THE SUNNY SOUTH; OR, THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME, EMBEACINQ FIVE YEARS' EXPERIENCE OF A NORTHERN GOVERNESS IN THE LAND OF THE SDGAR AND THE COTTON. EDITED BT PROFESSOR J. H. INGRAHAM, OF MISSISSIPPI. " St«m winter smiles on that anspidong clim«, The fields are aortd with lurfadliiK prime; From the bleak pole no winds inclement blow, Mold tUe round hail, or flake the fleecy snow ; But from the breezy deep the land inhales ThG 'ragrant murmurs of the westera gales." PHILADELPHIA : a. G. EVANS, PUBLISHER, No. 439 CHESTNUT STREET. 1860. Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1860, by G. O. EVANS, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. EDITORIAL LETTER TO THIS TOLUME. To GrEORGE Cr. EVANS, EsQ. Sir: — This manuscript of "Letters from the South," which I send you for your perusal, has been, aa you will see, very carefully and plainly written out for the press, by a young Grovemess of this State, who diffidently declines to give her name in connection with the work. It is true that the authorship of what has been composed from materials mainly by another hand, cannot be wholly claimed by either party : the work, therefore, if published by you, must go unaccredited and upon its own intrinsic merits. Thirty years' residence at the South, chiefly at Natchez, Nashville, and Mobile, enables me to form, perhaps, a correct estimate of the accuracy of a work professing to relate the experiences of a stranger from the North, sojourning in the land of " tobacco, cotton, and sugar." The writer has chosen to give the materials collected from experience and observation in the attractive form of familiar letters, addressed, by request, to an intelligent literary gentle- man and editor in the North. While presenting accurate pictures of " homes in the Sunny South," there is skillfully interwoven, an interesting narrative embodying the most romantic features of Southern rural life (3) 4 EDITORIAL LETTER. on the tobacco, cotton, and sugar estates : the three forms under which true Southern Life presents itself. The tone of the Book is strictly conservative and national; presenting the impartial view which an intelligent, unprejudiced, and highly cultivated Northern lady would take of the South, her temporary and agreeable home ; and the presentation of such a work, though neither profound nor political, (but adapted for light, summer-perusal, when one covets pacific and pleasant reading,) at the present time, will, without doubt, be an accept- able gift to the reading public ; especially, when hitherto so much in relation to our people and institutions is misunderstood and misinterpreted by those who have no personal knowledge cither of Southerners or of Southern life. This work has not been penned merely to meet any recent events. The letters composing it were commenced seven years ago, and leisurely produced in a period of three years, the last one having been completed in 1856 ; and were not written with any intention of ever taking a book form. Some of them appeared in 1853-4, in the Saturday Courier, a popular paper once pub- lished in your city, bearing the nom de plume of " Miss Kate Conyngham." In consenting to commend them to your attention, I feel that I am contributing towards the publication of a work which will render more familiar " Southern Life at Home" to North- ern minds, while its scenes, incidents, and characters will agreeably interest the reader. If the publication of this letter will be of any service to the work, and contribute towards your favorable decision, I cheer- fully give you permission to append it to the volume. Very truly yours, J. H. Ingraham. Rose Cottage, near Natchez, Mississippi PREFACE. As most of the Letters embraced in this volume were written for the Editor of the late American Courier, and appeared therein, from time to time, the writer thereof has not seen fit to alter the local allusions, the style of address in the Let- ters, or the appellation of "Needles," by which they were originally designated. As these Letters were commenced, and ' many of them published before Mrs. Stowe's Uncle Tom was written, its pictures of South-western life have no reference to that work nor were influenced by it. These epistles are not replies to any attacks on the South, but a simple representation of Southern life, as viewed by an intelligent Northerner, whose opinions are frankly and fearlessly given. — The object of this work is to do justice to the Southern planter, and, at the same time, afford information in an agree- able form to the Northerner ; and if these objects are obtained in any degree, the writer, in consenting to its publication as a volume, will be fully rewarded. One important fact ought not to be overlooked, which is, that ninetj'-nine out of every hun- dred of the governesses, tutors, professional men, and others, who flock to the Soutb, "ten thousand a year," for the improve- ment of their fortunes, remain, (the young ladies, if they can obtain " Southern husbands,") and identify themselves fully with the Southern Institutions. (5) CONTENTS. LETTER I. DTTBODUCTOBT. rum Titles, how selected — Their value to a hook — The difiScalty of choos- ing of a good title — " Dots and Lines" — Scissors and Needles — Fe- male Authorship — Woman's pen-trials — The Author's happiness — Ambition to be in type 19 LETTER n. A western home — Cole — Beautiful scenery — Cotton and tobacco fields — Shelter — Mail coach — Lions — Doves and childhood — Negro quarters The overseer's house — The Cumberland river 26 LETTER in. The planter and his retinue — The African servant and his dog — The ^ hunters' departure — The slave girl, Eda— The numerous servants in a southern house — The difference between the field and house slave 31 LETTER IV. The hunters' return — The two strangers — The authoress' story — The village and the widow — The brothers — The beautiful Ida — The mis- chievous boy and minister's horse — The authoress — The normal school — The private equipage — Col. Peyton and daughter — The sur- prise , 37 LETTER V. Touring among the mountains — The letter — The struggle — The opposi- tion — The little invalid scholar — The parting at the school-house — Sympathy — The tour west — Arrival in Nashville — The " Lodge" 45 7 \ 8 CONTENTS. LETTER VI. v/ Author's looks — Camel's hair pencils — The plantation bell — Waking hours — The mint-julep — The luxury of a domestic — The breakfast verandah — The dinner — The evening ride — The drawing-room — Hoars of retiring 60 LETTER VII.; Fox-hunting — Kate's courser — The young Tennessee hunters — The separation — The master and his slaves — Reflections — The Peacock and mule — The fight — A race, but not a fox-chase — The catastrophe. 