The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-10-12
ANTE-BELLUM HOMES AS THEY
APPEAR FORTY YEARS AFTER
Being Few Words About and Few Pictures Of
the Manor Houses of Ante Be1lum Planters
That Have Outstood Fire, Time and Decay.
BY WILL r. SHEEHAN.

e~A~S eeSSVS ~ ~S0SSS~
BY WILL r. sHEEHAN.
The Northern idea of the South
formed from the Southern romance
and the Southern drama pictures. j
planter on the verandah of a big white
two story house. with Corinthian col
umns green blinds and a wide yard in
front.
The planter spends his time slipping
mint juleps and telling about his fam
lily pedigree. He wears a white NOUS
t&che and goatce, with white, wide
bl immed, stiaw hat. His only recre-
| alton is n fox hunting and chasing
| rigger:.
In the so-called Southern romance,
| every well regulated planter has to
keep IA pack of fox hounds for light
sport and pack of blood hounds for
big game. He is invariably combi-
nation of Simon Legare and Colonel
Carter, Of Cartersville.
But his house must be white. two
stories high. with big, round columns
III front. rhcre must be long drive
way rom the house to a stone gate
+ way. For no well regulated heroine
IL Southern romance talks to her
.,wectucarts, ne good one ana the bad
..", except at the stone gate over
crown in vines with the hooking
birds twittering in the trees overhead.
These are infiexible requirements of
both the books and the play. The
house and the big columns must be
seen in the distance in one scene. The
next is either in the drawing room or
on the front porch, where the charac-
tiers gather and where something
happens to wound the family pride of
the gentleman in the white suit and
the gray goatee.
In the play. the heroine is a charm
ing girl, with curls. a waterfall, and
a hoop skirt. She falls in love with
the unknown solemn young man who
never has any excuse for being in the
neisnborhood TIE tells her of his
love at the big stone gate and he Is
so melancholy about 1t he might as
well be breaking the news of her mo-
TIERS death to her. Notwithstanding
tie half dozen other lovers, she fails
| i'll love with the stranger, pledges her
word to the strange young man, who.
in spite of her preference, seems un-
attractive enough.
A spu-hy--O' Hevvings.
In the next act she discovers.
through the Vaccinations of the viii
| liam that her lover is spy. She
grasps the lace at her throat with one
hand and with the other she makes
Delsarte gesture whispering hoarse-
ly "A spu-hy. You a spu-hy. Lea
heave me at once. A spu-hy, Oh. hev-
wings"
She Is driving him out or the old
fashioned drawing room to the veran-
dab, where the big columns are when
half dozen supes dressed in CJn-
federate uniforms, come on the stage
to arrest the Yankee spy. She gives
him the fascinator her mother wore
when she, was a girl, and he escapes
out the window, using the fascinator
as a rope.
In the next act the Yankees have
captured Locust Grove, the family
homestead, and are preparing to put
it to the torch, while the gentleman
with the goatee is stretched to MS
full height uttering noble and manly
sentiments of grief and sorrow. AL
this juncture the "spu-hy" returns and
saves the family. 1t is also discover
ed that he is the officer that saved the
life of her brother Hennery at the
battle of Chickamauga. The curtain
goes down. with the white house ana
the pillars showing in the background,
while to the front center. the heroine
is laying her curls and waterfall on
the shoulder straps of the blue-clad
Zero, as he Is trying to look the part
with his eyes turned up until the
whites are showing.
fer in essential details from the South
ern dramae The white house. the big
pillars and the stone gate are rung in
with all the changes. The hero Is
misunderstood young man from the
North, who has just saved the bro
Their from the effects of his gambling
folly The principal business Of the
Young .Southerner is to be saved from
something. He cuts no figure in any
thing else.
Having saved the young man from
a suicides grave, the hero from the
North becomes domesticated in the
house with the big pillars and makes
love to the young woman at the stone
gate. while the mocklng birds are
singing in the moonlight. No South
ern play or drama is complete without
a hooking bird chorus, while the hero
tells the beautiful young Southern
girl the story Of his life.
In the next chapter 1t is discovered
that her father, who wears the white
goatee, will have to pay the note he
endorsed for friend. and which
amounts to steen thousand dollars. He
will have to sell the old place. the
home of his ancestors. The nero
makes good the note, with the best
intentions in the world, but when the
heroine overhears what is going on,
she weeps and acts so strangely that
the hero fears she does not love him.
and is marrying him only out of graf
itudc for what his money has done.
In the last chapter. he comes to say
goodbye. as he is going AWE. He
is very mournful and both weep. \
sudden thought strikes him--a new
idea comes to him. which is remark
able, as he has been distinguished nei-
ther for thoughts nor ideas in the
earlier chapters. She cares--sEe real