Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-12-27
LECTURE BY DIR. DwIEELL.
An Interesting Glance over the Present
East and South,

LECTURE BY DIR. DWINELL.
An Interesting Glance Over the Present
East and South.
Rev. DR.. Dwinell gave lecture last even
ing at the Congregational Church before
large audience, upon the changed and pres
ent condition of society, the country, and af-
fairs at the East, as observed during his re-
cent visit, after a residence of many years
upon this coast. The lecture was interesting
throughout, and received close attention.
The speaker took as an initial point for his re-
port from viewing the landscape Ger, Elijah's
command to his servant upon Mount Car
mel. when looking for rain after three years
of drought, as mentioned in Kings, xviii, 4S :
''Go up now, look toward the sea-" He pre-
| faced his lecture by saying that Agassiz says
serpent sees, tortoise looks, that there is a
| higher intelligence back of the eye of the
tortoise, enabling it to use its sight for a pur
pose, and measure and estimate what it
| sees, while the serpent perceives what is
before it without observing it. Elijah wished
| his servant to go up, and observe what he
saw, and bring back report to others of
| the joyful indications. The speaker grouped
! in a general way the results of his observa-
| items at the East and South under four gem
eral heads: Industrial condition, Reconstruct
| ton, Institutions and Religion. The follow
ing is a brief synopsis
INDUSTRIAL CONDITION.
One would not suppose there would be
| noticeable changes in the general industrial
aspect of the country and towns of New
England in twenty years, but there have
been great changes. The carpenter painter,
gardner and florist, and the skilled agricult-
ureist have been abroad all over New Eng
| land, in every village and mountain town,
| and left their work. There are places where
small farms have been absorbed in larger
ones, and others where native Americans
have sold out to Irish or Canadian farmers,
in which neat homesteads have given place
to untidiness, but the foreigners are rapidly
adopting the general habits of neat
ness and comforts of those about
them. On the whole the industrial as
pecs of New England is greatly improved and
is improving although more than o
million Of her sons have migrated to other
States, leaving only about four millions
behind. those remaining are warmly attached
to her, and in no way disposed to let her lose
her position OF influence in the nation. They
have dotted her streams with manufactures,
strung her valleys with villages as pearls,
covered her hills and slopes with thrift and
comfort as those adjoining heritage for g
thousand years, and filed her cities with
I commerce, trade, art, culture and philosophy,
as if that were the center Of the world, and
all men were to learn of them. To the eye
there is no blight in New England, in what
she raises, makes or enjoys. There is no ap-
pearance that she has passed the meridian
and is on the decline. Excelsior you see on
the farms, villages and cities, and in the will,
spirit and genius of her native sons. Her
manufactures, mills and various productive
industries are running at their topmost speed.
Never, as / was told at the carpet manufac
tory and the Hamilton print works in Lowell,
have they done better, or having more orders
ahead. A similar hopeful industrial aspect
also appears all along the New England belt,
| from the Hudson river to the Rocky Noun
tains, only varied when population of
other antecedents and tastes are in the as
cendent. The swift improvements of the
newer States are wonderful. There are towns
| in Ohio, Michigan, Iowa, Minnesota aud
Kansas to-day that have more of the genius
of New England than certain towns in New
| England itself
The industrial
! 'oUTLooK IN THE SOUTH"
Was by no means so promising. | passed
across Virginia, from Washington to Bristol,
in the Southwest, and the appearance of
| things suggested disheartened or thriftless
people The country west of Washington,
till we reached the valley of Virginia, looked
as if it were occupied, rather than owned,
and as if the occupants felt little interest In
the land, homes or villages. The valley of Vir-
ginia appeared better, and East Tennessee
much better still; but it will be many years
before the mixed population of the South, as
whole will give much attention to beautl-
| flying their homes and farms, streets and
towns. They seem content with their pres
emit physical and social necessities.
| Still, they are gaining in confidence,
provement. In East Tennessee [ saw white
man and colored man sowing wheat with a
patent drill, which deposited the seed and
along with it at the same time stream Of
| phosphates. | observed that the white man
drove the sand the colored man attended
the machine, but in other respects they
worked and conversed as if on terms of
equality.
RECONSTRUCTION.
The whites of the old school and heredi-
| tary prejudices are inclined to be gloomy or
skeptical about the prospect of reconstruc-
ton. To them there is no hope of elevat-
ing Tue coloIeu Iitce' IL Sueir ey es tAey are
going down, improvident and spoiled
| BY their freedom and the very eff
orts made to raise them. One man
told me in Nashville-an intelligent
Christian, one of the last men L would
| have expected to be carried away by preju-
dice-that of the $4,000 colored people in
that city II, 900 were living off from whites
by stealing and other Irregularities that
they support their ministers by plundering
their employers; that his own servant girl
had been caught by the police carrying soap
and other articles stolen from his house to
her pastor, and that with a large part of
them all their warm, emotional piety
has no connection with morals. An.
other gentleman who had labored
among the blacks in the South remarked
in my hearing in Boston, that it was custom
airy in some places for the colored men to 60
to drinking places 81 to fire up" as they ex-
pressed it, for religious meetings, and that in
one case eight colored deacons were carried
home from meeting, drunk, in one wagon.
Doubtless in many instances liberty is abused.
The colored people must be superior to human
nature if it is not so but as a class they
are beginning to improve their physical con.
dition. This is the general testimony, and
the leaven of a higher kind of educational
and moral influence is beginning to work.
Some of their numbers have already been
educated and are raising the standard of the
ministry. Already also the colored children
that have had the advantage of the better
class of schools are more intelligent than the
old-time ministers, and the ministers them
selves are beginning to feel the need of more
preparation. The colored people are feeling
the moral need, and thoughtful persons who
reflect how slow and difficult an undertaking
it is to Life up racs socially, think that as
much progress has been made as could have
been expected with the moral help that has
been given them.
THE ASPECT OF THE FREEDMEN
In East and Middle Tennessee is bright and
cheerful compared with the times of slavery,
and compared favorably with the worried or
depressed look of many of the whites. /
was at Chattanooga on the day of the Presi-
Dental election and visited the polls, and
was struck to see the cheerful, confident,
bold bearing of the modern voters as they
thronged about the ballot-box. One of them
went up to the window with an open Repub-
lican vote, which looked very different from
/ the Democratic ballot, held it high up in
sight of ALL gave his name, and when
his ballot was dropped into the box
said, There goes good Democratic vote.
The only persons who seemed uncomfortable
and i'll at ease about the polls were those who
| felt it their duty to watch these new citizens,
and see that there was no illegal voting. /
saw nothing in Tennessee to show that the
colored people were not in possession of their
rights, and that the way upward is not fairly
| thoft hour .c n