The Russellville Democrat., 1880-01-08
The South.

w nav 8n el6ctrlc LnTill uOeb tHia word send through every heart born this side of Mason and Dixon's line It has soft cadence which dies a. way like lingering music on the sum. mer's air. What host of mingled thoughts the soft sound awakes in the Southerner's heart. Visions oi her past, and speculstions as to her future. Thoughts of her dark days of rebellion; when every man was . hero and every woman . heroine. When new bora nation struggled in . cradle of smoke and fire and was rocked by the thunders oi booming artillery, only to stretch forth It's infant hands and sink down into a grave bathed in the bloom of ten thousand martyrs.
 It is but dream of forgotten am bition. A bitter remembrance oi folly which has cursed us and ours for fifteen long, dreary years. Did we say a bitter remembrancei Then we forget ourselves. For though it IS Q memory of an error for which we have been made to re- pent in sackcloth and ashes, yet it is also memory of g time when the South learned to know her own worth and resources Learned the charac- ter or the men and women who com posed her citizenship. That her sons, who in ordinary times were but mere factors in the millions who live and have their being in these United States, could, when occasion demanded, prove themselves giants of intellect and genius. The youths whose life had been . round of ease and idleness, could, when duty call ed, shoulder a musket and endure the hardships of soldiers life. Who, before, had quailed before the flash of fair lady's eyes, could charge . battery of howliug cannon, when the very air was laden with the hail of death, and if perchance their time had come, could die with a smile on their lips and a laugh of def ance at the wild music of the scream ing shells. An, does the long list of those who have wrote their names high upon the scroll of fame, bring no thoughts of pride2
 And in the tanner walks of life, we have learned a lesson which is invaluable to us. Our own land and ingenuity is sufficient for our maintainanance as prosperous, we'll fed and well-clothed people. The women, God bless them, who had heretofore been reared in the lap oi luxery and opulence, now, when stern necessity demands, bare their hands, and labor for their fathers and brother who were fighting their country's battles. Their silk dress. es were replaced by those spun and woven from cotton, often times raised by their own hands. And who can say that the "Southern girl' attired Tn the "Homespun dress" :" was not in every particular as pleas ing and as inspiring to . manly heart, as those dressed in the costly fabrics of the eastern loom. Palmet- to hats, plaited and formed by their own hands took the place of those elegant affairs for which they had been dependent on northern millin- CTS, And even the gaiters which en cased their pretty feet were oft times the production of their own taper fingers.
 Talk of the South during the war {! Why there never was time when the people, except those in the field, were better fed and better clothed. Yet we daily forget thls fact and de- pend on other sections. Never will the South assume her true position among the nations of the earth till she learns to depend solely on her own efforts and resources. We read of a "solid South" There never was greater blunder made than in making this declaration. But we are truly sorry to confess 1t. It is . solid South we need. United in every effort and every wish, we could lift ourselves to the full height of real life and prosperity. Give us a solid South, . Solid North and . sohd Union; 'tis thus we love our