Litchfield enquirer. [volume] (Litchfield, Conn.) 1829-current, 1880-10-21
NEW ENGLAND BLYTHE BACK DOOR.
As Looked Into by Southerner
Correspondence of the Baltimore SUM-
LEBANON. Conn, Sept. 5, 1880.

| Nine days in Cornwall. eight days in Litch-
field and nearly two weeks at Lebanon-it
cannot be said that my peepings into New
| England life have been hasty. True. they
have been confined to single State, and that
| the best of them all, as we in the South view
things. / must make the best
summing up that | can. Ses.s =. "A.
1t has been seen that a courteous and at
| times kind reception awaits the Southern
man in Yankee land If occasionally he en-
counters GOODNESS Of indifference, that is no
more than he will meet in the village nearest
his home, it he be unknown there. 1t has al
so been seen that there is much less curiosity
to see and talk with q rebel" than would
materially be supposed. In places where a
''rebeP' had never been seen, and where chill
dren have grown almost to mans estate since
the war, one would almost think that live
/ rebel fresh from the South would excite as
much wonder and draw as big acrowd around
i him as wild man of the woods. Not so.
Occasionally few people have eyed me cur
:, iously, and at times there was pause in con-
versation as / drew nigh group; but, on, the
other hand, even when introduced, and i'm
| pressivefy, too, as Southern man, there has
| been little manifestation of any kind, and
certainly little disposition to cultivate my &C
| qualntance or ask more than few general
| question 81
! When inquired into the cause of this in
difference, the Southern gentleman who is set
tied here (for his health, as learn, and
| whose house l have visited since nv last let
| ter was written, ascribed it to the fact that
the war had been forgotten. But how can
that be, when this very morning / heard a
darkey and a white man in the store agree in
the assertion that, once in power, the rebels
would claim pay for their property-that is
their slaves? And yet the impress of the war
is very faint; it was far away from here, and
there was no reconstruction" to keep it alive
In memory. During my whole soiourn in
Lebanon L have not met man, old or young
who was in the army. This surprises me, for
Connecticut was not back ward in furnishing
troops, as were some of her sister States Any
one who will look at the figures published in
the American Almanac some ten or twelve
years ago will be amazed at the small number
of natlve-born recruits furnished by Massa-
| chusetts for example, her quota being made
up in great part by substitutes of foreign ex-
traction. f..'''. ',. Sd. ''..' ..
Replying to question of mine about Sec
| tlonal luminosity, the gentleman just MENTION
ed said he had been merchant in Charles
ton, s. c.; had made yearly visits to the
North, and observed each year a gradual but
unmistakabe decrease in the bitterness Of
feeling. eyes" laughed his wife, ''they have
at last ceased to pray for us, and that l con-
slider sure sign of returning amity and
brotherliness." She is of Northern parentage
but very staunch in her fidelity to the South.
| conclude, therefore, that we may safely
trust the attrition of time to wear away the
last trace of bitterness. No people ever hated
the English more than the people of New
England, nor with better cause. Their coast
was ravaged, their towns and villages burnt
| and sacked, their old men and their women
| cnhiapfnH n ind Vof to do fba
reverence-may we not say, the affection P
for England is greater by far in New England
| than in any other portion of the United States
AS the fire of hate has died down in the case of
Great Britain, so it will die down and out in
ours.
1t Is with a sort of melancholy satisfaction
that | chronicle the fact that while there is
here more public spirit than with us, it is not
near SO vigorous or SO universal as had con-
fidently expected to find We read much Of
| it in the newspapers, but upon examination it
will be found that in very many cases the inn
| provenients, in the small towns more partic-
ularly, are the benefaction of wealthy men in
| distant cities, who are either native of the
| town or reside there a part of the year.
| Neglect OF graveyards has been mentioned.
| Allnsion has also been made to the exposure
of certain outbuldings This is not at all un.
common. Riding out few evenings ago,
saw literally thed most fragrant indecency of
this sort that ever saw in my life in any
country, and that too in immediate iuxtaposi
ton to church. III, by the constant renewal
of white paint the dwelling houses are made
cleaner on the outside, they are less clean on
the inside than ours, to this extent-here the
custom is to keep carpet down all the year
round. In, the spring and again in autumn,
they are taken up, beaten and shaken, and
Immediately replaced. Floors kept spotless
by soap and water and the scrubbing brush
are unknown here. Nor are the Kitchens
quite so spotless as they are represented to be
in books we read at the South. On the other
hand, they show to great advantage beside
our dirt-foor kitchens of the aute-bellum slave
period. IN .n.i.sa + y $50 p. a.
| lnattention to dress absolute indifference,
indeed on the part of the men, and some
times the women, is as marked in the country
| parts as with US. One might say it is more
| marked. Rarely, if ever, will you see in the
South man eating dinner in his shirt-sleeves
| when company is present, but it is, not an un-
| usual thing here even when clergyman is
| dining with the family. In the morning, on
| week days, the women are more plainly dress
ed than in the South necessarily so, for their
| work demands it. But in the evening and
| on Sunday they are as nicely attired as our
| own ladies. In my, part ofythe world we have
| what they call a ''singe cat"-a variety of
old gentlemen who habitually quotes Horace.
but cant spit over his shirt bosom; bas the
constitution at his finger-ends, tbut don't keep
his nails clean. Well, they have the same
thing here, only the old gentleman cares little
about politics and the classics but is thorough-
ly posted on all the 'ologies, such as geology,
mineralogy and theology, for they are airelig-
| ious people here. ..., .,e -,ft a4sAs
1t may be that the modern scientific skepti-
tcism has taken deep root il New England and
| all the North! Current literature leaves little
doubt on this point. But thatinfdelity has
! not taken hold upon the, rural populationI can
affirm with postiveness. Had you been with
| me at the prayer meeting last night and lis
| tened to the addresses and the prayers of the
lay members, or could you be in Leb-
anon on a Sunday, you would be convinced
of the truth of my assertion.
eI shall touch very gently subject often up
pernost in onrlminds at the South. The nu-
merous divorce cases reported in Northern pa
| pers, the scandals In which Senators and emil
| nent divines are involved, make woeful pic
| ture of social life in these parts. The edito-
rails drawn forth by these scandals, and the
| horrible crimes that too often accompany them
that appear ID Northern journals, do not tend
| to soften the picture.1 We forget that behind
the evil reports lies q massof good which is
never reported, and that if Northern society
"ciC 40 odu aS tue lneutal representation tnat
some of us form of it, it could not hold to-
gether day, but would deliquesce from utter
rottenness. Still there is q great deal to de-
plore. 's,c 4, 4,f,,,9 .SeJf7@9 .,tle Ii,
1.-THE race of New Englanders, !" said a gen.
l7tleman to me to-day, in tones eff sadness, SIS
dying out. Men do not love their wives as
| they used to love them The love and the
| desire for children isr passing away in women
las well as in men. Heaven knows what the
end will be-" Allowance must be made for
| this statement, in which, as a previous letter
| win show, do not concur The speaker is in
the decline of life, and suffering from a heavy
affection that had not long ago BETA lien him.
man if the infrequency of births in these parts
was the result of accident or design, he made
tno reply, and at once changed the subject
Whatever may be the truth about domestic
infeIicifv af the Narth mn .<n.u,, nlno..,a.;<.