The Yale expositor. (Yale, St. Clair County, Mich.) 1894-current, 1895-10-11

Methodist minister above mentioned
stated that the condition of these peo-
pie was deplorable. That the great
obstacle in the way of their advance
Iiient was religious society called the
Primitive Baptists. The ministers OF
this sect are uneducated, absolutely
ignorant in most cases. One of the
tenents of the church is opposition TO
an education or paid ministry or an
educated people. The ministers oppose
the education of their fiocks most
strenuously and there are but few who
dare to arouse their opposition.
These people are absolutely improvi-
dent and shiftless. They either rent n
small piece of land from one of the
large owners or they may own n small
piece. They will, If they own the
land, have 10 or 20 acres cleared, and
this they will half work year after
year, without fertilization, until it will
not produce ten bushels of corn TO the
acre or n ball of cotton to four acres.
If they put in thirty days work dur
ing the year they are doing well. They
live in ramshackle houses of one or
two rooms. usually of logs, subsisting
Oh corn, bacon, black coffee without
sugar or milk, and sorgum molasses,
hand made. They never know what
butter is. A few sweet potatoes may
be added To the diet in the fall. They
40 half clad in homespun clothes.
They are intensely religious and equal
ly as intensely immoral in both sexes.
Just what this class of whites sprung
from is hardly known to those most
familiar with the history of the south
No one of them can trace his ancestry
back of two generations. 1t is sup
posed that they are the offspring of n
class of petty criminals and paupers
sent over from England in the early
colonial days, either to serve out their
time as menials to some lord or to get
rid of them at home. A large number
of these people can he found in Fen
nessee and Georgia, as the writer
knows by personal observation. They
exist as well in all Of the southern
states. They are class of people
peculiar to the south and cannot be
found in the states north of the Ma
son and Dixon line.
But to offset the negro and the no
account white trash" the south pos
sesses n large proportion of the purest
people to be found in the union. They
are of wide education marked intelli-
gence, active as activity goes here,
hospitable and generous of heart.
Take these people and add to them
the large sprinkling of people Of intel
ligence, wealth and refinement from
the north, with the many conditions
there which serve To make the lines
of life easy, and the south is 4 most de-
sirable place To live in.
Tho hapn aII HIlaI
editorials asking, seeking and begging
for northern people TO locate. These
editorials are such as TO make Il north
ern man feel at home at once.
Our trip from st. Augustine To Chat
tanooga, ut which place the preceding
chapter of this series was written. was
made in three days. The weather was
furiously hot and dry. and by the time
one had ridden 200 miles an hotel was
| desirable. The first night was passed
at Macon, Ga, n fine city of 10000
people. The city is remarkable for its
wide streets. several of which are 100
feet in width, with l., II and IL feet
walks. The next night was passed at
Jessup, Ga, and the third at Jackson
vile, the gateway of Florida. Jack
sonville is Il magnificent city. a ma
north. Should any of the readers of
this letter have occasion to visit Flor
ida, either for pleasure or business.
he or she will be met at the depot at
Jacksonville by most persistent and
insolent gang OF hotel runners. There
are a lot of worthless hotels in Jack
sonyillc and some very pleasant ones.
Turn Il cold shoulder TO all these run
ners and ask the street car conductor
10 transfer you 10 Il car passing by
| the Belle View House. This house is
a family hotel where everyone is at
| home. 1t is kept by northern lady.
| 1t overl0okS the magnificent ST.
Johns river. ut this point fully n mile
wide and filled with shipping. A stop
at Jacksonville will be thoroughly en-
| jOyed. 1t is 1T the upper edge of the
belt producing the date palm, the cab
bage palm, the orange. the lemon. the
| banana, and several other sub-tropical
| fruits and foliage. Here that peculiar
vegetable formation known as the
! Florida moss seems TO thrive as mo-
| where else. 1t is species of moss
which grows upon all the trees. 1t
hangs pendant from the branches, in
many instances as long as ten feet.
After Il day ut Jacksonville. an hour
and half brought us to this Mecca
of all winter pleasure seekers and all
seekers after health, this one city of
| history in our national life, the Oldest
| city in the United States-St Angus
| tine. Arriving here Thursday morn
| ing, we have not yet had sufficient
time to acquaint ourselves with the
city and some Of its history to make a
| st. Augustine letter interesting.
The first impression one obtains in
getting off at the depot is that you
have encountered n city of $4,000 or
100000 inhabitants. You are met by
forty or fifty cabbies seeking your
patronage for ride up town. DO ms
we did. Ask for a cab TO take you To
the Ocean View Hotel, and thus Sc.
cure relief from the torment of repeat
| ed solicitation. You next observe that
| there are no street ears and that all
the streets first encountered are paved
with asphalt. This is i'm the new sec
ton of the city. Next You are aston
| ished at the magnificencc of the ho-
tells. perfect palaces by the dozen. Next
the driver will point out st. George
street. one of the old streets of the