The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-05-05
The Expatriates
 and The ExiLes
A Glance At A Wrecked Society


 estates they had directed. They had been trained in no profession, versed in no business and skilled in no art. Whatever gifts California had went to those who had been trained in ef- ficiency in winning them.
 The boys learned to know how hum ger felt and they came to understand how really inconvenient 1t was to be dog tired. and have no place to sleep when night came on. His companions wrote home for money to return to Alabama but young Evans was made of sterner stun. His companions might write to the home folks that they had so failed that they must have some of the slender store of money at home on which they were to come back to Alabama. but young Evans pride was of such a character that 1t could not be swallowed in that way.
 Repartee of Q Waiter.
 He became a waiter. He became e walter until he could save enough money to pay his way back to the Black Belt of Alabama The polite circles in which he had moved, his graceful and deferentiai bearing were splendid equipment for a waiter'e job. Young Evans was an unqualified sue, cess as waiter-and in due time he had saved money enough to bring him back to Alabama.
 Some two years later at a ball. at which the young people of his town had gathered. he was, as usual. tine most graceful and graceful dress suited figure in the gathering At the and dashing visitor from a neighbor- ing State, who can be called Miss Lewis, because that was not her name A young lady of wealth. she had travelled much and knew various parts of the United States. Her first youth had passed. although her beauty remained, and like some others of her sex as they verge on old maiden hood her tongue was sharp and incon- siderate.
 She asked that Aston Evans, the Beau Brummei of the gathering, be brought and presented.
 Do you know. MT. Evans. she said. your face has a peculiar interest for me. I can't understand it."
 The interest pleases and surprises me, and like you I am at A complete loss to understand it," replied young Evans.
 I'm sure I've met you somewhere. Where was it?" said Miss Lewis reflec- lively.
 'Tmpossible," returned Evans bow ing. You might forget the meeting. but If Td seen your face once I'd never have forgotten the meeting"
 T know where I saw you." said Miss Lewis suddenly and excitediy. You were a waiter. I saw you while you were A waiter In California in a hotel"
 Not in a hotel. Miss Lewis-it was second class restaurant-and rather tough"
 In the social and industrial eclipse all who suffered did not go to Brazil and they did not go to California. But few went. And many who did not go had the wish but not the power They had to stay among the ruins.
 The South was a third of a century in shaping a new industrial structure and new way of living. The deca- dence of the South, the only decadence 1t has ever known. followed the war. When the tale Is fully told of the way in which the South elung to her old customs and her old ideals-of how she sought to preserve what she consid cred best when Ruin and Adversity were making their insistent demands --it will be a tale that will catch and hold the interest of humanity The world has had no other story like it.
 Decay of Rural south.
 The story of a thousand families could symbolize the sad story of the South. There is pathos and interest in the story of the decadence for a time of the slave holding families--of the gradual scattering and separation of its members-of the steady depletion of the slender store. the war left in its wake-of the gradual sale piece by piece of the old place by its land poor owner--of the loss of the old home it. self--of the gradual slipping away, somehow, some way of even the family silver. Is there community in the South that does not know such a story? Tn this way came the decadence of the rural Eoutb--the gradual yet steady abandonment of the country homes whether they were proud or humble. Tn Alabama the white counties have won back more than they lost. In the Black Belt counties. If the truth must be written all that was lost in the country has not been recovered, but the greater prosperity of the cities and towns has offset the abandonment by white and negro of so many acres.
 In this good day when dollars are plentiful, when the chief complaint comes from an unassimilated pros- perity and an over production of re- formers with duack remedies for tin kering with prosperity. a glance back wards at the gloomiest passage in Ala bama's progress upward through the years, is no: without interest nor Value.