The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-05-01
SIGHTS IN SUNNY GEORGIA.
Many Things to Be Seen There of In
terest to Northern Eyes.
From the New York Times.


terest to Northern Eyes.
From the New York Times
"There is very little of interest to a
northern man in Florida nowadays" said
a gentleman yesterday who had been
spending the winter in the south.
Whats wrong with Florida2" he was
asked
why" he answered, ''the fact is that
Florida in everything but climate has be-
come a northern state; especially is this
true in winter. The state is full of
northern men. They do things the same
as we do at the north, and the big hotels
bring all their walters from the north
The truth of the matter is that the
southern darby will not work unless the
signs are all just right. In most of the
hotels in which | stopped the help was
from New York state, and the darkies
wanted me to tell them the latest news
in Buffalo, LOckport and Niagara Falls.
Even the busse, and carriages are run by
a Buffalo man.
The streets are full of the handsome
turnouts we are used to seeing in Central
park, taken there by their New York
owners, and there was so little left
to remind one of the ante-bellum south
that | soon tired of it, Even the oranges
are sold for as much in the streets of
jacksonville as they are worth in the
streets of New York.
so this winter tried Southern Geor-
gia, after short stay in the Land of
Flowers, and must say l liked it ever so
much better. There one gets the genuine
flavor, free from northern influence. They
talk about the 'wah, and talk sensibly
and interestingly
" Why, said one old confederate vet
eran to me- the worst feature was not
that we were whipped, but that we were
whipped at just the time when we
thought we were sure victors. We saw
nothing but the southern papers, and
they had us winning all the time Every
thing was going our way, and going our
way every day in the week, and so, when
we were let down, we were let down
hard.
- reckon continued the same in
teresting gentleman, that you northern
men think we are lazy, and | dom know
but we are Still, if you were to come
down here in Gods country, where the
sun shines on both sides of the fence all
the year round, and where you couldn't
starve to death or freeze to death if YOU
tried, you would soon look at it as we do
We won't hustle as you do, and we don't
have to-
Il asked him if he didn't think it would
look more shipshape to dig the stumps
OuJ Oh Jllc DbluS instead OF burning the
trees and letting the stumps stand
Well. he suid, maybe it would, but
it would hardly pay. The darkies plow
with one mule, one horse or one steer, and
it isn't so very much trouble for them to
get in around the stumps, and then, too,
sometimes things grow a good deal better
right up by one of those stumps than they
do anywhere else. Bnt the real business
reason, which is the only convincing one
TO you northern men, is that the land is
worth only from 50 to s. an acre and it
would cost 10 cents apiece to get out the
stumps, which would eat up the value of
the land
I'VE were riding in a railroad train at
the time, and, as he concluded his explain
alton, we came upon as fine plantation
as l had seen. The negro houses were all
in good shape, the fences were up and in
line, and there was an air Of thrift about
it that caught my attention
'"There, | said, that looks like the
north
Yes he replied, that is owned by
northern man, and they say he is making
a lot of money!
1T so happened that | met the owner of
this model plantation within the next
week, and he told me that he had come to
Georgia with only enough money to pay
the freight on his household effects.
"'But now he added, 4 have II 900
acres, with good houses for the niCgers.
and | am making about $4,000 year
They say am pretty tough on the darkies,
but my men all like me. When drive up
they stand with their caps in their hands,
and if | were to tell them TO stand on their
heads they would do it. But don't mind
telling you that have to roll them pretty
well TO get my money. The trouble is
that the darby will steal. l can't lay
down my jacl5knife for ten minutes and
go back and find it,
Son the other hand, l talked with
native Georgia, and he gave me the Geor-
gia idea of managing plantation
I" My father said he, owns $4,000
acres of land. He hasn't been over there
for seven years. We live here in town,
and even the feed we give our horses we
have to buy, and, worse than that, it
comes from the north We keep up the
darby houses in pretty fair shape, or
rather the darkies do, and we look after
scarlet fever or whooping cough mother
goes down for two or three days and fixes
them up
What do you get out of the planta-
tlon?' / asked.
"'We1 l reckon we get something every
year. Wei put darby on every fifty acres,
and of course he has 10 live, and if he has
any tulllB lSII ne DrlngS IL 10 us. II IL IS
a pretty good year, he brings US two bales
Of cotton. If it isn't quite so good he
brings us one bale, and if he loses one of
his children, or his mule dies he doesn't
bring any. But that's all right It's all
right anyway, and we take what we can
get, and he goes right along.
But the thing that interested me as
much as anything was the rigs one sees in
the town, those that come in from the
country. Sometimes a darby drives a
mule, sometimes a steer, and plenty Of
times | saw an old COW hooked mp in har-
ness. The cart is a two-wheeled affair,
with wheels as high as your head. made
by the darkies themselves, and not built
with the idea of wearing out.
lone afternoon | called the attention of
a native acquaintance to one of these two
wheeled carts passing the broad veranda
on which we were sitting. 1t was loaded
with about cord of pine limbs.
q" Where asked, does that fellow
come from, and what will he get out Of
that load of woodp
''Ho, Georger shouted my friend
The darby stopped and answered respect
fully dozen questions put to him con-
corning his business enterprise. He had