The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-06-07

In 1860 I travelled by private conveyance through a part of Georgia, Florida and South Alabama. One Saturday I was in one of the towns in an Alabama coun- ty, now the center of thrift, education and prosperity. There was an old-fashioned square or plaza with the court house in the center and clustered around the square were lawyers offices stores and barrooms, or groceries as they were then denominated.
 In the evening two young men got to quarrelling and eursing each other vigor- ously, and a crowd among whom were the sheriff and various county officers, surrounded them. The young men strip ped to their waists, apparently did every thing imaginable to bring on the fight. They shook their fists in each others faces and used shocking r~0fanity; boast ed of what each would do to the other. until, in my innocence. I fully expected to see one or both killed. Finally one of them said to the other Your grand daddy was a d---d Tory in the Revolu- tionary war" The other replied: And your granddaddy plead the baby act dn- fancy) in South Carolina, and d--n you. 1 can prove it." This was the straw that broke the camers back, and they begun fighting so furiously that both were soon covered with blood, The crowd stood and watched until the combatants were out of breath. and then separated them. No weapons except natures own were used, and 1t seemed to be a matter of course for the fight to go on, and nobody was arrested. The incident is recalled In order to show that old memories are likely to retain a strong hold on people, and fur ther show what changes have taken place. To be called the descendant of a Tory was a great insult, just as our grand children will be insulted by being told that their ancestors were rebels or unionists.
 Again it was an insult to be told that ones ancestors had plead infancy to avoid debt. Now our young men fight, or more frequently do murder with pis- tols. and too many will not only plead infancy, but claim exemptions to avo.a the payment of honest debts. Prior to 1860 a respectable young man could get a loan of money to start business on his plain note. and I contracted debts of hun dreds of dollars before I was IS years of age, but I never heard of any one trying to avoid payment What a happy thing 1t would be If with our street railways, cleo tric lights migration and fine imported manners, we could have preserved some of the old-fashioned ways of paying debts without waive notes and mortgages. and fighting with fists instead of with pistols.
 In the humble cottages as well as the stately mansions of the black belt. the mistress of the house or her daughters, who never travelled farther than the near est market town, always rise when a vis- itor leaves the room, and one with the graciousness of a princess. follows him to the door; but the fashionable girl, who got her manners in "Nu Yok," shakes hands as If her arm was a pump handle, and lets her guest find his hat overcoat, and his way out the front door as best he can. Now we hear of scandals, lawsuits for breach of promise and seductions, when such things used to be treated with shot gun or silence.
 If an editor was not very careful in mentioning the name of lady in his paper, there was a prospect of a horse whipping for him, but now every arrival is chronicled as the most lovely and ac- complished' until all are on a dead level in the social columns. Even the shape color and material of the gowns" are set forth, on all occasions, forgetful that in the show windows are finer dresses, less paint and better rounded shoulders on the smirking wax figures. Many of these things are the result of the demoralization following the war When the Normans conquered England, 1t was the conquered who impressed their manners, customs, language and laws on the victors, but in the cities of the south what is worst in the manners of the victors Is being adopted and what is good is not copied. But in the country the changes are not so apparent and the stock that sturdily WithstoOd the Norman will long preserve the traditions of the old south In it's re- spect for women, and its love for home of simple, honest life, and its hospitality to the strange guest I travelled much in the country and 1t is an invariable rule that the weary stranger Is asked to go and see his horse fed. and if the master did not go he at once fell in the estimation of his host. Many a time have I on talk ing my departure and asking for my bill, had for reply, "All I charge you, stranger, is the next time you come this way you must stop with us again" If one came to a broken down vehicle, or wagon stalled In a mud hole, and did not stop and offer to assist the unfortunate coun- tryman, he was liable to be thought of as a meanly disposed person.
 Whilst journeying from one court to an- other. with my silk hat and store clothes on I have dlsmounted, and in the mud with fence rail, assisted in prizing wag- ons out of the mire, and whilst the coun- try men were not effusive in their grati-