The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1894-08-30
NORTH AND SOUTH.
SOUTHERN MEN LIVING IN NORTH
ERN STATES.
Some Results Of Their Change Of
Base---Inf1uences for Good Come
Out OF This Sort Of Intercourse
"A Sensible Statement From
One Who Knows by Experience
What He Writes About.

IA o0ASAOl0 oGdC01uout Ou
One Who Knows by Experience
What He Writes About.
Correspondence Baltimore Sun.
Americans are migratory people.
On the Continent of Europe, which is
broken up into many nationalities,
different laws and languages make it
difficult for the inhabitants TO change
their homes from State to State. But
in this country, where the same laws
and languages extend from ocean to
ocean and from Canada to Mexico,
and where there is one government, it
is easy for man who has been
brought up in one State to transfer his
home to another and a distant one.
Once the tide of immigration flowed
West almost exclusively, but in the
last quarter of century there has been
very marked movement of it from
the South to the North.
Many men, finding themselves with
little means and no opportunities to
make living, began to 60 North soon
after the war from the Southern States
as mere matter of necessity, because
the work was there and the money was
there. Then Southern industries estab-
lshed Northern connections, or bust
ness houses in the North wished to get
Southern trade, and so men were
employed in the large Northern cities
who were from the South. A little
later, professional men found openings
in Northern cities, and teachers were
called to schools and colleges, and
clergymen to churches in the North.
AS early as 1868 it was estimated
that there were over 10000 Southern
ers in New York city. Since that time
many more have gone there, and the
Southern column of invasion has
reached New England and the West
till in all of the great Northern cities
numerous men OF Southern birth and
education are to be found. They are
in all ranks and walks of life, in every
calling and profession - laborers,
mechanics, clerks, merchants, bankers,
lawyers, physicians, teachers, engineers,
clergymen, even bishops, to the
number, perhaps, of half-dozen. AS
one from the South looks round upon
the Southern men in any Northern
community one must feel proud,
especially in great city like New
York, where they are numerous enough
to make distinct and definite ele-
ment in society. The inquiry naturally
arises: What is the effect of this
movement upon the men who go
North, upon the people amongst whom
they cast their lot, upon that part OF
the country from which they have
come, and, in fine, upon the country
at large?
DEVOTION TO THEIR OLD HOMES.
Some people in the South imagine
that their old friends who have gone
Northward have not only changed their
skies, but have changed themselves, SO
as to have lost their devotion to the
State from whence they came. Not
a few Southerners living in the North
have complained in the hearing of the
writer that their people at home looked
on them as renegades. Nothing could
be more untrue or unjust. The strongest
Southerners that l know are to be
found among these voluntary exiles /;
devotion to their old homes strongly
characterIzes these men generally. 1t
is positively pathetic to see few Of
them meet at a hotel or watering
place or in the home Of a friend, and
hear them talk of old times, old places,
old friends. No Southern book OF
merit comes out that they do not read
it, and their children, who know
nothing of the South by experience,
grow weary of the endless iteration of
its praises that they hear daily. Each
one OF them takes local newspaper
&C from home and reads the very
advertisements that it contains.
A few of these Southerners may have
yielded to the pressure Of the prevail
ing opinions about them. Fewer still
may have ecrooked the pregnant
hinges of the knee, that thrift may
follow fawning," but the mass of them
are made OF hrmer stuff than that, and
hold loyalty to the traditions Of their
fathers. OF course, their horizon has
broadened as they have moved further
out into the world, They have learned
new things and become acquainted
with other States than those in which
they were reared. But they have
come thereby to appreciate their own
native States the more. He is better
Marylander who knows and appre-
ciates Massachusetts, and he is better
Virginian who has such knowledge
Of New York as comes from living in
it for years.
BROADENED AND STRENGTHENED.
The new conditions of the trans
> planted Southerner's lie have broad
ened and strengthened him, but he
) remains the same man with this added
, breadth and strength. One thing
must be emphasized, that no clear
headed Southerner living in the North
is likely to underrate the intellectual
ability of the force of character of hi
own people by comparison with new
acquaintances. Just the opposite
:, effect is produced. 1t was with NJ
a surprise, though with much satsfac
r ton, that the writer heard professo
at Harvard say, in public, that th'
:. Southan students at that universit,
e had better average standing in thei
r classes than the students from Eostol
J. and its neighborhood.
These incomes from the South max
E. q certain impression upon the Mort