The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1881-05-12

4
verge of fertility, and is yeallyf en-
ere aching upon the wild cattle ranges
at the eastern foot of the Rocky Meun-
tains. Another decade appe o. likely
to find the west comfortably seTard in
nearly all its millions of acres TINS side
of the great "divide,'' and already much
of its progress westward merely trans
fers families from its older to its newer
states. This by no means signifies
that this gigantic section is in its dotage,
but that its DAYS OF cheap lands and null
tiplying farms are reaching their limit.
The south, on the other hand is Just
awake to its possibilities, and is not
only slicing up its cumbrous planta-
tions, but is also counting up the advan-
tages which invite strangers to its odor-
GUS orange groves, its airy and temper
ate plateaus, or its fertile but malarious
savannas. 1t mourns its deficiencies
and the prejudices it has aroused abroad,
and is in just the peDitential, longing
mood which betokens reform and fu-
ture possibilities. The west, too, is now
its own capitalist to growing extent,
and Is beginning TO manufacture for
itself. Chicago can supply New York
with funds in a crisis, and place real
estate loans on farms both sides of the
Mississippi. This turns the attention
OF eastern capital to new enterprises,
among which are southern railroads
and mineral lands. President Garfield,
even, has stake in North Carolina
mines, Secretary of State Blaine is
among the northern capitalists pushing
the Richmond and Allegheny road up
the valley of the James, in Virginia.
Victor Newcomb, eX-president OF the
Louisville and Nashville road, and now
interested in Jay Gould's Mexican
road; John II. Inman, head of the great
cotton firm of Inman, Swan q Co., and
other millionaire southerners in New
York, have given the south weight in
Wall street and among" "solid"men, that
it n ever had before. The south's grow
ing prosperity is likewise making it
a better customer, and both east and
west profit byit Chicago, few years
ago, had practically no trade with the
south; it now has southern trade roll
ing up among the millions of dollars.
Cincinnati has thought it worth while
to spend '$1S,000,000 on a railroad
through the mountains of Eastern Ken
lucky and Tennessee to secure its share
of the south's business. Nothing is
more assuring to a thoughtful mind, as
regards another southern rebellioa and
the final obliteration of the sectional is
sue, than this growing community of
business sentiment, and the lines of
traffic and travel which sever Mason
and Dixon's line, There were but two
or three rail routes between the north
and south before the war, and they
practically stopped at the boundary line
between the sections. The river. and
coastwiSe steamers could be interrupted
lry Aoc hty
war. The isothermal lines of business
and sympathy then ran east and west.
They are now detected far down to-
ward the Gulf of Mexico, and whom
dollars and cents have Joined together
the man of war may not put asunder.
The different civilizations which char
acterized north and south before the
war deserve attention, before proceeding
to specify the south's advance in the
different lines OF agriculture, manufac-
ture and mineral development. We
were not one people in any true sense
of the term, and never since the Revo-
luton have we had such a community
of interest as we have to-day. But
slavery was not the only point of differ
ence. New England used to own
slaves until it found them Improbable,
and the old Yankee sea captains were
not above supplying the southern mar
ket from Africa after New England
had freed its own negroes. The rigor
of the winter and poverty of the soil
drove thePuritan to thrift and pinchfng
economy. The fiereeness of Indian hate
and devotion to the church and school
house gathered well-knit communities
for defense and a reader growth in spir-
itual and intellectual life. Out of this |
condition of things grew the town and |
town meeting, the republic and its con-
gress in miniature. In this concentrate
ed social structure, the shop and college |