The Abbeville messenger. (Abbeville, S.C.) 1884-1887, 1885-09-02

In the valley, and they were h0i Oaf66-
.,roi who lived beyond the SUMS setting
place, in the later as we'll as the earlier
years.
The southern people do not travel.
Does this not hint Of possible remedy
Tor this disease of provincialism Z? If q
hundred intelligent farmers from any
southern state were to spend month
on farms in Pennsylvania or Illinois,
where they should see agricultural ma
chinery, e,trar steaks, observe how
butter is packed to be preserved, and
how waste is prevented in the barnyard
and in the kitchen, they would feel the
delicious sensation Of new idea.
Gradually they would confess that time
may bring innovations that are not her
sizes before it digs graves for them, and
they would understand why ambitious
young life prefers progressive commun-
tiles. Two-thirds even OF tho southern
editors (it is very conservative guests)
have mover spent month outside their
section" except in hotels and places of
business where they could not see how
other people live OF find out what other
people think. The only class of south
ern folk that travels is the nonproduc-
tive class-thc pleasure-scekers, the
merchant, the politicians. The mass of
the people seldom go beyond the sound
of their cow-bolls. Yet it is these very
people whose provincialism is the him
drance. The politicians and the like
could not trade in this ultra conscrva-
tism if it did not appeal successfully to
the vanity of the masses.
The mCst direct and impracticable
plan to get rid Of this hindering Arovin-
cialism-which would be to solve the
Southern problem-is to persuade them
to 60 o-visiting-to go and see how
their neighbors in other States live, not
necessarily to take blind pattern after
their neighbors, but to get new ideas
and receive suggestions, most OF all he
rid of the vanity that provincialism
breeds. What moral gain it would be
if Georgia farmer could be convinced
that the water in Pennsylvania is as
clear and cool as the water OF his own
we'll! The leprous person i'll the Scrip
lures who asked if the rivers Of his
own land were not as wholesome as the
as the Jordan was man of provincial
ideas after the Georgian's own heart.
Alittle travel and little sightseeing
are easy to do in these days, and they
would have simply revolutionizing in
fuence on the masses OF the Southern
people. Why should excursions not be
arranged for them ? Your invalid in
Michigan can go tv Florida for half fare
for half year; but the Florida farmer
cannot 60 to Michigan and return for
less than twice as much money. The
excursion-agent has done much for en-
ligthenment and the pleasure of the
people in other states. Europe has
been seen by the poor, and the Yosemite
valleyis nearer the eastern excursion
list than Niagara was score of years
ago. Why should not the pleasure
giving and broadening work Of the ex-
agent and of the railroad companies be
exercised for the Southern people ? If
a hundred farmers and housewives, who
could spare 800 each, were to visit
farms and manufacturing towns in the
North and West-not hotels merely
their experience would be an object les
son that would teach them more than
endless disputntions about provincialisln
and sectionalism. A look beyond the
barnyards of their daily vision would
be incalculably suggestive to provin-
cial eyes, and new ideas-concrctc, dcfi-
mite, fundamental, plain-are tho only
corrective Of the hereditary stagnation
of Southern rural communities. There
are many men and women in every one
of the old Southern States who would
be glad to make such journeys, if they
could be made incxpensiyely and if tho
notion were properly presented to them.
Such excursions could even be made
fashionable, and they would give a
pleasant and not uninstructive expcr-
ience to the visited as well Us to the
visitors.
The day has passed when anybody
doubts tho loyalty of the masses of the
Southern people to the Union. In their
purpose and in their hopo they are ma.
tional; but their lives have made them
narrow. Their provincialism, however,
burdensome as it is, is the soil wherein
tho finest fruit of patriotism may grow
the love Of the earth and devotion to
ones own home. lifts morbidncss Were
corrected it wou)d become a virtue
and as virtue it would be stimulus Ia
the better cultivation If tho soil, and il
would make the old home rot only a good
place to die but also good place to