The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-09-24

&C. G.. T.. e.. SnseSs g. S~sAsS
| ing island where the various estates
| were confiscated. And it has never
| gone into the trucking business and had
| a bridge run over on to it to connect
| with q railroad system. When Its SIS
| ter communities are bothering about
| the blemish on cabbages and the drouth
| on tomatoes and other problems of the
| market gardeners, Johoesee goes on
| thinking solely and sufficiently of its
big rice and cotton crops, being con-
troled by one firm of planters and titled
just as it was titled in the old days and
by the children and grandchildren of
the self-same blacks that worked for
the governor and his grandfather.
The present leaseholders are progress
sive planters, with tosday, not yester-
day, in mind. Rice successfully grown
yields handsome profit. Solid cash,
way up in the thousands, Is required to
run a plantation like this for year,
and everything about the overseer's
premises and the farm lots betoken in
telligent supervision. To drive from
the sunny openness and activity of the
field and laborers' quarters in under the
oaks of the old family place is to come
face to face with the past. There are
acres of these great live oaks, original
ly planted and trimmed at the will of a
master gardener, who loved his task
Not one has given way or grown rough
or scraggly. Their interlaced boughs
have made a shade too impervious for
grass to grow in, so the carefully
planned walks are as orderly and trim
to-day as their originator could wish.
The place is eloquent. The romance
and tenderness of generations Of fani-
ly happenings seem garnered there, and
time has flung a soft veil over it all, a
misty, gray, filmed veil of the trailing
moss, and stolen off about other BUSH
ness.
1t does not need the stone urns and
massive ornaments at the gate, the
marble steps and circling carriage drive
to tell that this was proud place once
and a home that stood for refinement
as much as substantialness; and with
care for the amusements as well.
The billiard-room, a stanch little build
ing to itself, far enough from the dwell
ing to have escaped the conflagration,
testif1es to this; also the big stables and
dog kennel, where a pack Of hounds
was kept, the ample accommodations
for the house servants and everywhere
provision for a large-hearted hospitali-
ty.
Driving round on the further side of
the grounds one comes upon the quaint
little church built for the slaves to
worship in and for the ladies of the
family to hold their Sunday
classes.
There are things to prove the degree
of integrity that these landowners of
the old school managed to instil into
their working people. When the
wrench came after the civil war that so
materially altered the planters fortune.
Jehossee, along with many other es-
tates whose very vastness crippled
them, was left to the mercy Of its black
population. The family had retired to
their town house in Charleston, and the
islands tilage was conducted by fits
and starts. The house on Jehossee was
left just as it was, the family plate, |
china, paintings and housekeeping APP
pointments all in the several places |
where they habitually stood. 1t had !
never been the custom to lock up things !
in that house The house was not orig |
inally designed with any burglars de-
fences, and the widowed mistress
thought it not worth while to have |
bolts and bars affixed doubtless partly
because having lost so much she had !
little heart to look after smaller mat
tiers. Besides, moving things was ex-
penslve, and nobody had spare money
To the praise of those hundreds of |
black folks be it recorded that nothing
was touched or taken out of the house
Things to eat, now, might have been |
tempered with, but certain trusty souls
formed volunteer guard over "Old
Msss tings," and had any daring spir-
it's elected to make raid they would
have found dithculty.
The house was destroyed by an acct
dental fire only year or two ago, af-
ter thirty-five years disuse.
For several years after the emancipa-
tlon edict no white person set foot on
Jehossee save the administrator, who
went occasionally to see after affairs,
and the few sportsmen who gained per-
mission to take their autumn or Christ
mas shooting there. They, too, could
walk in and out of the unlocked house
and see the treasures They marked
the state of things, the trustwort Illness
IF the troops of ex-slaves and marveled, !
and came away and talked about it.
The sportsmen, with an eye to the pic
.uresque, talked about another thing
About the wonderful services and
scenes enacted In the old plantation