Centre Democrat. [volume] (Bellefonte, Pa.) 1848-1989, 1881-01-06
JEFFERSON DAVIS.
The Southern Chief at Home.

DGsTTYsBuRG-T MAN WITHOUT
CoUNrRY-uis HOPEFUL VIEW.
Colonel McClurc's Letter To the Times
MISSISSIPPI CITY, Miss, Dec. lG.
write on the open veranda of the
dilapidated summer hotel that consti-
tutes the most of the city. Beyond
the bar-room across the way, bearing
the inviting title of the dcw.drop,
and the little warehouse and station,
the hotel is guiltless of tenement asso-
ciates: but the air Is halmy H. Il
Northern summer morning; the roses
we welcome i'll juno are III full bloom
along the broken fence that once made
an enclosure about this resort of fugi-
tives from yellow Jack when he swavs
his deadly sceptrc in the Crescent
City, and the LATEST content prevails
among man and beast without regard
to race or previous condition of scrvi-
tude. | have learned to look with
contempt upon my thick travelling
blanket and the wcll.iued ovcrshocs
buckled within. They seemed to be
quite superhuous luggage last night,
when, after II long, hot evening, the
lightning and the tempest danced the
racquet with n running accompani.
ment of young earthquakes but they
may grow in favor rs | Journey back
toward the PENNSYLVANIA mountains.
VISITING JEFFERSON DAVIS.
\ journey through the South for
the study of the currents Of opinion
and the present condition and proba.
BILE progress of tie reconstructed
States, would be incomplete without Il
visit to the one man who must stand
in history as the front of the over
thrown contederacy. \ drive of five
miles through the sand and Struggling
pines which skirt the Gulf bay, cxhib-
lis the same general diIapidation
among the old-time summer homes,
which were once the tavoritc retreats
of the elite of New Orleans in the
sickly season. The shore of the BAY
has number of palatial plantation
houses, but they have fallen into
the sweeping decay that marks them
rs relics of an age that has gone. The
only one that seems to have been pre-.
served carefully from the desolation
that surrounds it, is the Dorsey place.
now the home of Jefferson Davis, In
n forest of green live.oaks. richly Ia
den orange trees, and Il proiusion of
vines and flowers, n large frame plan.
tatlon house IL presented. 1t =
single story in height and has the reg
ulation pillars and broad verandas Of
the aristocratic Southern mansion.
There the Confederate President
lives with his nephew, General Davis,
and their joint families. The cx.
Queen of the Confederate Court j.
stout, motherly, cultured and genial
woman, and daughter, a strongly
marked copy of her mother, possesses
unusual attractions of both person
and intellect. The house is furnished
with every regard for comfort, as the
wellworn easy chairs and lounges and
the hall and parlor divans faithfully
attest, aud the walls are decorated /.
with ancient paintings and modern I
bric-a-brac, while the wide chimney.
place and capacious mantel tell how /
the cheerful pine fire sparkles when a
chill or q stray frost siIeuces the song
of the mocking.brd and the blood. |
thirsty serenade of the mosquito. Soon /
after had been politely bowed into /
the parlor Jefferson Davis entered |
alone. and his greeting was the cordial !
welcome of the proverbial hospitality /
of the South. | confess to disap. /
poiutment in the general appearance /
of the man who stands in history to-
day as the soldier-statesman without
a country. | expected to find the
strongly-marked traces of grievous-
ly disappointed life, and severe civility
and studied reticence in discussing all
things of the past but those who be-
lieve Jefferson Davis to be misan-
thropic in temperament and embitter
ed against the nation aud the world
greatly misjudge him. Nor is he the
broken invalid that he is generally
regarded.
DAVIS IN CoSvERsATIoS.
His yet abundant locks and full
beard are deeply siIvered, and his face
and frame are spare ~ they always
have been, but bis step is elastic and
steady and the hard lines of his
brow which are 90 conspicuous in his
pictures, are at once efiaced when he
enters into conversation. Instead of
impressipg the visitor as n political
recluse who has no interest in the land
70 whose citizenship he will live and
die stranger, he ut once invites the
freedom Of the planters home, by
chatting without reserve, save when
his contemporaries are likely to be
criticised, when he adroitly and pleas