The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1881-10-05
TOBIAS TAKES A TRIP TO THE
PINEWOODS.

DEAR DEMOCRAT -
Business called me to the pine g
woods last week and l propose to t
tell you of some Of the things I saw a
and heard while I was gone. With u
in six miles of the busting, active, n
pushing, thriving Town we pride 4
ourselves upon calling the future q
city and railroad center, is to be t
found civilization two hundred I
years behind the march of progress
that marks the nineteenth century. ,
WHERE IGNORANCE Is BLISS, ETC" ,
Cross the river, 60 through Pine
ville's long and picturesque one
street, and take your choice of either
of the five roads that branch out just
beyond and in one hours travel be-
hind as good pair of ponies as
had on Friday evening last, you will
find yourself amid surroundings as
different from those you have just
left as is day from night-as wholly
different in their manner of living, in
their ideas of comfort, in their ap.
prehension of the ends and aims OF
life and in all that goes to make up
the difference between progress and
stand still, as if an ocean instead of
a small river rolled between them
and US. And yet one may stop to
enquire if, after all, they are not hap
pier than we. Where wants are few
and easily supplied and all beyond
the simple routine Of sleeping, eat
ing, working and sleeping again is a
terra i,,cognita; and where labor
, brings hearty appetite, where free
dom from temptation gives a clear
conscience and where there are no
unsatisfied longings, no reachings az
ter the unattalnable, no aspirations
8 for things beyond ones grasp, it may
we'll be, that they are, notwithstand-
f ing our boosted civilization, really
+ better off tLan we. a.
HOSPITALITY IN THE PINEwooDs.
n Some of US could learn whole.
some lesson in hospitality from ou'
q neighbors who live in the hills where
!, the glad breezes blow so cheerily
d and where the ripping waters laugh
d so merrily. Come at ever so unsea
- sonable an hour and no frowns NEE
= you from the busy housewife. He
duties are few and simple and will
70 rare good sense, she does not ALLOW
q your coming to interfere with them
II The good man of the house is read!
4 to greet you with warm welcome
+ to attend to your present wants AM
- care for your "eritter," and then j
=, he has something else to do he goe
along and does it. A visitor doe
not feel uncomfortable at the though
N of having Inconvenience either, Q
A. them and he feels at home. This j
true hospitality, and if some othe
,e people who give themselves SO niue
m trouble to entertain guest as
of make him feel like culprit, were
. travel around and have to receive 6
ID we'll as dispense hospitality, the
n. would soon learn that they are rigl
n in the pinewoods.
TRIAL IN THE PINEWOODs.
% The business that carried me fro
=, home was to attend to trial befol
Nv a Magistrate ever SO far away, in
case where there was nine dollar
worth of hogs in controversy. ] a
ed ashamed to tell you what the la'
IN yers charged for there were two
mt them. but the other one came fro
is Colfax; but it was several tim
Ter more than the value of the hog
1r. When people get at "logger-head
at they don't count the cost, and a ID
tie suit is one of the expensive lux
he ries in which the pinewoods' peor
he sometimes indulge. Everybody wit
tly in radius of ten miles was the
MS either as witness or as interest
Of spectators, and trial in that 'nec
Ted of-the woods with a lawyer on eth
tie. side was new revelation to some
en- them. Ye lawyers twain were
ent glory, ye clients both were in fe
Is and trembling, and ye crowd was
'ha eager expectation at the commen,
The menl, during the progress and at t
The close of the trial. I can't take'ti
to tell you all about the trial., I
may do so in separate article eol
,1 =" time, but I must tell you that !
. man won the hogs and got $13 da
0' ages out of the other "feller," a
w ~ that am "laying for" that Coll
~, !, lawyer for making me lose my d
WV ner. Z,