The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1897-06-10

WAN "o WIN HSs ob0 hpOk
the whole l have no grea. cause Il
complain.
Twenty years ago, however. il il
not At all likely you would have beer
sitting IN the porch alone with ms a
you now are. The chances are
there would have been half q doze1
here. and double the number ol
young folks frolicking in the parlor
We sometimes scare up q righ,
smart crowd, even now. whom thu
city people are out here in the sum
mer; but bless me, I've seen the mer
lying SO thick on the floors, tucked
up for the night, You coul4 hardly
get about the house without treading
on them.
"Then, in those days, as before
said, you knew who was who. Now
IL your daughter goes out to q dance
in the neighborhood. the chances are
she is escorted home by young Smith
whose father kept the store at the
forks Of the road yonder when l was
boy, or young Jones who measures
calico in = dry-goods store in town.
Perhaps that's all right; mind you,
don't want to say anything against
it. We ars free country now, and
republic (worse luck to i), but
sometimes feel like the old Lord
Fairfax, who, on hearing in the
backwoods of Augusta county, OF
Cornwallis's surrender at Yorktown,
told his servants to carry him up
stairs to die, as there was no use in
his living any longer
"Then there was a large class OF
good honest yeoman farmers living
amongst us, also slave holders, that
were welcome to a seat at our table.
or a bed for that matter, if they
came along. ard with whom we were
on a familiar footing, but still they
were not of US. Their familles and
ours did not even pretend to asso-
ciate. The annual call they made
perhaps as neighbors was a mere
relic of very old colonial days when
families were more dependent on
one another. and a sort of feeble
protest against class distinctions-a
mere show of equality that hurt no
body and amounted to nothing, and
that the very negroes laughed at.
But if we held our heads above the
large yeoman who very often had
considerable property, and nearly as
many negroes, sometimes more than
We had, they in their turn looked
down ON the smaller farmers, who
again revenged themselves by theil
contempt for the overseers and the
poor whites. In fact" says the gen
eral, laughing, "we were a power
fully aristocratic people, l promise
you, and you will find the fires still
smouldering through the country
now, and working with the new ele
ments if you lived here long enough
to get below the surface"
"Mar'se George. Oh, Mars,
George" The voice is Caleb's from
out the darkness; he has stole1
round the house and his white teetl
are flashing on us from the foot O
the verandah steps.
"Hullo, Caleb, what's upi"
"Mar'se George, sab dars suthil
the matter wild dat are sorrel ma
agin, pears like she's powerful on
easy q snortin' an a gwine on;
thote I'd jest git you to step roun.
an look at her."
While the general, who, like al
Sontherners, can not only break
buy, and ride a horse, whether he b,
farmer, merchant, or lawyer, bu
doctor one, too, in a rough an,
ready fashion, gets his stable Ian
tern and hurries across the lawn to
wards the lodging of the "sorre
mar" we revel silently in the balm,
night. The ceaseless trill of frog
aud tree crickets seems to gro1
louder now; all sounds of humal
voices have ceased; great-winge'
beetles and cockchafers go swingin,
through the trellis work of cypres
and trumpet flowers, and fall with
thud upon the verandah floor; bat
fit backwards and forwards befor
the lighted windows; the night ow
boots gloomily from the orchard
and the whip p-poor-will fills the val
ley below with his plaintive song
fireflies dance against the dark back
ground of shrubbery, while tn
great oak-trees above US gently rus
tie their leaves on which the moon
light is streaming from a sky cloud
less and twinkling with q myriad Q
stars.
"Then as for SPORT" continue
the general, having once again sea-
ed himself at his favorlte angle
"those antlers in the hall were G
course not taken here. OF par
ridges and turkeys We had plenty
and still have, but my father was
great sportsman, and We owned, lik
many other families, q quantity {
wild land in one of the south-wes
ern mountain counties. In fac
nearly the whole of - county I
that time belonged to us. It did n.
amount to very much as propert
Our Virginia mountaineers q,
tough customers, and they squatte
all over the valleys at q nomin'
rent, which had to be drawn fro
them like eye teeth. The old gel
tleman, however, had q fancy f
the place, and used to come hon
with a whole string of horses behir
him as the revenue of his principal
ty. But we boys, and indeed all Of
friends, used to leok forward keen
to the annual excursion to the mou
tains. My father had q pack
hounds of which he was exceeding
proud. and with which ne won
hunt foxes at home, and deer VIII
he went to - county. A loI
cavaleade it used to be that eve
October started from this door to Il
mountains. Ny father and one
his old cronies in the big carriag
. two wagons full of provender, a
? munition, blankets, ETC., and fifte'
: or twenty friends and servant
!. mounted on saddle-horses IN t
> rear. The ninety miles used to 81
= us three days of travelling, and
: the end our mountaineer tena-
used to thrOn1 to meet Ms At the ru