56 LETTER VIIL The morning start — The ravine and dogs — The negroes' invitation to Reynard — The baying— The flight of the fox — The conflict and leap — The entanglement — The veil and the death — Kate presented with the brush 61 c/ LETTER IXi The rural chapel — The gray-haired pastor — The authoress attends church — Group of Madonna and child — The singing of master and slaves — The mistress and her servants — The ebony baptisms 66 LETTER X.V Nashville — Its approaches — The Hermitage and tomb — The capitol — President Polk — Fashion and gayety — Authors— Poets of the west —French in newspapers — Candidate for authorship 71 LETTER XL Enlisted as contributor — Gratitude — The hopes and fears of authorship — Love of poets for their verses — Lovo of self — Newspaper poetry — What is immortality— The fame of the year A.M. 6,000 77 LETTER XIL The invitation — The intelligence of the horse — Nineveh — The nobility of man — The scenery of the woods — Squirrels — The old negro and culprit — Charms — The Indian hunter — The story of the old warrior — The hospitable planter — Kate pays toll 83 LETTER XIIL The good and true — Kate's bravery doubted — The old mansion — Di Vernon rivalled — Hospitality in silver goblets — The portrait and CONTENTS. 9 PAOK character of Jackson — His mercy — The deserter — War-relics — The major's war-horse — The deer-stands — Military posting — The deer in sight— Perils— The shot , 91 LETTER XIV. y The pet fawn — Buck and wolf — The uproar in the kennel — The canine epicures and Mam' Daphney — Old George and his fiddle — A slave village by moonlight — True music — Young Africa — Com dance — Biding a bull for a wager — Songs of the people 102 LETTER XV. v^ The scenery about the lodge — The Polks — The " needles" in danger — The bloodhound — A rescue and the dirk — Aunt Phillisy — The aged African — Care of southerners for the old slaves — Conversation with Cusha — Comparison between the Indian and African — Female politi- cians and patriotism — Clay and Webster 112 LETTER XVL Emerson and his thoughts — Female writers — The colonel reads no book written by a lady — Shirley — Groldsinith — Shakspeare — Fame and Tom Moore — Opening an Indian mound — Discovery of idols — Ge- ology en amateur — Thunderbolts — A lover's quarrel — All owing to a prescription — A story proposed 121 LETTER XVIL y The Nashville convention — The site of the city — Two South Carolini- ans — An old Roman — The party attend convention — Politeness in public assemblies — Madame de Stael upon honor and duty — South • /' Carolina orators — The handsome mayor — Speeches of Virginia dele-^'' gation— Hon. Wm. Colquitt— General Pillow— W. H. Polk— Self- laudation — Adjournment of convention — Thanks to the ladies — A gift from South Carolina 129 LETTER XVin. A mysterious letter — Not a declaration — The fame of the authoress at a premium — Invitation to write — A tale proposed — The master and slave — An African wedding — Brilliant costumes — The supper — Ethi- opian gentility — The sea-captain — New Africa ignores Old Africa^ The captain rides 142 10 CONTENTS. LETTER XIX. FAOX The authoress writes a tale — A word to editors — Isabel and the wounded soldier — A noble reply — Orthography and warm hearts — An adven- ture with a Bengal tiger — The perilous situation of the ladies — The power of music over brutes — The rescue — The death — Birds, and monkeys, and little negroes ; 160 LETTER XX. Fishing — Costume for the woods — Isabel in becoming attire — Men's hats and women — The pic-nic-basket — A betrayal of red sealing-wax — A merry party — The captain's craft — Towing into port — Cooing — The forest brook — The lovers — Lessons in fishing — The dinner in the forest — Old Hickory's memory 159 LETTER XXL Ralph Waldo Emerson — His philosophy — A critique — Where his phi- losophy is defective — School for young statesmen — College for diplo- mats at Washington — Foreign ministers to be able to speak foreign languages — Dickens and his books — Mrs. Fanny Osgood and her pen 109 "LETTER XXn. No more book — Proposed departure to the Springs — The carriage and how it was stowed — The cavalcade, not omitting Dickon and his boots — The led horse and beautiful mule — Mules aristocratic animals — Negroes' admiration for new shoes — Gentlemen's hats — A suggestion to promote conversation in the parlor — An expression of thanks in a P.S 17i LETTER XXin. The secret — Visit to Columbia — The birth-place and mother of a presi- dent — The Gothic institute — The professor and his halls — The curi- osity of a bevy of girls — A lioness — The unlucky poet — Kate's in- dignation — The colonel's surprise — The punishment — The forgiveness — The dreaded poem 186 LETTER XXIV. The Eden of Tennessee — The editor's excursion — Duck river, or, what is in a name? — A beautiful villa and grounds— Bishop Otey at hia home — Refleetions upon death— Beautiful scenery — The art of smok- ing — A few feminine suggestions and criticisms on smoking cigars... 194 CONTENTS. 