The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1899-08-25
SLAVE HUNTING BY BLOOD HOUND
DIR. ID. c. Kelley Calls u Northern Writer
Down.

Down.
To the Editor OF the American:
"Slave Hunting by Blood
Hounds" is the heading of an arti-
Gle in the American of the 18th inst,
copied from the New York Sun. The
arIicle is, in some respects, well
written; it is probable that one read
ing it in the Sun would make allow
ance tor the latitude, in which it ap.
peared. Is it not equally probable
that reader of the American would
accept it without abatement as
true picture of ante. bellum life in
the South? From such pictures our
own children shrink with horror
and from them gain an exceedingly
perverted idea of life in the old
South. There are threads of truth
which by excessive imagination
have been multiplied into a vast,
fanciful and gruesome web.
The writer, speaking of the blood
hound. says: "One, if not more, of
these dogs was carefully kept on
each plantation" Again he de-
scribes them as of "untiring
ferocity" and adds that they have
almost disappeared from the South.
The present writer lived in the South
more than twenty-five years before
the war, knew, by personal contact
most of the Southern States except
South Mississippi, Louisiana and
the rice fields Of South Carolina. yet
he never saw ferociOus bloodhound
until since 1865. The name has been
applied to more than one variety OF
dogs; there were dogs called blood
hounds noted for scenting human
tracks, in appearance mucn of the
same as many foXhounds and with
little or no ferocIty. | never heard
of negro being torn or injured by
one of these hounds in old slave
days.
Speaking of this article to friend,
a man of the highest type of honor
and intelligence, brought up in the
black belt of Alabama, where the
negroes were more than one hun
dred to one white resident, he said
in his boyhoOd he only heard of two
men who kept blOodhounds these
did all the service required by two
counties. None of these dogs were
fierce, their scent, not their fierce
ness, being the q1ality for which
they We're valued.
OF the ferocious type of blood
hound | have seen fifty or more
since 1865; nearly half that numoer
were III the North.
There are some earmarks about
this Sun article which indicates that
it was not written by pen to "the
manner born" big Matt" Is rep.
resented as calling the mistress ui
the home "Miss Ida" The method
of address belongs to the new, not
the old South. The quotation from
the master of the plantation indi
Gates gross ignorance of our every
day English tongue. Some of us
weary of finding these eXceptiona
, characters made the almost eX
elusive type of the Southern slave
owner. Ignorant men there were
, who, from success as "Overseers,
became planters and owners o
slaves, but they are far from bein!
typical of Southern culture as it was
: found on the old Southern planta
l ton.
The South owes debt, larg
debt, of gratitude to the August Re
; view of Reviews for the best pre-
sentation of education as it was ant
; as it should be in the South that
t have seen in any periodical pub
lished in the North. Speaking o
3 the recent conference on Southern
education at Capon Springs, in tn
Blue Ridge, the Review says
1 There were few common schools il
3 the South before the war, and th
I subsequent establishment of fire.
school systems In every Southern
= Stale came at a time when the Who'll
South was rendered almost incredi
c bly, poor in consequence of the eX
5 haustiOn and devastation of tn
! struggle. 1t was made clear by DI
!. Curry, the President of the confeT
e ence; President William l.. Wilson
of the Washington aud Lee Univer
g sity, and other speakers thorough,
: acquainted with the conditions G
I Southern education before and sine
{ that date, that up to 1850 the SOut
s was better supplied, relatively, wit
9 institutions of higher learning tina
q the North"
d 1t will be difficult for us of tn
e South to give the full-voiced thank
y which DIR. Curry merits et our hand
for this, another one among man
9 brave and just tributes he has bee
u able to bestow on the South thTOug
y Northern channels.
/ While writing let me beg that tn
$ younger generation of the SOutl
e charmed by the stories of Souther
life from the pens of Page, Thong
) son and Harris, must keep in min
9 that these gifted writer's have, fO
IS the sake of charm, chosen not I'll
u every day Southern men and wome
E but exceptional characters. Som
it of them are Of our best, it is tru
IL but oftener they are occasional an
eccentric. Harris is nearest of the:
writer's to the everyday GeUrg
type. DC. KELLEY.
Nashville, Aug. 10.