The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-07-12

south that clan was unknown; the work ing class being the slave class, there were no poor made desperate by want. And that the Texas wars had relieved the different communities of their daredevil spirits.
 Lyell was often amused and astonished at the southerner's loyal support of an ultra-democratic notion of white equali- ty, which in practice must have frequently been thoroughly uncongenial to all classes concerned. He visited a lawyer at his country home-the family a cultured one used to the best society of a large city but the host regarded it as an obligation to invite Lyell's driver, who was part In- dian, to sit down to the table with them. Perhaps consciousness that this boast ed equality was more or less fictitious, may have been responsible for the vindic- tive envy that f1ourished In the midst of this "aristocratlc democracy" A jealousy so intense that a gentleman growing rich and settling in a quiet part of the coun- try was apt to have his fences pulled other indignities perpetrated. Many an ecdotes of the genuineness and prevalence of this feeling were told to Lyell. The daughter of a member of the legislature visited Mobile, had a dress made with fiounces according to the latest fashion, and on her return home wore it to a ball. At the next election her father was de- feated and on asking a former supporter the cause, received the reply, Do you for daughter came to the ball in them fix ings?"
 Lyell found drunkenness very common. yet heard many speak of the great tenn perance reform. 1t no longer being con sdered an insult to refuse to drink with ones host While he saw no cruelty to slaves, he felt that when drunkenness was so general among their owners their power might often be an abusive one. He states that it was not the object of his visit to study slavery, but his interesting observations would fill chapter and are characterized by keenness and fairness that make them very valuable. The stories told him by disgruntled and mis- informed northerners prepared him for blood-curdling atrocities, but throughout Alabama he saw the negro in many phases; in his churches, about his pleas ure, and at his occupations that ranged from farm-hand to mechanic; in the slave market as the indulged domestic, and as the faithful and cheerful follower of his master into new and unknown regions; and on no occasion had he reason to sus- pect maltreatment. When speaking to northern man of his favorable impressions he was told that great pains had been taken by the planters to conceal the true state of things" he had been pro pltiated by hospitable attentions" Lyell found his own experience corroborated in 'Tradesmen's Travels in the United States" written by William Thompson, Scotch weaver, who supported himself as he journeyed through the south.
 After seeing what contact with the whites had done for the negro, Lyell en- tertained very sanguine hopes of the races intellectual and moral possibilities and was impatient of what seemed to him unjust laws that restricted the black educationally and politically. His two- sided attitude Is a bit dsarming but Is explained by himself, we are often thrown into opposite states of mind and feeling, according the interests of tES white or negro race happen, for the mo- ment, to claim our sympathy" But the following words embody beautiful trib- ute to the influence of the southerners: 'In spite of prejudice and fear, and in defiance of stringent laws enacted against education, S.000,000 of a more enlightened and progressive race are brought into contact with an equal number of laborers lately in a savage state and taken from a continent where the natives have proved themselves for many thousand years. to be singularly unprogressive Already their task masters have teugnt treE tn speak. with more or less accuracy. one of the noblest of languages. to shake off rns-y c's er7erstit;ons. to acquire higher ideais of morality and habits of neatness and cleanliness and have converted thou sands of them to Christianity. Many they have emancipated. and the rest are grad