St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1889-01-17

same as at the North, as are also
wages and the cost of building.
But | daresay that grim spectres
of yellow fever have risen before your
vision at every sentence thus far.
And what can I say in this behalf?
Simply that it is far less serious than
the newspapers and the people them
selves have made it appear. have
stood with fear and trembling in the
presence of typhoid fever and pneu-
monia in Vermont. On arriving here
Dec. 4, | shook hands with a yellow
fever convalescent because he was
my friend; moved into the house in
which the last case occurred, because
it vas the best clearinghouse in
town and procured books from the
library of a victim of the epidemic
because it would facilitate my bust
ness to do o Do not call me rash
for | had already been in the South
three weeks and had weighed well
the chances pro and con. You have
no doubt observed that the entire ia
tally was small, and perhaps that
among women the percentage was
next to nothing. learn further that
a very large majority of the cases
which are fatal are those of people
addicted to the use of alcoholic bev-
erages. A nurse is far more essential
than a doctor. A few simple rene
dies with free perspiration and proper
care for four OF five days will bring
the person of otherwise ordinary
health through all right. The fatal
1ty here was greatly increased by
want of efficient nurses. There
were only three white nurses in the
city, they were Northern men and
are well and strong to-day, as are al
SO their patients. The people now
acknowledge their folly in running
away, but it came upon them SO IN
expectedly that they merely yielded
to the first impulse. 1t is now an es-
tablished fact that the disease was
brought here in fruit from Jackson
vile, and the man who brought the
fruit was the first victim. To be
sure, the conditions here were favor
able for its spread, else it would have
stopped with him. The excitement
of the boom" had excluded proper
attention to cleanliness and the
streets were all plowed up for pur-
poses of grading during the latter
part of the hot season which is on
trary to all the laws of health in q
warm climate. For this the author
tiles were culpable, but we may safe
ly assert that it will not be repeated.
Here as elsewhere, there are all
classes and conditions of people.
The better class, including the trades
men, professional men and the rem
nants of the old Southern a%ristocra-
cy is the embodiment of courtesy and
hospitality. have mingled consid-
erably with them in railroad coaches
and have not yet heard a word of
complaint against national republic
canism, the result of the November
election, or the President-elect. If
the spirit of revengefu1 hatred once
brOOded Ove them it is gone, and
they are eager to abolish sectional
ism. Pride of ancestry is supplanted
by nobler pride in country and by
hope ofsubstantial prosperity. They
understand the North better than
the people there do the South. They
know that you have money and
energy, and they freely say that they
want you to come down and help
develop and enjoy the good things
which nature has bestowed upon
them. The benefits would be mn
tual. They might ask you of what
church you were a member, but
nothing about your political prefer
ences. The war and the losses
which it brought are mentioned
calmly and philosophically. They
have awakened to a new life and
new interests now, while many of
their ancestral characteristics re-
main. OF the Northern people here,
| need not speak. The remainder of
the whites, not a large number here,
| am happy to say, are poverty
stricken i'll brains and blood as well
as pocket-book beyond all hope of
redemption. AS ignorant and de
graded as the average negro, they
are vastly his inferior physically.
This brings me to the negro him
self, whose place and destiny is a
more important question to the
South than that of the tariff or the
liquor traffic. While it is true that a
few are able and worthy, vet the
great mass are immoral, im%prOvident,
unreliable and lazy. Give a negro
one meal in advance and heis happy.
In his calendar there is no rainy day
ahead. He does nothing for himself.
His best hold is to work for wages
upon which q white man would
starve, and then he needs watching
and directions constantly. His fam
lily, if he has one, works for its own
support, while he himself takes fire.
quent vacations and recreation upon
the streets. Heacquires no property,
consequently his taxes are next to
nothing, and yet the law provides
that his offspring shall have the
benefit of schools, as they actually
do at least III the larger towns. He
is peculiarly susceptible to influence
vicious, u~nprincipled men, so
much so that in cases of outbreak
the officers generally lookback of the
black mob for a white instigator.
These statements are based upon my
observations III the states of Georgia
and Alabama which afford, | think,
fair samples of the negro race in
America. Bearing in mind now that
this race, neither savage nor, in the
sense, civilized, and not even
ambitious of higher civilization, in
at three or four times the
rate OF the whites, and making all
due allowance for the effects of past
years of bondage, how would YOU in
Vermont relish the danger of the po-
supremacy of such n people in
state? This is the situation of
state politics here, and of course to
presume some degree of consistency
methods and results must be
extended over into national politics.
II &c not n ortactIor Of Ia.,ocro+.c