The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-05-16
SOME SOUTHERN MYTHS.
Mistaken Ideas of the South Concerning the
People of the North.

People of the North.
Atlanta Constitution.
When the war broke out the masses Of the
people On both sides of the Potomac knew very
little about each other. They did not travel,
mix and mingle. The stay at home Southerner
took partisan and sectional view of the North,
and the stay -at-home Northerner took par
tisan and sectional view of the SouNh. We be-
lieved that the typical Northerner was tall,
hatchet-faced, blueeyed and light-haired. 1t
took long time to convince US that the North
mainly made up of brunettes, while the
South was the home of the blondes.
The small economies of the Northern people
made the impression at a very early date upon
the Southern mind that stinginess was peculiarly
a Northern vice. 1t took better acquaintance
with the situation to remove this impression
We have found that the man who is not above
picking up pin may give like prince, and that
the trader who elamors for the last penny due
him is ready to serve his friends with his purse
whenever the proper occasion arises. We have
seen that wise economy places men in a posi-
ton whore they may be liberal without injury
to their creditors. So far from being niggardly,
our eyes have been opened TO the fact that the
economical Northerner, whether a laborer or a
lounger. enjoys the aesthetics of life well as the
comforts, and Is bound to have them at any cost.
If we believed that the Northern people would
not fight it was because we accepted their state
ment about it. Their preachers, teachers and
editQIs all said so. They claimed that theirs
was the land of law and order, and steady hab-
it's We know better now. OF all myths in the
world, that law and order and steady habit bust
ness is the thinnest The pistol in the hip-pocket
is more common North and West than it is with
US. The North furnishes the worst murders
and more of them than we do Ii is IN the North
that the civil law is openly defed, making mar
tial law the only remedy. 1t is in the northern
centers of civilization that an internecine war
RACES nearly every year 1t is in the North that
the boldest lynehings occur Don't talk to us
about the North as law and order section.
Concerning steady habits, it must be admitted
that we believed in that myth long time We
believed In the first place, that the North
erner was too stingy to drink and, in the sec
it flying to his brain. Thatidea has been knocked
in the head. We know, now, that the sober
North is in reality the boozy section that her
prohibition does not prohibit. and that Maine,
her foremost and Oldest total abstinence State
is under the rule of the liquor ring and furnishes
annually more drunkards than any State in the
Union in proportion to her population. Many of
still cling to the old myth about the inability
of the average Northener to speak good English
but we are gradually giving it up. We have
settled by immigrants from certain English
counties, and that the peculiarites of speech
brought from the mother country have been
handed down from father to son. Some of the
oldest and most unconth provincialisms, both
Northern and Southern are accounted for in
this way. Then we have no definite standard
to go by, no one dictionary, no one
city to lay down the law of pronunciation.
Even the opinion of Fowler, expressed in his
university grammar, that the best English pro-
nunciation is TO be found in Maryland. must DE
taken with some grains of allowance. 1t is plain
that the Northern hrogue, or twang, or what
ever it's has the upper hand at present In com
pany with Boston baked beans it is gradually
permeating every nook and corner of the South.
The rising generation in Atlanta and the rising
generation In Boston talk alike. We must give
up the crank myth. Once we thought that all
the cranks were confined to the North. Unfor-
tunately the times have changed, and men have
changed with them. We haven't as many
cranks, and they not offensive as the
North produces but they are coming on rapidly
"Isms" are gaining foothold here, and some of
our able cranks would be terror to any con-
sentative community. What they are going to
do with u.s. or what we are going to do with
them, only the good Lord knows.