11 LETTER XX V^. PAcn A watering place — Its tedium — The last resort — Description of the place — Noon-day scenes — The fishing lawyer and bis horse — The fat gentleman and his Catastrophe — An alarm — General waking up — Dinner-bell — The bonhommie of the slave — Unbroken forest — An Etbiopian dinner — Night and it« sounds 200 LETTER XXVLv/' The hour and pen for writing — The return home — The village of Mount Pleasant — Ken Hill and scholarly men — Donald M'Leod — The ne- glect of education — Count Meolis — Bonbons — The delights of home — Keep moving — A proposed trip to New Orleans — The power of song — Jenny Lind 212 LETTER XXVIL ^ The novelty of south-western life — An enumeration of objects of in- terest — The young southerner — The fair maiden of the sunny south y — Run-a-way matches — Sargent's song — Bats in the room — Terror of young ladies — The battle and victory — The colonel lectures on bats — They devour musquitoes, not maidens 222 LETTER XXVIILv^' The baggage — Parting at the park — Pets — The mystery of brute life — Scenery — Arrival at the steamer — The noble America — The beauty of the verandahs — Elegance and luxury — The promenade — State- rooms — Departure of the boat — The last bell 233 LETTER XXIX. The beauty of the Ohio — The pirates' cave — The river robbers — The good old keel -boat times — Life on the river fifty years ago — The grave beneath the sycamore — The old pilot's story — The assassination — Revelations of the future — The exquisite and bis hat — The deserters shot — The pilothouse — Father of waters 241 LETTER XXX. Entrance into the Mississippi — Meeting of the waters — The dark river — The dangers of the Mississippi — Beautiful sun-set — Chain of lakes Night on the water — The woodmen's fires — The captain's story — Signal fires and the ruse — Earthquakes — The bear and alarm 251 12 CONTENTS. LETTER XXXL / V PA»X The city of Natchez — Its elegance — The beauty of its suburbs — Its polished people — The magnolias — Drire from town — A superb villa — Visit a charming garden — A lovely prospect — Southern flowers — The night-blooming cereus — The grave of "good old Peter" — Reflec- tions upon " faithful servants" ^ 259 LETTER XXXII.y ■ The old family — The position of governesses in the south — Of tutors — 1 The evil of northern interference with the 'south — The meeting of \ Kate with a friend — The education of southern boys — The dead shot — The Indian chief and Sharp's rifle— The Indian grave and the Christian chapel — Subject for a poem 267 y LETTER XXXIIL Lost needles — The old parson — The carefully entrusted package — Let- ter from the editor naming the loss — Reflections upon missing MSS — Two parcels lost — Value of manuscripts to authors — " To be pre- served" 276 LETTER XXXIV. In Louisiana — Letters from the prairies — Narrative resumed — The steamer in sight — Fort Rosalie — Go on board — AVaving of kerchiefs — The fawn's leap — Opulence spoils authors — The elegant steamer — The mysterious passenger 283 LETTER XXXV.y Interior of a packet— The fine old southern gentleman — Happy world — Wanderingpen — The interesting in valid — Superb piano performance of a stranger — Operatic stars — Not Jenny Lind — Who is she? — Mu- sical genius of southern women — Biscaccianti — Parodi— Letters from Louisiana , 289 LETTER XXXVL ' The lower Mississippi — Scenery on the shores — A vast cotton field — Wealth of cotton-planters — The way to get rich — Baton Rouge — The home of General Taylor — Old Whitey — Ladies of Baton Rouge — Members of the legislature — Voyage resumed 296 LETTER XXXVIL The old pilot — The red pole — A corsair of Louisiana — The old times of river buccaneers— A hint for a story writer — The pirate's death — The CONTENTS. 18 ' FAei governor's bride — A bit of romance — Senator Benjamin — His ap- pearance — Discussion and talent — Tiie intellect of the Jews — Their ambition — President of the United States 302 LETTER XXXVIII. The sugar estate — Chateau and quartier — Sucrerie — Cost of opening a x sugar estate — An enchanting scene — Signal Ores — The two convents ^ — Education of girls therein — Dame Ursula and her legends — The influence of convents over the minds of pupils — Romanism — Prayers and pedes 309 LETTER XXXIX.y Descendants of the French in Louisiana — View from n balcony — Pass- ing steamers — Sugar fields — A Louisianian chateau — Tiie slave village — Sugar house — M. de Clery's son — A secret — Proposed visit to New Orleans — An engagement — Lovers to be chosen for their good temper.. 316 LETTER XL. Music by night — Isabel — Musquito-bars — The carriage road — The levee — Danger of the dwellers on the *' coast" — What a crevasse is — How it begins and is stopped — The authoress guardian over a lover — The midnight tocsin — A conflagration — A prayer for those in danger 322 LETTER XLL First impressions of a city — The foreign aspect of New Orleans — The Indian war-whoop — The conductor and the old lords of the soil — The poodle-dog — The Frenchman and his bird — The cake — The conversa- tion with the prisoner in the cage — The grandpa meets his family — The joy of the household — The escapade — The consternation and pur- suit. 328 LETTER XLIL Approach to the city — Gardens and villas — Arrival at the depot — An Irish hackman — Chinaman with kites — Handsome bouquet seller — The parrot man — Isidore buys a bouquet — The drive to the St. Lonis -Its palace-like accommodations 334 14 CONTENTS. LETTER XLIII. nan The leveo at New Orleans — Ride along the quay — The ships of Sweden — Jenny Lind, Thorwaldsen, and Frederika Bremer — The half- masted flags — The ships of England, France, and Spain — Wharf for steamers — The glory and splendor of commerce — The fate of all an- cient commercial cities 338 LETTER XLIV. The model hotel-proprietor — Diplomas — Hotel-keeping an art and pro- fession — The French part of the city — Shops — The old cigar-smoker — Indifference to observation of the French — New Orleans composed of two cities — Children even speak French — An exile — A German prince — nearly all languages spoken in the city 345 LETTER XLV. The peculiarity of the streets — ^Young ladies taught philosophy — The Place d'Armes and its gay scenes — Visit to the cathedral — Veiled lady — The confessional — Secret of power — The picture of the Pas- sion — Mariolatry — Reason for it in the inseparability of the Madonna and Child— St. Patrick's cathedral— 111 built church 362 LETTER XLVI. Return to the country — Correction of error caused by misplaced notes — Nicolene — "Who is she? — Friendship without sight — A greeting to the loved unknown — A wedding in prospect — Taxes upon taste — Isi- dore — Aunt Cloe icing cakes — Bosting-way 360 LETTER XLVIL Danger of postponement of wedding — Objections now to the nuptials — Isidore in despair — Kate the consoler — Colonel Peyton condemns all fashion — A new idea — M. de Clery is charmed with it — Whipping around the stump — The excitement of preparation — What daughters exchange for husbands — Blessings on the happy pair 364 LETTER XLVIIL A wedding — Men's curiosity — The dogs, birds, and sable urchins rejoice — Old Bonus — A howling dog supposed to be an ill omen — Muzzled — The visit to the chapel — The parson and his mule — Beauty of scenery — The chapel — The grave — Reflections upon life and death — Parting with the bride fills her heart with tears 371 CONTENTS. 