The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1897-06-10
A SKETCH OF BEFORE
AND AFTER THE WAR,
With an Account of Wonderful Fox Hunt
in Old Virginia.

thAo hout VI ouuScl Win all tuc
sounds incidental to a Southern
farmhouse at close day. Negresses,
their heads bound round with color
ed handkerchiefs, and carrying tin
milk-pails on them, come calling
down the lane for the long line Of
cows that are slowly splasaing
through the ford beneath; negro
ploughmen are coming in on their
mules and horses singing Justify to
the accompaniment Of their jsngling
trace trains; pigs and calves from
diverse quarters, and in diverse
keys, hail the approach of their
common feeding hour, while through
all, the dull thud of the axe from the
wood pile seems to strike the hour of
the evening meal.
If picked to pieces there is moth
ing specially attractive about the
generals house; but to any one who
had been wandering among the
whitewash, and fresh paint, and
crudeness of the ordinary Northern
or Western rural districts, there will
be much that is refreshing in this
old Virginia home. The present
house, built upon the site of the
original homestead, dates back only
to the year 1874, and was planned,
a family tradition relates, by Mr..
Jefferson, who was q second cousin
of the then proprietor. However
that may be, we have at any rate
the long portico resting on white
fluted columns which the great
statesman is said to have done a
great deal in making characteristic
OF Southern country houses. The
high brick walls are unrelieved by
ivy or by creepers, but the
green venetian shutters thrown
wide open almost cover the
space between the many windows,
while behind, innumerable Off ces
and buildings of every conceivable
shape and material, and set at all
angles, gradually lose themselves
among the stems of a grove of state
ly oaks.
Here, too, in utter defiance of the
cOmmOnest rules of modern decora-
tive art, hang specimens of the ear
ier efforts of photography, framed
moreover in fir cones and in forest
leaves! French-looking men in grey
uniforms with stars upon the collars
of their tunics. In the centre are
Lee and Jackson. Around them are
those of his family and their friends
who fought and bled by their side.
The other rooms apart from the fur
niture are much the same. There is
a library where the books are kept
in high, glass covered shelves, and
where modern periodicals, Rich
mond, New York. and local papers
with pirated editions of some of the
English reviews, lie scattered on the
table. A dining-rocm also vain
scoted, with long table in the cen
tre, surrounded by cane bottomeG
chairs, bare floor, sideboard con-
tanning some curious specimens of
old silver, and a chimney piece de-
voted entirely to petroleum lamps
a room meant to eat in, not to sit in
There is no bell in the house, but il
is not wanted, as an obse 1ious
darkey even in these days of free
dom follows you to your room ant
anticipates your wants.
When supper is over (for late din
ner has never crept into Southern
life, even Baltimore still dimes a
unearthly hours, we drift naturally
into the verandah. The general.
wife has appeared and made tea, but
you will not see much of her. Sh'
has q soft voice, has once been pref
ty, and was q H. of SUISSE,
county, distinction which i,
Southern ears has the same sort of ,
ring as that of q Courtenay of Dew
on, or a Percy of Northumberland
would have in this more exactinf
land. She will tell you, if you asl
her, that there we're many month
between 'G1 and '65 in which she wa
glad to get q little corn-four, an(
green coffee, and also of how sh'
buried the plate beneath the magno
liza on the lawn when the Yankee
general threatened to make "Oal
Ridge" his headquarters, and hoy
the negroes remained faithful to he
all through the war, and cried whel
they were told they were free an
had to 60. She captivated the gen
eral thirty years ago at the Whit
Sulphur Springs; and in the com
prehensive ideas of kinship whic
, exist in Virginia they doubtless u
, to that time ranked as cousins
The general has sent to the bar
; for some tobacco, and through bowl
> of red clay such as were smoked b
/ the father of Pocahontas, and Ion
: reed stems from the swamps {
= North Carolina, We blow clouds int
) the balmy night, and listen to th
3 generals stories Of the past.
o The general, of course talks ov<
old days. He has sobered dow
r about the war. In fact, like man
: of his neighbors, he was himse
S against secessi n, or all thoughts I
: it, till the mutual aggravatioHs an
q the complications of those feveris
s times drove him into the struggle
q which he so pre-eminently disti
3 guished. He is immensely proud I
y the part his State played in the wa
Q however, and if you saw him eve
d day for six months, he might DO
n you on the subject; but who can
|, surprised that the stirring scenes
d those FIVE years should be uppermo
Is in the evening of life that has OF
?, erwise been spent in the unbrok'
T. mon otony of country pursuitsa
,s He never lik ed the North, Al
1t never had anything in common vi
l. them. Their ways were not his waJ
o. and for years the intolerance
u either waxed stronger from mutu
le ignorance born of absolute soci
separation. He has, however, lit
e. rancor left, and is conscious rath
IN Of having come we'll out Of t
In struggle in at least public estin
ts ton. His fallen grandeur is sooth
re by being made the hero of the nov,
IT. and the magazine articles Of
,t- prosperous and triumphant but e