The daily morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1883-1899, 1883-11-20
FROa MONTREAL TO SOUTH CAROLINA
some Sois, Of an Ezteaded Journey.

OF the 5SS Oregon and Washington
residents who went eastward this fall
over the newly completed Northern Pa
cific railroad. few made a more extended
trip than Jos. Surprenant of this city,
who returned home last Sunday evening.
During his visit be iraversed twenty.
seven states. and reckons his entire travel
while absent from Astoria at little less
than ten thousand miles.
Northward, his visit extended to Mon
treal. In regard to the scheme of seces-
sion on the part of the Manitobans. now
being ventilated in the press, prominent
residents of Manitoba. now in Montreal,
say that they have no recourse. and that
peaceable secession from the Dominion,
If procurable, is the only satisfactory way
TO solve the difficulty. Said one official
TO Mr.. Surprenant. You Americans
probably have no great sympathy with
the word Secession and 1 don't blame
you; but with US il Is not a defiance, 1t
is a matter of preservation We have no
show, and are most unjustly treated IN
the matter of being made to contribute
to the support of government that gives
Us nothing IN return"
Through the Mississippi valley and on
the north Atlantic coast our informant
reports everything overdone and overrun.
Wages are low and many workngmen are
out of employment. Below Mason and
DiXon's line the former condition of
things seems totally reversed. Nothing Is
recognizable except the element which
'befoah de wah" was known as dem
white trash" The white trash" still
exist, sunk lower still. In ante-bellum
DAYS there was no middle class in the
south. The planters were IN one side of
the social balance. the slaves IN the
other There was no recognizable place
for the Door whites TO fill, and they ac-
cepted the social ostracism and were
happy after their fashion. The tide OF
war changed everything. The old plan,
tations are being broken up. 1t Is usual
sight TO see negroes hard at work on
| little farms whis b they have acquired 10y
right of purchase, and the former mas
ters with less of bitterness IN their hearts
| than politicians would have us believe
| are trying their best to get along and re
| trieve their shattered fortunes. Some
| few are vet unreconstructed, and likely
| to stay SO, but the great majority that
MIR. Surprenant talked to are more inter
ested IN progress than politics, and wan
to see the south advance al a rate proper
tionate to the natural wealth she pos
sesses.
Wages throughout the south are Te
ported extremely low. Two dollars q da,
is good pay for a mechanic, and on
dollar a day is as much as any unsldlle'
laborer can hope to earn. White labo
and negro labor is in direct competition
and while the trades drift into the hand
of the whites, the ''odd jobs" the worl
that requires no special training, goes 4
the darker race. Living is high. A me
chanic must confine himself TO the poor
est accommodations IN food and shelter
and nothing but the most careful man
agement suffices TO make both ends meet
A general feeling is in the south anon
the laboring class that they ''can do BET
ter elsewhere" and the only thing tina
keeps a good many of them where the
are is that they can't get away.
Among other places that MIR. SupTC
nant visited were the once famou
prisons of Libby, at Richmond, Nirginia
Salisbury at North Carolina, and Andel
sonville. He had the misery of endurin
starvation and suffering in common wit
thousands more, twenty years ago, haN
ing been captured at Fair Oaks, Va
! while attached TO the 18th \. y, and U
lnlS NlSlt twenty years aIlef, tAIuilt
the body of dead brother who died j
that golgotha in '63, and had il interre
at Albany. n. Y.
His visit terminated by his departul
from st. Paul, Mimi, on the l2th inst
the thermometer at that time indicatin
10 degrees below zero. A cheerful breez
from the North Pole was blowing, an
when the train on which he was journey
ing westward had reached Helena, Mon
tana, the telegraphic report from )
/ Paul said: 40 degrees below Zero; train
detained," and then he smiled TO thin
that he had not been nipped at the frigi
capital of Minnesota. OF the Norther
Pacific Accommodations he speaks i
, terms of the most unbounded praise. u
says the track is superbly ballasted, th
cars supplied with every comfort, the st,
tions and eating-houses along the hI
: models of convenience, and that ever
, thing that can be done is done to COZ
. firm the good impression that one form
on first boarding the train at st. Paul.
He saws that in no section of the couI
try that he visited is labor so well paii
or the prospects for industry so prOmi
! ing as ON this Northwest coast, and pr
/ diets a big immigration from the Eai
, mad southeast next spring.