Southwest-sentinel., 1894-10-23


immortal Henry Grady:
Our contemporary, the Demo
crat may not have displayed the
best Of taste in publishing, ct this
late day, the farewell speech Of
Jefferson Davis when he left the
United States senate, but the Her
aid showed infinitely poorer taste
in it's comments upon it. That pa
per should not forget that the
memory Of Che Old South is very
dear to those who live amid its
ruins. No country or age ever
knew more beautiful existence,
and a noble truth and chiyalry
never had fairer home. an the
graces that made private life noble
and tender were there hospital
ity, courtesy, aristocracy and
wealth. Their women were so
beautiful as to be spoken Of as
paragons in all lands, and their
men were brave and true and
strong. 1t was the lend Of ro-
nance and love and chivalry. The
skies we're fair, the flowers wore
fragrant and beautiful, and SO
were the lives that dwelt among
them and the hopes that lived in
their hearts. But, in the midst of
all these beauties, there dwelt evil,
too, and fatal tendencies that
found their inevitable issue in
blood and death, in tears md sor-
row. Over al their prosperity,
straining their happiness with
wrong and their wealth with i'll,
rested the baneful curse Of slavery.
The war. came and destroyed
much of the old time grandeur
and beauty, but it also carried away
with it the old time evils. Slavery
ceased, and -Mithi its ten thous-
nd-Gccompanying evils and er-
rors. Politically, the war was u
very great mistake, but as time
passes and we set q clearer view
of all its happenings, as our vision
grows freer from sectional feeling
and party hate, we are beginning
to see that the evil cloaked a
blessing. The wealth that the
war destroyed was ephemeral and
unreal. The heroic greatness of
character that it developed is a
magnificent reality. Misfortune
strengthened unused arms and
taught the divinity of industry to
idleness. Hardship taught them
endurance, and despair lent them
courage to bring about from the
ashes Of their ruined country a
resurrection so splendid that his
tory can show no parallel.
The South Of today is greater
than it could have been ever with
out some such great event to wake
its slumbering greatness and un-
chain its fettered powers. Now,
the cotton aud corn fields smile as
sweetly in the sunny landscape,
but they are no longer its only re-
sources. The forests have paid
their tribute, aud the earth has
yielded her minerals, and where
the slave owner once stood the
golden furnace-fres CLEAN in pro-
phetic glory, Manufacture has
come with its conquest Of nature,
melting elemental substances into
articles Of mems needs, and every
where a truor, wider culture is
being disseminated, and a body
polite developing that win give
lessons to the world. Pessimistie
on-lookers shudder as they think
Of the race question, and read in it
the ruin Of the South. The ques-
ton is indeed one Of weight, and
presents many difficulties to the
thinker, but it is settling itself
every day, and viii with the pro-
gress Of education and natural
evolution eiIectnally dispose Of it.
self, All seems bright for the
future; all shows growth and
wealth and power and all pro-
claims the healing aud forgetful-
ness Of old wounds and the true
cementing Of a brotherhood be-
tween the North and the South
that is true and loyal and viii be
as lasting as the eternal stars them
selves.
ernfllIur Nnfaffn