixed." 1t is finished. 1t can afford
to be complacent and hospitable. It
is so. 1t is growing patfssisn.- Il. is
the South which is poar and yet refuse
to learn its lesson; which drcamily
looks towards the West, when it ongbt
to give its days and nights to q study
of tho methods Of patience, accidental
and thrift, which have made those
rocks to blossom like the rose, and in
less than century completely rover
sed tho relative positions of the. sec.
tons. ~
Emphatically, the New Highlander 10
as choleric as the Southerner. Con-
sidering his advantages-for education
and for travel--he is less liberal and
knows less. 1t is silly enough to hear
the average Yankee notion of South
erner. Intercourse would mend each's
estimate Of the other. In the mean
time, ought to say that it 10 impos-
sible to exagger ate tho hearty manli-
ness Of the genuine New England man,
or the fine and noble characteristics of
the real New England woman, or to
/ nYAratRka thu imam hanflad sonial kna