The Arkansaw traveler., 1885-11-14
THE SOUTHERN COLONEL.
Atlanta Constitutional

thetic figures sometimes met in our daily walks is the colonel. He requires no in- troduction to the reader. The colonel was in full bloom in the height of our ante-bellum civilization, and he fingers with us yet, in the sere and yellow leaf, perhaps, but still martial-looking, digni- | fled, and courteous as ever. In these de- generate days the colonel is not at his best in the hurly-burly Of large city
 He is too old to rise superior to an un- un favorable environment. The hippant youngsters who control affairs in the cities confuse him. He knows that C is far ahead of them in wisdom and exper- fence, but he knows, too, that they regard him as an old fossil, relic of the Silu- rian period, man who has lost his grip. sometimes the old gentleman shakes his head sadly and is half inclined to ad- init that the younger men are right. But this feeling of depression soon passes away, and his selfconciousness reasserts itself.
 The best way to study the colonel is to get acquainted with him in the country town where he lives, and where his father and grandfather lived before him. The good people around him do not sheer a. him as an old fogy. They know him to be fully as wide-a 0ake and eRterprising as his two friends, the judge and the squire, and what more could be desired In his big white house with the colonnade around it, he dispenses a hearty hospi- tality limited only by circumstances over which he has no control. The negroes on the place are devoted to him, and the children for miles around, and all the women in the country look up to him with enthusiastic admiration. He has no enemies, and it is generally admitted that his proper place is in congress. When these loyal constituents are asked why 1 they do not send him, the invariable re- ply is, Well, you see he is not an avail able man." As precisely the same state of feeling seems to exist throughout the district, the stranger cannot help wonder ing what constitutes an available man.
 1t is violating no confidence to say that the colonel is in debt. Every acre of his land is mortgaged, and he pays high interest; He buys his household and plantation supplies on time, at fabulous prices. When the cotton season rolls round he squares up his indebtedness as well as he can, for he is the soul of honor, but there is always heavy balance left still owing. The creditors cheeifully agree to wait till next year. But the next year brings like result. Tn fact, 1t h IS been so ever since the war, and there is no prospect of change. In his brighter moments the colonel says that he will pull through all right. Intensive farming, peach orchards, and new railroad cut ting through his plantation will soon bring him even with the world. In the meantime if he has no money, he still has sufficient credit. So the outlook is not altogether dark.
 At times, however, the old fellow is downright blue. A couple of decades ago he was satisfied that when he got through the reconstruction period he would be all right. Next he looked to Democratic state government to bring flush times. Then he decided that 1t would take a national Democratic ad- ministration to make him prosperous. Occasionally he thinks his misfortunes are due to demoralized labor system. Sitting in the shade of the trees around the court. house he frequently says:
 As soon as the nigger gets an educa- tion he wants to go to preaching. He won't split rails. He wants to live in town. tell you, gentlemen, this blanked Yankee free school system has robbed us of our laborers and turned horde of ed ucsted vagrants upon the country to live without work and eat up our substance" It IS useless to argue with the colonel on this point. He has decided views and stands up for them.
 In regard to other matters he has ideas, plenty ot them, but they arc mixed. He occupies an anomalous position, standing | between the past and present, without | being fully identified with either. He has seen the south's old civilization go | down in the shock of battle, but he has been too bewildered and too sad to rock | the cradle of the Aew civilization. Do you believe in states right, colonel?" asked young lawyer one day. "Well, sir, did before the war" "And you don't believe in them now?" "Not by blank sight," was the emphatic reply. During the first decade after the war the colonel frequently told his fellow citizens that they need not fear certain Federal leg islation, as it was clearly unconstitutional. The objectionable bills passed, neverthe- less, and were quietly enforced. Grad ually the old gentleman ceased his con- stitutional lectures. :" Constitutional 1" he said one day to a rural politician. "Oh, anything is constitutional when there is a majority in favor of it. A piece of parch- ment written hundred years ago is not going to stop men when they see their way clear to securing big appropria- tion."
 "is there a hell9" was the question | asked one day in theological discussion. /" There was before the war;" said tue colonel. "but now believe it is sheol, whatever that may be-"
 And yet the old man is in the main sweet tempered under reverses and disap. pointment. The new men who have | pushed their way to the front he would like to advise and instruct, if they would | only listen to him. Not long ago he wlote an elaborate article entitled. "A |