15 LETTER XLIX. PAOI The cortege — Slave costume — The wreath of orange blossoms — Beau- tiful girls — Twenty-four bridesmaids — The wedding — The kissing — The congratulations — Return to the chateau — Dinner party — Lost and won hearts — Betrayal of a secret — Intended departure for New York — An old maid of two and twenty 376 LETTER L. Preparations for Havanna — The dignity of Webster — A letter to Charley — The unfledged blue bird — The trouble of its parents — Congress of the forest dwellers — The efforts of the friends of the unfortunate — Kate's compassion — A ladder and cotton — Moral to little boys 382 LETTER LL Descending the Mississippi — The Balize — Singular appearance of the vessels — The beauty of the first night on the gulf — The splendor of Orion and Pleiades — Were there ever seven stars ? — The native poetry of children , 388 LETTER LTL Havanna — The Moro Castle — A line of battle ship — The scenes in the streets of Havanna — The British flag — The glory of America — The empire of republics — The Triumviri — Who takes their place? 394 LETTER LUL New York — Neptune — Calm seas — The living heart under the sea — Vessels met in the ocean — Our passengers of ten nations — The Is- raelite — What is a Jew ? — Has he a country — The future commercial splendor of the Israelites 399 LETTER LIV. The departure oversea — Leave the city — Cars to Boston — M. de Cressy — The aspect of Boston — Literary society — Germon — Mrs. Partington — Her literary ambition and failure — Homeward bound — Quiet of (he country 405 LETTER LV. My native village — The scenes at home — The visits of neighbors — The deacon inquisitive — Bible trees — The new dresses — Buttonhole and his seven suits — The proposition to print a book — The proposed title — Diffidence of the authoress — Farewell to literature 410 J M CONTENTS. LETTER LVI. PASS A surprise — Marriage of Kate nearly three years ago — Letter from her friend, the editor — Letters to be resumed — Little Harry — Little needles — Consent to write — Quiet and elegant home — Kate a southern matron , 416 LETTER LVIL Mistaken for another — The European Miss Conyngham — Letters un- written of a tour — The route to Thibodeaux — Bayous and boat-sail- iug-^Sugar fields — Customs of the people — Saturday gatherings — The barges of the planters — A charming country 421 LETTER LVIILV Illawalla or Lover's Lake — Beautiful lawns — The house and grounds — Imaginary letter of the editor — Description of a southern home — Kat«'s criticisms — Homes and heaven — What constitutes a home — The words of Jesus — Cities the results of the fall — Race with a deer — The Indian lover's death 430 LETTER LIX. , The picture — Aunt Winny — Florette and Harry — Aunt Winny's expe- rience — The voice and silver trumpet — The old slave's argument about tongues — The vision — The preacher and baptism — The miracle and superstition of the slave — Reflection upon negro conversions — An answer to an inquiry 437 LETTER LX. Shopping — The new fashion — Chloe and the mode — Dissertation upon hats and fashion generally — An academy of fashions — A suggestion to the ladies of America — A good result from an American court of modes — Preparation for a picnic 448 LETTER LXL The commissariat's department — Harry and the doctor — The baskets and parcels — The Xebec — the floating boudoir — Uncle Ned the steersman — The two sisters — Louis the lover — Harry not Cupid — The bayou — Breakfast en voyage — Accession to the party — The good wishes — Harry's accomplishments 463 CONTENTS. 17 LETTER LXII. " Talkative pens — Thibodeaus — Enter La Fourche — The voyage begun — The torch-light funeral of the nun — The goddess Mary — The prophecy and a little theology — The sugar estate — The savannahs — A deer— An alligator— The Gulf, ho 1 462 LETTER LXIIL^ Authors and money — The sight of the Gulf— Hoist sail — The sugar sloop — Gulf trade — Children's speeches—The condition of the slave. — Northern interference — Southern humanity — When a black Moses is wanted, Heaven will send him — The anchoring — Tent pitched — An alarm 471 LETTER LXIV. Identity of authors — Speculations — Pen — Names — Our tent lodgings — The Revenue Cutter — Successful sport — Visit to Barrataria Bay — The apparent volcano at sea — The sphericity of the earth — The needle and light-ship — Lafitte's Fort 482 LETTER LXV. The summer resort of Louisianians — The Roman Chapel — " Mary and Paul" — Adoration of the mother — The marquis — The post-mistress and her brave father — Captain Hearn — G entilit y — The mound and Indian warrior — Bathing and swimming 491 LETTER LXVL Leave the Pass — The Oregon — Lake by moonlight — The beauty of the sea by night — Meeting a vessel — Grass Patch — The Fleet Anchorage The Cutter — Captain Douglas Ottinger, inventor of the Life Car — Mobile — Its bay and watering places — Hotels 500 LETTER LXVILx/ The Southern clime — Society in Mobile — Beauty of suburbs — Society Madame Le Vert — Absent in Europe — An adventurer of the female sex — " Noble friends" — The jewelry discovery — Flight of the countess 505 LETTER LXVIIL-^ Leave the hospitalities of Mobile — Its pleasant people and fine drives Sail up the Alabama — Montgomery — Ring left at the hotel — Con- duotor'/j promise — Augusta — Columbia a Paradise — Charleston and South Carolinians — The Triumviri ., 513 2 18 CONTENTS. LETTER LXrX. PAGB An old Virginia Inn— First Families— Walter Raleigh — Scenery of Virginia— The son of nohles — The Inn parlor — Sumptuous table — •Trip to Europe — Farewell 521 THE SUNNY SOUTH; OB, THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. LETTER I. Dear Mr. : Not that you are very " dear" to me, for' I never saw you in all my life, but then one must begin their epistles, and as everybody says dear, and don't mean any thing by it, I say dear too, and don't mean any thing by it, so don't flatter yourself in the least ; for, if it were the fashion, and the whim hit my fancy, I should just as likely have written " Bear." You edi- tors presume so much, you need to be put down. I was going to begin my letter by saying why I call my letters "needles." Not, you may rest assured, be- cause they are likely to be sharp and keen, for I have no doubt that they will be vastly dull, but one must have a title, and what must one do for one? Simple '^Letters" would never tempt the eye. The pill must be gilt. You would, no doubt, laugh very good-hu- moredly if I should confess to you that I have been (19) 2J0 THS SUNNY SOUTH ; OR, ^otliefing my poor little head for three hours to-day for a title. A celebrated author once told me, — for I have seen such lions in my day, and talked and flirted with these lords of the quill, too, — that he thought more of his "titles" than of the matter of his books, and that was no slight matter either ! He said he had sometimes written out on a long paper, (like a subscrip- tion list, I suppose,) a score of names, and then carefully studied them, fancied how they would take the eye of the lounger in the book-stores, or the passer-by, who should glance at the big poster : he even used to go so far as to set the title up in type, an amateur fount of which he kept by him for this purpose, before he fully fixed upon his " clap-trap." Now, I can imagine all this to be very necessary, and 1 give this author credit for no inconsiderable knowledge of human nature. Half the novels are bought by their titles by half the world. I used to buy them so. When I took this weighty fact into consideration, I was sore perplexed. "Letters" I was resolved not to have. "Epistles" looked like the New Testament, and I felt it too sacred a word for me to make light use of ; for I was very properly brought up to reverence any thing about the Scriptures. I thought of " Pen and Ink" sketches — a nice title, but Mr. Willis had invented and used it : happy gentleman with a gift for happy titles ! for his "Pencillings by the Way" is another that came into my head, and I tried every way to parody it, but I couldn't manage it at all, and gave it up. I thought of " Dots and Lines," but somebody had got it before me, and no- thing seemed left but Dot and go One; when, in my troubles I pricked my finger with a needle that was THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. 21 in my needle-book, which I was turning and turning in my fingers while I was cogitating about my title. In- stantly the idea flashed upon me, and the words, "Nee- dles from my Needle-Book !" I seemed to read in the air before my eyes. For fear I should forget the happy combination, I scribbled it down on the spot, and deter- mined to adopt it. No doubt you will expect to find something short and shrewd, ascetic and attic in my articles, but I pro- mise you that you must look for nothing of the kind ; for it only takes great authors to write books that have nothing to do with their titles, nor their titles with them. The only defence I can make of my caption is that it is very appropriate to my sex, being a fair weapon either of offence or defence, as well as the glittering shuttle of female industry. Would you believe it, sir, my pupil, a wicked rogue of a beauty of sixteen, (for you must know I am a governess, and but nineteen and a little over^ myself,) she has seen my title, and says I had bet- ter put, " Scissors" to it? Scissors and Needles ! Dear us, ]Mr. ! what would you have thought to have opened my package, and had this title met your asto- nished editorial eyes ? "SCISSORS AND NEEDLES:" "by A YANKEE GIRL." You have had in this specimen a touch of my South- western pupil's mischief, and you shall know more of her by-and-by, perhaps, if you print this letter and don't say any thing saucy about it ; for editors, who have lady correspondents, ought to be exceedingly well-behaved and mannerly, and appreciate the honor done them.- Now, 22 THE SUNNY SOUTH; OK, having introduced my title to you, how shall I introduce myself and all the subjects I intend to let my pen run on about ? I shall not give you my name, nor give you any clue to it, if you should be never so curious to find it out ; for men have so much curiosity ! even where there will be, as in my case, nothing worth the trouble of finding out, for I am not so vain as to fancy I shall ever be worth asking after. It will take more ink and paper than I shall ever destroy, to make a lady who would be "literary" singled out of the troupes of has bleu that fill the land like the golden-winged butterflies in May. But I will do what I can to please, for my poor, innocent pen has got to travel a weary length, and I long to make happy more than one dear heart in this world. Authorship is not woman's sphere by nature, but by circumstances only. Oh, how many a gentle lady has the needle of poverty pricked on to seize, with trembling fingers, the awe-inspiring pen ! and dip it into her heart, to write out its life for bread ! Weary, oh ! weary is the path to woman's little feet — the path fur- rowed deep by the ploughshare of penury. In the fur- rows she drops the seeds of hope, and waters them with tears. It is a rough way this path amid types, and in the hustle for popularity and pennies, the sex is not spared by the ruder ones, and the critic's iron point, that maddens the strong man, pierces to the heart the timid woman ! Yet, once started, she must Avrite or die ; or, worse still, be dependent ; and this, to a proud wo- man, is the first death of this world's deaths. Do not think I am going to charge my palette with sombre tints, from these few sentences foregoing, or that I am in tears because I am for the first tiiae taking up TJIE SOUTHEKNER AT HOME. 28 the fearful pen to write for coins of silver. I am young and full of hope, and my heart bounds with cheerful thoughts. I do not speak in allusion to myself, there- fore, when I say that it is a sad lot for a woman to be compelled to toil with pen and ink for her bread ; for the prospect before me is a pleasing one. The very idea that probably I shall see in print what I am writing, (if it please your pleasure, sir, to print it, though little worth it, I fear,) fills my bosom with an in- definable sensation of joy, slightly mingled with a timid apprehension. I am dying to see myself in type; not in the place where marriages are noticed ; don't naughtily misconceive my meaning, sir ; for I am not going to be married till I enjoy myself sensibly as a "young woman," a little