The Memphis appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1886-1890, 1886-10-23
OH. HOW sMIrrLEss /,

The readers OF that phenomenal
book, Uncle Toms Cabin, remember
the Yankee lady who, when "down
South" saw things not at all In ac'
cordanoe with the ways she had been
brought up to. Such ways, Of course,
met with her indignant condemnation,
and often drew from her the express
sion, ooh, how shiitlessW Since
those words we're uttered by Mrs.
Stoves parsonage, several circum-
stances, toward which "Uncle Tom"
himself contributed, occurred, and
those circumstances have been sue.
oeeded by changes they helped to
prsduce, but still many people in the
North are exclsiming with as mush
vigor az ever, "0h, how shiftless!"
Matters that meet the ears OF the Wis
itors NoHh, and come ont in their
orations and newspapers, betray this.
In a journal before us we find it
stated that Southern people do
not know how to work, and
II anybody would teach them they
are too proud to pull of their coats
and learn. Men loaf about and depend
upon others to feed them, and the
women eft in theirrocking chair chew
ing tolu gum and reading novels.
Such people can be found, Of course.
They exist everywhere. We have seen
them In the North, and ne'er-do-weels
and skimpoles can be found even in
Boston and Concord, How little those
who spit out their "0h, how shift
leSsl" know what has been done and
endured In the South! Let the Moth
ern reader imagine the Southern plant
err, at the conclus' on Of the war, re-
turning to his home. As he approaches
he finds the fences gone, the soil COW
cred with lofty weeds, what few cat
tie appear are roaming at will. A des-
olation worse than that of the eternal
desert lies before him-worse, because
he remembers the scene Of smiling
beauty Il was when be left 1t. The
hardships OF war have bronzsd
and hardened him, but II some tears
fall down the bronzsd cheek are they
not justifabla! Bat this is not the
worst. 1t is within the house that
the iron enters his SOUL There are
the ladies OF the house,
whom Ne left surrounded by
refinement and supplied with the
comforts, II not the elegancies, Of life.
Now Chloe and Dinah and the rest Of
them are Gcatteled nobody knows
where, aud those ladies' are sweeping
and making beds and cooking, and so
on, busy in the henhouse, at the hay
pen aud in the kitchen. No rocking
chair ard novels there, but Coarse,
hard work, And he must work as
hard as they, for the fences have to
be restored, the fields renovated, the
cotton to be grown and got TO market.
Was all this done by moneyless men
and women who were too proud TO
pull their coats OF or put an apron
onR No. Those fields are white with
cotton today, those houses are now
neat, and good taste hiss added ele-
gance, often out Of small materials,
and the cattle are in the yard and the
hotes in the stable, and prosperity ia
evidently on a visit to the spot, Has
all the change been made without
work OF head and hands, early
mornings and late uiGhts, and
many privations enduredP Who
could look at the change made since
the devastation Of war made, by South.
ern muscle and Southern brain, not
Northern capital" and say, COB,
how shiftlessP" But not all had farms
and homes, many the war had wild.
owed or made fatherless, and as we
write very many Southern men and
women, nursed in plenty, toll every
day for a living, We know some Of
them, aud when we zee them calmly,
oheerfully and bravely enduring and
telling an inquIsitor's rack could not
make us Say, ooh, how shiitlessW