Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1892-03-17
From Dinie's Land.

MCIN1osH. ,.,., Feb. lS92.
Editor Eiis,cc r:h AmericJ4
If your readers have any of the spirit
that possessed Dickens character who
wanted 10 kaow.' tJ1 -Aupw, wiz, then,
few lines from eastern Georgia may not
be altogether uninterestiug. Our sojourn
here has taught us more Of this region
and the people and their condition. beliefs.
and ways of doing and thinking, than We
could have learned in any other way, and
in a manner not to be had otherwise.
| imagine that you have not spent the
morning of this eighth Of February writ
Ing In a room without fire and with the
windows open, and that just now flowers
cannot be picked by the roadside a. we
can gather the beautiful yellow jessamine
here; and probably Maine farmers will not
hoe their Peas for several months. | must
attend mine right away. OF course we
have some cold weather; twice the ther-
mometer has run down to 2G degrees, but,
fortunately for the natives, it does not re-
"a degrees in the shade.
The country Is almost dead level CON
sisting of an attenuation of pine lands and
swamps The pines are beautiful, run
ting out branch; a sight TO delight the
soul of Maine lumberman They are
chiefly valuable here for turpentine fence
rails. boards y and shingles. A board is
merely a strip split from section Of a
pine log some six inches wide and of va
riabie thickness. A shingle differs in being
shorter, narrower and thinner. The
swamps are covered with dense growth
Of oaks, gums, naples and cypress. The
oaks are numerous in variety. We have
four kinds within as many rods of our
door. he live-oak is a magnificent tree,
very large and wide spreading and remains
bright green all winter. On New Years
Day We ate our dinner under one whose
branches spread over an extent of eighty
seven feet. The drives in every direction
are very beautiful, over level, sandy roads,
overarched by pines, oaks, naples, gums,
cedars etc, interlaced with long towering
vines and draped with long gray moss.
Large areas of the swamps have been
cleared away for the cultivation of rice.
and are dismal spectacle indeed. They
are fruitful source Of disease, breeding
malaral vapors during the hot summer
months, and producing colds, catarrh and
rheumatism in the fall. Both men and
women and even children labor in the
swamps in the rice harvest, wading often
waist deep in the cold, black mud and wa
ter.
With the climate and soil which they
have these people eau raise almost any
United States. The country will produce
| no end of fruits, among them the most de-
licious of pears; and few miles from US
is tea farm. But the natives confne
themselves chiefly to cotton and corn,
| with sweet potatoes, rice and sugar-cane.
This part of the state, and particularly
this (Liberty) county. is almost wholly
| colored. Here and there, at wide inter.
walls, where the land rises somewhat, a
! few white inhabitants may be found. Pre-.
| vious to the war there was considerable
white population owning large planta.
| tions worked by numerous slaves. They
lived on their plantations during the cool
er portions of the year and during the hot
| months went to higher and more heslth.
| full regions. But when the war freed the
slaves and impoverished them they could
no longer support two homes, and being
unable to remain and work their own lands
they divided their plantations into small
lots which they sold or rented to the ne
| groes. and betook themselves to othel
parts, leaving. besides the land, little else
than their names. So one meets on al
hands the aristocratic names, Quarterman
Way, Walthone, Fleming, James and Rob
erts, borne by very un-aristocratic people
Then Sherman's army made a dreadful
sweep through this section, leaving abou
| as little in its wake as swarm of Kansa.
grasshoppers. At the time it took place
| thought with most ultra northern peopl,
that this devastation was necessary ant
good enough for the Rebs,' but Of lat
my views have been good deal modified