The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1893-08-17
The New South.
AN ELOQUENT AND IMPAIR
TIAL TRIBUTE

AN ELOQUENT AND IMPAIR
TIAL TRIBUTE
TO the Men of the South and the
Men ofthe North Who Did Their
Duty as They Saw it in Time of
War and Since.
Miss Jennie Lynch, in Painesville, (Ohio)
Democrat
When the army of Virginia laid
down their arms April 9, 1865, there
was great rejoicing at the North.
A feeling of triumph and pride filled
our hearts when we saw the troops in
blue marching home; but did one
think with what feelings the boy in
gray was received.
Granting that they were in the
wrong, as undoubtedly they were, did
they not consider themselves as fight
ing for the true cause and being loyal
to their native state?
Picture to yourself the footsore,
southern soldier, buttoning up his
faded gray jacket and returning home
to find that the war had wiped out his
personal property and his means of
livelihood.
His corn fields, his beautiful mead
ows were drenched with human blood
his plantation where his grandfather
lived, burned; his wife and children
bufeted from one place to another,
seeking to find shelter, free from the
cruel bullets.
Think of him as ragged, half-staryed;
enfeebled by wants and wounds, lift
ing his face for the last time to the
graves that dot the Virginia hillsiGes,
and pulling his gray cap over his eyes,
beginning his march homeward. To
find what?
Let me ask you, who went to your
homes, eager to find all the welcome
you had justly earned, the reward that
was full repayment for your four years
sacrifices what did the confederate
soldier find at the home he left four
years ago7
He found his slaves freed, his barns
empty, his trade gone, his money
worthless, not even material with
which he might start anew at training
to know what he was capable of doing.
and besides all this confronted by the
greatest problem that was ever laid
before man, the establishment of laws
for the vast body of liberated slaves
This was twenty eight years ago.
Now the war is over in spirit as well
as in deed. The thoughts of the South
are not upon the war, not upon the
past but upon the future, upon
progress. Everybody must take pride
in the fact that Americans have riser
so quickly out of such trials. Such 9
thing never could have happened il
the South and the North were not
from the same stock. Everybody
knows that the South is heartily glac
that slavery is gone. In the frs
place they were born with the slave a:
their inheritance and knew not how te
rid themselves OF the curse.
The Southerners never have forgot
ten the loyalty Of the slave during th'
war, the security with which white
families dwelt in the midst of a blacl
population while the white men wer,
in the field.
There is a feeling of good will to
| ward the negroes, desire that the,
should develope into true manhood
and womanhood.
Perhaps the South has done littl
for the education of the slave, but tn
whole subject of education is new il
the South. The Northerners hav
had only time to start ordinar,
} schools for the colored population, no
industrial schools. The student Q
"Progress" needs no better stud,
+ than the "New South" what pros
f perity, what Improvements, wha
t marvellous growth.
/ One may we'll open his eyes whe1
: he finds great founderies in Virgins
using the products of Virginia iro1
and coal mines. Alabama an,
Tennessee making iron so good ant
: SO cheap that it finds ready marke
in Pennsylvania ; when he sees cottol
? mills running and small industrie
such as paper box factories, woode'
bucket and tub factories, sending al
! they can make into the North. Every
body is at work. The resolution c
all in southern sentiment is in regar
to the dignity of labor. In all thi
: activity, the wide spread sentiment i
e the New South to-day is, we are on
: with the North in business and nations
! ambition.
OF course the South will buil'
monuments to its heroes and wee
over their graves, and live upon tn
:? memory of their genius and devotion
but beside the portrait of Robt. T
: Lee wreathed with emmortelles wi
y be the portrait of Ulysses G. Grant, i
one sentiment, cherished with a
aching heart may be, and in the othe
is the fact of the union and the future
4 Money makes the mare go an
money makes all the difference in tt
world when it comes to one takin
vacation. A workingman who tak'
a vacation of one week in a year
p? considered lazy, but his employt
who takes vacation of three or 70,
months is "seeking much neede
!, | rest -