The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1902-05-14
WE ARE NOT LAZY
At Least That Is What a Boston
Writer Says
IN one OF HIS HOME PAPERS.
Concrete Examples Cited by Him
in Answer 70 the Conclusions
of 4 British Penney
Liner.

''Uncle Dudley" writes in the Bos-
ton Sunday Globe as follows:
Mr.. Gilbert Parker, the Anglo
Canadian novelist and member of the
British Parliament, lately visited our
Southern States, and he says the eli
mate Of that region made him lazy.
This may be true. although Mr.. Parker
does not assure US that he always has
been free from that tired feeling"
under other skies.
When, however, he attributes what
he terms the heavy footed progress
of the South" to the climate, he goes
beyond his personal experience and
strays into vast field of general dis
cusSion and investigation. He hit
upon handy and familiar reason for
TIE difference in conditions North and
South, but this explanation is not SO
easy as it looks to the multitude OF
minds which hastily adopt it. Indeed,
it is one very difficult to maintain
when confronted with all the evidence
that can be arrayed against it.
Is it really true that the climate OF
the South is enervating? In this, as
in all matters, if we seek the truth we
should not generalize. They say" is
very unscientifc and a most untruSt-
worthy witness.
II We ought not to talk about things
that we don't know anything aboutwe
ought to be equally scrupulous not to
talk about people that we don't know
anything about. The minute we do
that we substitute our imagination for
our knowledge and are adrift on a
stloreless, unlighted sea Of prejudice
and ignorance.
If, therefore, we wish to see what
effect the Southern climate has on the
Southern people we should not rush
off into snap judgments on millions OF
human beings absolutely unknown to
US, b1lt should confne our inquiry to
men who have come within the range
of our observation, either by personal
contact or on the pages of history.
For instance, all of us know good
deal about George Washington: for
one Southerner. His nature seems to
have been quite as vigorous as that OF
most Northern men. 1t is easy to
imagine how if he had been OF the
North, his biographers would round
their periods with tributes to the rig
orouS elements that had formed bis
auStere character.
Aside from the immortal comman-
der-in-chief, the Southern contribu-
tion to the rank and file of the con-
tinental army has not been marked by
history for any lack Of energy. Sure
ly the most Southern of all the fight
ers for the independence, Marion, of
South Carolina, did not impress the
enemy as a noticeably indolent per-
son.
Patrick Henry, the Southerner, was
not less fiery in his advocacy of Ameri-
can rights than James Otis, the
Northerner. Thomas Jefferson's en-
ergieS apparently could not have suf-
fered much impairment by the climate
Of the South.
John Marshall is another Southerner
who showed himself equal to require
ments of an extremely strenuous life,
a man with such a Superabundance OF
energy that he is unanimously credited
with having infused more vigor into
the constitution Of the United States
than any other man who ever applied
himself to that document, the father
of which, by The way, James Madison
can not be cited as an example of the
i'll effect of the Southern climate.
John G. Calhoun seems not to have
been handicapped by his South Caro-
lima origin in his intellectual combatS
with Northern statesmen. Nothing
would be easier for one accustomed to
the conventional view of the two sec
tions Of the country and unacQuainted
with the biogra phical facts than to
credit Calhoun, ascetically simple in
his life, to the puritan Commonwealth
of the North and Webster, convivial
and lax in his private relations, to the
Palmetto State.
Coming down to the comparatively
recent times of the civil war the South
ern armies showed themselves quite as
alert and hardy as their enemis could
desire them to be.
The financial ability and the mechan-
ical ingenuity with which the agricul-
tural population or the South main
tanned for four years the Confederate
government, with its great forces on
sea and land, properly belong among
the marvelS Of history. Certainly the
leaders which that long struggle devel-
oped on the Southern side can not be
pointed to as Illustrations of the dele
terious influence of their native cline.
In vigor of mind and sternneSS Of char
acter Jefferson Davis, the MiSSiSSip-
plan, well might pass for a product OF
New England. No latitute would be
ashamed to own Robert f. Lee, while
the militant piety of Stonewall Jack
son would make him'the pernnial boast
of Forefather Day oratory had he not
been son of the South.
In the universal fondnesS for gener-
alization we like to chalk off the world
and it's swarm of humanity into con-
venient subdivisions. This done, we
have no trouble. when anything hap
pens, of accounting for it to our own
satisfaction, at least. All we need to
do is to glance at our pocket charts
and say, 'Ah, that is the result Of liv-
ing on one side of a river rather than
on the other. or on a mountain side
rather than Cavalier antecedentS.
It is such a simple and comprehen-
sive formula that no one likes to be
without it, and it is no wonder that
Mr.. Gilbert Parker carried it with him
on his Southern journey. 1t was Just
tho +b;otr for tho Occo sion In his