The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-05-18

THE NEW INHABITANTS.
ton the "black belt" and for long
| time it, with the exception OF a few To-
calities. lay suffering under the incu-
bus Of its dense negro population.
Finally the white people got control
and it began to get up again. / have
! Oftoner than once travelled nearly
! hundred miles on the railroad through
| this section. and, outside of the towns,
not seen single farm animal: this is
| region which was once filed with
well-stocl1ed plantations owned by
wellto-do people. There are, of course,
| in this belt localities where there are
still good plantations. For instance,
! along the stanton and the Dan lie
some of the best farms in the state.
On the Staunton is what | think the
most beautiful country place in the
south, and the production of yellow
tobacco has brought up another por-
| ton of this section. But the country
! generally, in consequence of new con-
ditions. has undergone an immeasur-
able change.
Ol 1lle1 III IHlS pdTU VI
the state who were forced into bank
ruptcy by the war and the conditions
which followed is almost indescriba-
I bic. Prior to the war it was custom
| airy for gentlemen who were neigh
bors to go security on each others
bonds, and afterward it was not I'M
usual to find whole neighborhoods
in the bankrupt courts. Indeed, be-
lieve that the outside world has never
taken in the complete and almost uni
versal bankruptcy of the south by the
war and its consequences. 1t was not
merely that the property values were
destroyed, but that everything upon
which property values are based, and
by which they can be created, was
destroyed or rendered unavailable.
1t is difficult accurately to conceive of
Il region in which nearly the entire
personal property has been wiped out;
the lands left unworked and useless;
the whole system of labor suddenly
changed: the entire former laboring
population thrown into state Of I'M
certainty and partial hostility to the
land owners, their former employers;
the whole governmental system revo-
lutionized; the former wealthy classes
LETT burdened with debt and with
their means to pay their debts sud
denly swept away; with the fatigue
and sorrow of a lost war piled up on
them. and with an unknown future be-
fore them.
1t is difficult to conceive of this as
applied to any considerable section of
a country; but when it applies to a
vast territory embracing many states
and population numbering many
millions, the mind is incapable of TAX
ing in the whole fact. Such was the
condition at the south. A whole peo-
pie absolutely Frustrated had to pick
itself up, reform itself, adapt itself to
new conditions. catch up with the gem
eral progress of the world. and make
for itself anew its place in the column
of advance.
How it has succeeded all know: but
what it has endured and how it has
striven have been known only to itself
Those who fell in battle have had their
names inscribed on granite and bronze.
Women have wept over them and poets
have sung of them. but those who
went down in the long and bitter
struggle afterwards are on no roster
and have no monuments. 1t is their
glory that they asked nothing and
went down without murnur. The
poverty and hardship which have been
endured ct the south since the war are
% ,-hirb fha
has had no idea
That the results of the war have been
advanta geous to the non-slave holding
class, and. in the main. to the new gen
Grafton of the former wealthy class, no
thoughtful person of reasonably broad
views can question: but the older gen
Grafton of the latter class has suffered
more than the world viii ever know.
II IS not difficult to find whole neigh
borhoods, indeed whole sections. in
which every place formerly owned by
gentleman has passed out OF tbs
hands Of its former owner.
The houses were built in 2 former
age with no reference to railroads and
modern conditions; the lands were
poor, markets inaccessible: and with
the new conditions the ability Of the
owners 70 maintain themselves per
ished and. after long struggling. they
submitted perforce, and new owners
came in and took possession. These
were Of the class which. If they made
little, spent nothing-the small farmer
class which work with their own hands.
One OF the handsonest houses in the
country in which l was reared. and
which once was the home Of culture.
elegance and prineelv hospitality. IS
now II the possession Of tenant. Not
long since a gentleman passed through
the place and stopped there. y din
ner pot boiled in the old drawing
room, hung on 4 spike driven into {
crack IN fine old marble mantel.
Another such house II ueighborinr
county. where / used n visit as a
youngster. comes 70 mv mind II had
been owned for many generations by
the old Virginia family which al tina.
TINA sill maze * ana % tia moss