New-York tribune., 1881-08-17
GLFuPSEs or 4 NEW DIXIE.

We publish to- day with the above title a new
TRIBUNE EXTRA made up of the letters from our
special correspondent in the South which have
appeared in our columns during the past six
months These letters have been widely
copied by the press of all sections of the coun-
try, and very generally commended for their
fairness breadth Of view and freedom from
sectional prejudice and preconceived theories
The writer visited all the Southern States ex-
cept Arkansas and Florida, talked with all sorts
OF people, and observed all phases of industrial
enterprise and social life. His purpose was to
see things they were, truthfully report what
he saw, and give for what they might be worth
the candid opinions formed during his jour
ney His collected letters make the freshest
and most complete description of the South of
to-day that current literature affords. If
printed in book form they would make thick
duodccimo volume. We issue them in a six
teen page Extra (No. S1), at the retail price of
10 cents a copy. No book of travels of half the
interest for American readers has appeared for
a long time.
The reader of this Extra will see that the
South it describes is not the South of the tur-
buleDt reconstruction days, nor the South of
the time when sullen acquescence in the new
order of things prevailed, nor the South of the
later period when the civil rights of the blacks
were subverted by violence and terrorism and
a dark night of Bourbon reaction settled down
upon the people. Our correspondent saw a
new South, feTmenting with new thoughts be-
ginning to feel itself IN important part of the
great American Republic, approaching the
dignity and grandeur of the National idea,
anxious for capital, immigration and better
educational facilities, and earnestly at work
developing its industrial resources True the
pictures he draws are not always bright ones.
The old shell of past errors and prejudice has
not been wholly cast aside. There are still men
who are hugging the dclusions of the past and
talking of States Rights and a white mans
government as though they were not dead be-
yond all possibility of resurrection. But the
bulk of intelligent people are fast becoming
convinced that the prosperity of their section
depends upon hearty acquiescencc in and
adoption of the conditions which have made
the North prosperous-free schools, a free ballot
for all citizens, an active, wholesome public
opinion, the equal protection of the laws for
the humble and the heh and the steady pro-
ductive labor of all the working forces of So
cicty.
The South of 1881 is in a transition state. A
new generation not born under the curse of
It's shops and its avenues of trade and trans
portation. Idlencss, which was once thought
the only honorable condition for white men, is
more and more despised as unmanly. The
young men arc not afraid of work. and many of
them are achieving by the labor of their own
hands and brains greater results than THEN
fathers obtained from The unwilling toll OF
slaves. At the same time the negroes, who
were always workers, are acquiring the owner
ship of small farms or where still only hired
laborers are more settled and trustworthy than
in the years following their emancipation. A
steady increase in the value of the staple crops
of the South speaks well for its industrial con
dition. Then there are many hopeful begin
nngs of new manufacturing enterprises to
note, and considerable increase of population,
and a great improvement in the equip
ment of lines of travel, showing growth of
business. Altogether we must regard the ap-
pearance of the States south of the Potomac
| and the Ohio very hopeful. Their politics
have not advanced rs fast as their industry
| They are still too much under the control OF
Confederate brigadicrs who turned professional
| politicians after the war, and who have no ideas
! beyond keeping running for their own benefit
| the machinery of Bourbon Democracy. But
| there are encouraging signs of IA breaking III
of the crust of sectional feeling that has smoth
cred free discussion and prevented the develop.
| ment of healthful antagonistic political organ.
| izatiOns. The new South will before long pal
| its politics ont of the ruts of intolerance an,
| ignorance.