longer yet. My situation here is a happy one, and if I only lived for myself I should not put pen to paper; for I am blessed with all I require to make me contented and grateful. The timid apprehension, I feel when I look forward, arises from a creeping doubt which once in a while coils itself around the tree of hope in my heart, touching the acceptance of my communications; for this doubt insinuates, with very serpent-like wicked- ness, that I shall not be proved to be clever enough to write any thing worth the printing. But "hope, and hope on," is the motto of my adoption, and I shall not despair : I never could despair. It seems to me that if I stood alone, the last one alive, upon a burning wreck in the mid Mediterranean, I should not despair, but be- lieve that rescue would come. This letter is only an introductory needle, a sort of autorial probe, to feel the way; or rather like the first 24 THE SUNNY SOUTH; OR, needle placed in an electrical battery, to be increased afterwards in number, as the patient will bear. Your correspondent, Kate. Dated from Overtok Park, beyokd the An-EanANiEs. P. S. In my next, I will tell you something about our Manor-house, and how this West-south land strikes the eye of one, cradled as I have been, among the Granite Mountains of the Pilgrim Land. THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. 25 LETTER II. It -wrould no doubt please you, Mr. , to learn something about us here at Overton Lodge — for this is the name of the fine old Western Homestead for -which T have exchanged my cold, yet warm-hearted northern clime. Overton Lodge, then, please to know, is a large, commodious mansion of brick, square and stately, with a double storied portico in front, from the upper gallery of which is one of the finest landscape views a painter's eye — even the eye of the deathless Cole — would care to banquet on. In Tennessee? you will say, with a quizzi- cal movement of the under lip, and an incredulous drop- ping of the outward corner of the nether eyelid. Yes, in Tennessee, sir, for Overton Park is in this Western Empire State. But, to my sketch — and don't interrupt me sir, for any doubts about the verity of my writings, for I never romance ; ladies can write something besides romances, sir! From this upper portico the view stretches for miles and leagues away, to a blue range of boldly beautiful hills, that, when the atmosphere is a little hazed, seem to be the blue sky itself bending down to repose upon the undulating sea of forests, at their base. Between these azure walls that bound our horizon westward, and the mansion, lie belts of noble woodland, intermingled with green intervals, through which wind transparent, 26 THE SUNNY SOUTH; OK, rock-channeled rivulets, (they would call them rivers in England,) bordered by fringes of maple, sycamore, and oak trees, opulent with verdure. Nearer the house, comprising the first breadth of view, a mile and a half in width, stretch right and left the rich cotton and tobacco fields, like, in the distant coup d'ceil, lakes of blue and green water, slightly ruffled by the breeze; while their level surface is relieved at pretty in- tervals by islands of trees — half acre clumps grouped in groves, and left by the overseer for shade, where slaves can retire in the fervid noon, to eat their coarse but abundant dinner, doubtless to them savory as Parisian cuisinerie. The picturesque aspect of these grove-islands is enhanced by the white walls of a negro-shelter-hut, which is built upon columns to afi"ord protection from the rain. The "Lodge," being placed with an eye to the capa- bilities of the surrounding prospect, upon a gently rising eminence, which is clothed with gardens, to its foot, has a very imposing appearance, as it is approached along a winding carriage-way, that leads to it from the stage road. This is at least a league off, and its place can be indicated on dusty days from the house, by clouds of reddish brown dust rolled into the air and curling along the hedges, disturbed by the heavy wheels of the mail coach,' or the lighter progress of some planter's carrkge on its way from town. • It seemed to me when I first came in sight of the mansion, that was to be (I don't know how long) my home, that I was approaching the mansion of some English Baronet, at least ; and the scenery of this part of Tennessee, I am told, bears a striking resemblance to THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. 27 that in the best part of England ; and I can bear testi- mony that the neighboring gentlemen are vying in taste and wealth with each other, to make this country one of the most lovely in the land. For you must know that this is an opulent district, and the planters here count their estates rather by miles than acres. I have described only the view in front of this stately edifice, from which I am writing you. From a little balcony that opens from my chamber window south, I get a view of a vale and upland, dotted with sheep and cattle, tended by a blind negro boy, who whistles all day, and I have no doubt sleeps soundly all night; who, with his dog, complete a very nice picture of its kind. The crest of the upland is topped by a wood, out of which, just where the acclivity dips eastward, stares a huge, bald, gray rock, in shape as much like a lion's head, as either of the heads of those lions on your Exchange steps in Philadelphia, for which I am credibly informed that a famous dog, belonging to a Monsieur Gardel, a talented gentleman of your city, sat ; and very good lions they are — very like lions ! If I recollect right, this dog, who sat as a model for a pair of lions, was called " Nep- tune." I remember once seeing him at West Point, and falling in love with him, (with "Nep," not Monsieur G.,) when I was about — about — let me see — thirteen. But let me finish my scenery. This lion's-head rock hangs over a deep tarn, where at mid-day, the water is black and polished as glass ebon ; and near the tarn, not five yards from its margin, rises thirty feet in height, a green pyramid, one of the sepulchral mounds of the noble, 28 THE SUNNY SOUTH; OR, brave, mysterious Indians, now wasted, as McLellan, one of the New England poets, says, *' Like April snows In the warm noon," before the burning radiance of the sun of civilization. On