St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1891-12-31
AN INTERESTING LETTER.
Georgia People EIated-A Sensible
Monument to Grady-The Cotton Crop
-DiScOnfenfed Negroes.

Georgia is elated beyond measure
ton of Mr. Crisp to the speakership
of the house; and the partisan press
is double-leaded in its jubilatiOn.
Southern blood is warm, and easily
reaches the boiling point. In lauda-
tions and defama tions it is naturally
and VIGOROUSLY extravagant. Even
the fall of cotton to the zero point
has not lowered the temperature OF
its exultation. Mr.. Crisp is expected
to pass through our city in few
DAYS, and the ovation that is to be
given this "son of the South" will be
every way Southern.
This is all right, were it in due
moderation, and not so evidently
overdone. But the South is moth
ing unless excessive.
When Henry w. Grady died-he
was indeed a man of mark and prom
Use, a thorough, dyed-in-the-wool
Southerner-our citizens began the
erection of monument to his mem
orv, in the building of a Soldiers
Home; very sensible and creditable
thing to be done-his father had been
an officer in the confederate army
and lost his life in it. But this was
quite too tame and matter-of-fact to
suitably express their admira ton for
the man. And so before the home is
completed, or more than fairly under
wav. a colossal statue in bronze on
a commanding pedestal of granite
with bowed female figures with dis
heveled locks, all in bronze, grouped
around it, is set up in the center OF
our principal streets. A monument
rather to the taste and pride of our
citizens than to Mr.. Grady himself.
For what has Mr. Grady done?
He was yet young man. He had
helped to make the Atlanta Consti-
tuition a leading journal in the South;
he was master of graceful diction-
a very wizard in the art of word
painting; there was promise in his
life which had not yet been fulfilled,
and he had yet done nothing to
merit these extravagant and ELUSIVE
honors. He was openly and avow-
eddy opposed to equal suffrage, and
an alarmist on negro supremacy; ;
and saw "raw-heads and bloody
bones" in every vote colored man
cast. But, nil nisi bonum, you
know
Speaking of cotton, we have had
not only an immense crop, but the
autumn and early winter have been
the finest l have ever here known,
for gathering it; SO that the quality
is superb. But the quotations are
most disheartening, and farmers will
hereafter turn their attention more
to the raising of cereals. This, with
the large development in the mineral
resources Of this section, will give a
poise to the new South" which will
make it more roundly selfreliant
than it has ever been.
The negroes in many parts of the
South are in an unsettled and dissat-
ished state of mind. Education
among them tends very naturally to
produce this Political rights are
largely denied them; the great mass
of the colored population have not
yet the intelligence that should give
worth to all votes; though in this
respect they are not so far behind
some portions of the North But the
South makes little or no discrimina-
ton between an educated and an ig-
norant negro. Indeed, it is often the
case that a greater dislike is felt to-
ward the educated than toward the
ignorant and unlettered blacks. And
this is not at all surprising. The
Southern whites feel innatelv that
the place of the negro is to serve-to
do the lower and dirty work of the
world and while in words they con,
cede that he should be educated, be-
cause he is a man and a citizen, their
prejudice in fact over-rules THEN
avowed sentiments; so that an edu
Gated negro, who seeks to get above
the cotton field, or work on the
highways, and especially one who
can correct the figures of his Dos:
when he pays him off at the end o
the week, is felt too often to be &
nuisance for which the South has nc
use, and which it would like, if pos
sible, to abate Of course there are
many and honorable and Christian