Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1893-04-06
GEORGIA..
An Interesting Letter From Mrs.
G. o. Baker on Southern Scenes.

land very much. Savannah, where l
spent last week, charmed me. | was so
fortunate as to enlist in our cause a
beautiful young lady who took me for
several drives about the city and
suburbs. First, out to Bonaventure"
cemetery of historical renown. 1t is
about five miles from Savannah, a shell
road all the way, private road, a ''toll''
road, SO that it is kept in fine shape for
driving. The very gate of 'Bonaven-
ture" suggests Getty of the Dead" It
is guarded by marble angel on either
side. You Immediately find yourself
both sides with branches intertwined,
over hanging These oaks are centuries
old and are draped with Spanish moss,
the long gray moss peculiar to this
climate; their trunks are overgrown
with beautiful ferns, soft, pale green,
fine clinging ferns. Here and there
you see the yellow jasmine, which is in
full bloom at this season, clinging and
twining way up into the tiptop, gliding
with their lden blossoms the already
glorious trees.
The avenues of Bonaventure lead in
and out, but there is method in their
intricacy for the legend runs that an
English nobleman, by name Tatnall
owned this place and designed to build
upon it a mansion for his bride that was
to be, and upon the eve of their
marriage the grounds were laid out, the
drives in the form of the monogram
composed of the first letter of her
name M, and his, T. I've forgotten
just how the legend read but 1t seems
to me that she died before they reached
America, and he brought her body and
buried it in the spot where her mansion
was to have stood, and since that time
this spot is devoted to the burying of
the dead. 0, it's SO quiet, SO weird, SO
ghost-like, you've no idea how that gray
moss, draping every tree and bush,
softens the light and grays all objects,
the southland, the lights are soft and
warm everywhere and at all times, even
the garish light of day, is a pearly gray
light The skies are of the softest blue,
and the sunsets take on the loveliest
opal, pink and yellow, shell-like tints.
Even though the colors may be VIVID,
they are warm; no steel-like, glittering
blue and crimson here as in the north
land, but soft, bright scarlet with
wealth of yellow-the effect on foliage
is tropical almost.
From sombre, awe-inspiring Boneven-
ture we drove to Thunderbolt, sum-
mer resort on 'the salts" not the ocean
but an arm running back into the land
g few miles. There are fine oyster beds
here and boats and barges bring them
into Thunderbolt; they are free to
everybody that is the oysters are.
Suppose it costs to get them brought in.
There are large platforms built along
the bank and these oysters are put in
piles on these platforms and around
them sit the colored girls and boys
opening oysters and taking them out Of
the shells for marketing. Their singing
is-well, certainly peculiar to them
selves. This day lovely soprano voice
led the 'air" others joining now and
then, one would get up, suppose
"moved by the spirit" and 90 through
with some grotesque fantastic move
ments in rythm with the singing. They
seemed so happy and jolly, and it was
so funny to me, laughed and laughed,
altogether different line Of thought
and emotion awakened than that by
my visit to Boneventure l assure you
just the opposite, the other extreme.
A day or so after Miss Muslin took
me to see the Hermitage. This was
a plantation of over thousand acres
''befo' the wah." 1t was typical
plantation where several hundred slaves
were kept, it has not been occupied
since the war. 1t is still owned by the
heirs, but the old mansion with its
furniture in it, still stands just as it did
when they left it to fight for the 'lost
cause" The avenue leading up to the
mansion is mile long. There are two
rows of pines and live oaks on either
side, and the branches lace and inter-
lace and this same long gray moss hangs
from every branch and twig. You ride
,o1o
mossy canopy. The mansion, with
about sixty slave huts, stands in an
enclosure which is surrounded with
these glorious old trees. There is also
large grove of them in one part of
the enclosure. The stables, barns,
hospital" bakerooms, kitchen, store
houses, factory where they wove cloth,
cotton gin, mill where they ground their
feed and -four, for this little monarchy
was sufficient unto itself. They raised
their own food, they ground their own
feed and -four, they wove their own
cloth, they spun their own wool grown
upon their own sheep, they lived and
moved and governed themselves. Now,
all these buildings and huts are in all
stages of decay and tumble down But
it was new and unique sight for me,
you know. I looked upon it and was
carried back to my childhood days,
bringing up my impressions | then had
Of slavery and what it meant and tried
to #" those impressions into this, the
ruins of plantation. [ peopled every