the east side of the mansion, there is quite a different view from either I have described. First, the eye rests on a vast vegetable and fruit garden, a score of good roods broad, crossed by wide graveled walks, dotted with hot-houses, and enclosed by a white paling, half- concealed in a luxuriant hedge of the thorny and beautiful Cherokee rose. At two corners of the garden erected on high places, is perched a monstrous pigeon house, to and fro, above and about which its soft winged tenants are flying in clouds at all times, like the scriptural doves to their windows. Of all birds, I love the dove, the home dove, with its blue and brown breast, its affectionate, trustful glance, and its musical, happy coo. I have loved them in the streets of my native town from a child, and stopped and "watched them till I forgot school hour, and dinner hour, as they fluttered, hopped, sidled, and pranced about the fallen oats under the farmer's cart, or crowded about the shop doors. I never failed to have my pocket filled with grain and crumbs for them, and I cannot noAV but smile at the re- collection of myself, at twelve years old, seated on a curb-stone, surrounded, and lit upon, and run oyer, and almost had my eyes put out by their wings, ias they eagerly shared my bounty out of my hands and lap. Many a black mark at school for tardiness, and many a • THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. 29 scolding at home have I to lay to the account of the blue doves. Yet I love them still ; and ere long thej will find out — these in the dove-cotes — that they have a friend near; and I dare say in my little balcony, ere I have been here a month, will be enacted the street scenes of my girlish days. Beyond the garden is a large pond or lake, and on the declivity of the opposite shore appears, half hid in the trees of its pretty streets, one of the most novel and striking towns I ever beheld. It is the " Quartier" or African village of the estate, the Negropolis of the slave population. It is composed of some thirty dwellings, white-washed, one story high, arranged on two streets that follow the margin of the pond. Each cottage is neat and comfortable, with a small garden patch behind it ; and in front are rows of shade trees for the whole length of the street, growing near enough to each house to afford shade to the roofs. The streets themselves are green sward, intersected by well-trodden footpaths which lead from door to door. Overlooking them all, and a little higher up the gentle ascent, is a house of more pretension, built of brick, with a belfry at one end, containing a bell as loud as a church bell, which I hear rung every morning at day- break, and at noon, and at nine o'clock -at night. This house belongs to, or rather is occupied by, the overseer, or manager, as these gentlemen prefer being designated. Over this house rises a majestic range of mountainous heights, of great beauty, from the summit of one of which, three miles off, and which is designated bv a single scathed tree rising from a bosom of foliage, ii v;cw 30 THE SUNNY SOUTH; OR, can be obtained, with a good glass, of the citj, six leagues or thereabouts to the north ; and also of one of the shining windings of the romantic Cumberland, as it, for a mile or two, leaves its embracing cliffs to roll gloriously along in the cloudless sunlight. THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. 31 LETTER III. Tou will have formed some idea, Mr. , from the descriptions in my last, of the characteristics of the place from which I write these communications. Yoif will perceive that I am domiciliated in one of those fine old mansions of the West where the lordly proprietors live more like feudal nobles than simple farmers. In the • bosom of this beautiful scenery which I have endeavored to picture to you, and within the walls of this hospitable abode, I hope to make my home, at least for two years to come. Perhaps you would like to know something about me before I came here to assume, at the age of nineteen, the grave and responsible position of governess. I am quite willing to gratify your curiosity. But first let me de- scribe to you what is now passing beneath my window, for I write within full sight of the lawn. There I can see Colonel Peyton, the father of my pupil, seated upon a finely formed bay nag, a rifle laid carelessly across his saddle, and two fine deer-dogs standing by his horse's forelegs and looking up wistfully into their master's face. He has upon his head a broad-brimmed, white beaver, turned up in front, something after the fashion of the an- cient cocked hat, a manner of wearing it that lends him, with his manly features and silver gray locks, a decided military air. Over a brown linen hunting frock is slung a 82 ■ THE SUNNY SOUTH ; OR, leather belt, appended to which is his powder-horn and shot-bag ; and with his boots drawn d la Hussar, over his trowsers, and armed with silver spurs, he sits accoutred for the field, a handsome specimen of an American Western gentleman preparing for a hunt. Standing just in front of his stirrup is a negro fifty years of age, (about his master's,) his old straw hat in his hand and his head bont forward in an attitude at once respectful and attentive, listening to orders from his master. " You hear, Pete, that as soon as the young gentlemen arrive, you are to mount the filly and bring them to the wood." " Yiss, massa !" and Peter bowed like a thorough-bred gentleman, so courteous was the air with which he bent his head. " You will find me either at the Crow's Pine, or else about the Salt Lick. See that they bring their guns." " Yiss, massa!" "And don't let that noisy whelp of yours," here the colonel cracked his whip-lash at a wretched, shaggy monster of a dog that crouched, as if fully conscious of his bad reputation, behind the legs of the negro ; " don't let him come into the forest again ; if he does, I'll hang him. He spoiled our sport last Thursday." •" I know he did, mass'. He berry ignorum dog, some- time ; he nebber hab much telligencts like odder gemmen dogs, massa; but Injun shan't come dis time." The colonel now pointed with the end of his riding whip to a gate, which Peter hastened to open ; standing bare-headed till his master rode through it; and then closing it he returned