Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-04-07
THE SOUTHERN LAND.
Bessie Bramble Discusses a Number
of Interesting Topics.
SWELL EQUESTRIANS IN AIKEN.
Votes Are Votes, Whether in the North or
in the South. =
BALMY SPRING IN SOUTH CAROLINA
CORRESPONDENCE OF THE D1srAroH.1

CORRESPONDENTS OF THE D1SPATCH.1
AIKEN, S. G., April 2.-March has gone
out and the season at this "city in the
sand' is fairly at its height. The hotel is
jammed, and crammed, and stopping over
into adjacent houses. The Vanderbilt
Twombleys have arrived in a special car,
and have taken up their quarters in q
cottage. As followers in their wake are q
number of the flour hundred" so now,
with daily desertions from Florida, Aiken
has sort of boom. On its spacious avenues
the millionaires and their wives and families
disport themselves in swell drags with
gorgeous footmen and white-gloVed drivers.
Many of them are inValids, who, not
finding the air of Florida conducive
to strength of lung and enlivenment
of spirits have come to try the warm, dry
air of Aiken, which has been so elaboratelv
written up and belauded by-we may say
interested parties. Many are children who
are gotten up in picturesque costumes to
display the vanity and Stiffness of mothers,
and who, under supervision of much be-
fr1lled and white-capped nurses, play all
day in the sand in garments that represent
enough money to build cabin in the pines.
Along the avenues are hundreds of horse
men and horsewomen on horses of such
grace of form, and gait, and swiftness, as
are seldom, If ever, seen on the up-hills and
down-dales and rough roads around Pitts
burg.
BORN IN THE SADDLE.
To Northern visitors this horseback rid
ing has wonderful charm. Every girl is
dying to get at 1t Immediately. The South
ern people are fine riders, and it is not sur
prising they should be when they begin to
do it while mere babies. Little bits Of girls
and boys ride here with an abandon and
grace that strike the observer as wonderful.
On every side are to be seen children fving
along in mad cap gallops with curls floating
in such manner as almost makes the hair
rise, until the everyday recurrence of races,
and paper hunts, and flying cavalcades of
youthful riders make it plain that riding is
a common accomplishment and that fear of
horses is an unknown quantity. We may
mention that there are many beautiful,
well-trained horses here that at the close of
the season are sold cheap, and that many
Northern visitors buy the favorites they
have learned to love and take them to their
homes up beyond Dixie's line.
Another notable feature on our streets is
that every woman seems to be able to drive.
Dog carts are great favorites, as are also
Surveys and open carriages-Aiken has
only one close carriage-of all sorts, in
which women hold the reins Men are
growing less essential everywhere, but no.
where do they seem more at discount than
here, where women from the oldest to the
youngest drive, and 60 around as independ-
ent Of the 'strong hand" as though it did
not exist But no old-fashioned Southern
woman goes about unattended. Although
slavery has gone out. the colored servant is
always on hand to carry parcels, take Or
ders, open gates accompany as grooms, and
keep within hail for all sorts of service.
CoLoRED HELP IN DEMAND.
: The Southern woman or man wants per-
sonal service in dressing, and going about,
and in all manner of ways where North
ern man and woman wait on themselves.
We have heard askye-blue-blooded South
ern woman shrek herself hoarse for serY-
ant to close window when two steps would
have enabled her to do it herself without
noise or any vast exertion. Colored people
are so plentiful, and labor is so cheap, that
servants are to be had in galore at wages
that surprise Northern people who are ae-
customed to high rates at home for domestic
service. Six dollars a month is about the
average for a irst-class girl and $40
month for man. A superlative cook is
rewarded with the munificent sum of $40 a
month. These are "found in rations of hog
and hominy,' as the saying goes. and go
home as regularly at night to sleep in their
cabins as do factory operatives or glass
house workers.
These cabins are in the main small, one
room affairs, roughly constructed of boards
or logs and built on a foundation of four
logs or stumps. Windows are not common.
thing the only openings. In these small
houses are reared families that are astound-
ing to Northern people. Fifteen and
18 children are told of, while some boast of
20 and 25. AS might be supposed, there are
in many cases puny, feeble specimens of
humanity that are as little cared for in