Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1880-09-16
Southern Incidents.

The prospects of regaining its lost power
is already, it would seem, having its effec
| in reviving the characteristic social life Of
the South. Our Southern exchanges every
| day bring to US scenes and incidents VIII eh
have a touchingly familiar flavor Of the old
times before the war. That dramatic picture,
for instance. presented by the dirty, un-
| drained town of Morristown. Tenn, the
other day, when it was assaulted and cap
tured by a whiskey soaked colonel, who,
after rampaging through the streets like the
| Dragon of Wantley, was conquered by the
inhabitants and died in his boots how it
carries us back TO the halcyon days when
the chivalric tire-eater yet held his own,
and the mud-sill had not broken his spirit.
Or the little affair in Nicholasville which
the Kentucky papers record with delight as
| ian exciting contest Of honor" when, Sena-
| tor Voorhees, and another lawyer disputinH
some legal point in open court. "a dozen
pistols were instantly drawn, women were
carried out fanting, intense excitement
reigned throughout the town, and it was
anticipated that the affair would undoubtedly
be settled in the field" How natural il all
seems There in Richmond, too, one of the
| FIRE eating sons of Governor Wise is on the
verge Of an unbloody duel, precisely as one
| of them always was on the verge when their
honest feather headed old father used TO
storm about the State calling in the name
of the God of Virginia, on the sons of the
| Old Dominion to draw the sword and stand
| on guard" OF course the duel never was
| fought That was not the way affairs Of
honor we're managed in Virginia. Public
excitement ran high. then the convenient
friends interfered, the morning papers as
sured US that "the matter was amicabiy ad-
| lusted, the insulted gentlemen had shaken
hands and declared themselves satisfied"
and Virginia breathed again, until another
Wise was insulted by somebody else. The
hot t-blooded old Governor has gone TO that
world where the sword is never drawn and
| there is no vaporing or humbug Of any sort
but his son last week went through the old
ridiculous role challenge, interfering
friends, hand shaking and all-like Barem
| in the farce capering with his wooden
sword
| The poor negroes, too. find the customs Of
old slavery times so fully revived that 1t is
| no wonder they doubt whether there ever
was Fifteenth Amendment passed or not.
..ln Fast Baton Rouge, a crowd Of whites
went tn colored church, drove away the
occupants, whipped the members and closed
the church" s.In Caddo, white men un-
mercifully beat colored women who chose
10 remain virtuous" "A colored man is
shot for walking with his own sister, be
cause she IS supposed to be white wom-
an" In every State where labor is needed
| 10 build railways or State roads, negro con
victs are worked as slaves in everything but
name. half-starved and treated with bru-
| tality which the slaye-owner never eXer-
cised, from motives Of policy. The traveller
still sees the great gangs Of blacks at work
with the overseer at watch, whip and gun in
hand. They tuIn on him the same stolid
| look OF hopeless. misery.
| 1t is all so like the old time that the mid
| die aged man fondly fancies the last twenty
year, have been a dream. He is still Young.
| There was no war, no emancipation the
South never had It's arrogance, its folly, It's
| brutality beaten out Off by savage punish
ment. Surely the old familiar faces are not
all gone. Footr. Of Mississippi, is still hop
| ping up and down in Congress; Brooks is
| belaboring summer; Toombs, and Jefferson
| Davis, and Marcy s,ill sit in our high places;
| the crack Of the slave-driver's whip is heard
| daily in the Senate, and Northern mudsills
keep their places.
| II the old times have come back with such
| pathetic familiarity merely nj the prospect Of
renewed Southern ascendancy, what may We
expect If the South should really gain con-
troll Of the White House p n T. Tribune