The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-11-22
OF THRILLING
 INTEREST
THE WARTIME JOURNAL or A GEORGIA GIRL NOW LIVING
 IN MONTGOMERY.
Scenes and Incidents Of Wartimes De- scribed by Miss Elizabeth Frances Andrews--WeI1 Illustrated-
 D. Appleton & Co.,, Pub- lfsherh.

IT..
 Some of the most interesting and valuable books recently published about the War between the states ana life in the South during and betore that period have been written by wo- men, and for one of them we are in- debted to the author of this "Journaf and to the relative whose intercession, the author tells us, saved it from oe- struction tn one of those periodicai fits of disgust and reimbursement that como to every keeper of an honest diary in saner moments. we are sure that all who read It Will snare our gratitude to the author who wrote m dto the relative who saved this rec. ord of a time, of social conditions ana events. that must ever be Of transcenu- ent interest to all students of Ameri- can history-this contemporaneous rec ord from the pen of a young woman Tn private life living and moving in the best society this country mas ever known, and endowed with the facuity of observing accurately and keenly ana the ability to write we'll of what she observed.
 Marrow and provincial we may have been in some respects" she says, put take it all in all, 1t is doubtful whetner the world has ever produced state of society more rich In all the resources for a thoroughly wholesome. happy, and joyous life than existed among the '4000' under the peculiar civilization of the Old South. While the structure of our social fabric was aris- tocratic, in the actual relations of the white population with one another, 1t was extremely democratic. Life was simple, patriarchal, unostentattols. Cur chief extravaganza was the exercise of unlimited hospitality. An!pody that was respectable was welcome to
 41 nd as long as they pleased, and | ie'oem-
 very few occasions during my fa- t. ..'s life when Iaere were no guests in the house."
 Who that knew anything of the eo- ciety here pictured will hesitate to bear unqualified testimony to the ae- curacy of the picture? And who, of those yet living, that ever tasted the hospitality of the home here referred to-who that ever felt the unaffected warmth of it's welcome and the t&qr'Ss- ite charm of its culture--can fail to cherish loving memories of it and Of those who made 1t what 1t was. or can read, without tear or sigh, of the passing of the civilization that made such homes all over the old South, in the golden age of Americnn history
 It was an age and q civilization in which mere wealth d'd not give social rank and prec ,j snce, in illustration of which fact Miss Andrews says that her father was not what would now be called a rich man, though his fortune was ample for those times. the iuln- Der Of negroes he owned being, she thinks, not more than 200. Taking occasion to remark, in passing, that the extravagant Ideas that have been propagated by Irresponsible writers about the fabulous wealth of the old planters had no foundation in fact. out side a few exceptional cases she aods, that at the time of which she writes there was but one man in GeorSia who was reputed to be worth as much as a million dollars, land he gained not one iota of importance or influence from this source. His family lived very much as the rest of us did, their social position was as good as anybody's, but for that divinity which would now att tach to the mere vulgar fact of being the richest man of his State, 1t Is doubtful whether, if list were made of the twenty-five most influential fan= flies in Georgia at that time, his name would even be mentioned In 1t. It is for the sake of the light 1t throws on the inner life of this unique society of the old South at the period of it's dis solution that this record, it's author tells us, is given to the public, and 1t is a light that shows how deep and wide Is the gulf between that time and this, and how vast the difference be- tween the ideals that dominated South ern sentiment in 1860 and the commer- ciaI plutocracy that has a strangle hold on the nation today. Well does she say of the South that 1t stood for some things that the world can Ill afford to lose. Tt stood for gentle courtesy, for knightly honor, for generous hospi- tality; 1t stood for fair and honest dealing of man with man in the com- mon business of life, for lofty scorn of cunning greed and ill-gotten gain through fraud and deception of our fellowmen-lessons which the founders of our New South would do well to lay to heart"
 Judge Garnett Andrews, father of the author of this book, was a fine type and product of the civilization to which his daughter pays loving and truthful tribute. He was a Georgian, a lawyer by profession, and for nearly thirty years was Judge of the Superior Courts of the Northern Circuit of the State. He died in 1873. while holding that of flee His home was in Washington. Wilkes County, which was also the home of Robert Toombs, but the politi- cal sentiments of that great secession leader were not shared by Judge An drews, who was earnestly and immov- ably opposed to the secession of the Southern States from the Union. and between her ardor for the cause of Southern independence, for which her brothers were fighting in the field, and her love and veneration for her father, the Georgia girl owned a divided al-