St. Landry clarion. (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921, 1899-07-22
ARP SAYS IT'S SAD.
Degeneracy and Decay Of Rural
New England.
massachusetts Folks Told How
Wicked and Depraved They
Arc by One OF Their
Own Preachers.
s.Ill fares the land, to Fastening Ills prey.
Where wealth accuGlulatfs and men de-

IN fares the land, to Fastening Ills a prey.
Where wealth accuslulates and men de-
cay"
How doth history repeat itself. Ii
Goldsmith had have lived to our day he
might have written those lines about
New England. Was there ever such
sad and pitiful picture drawn of any
people as that New England preacher
has drawn of the country people OF
Massachusetts and has published in the
Arena? We wonder that the editor of
that high-toned magazine would dare
to expose the descendants of the Purl-
tans in all their hideous deformity and
to broadcast it among the citizens OF
cultured Boston. The story OF their
degradation physically is worse than
what we read about Of the goitcr dis
tricts of Switzerland. Six fingers on
each hand. six toes on each foot, cross
eyes, hare lips, club feet, mlltfie chops,
mutes, dwarfs and idiots seem to be
common in every rural community.
But the degeneraey morally is still
worse, for this preacher says when
there is u gathering from neighboriIg
towns at cattle show or other attrac-
ton you will see as wicked throng OF
human creatures as ever gathered at
Whitechapel or the Five Points, and
that the pens or prisons built for drunk
en- row6iies are filled before nine o'clock
in the morning, and these hoodlums IN
suit every woman they meet, and when
night comes both men and women reyel
in the Wild orgies Of a promiscuous
dance. And yet some of those Boston
editors are still crying Stop thief"
20 distract public attention from their
own shame. Once before have alluded
20 Mr. Stetson's S statement that the mar
rage relation in Massachusetts is al
most nullity, and that separations are
more common than legal divorces. Not
long since another New England writer
astounded the public by debating that
in many towns and villages the sound
of the Sabbath bell was never heard,
nor the church door ever opened, and
religion was going rapidly into disnse
and innocuous desuetude.
What does all this mean? Has the
Almighty God turned His back upon
that historic ground and given the devil
free reign over its people? Has il come
to this, that man who breaches holi-
ness or sanctifcation is lynched with
tar and feathers and made to leave the
country? IL negro commits an out
rage in that once holy land. does it
take guards and police and the militia
to keep the mob off of hiru2 And yet
the Boston Transcript says that Georgia
isseFerai generations behind New Eng
land in refinement and morals. ..How
are the mighty falIeni" When we find
that in the Arena a preacher is al
lowed to take for his text The Degen-
eracy and Decay of Rural New Eng
iand.' their condition is amazing, pa
thetic, helpless. The land of Webster,
Choate, Pierce and Hawthorne is now
TO fastening ills prey for as wealth
accumulates in Boston men decay
around it. This preacher says "the
mills are built, but the farms are all
the factory girls when the mills are all
moved south 10 the cotton. where they
are obliged to come or close? Not long
ago Travelled with my good friend Cal
loway, of the Macon Telegraph. and he
talked in rapturcs about new book
m Englishman's history of tho United
States. Percy Greg has written two
volumes about us, and it is a mastery
productions nothing SO thorough, SO
philosophical, so just to all the factors,
old England, New England and the
south, has ever been written. The au-
thor IS an Englishnan, a noted traveller,
a scholar, high-toned, unprejudiced and
as entertaining as Macauley. i sent TO
Richmond for it TO the Everett Waddey
company, who published the American
edition, and eagerly have perused and
cnjoyedit. Thisedition has an admirable
preface BY Gen. Wade Hampton. This
book is too comprehensive for the
schools, but every man OF leisure should
have a copy in his house to feed upon
to feed mind and memory, and be es-
tablished in the faith of our fathers.
From my inmost heart thank Mr.. Greg
for writing this history while still
live, for I feel that at last the south
has been vindicated by q master mind
Every page gives comfort. and that pos-
ton about our civil war and its causes
and consequences makes the southern
spirit burn within you, and feeling
of thankful pride is revived in the south
ern breast. Yes, it makes me feel CAIN
and serene.
Here is another book that the author
has just sent me through the mail. Its
title is ssThe Case of the South Against
the North" by Hon. B. f. Grady, cul-
tured son of North Carolina and late a
member of congress from that state
and a confederate veteran Of four years
soldier service. have only had time to
glance over its contents, but have read
enough to know that it will be another
valuable educator in our schools, and
viii establish the truth in the minds OF
our young people The long -bekted
south is making her own literature now,
thank the Lord for His mercies Here
is q beautiful little book Of poems by
Rev. E. A. Wingard, Of Columbia, S. C.
My friend E. A. Aull, OF the Newberry
News, published it and sent copy to
me. These poets seem to coma up in a
night This Lutheran preacher is no
mere rhymer; he is a true poet, and
many Of his poems are as perfect gems
as ever Hayne or Timrod wrote; some
Of them remind one of Cowper and
Goldsmith. They are as tender and