to the house, the villainous-looking dog Injun capering about him, as much overjoyed at THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. S|3 being released from the awe of the coloncrs eye, as a roguish school-hoy when the "master" steps out. "You mighty grad, Injun, aint you?" I overhear Peter say to his companion, *' but you better keep quiet and min' you' business at home, or sure 'nuff massa '11 hab you hang'd. You a'n't fit hunt deer like de gem- men's genteel dog, you nigger you; all you do is frighten 'em away from de stan', and keep massa and oder gem- men from gettin' shot at 'em, you scar'crow! Massa sarve you right he shoot you, Injun!" Peter's voice was lost as he went with a limping shuffle around the house. I can see the noble form of the colonel as his horse bears him along the avenue, and so out across the green dell at an easy pace. Now he stops to speak to the poor blind shepherd boy, who raises his cap, and seems happy to be noticed. The sheep start and bound away before the horse's feet, and the lazy kine slowly give him the path. Now he winds about the base of the lion's head cliff, and is now lost to sight in the dark grove of elm and maple that half conceals the tarn. Above his head wheels the black-winged vulture in ap- proaching circles, as if he well knew that there was always blood to be found in the hunter's path. I will return to my room, and resume — myself! But I am again interrupted. The ajar door of my elegant apartment opens, and a negress of sixteen enters with a silver cup of water, upon a silver salver. She is bare- footed, and her head is bound with a gay handkerchief tastefully and uniquely twisted into a sort of oriental turban ; for the taste of these daughters of Africa is in- stinctively Eastern. A blue cotton gown completes her simple attire, save a pair of bright brass ear-rings, and 34 THE SUNNY SOuflf; OR, a couple of brass and one silver ring upon her shapely fingers; for her hands, and fingers, and finger nails, though the former are brown as a chestnut, are exquisitely shaped. Ugly hands seem to belong to the Anglo Sax- ons, I think, especially to those of cold climates ; for the farther we go south, the more elegant the female hand. The name of the African maid is Eda, which is, I suppose, a corruption of Edith. She was given to my charge as my waiting-woman, on the first evening of my arrival here ; and by night she sleeps on a rug at the door of my chamber. At first, I was shocked and alarmed to have a negress sleep in the chamber with me ; but now, I am so accustomed to her presence, and she is so willing, so watchful, so attentive, so useful, that I am quite reconciled to having her. "Missis, glass water, please?" she said,- curtseying, and dropping her large lustrous eyes with habitual submission, as she presented the salver. . I had not asked for water, but I find that it is the custom for some one of the servants to go over the house several times a day to every person, wherever they hap- pen to be, whether on the portico walking, or in the library reading, or even pursuing them into the garden to ofier them water. This is a hospitable, and in the hot weather of this climate, a refreshing custom. South- erners are all great water drinkers. At evening, when we are seated on the piazza, enjoying the beauty of the western skies, sherbet, water, fruit, and even ice creams have been brought out to us. Indeed, there seems to be some useful person continually engaged in some myste- rious corner of this large house, preparing luxuries to THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. 85 dispense through the day to the inmates, and to chance visitors, of which there are not a few. When I first arrived here, and it has heen scarcely a month — I was amazed at the number of servants. There are no less than seven in the house, and full as many more connected with the gardens, stables, and for out- door domestic duty, beside the two hundred plantation hands that work always in the field as agriculturists ; for the domestic slaves and the field slaves are two distinct classes on an estate like this, and never interchange labor, save indeed, when a refractory house servant is sometimes sent into the field, to toil under the hot sun as punishment, for a week or so. And the difierence is not merely in employment, but in character and appear- ance. The field servant is heavy, loutish, and slow; his features scarce elevated in expression above the mule, which is his co-laborer. The domestic servant is more sprightly, better clad, more intelligent and animated, , apes polite manners, and imitates the polished airs of the i/ well-bred "white folk." By contact constantly with the "^ family, they use better language, have their faculties sharpened, and, in a dozen ways, show their superiority to the less favored helots of the plough. This superior- * ity they love to exhibit, and I have been amused at their assumption of hauteur when they had occasion to hold intercourse with any of the "field hands," sent to the- house on an errand. Altogether the house servants are very difierent crea- tures. Four of them have intelligent faces, are excel- lent pastry-cooks, laundresses, dairywomen, and seam- stresses, and seem, really, to take as much part and o6 THE SUNNY south; op., lively interest in household matters as the matron, their mistress. " Can you read, Eda?" I asked of my little Timhuctoo maid, as I replaced the silver tumbler on the waiter. "No, Missis," and her large velvet-black eyes danced in their wide pearly spheres, as if she thought it would be a fine thing to know how. "I know spell my name, missis. Missy Bel teach me dat!" In my next you shall, certainly, have a little account of myself; but I feel myself of so little importance, that the least thing tempts my pen away from the egotistical theme. Yours respectfully, Kate C. THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. 8? LETTER IV. Just as I was about to drop my pen into my ink- stand to commence this epistle, the clear, startling cry of a hunter's horn in the forest drew me to the window, which overlooked the south, and the cliflf called the Lion's head. Just emerging from the wood was a caval- cade, that reminded me of something of a similar de- scription Scott has in one of his romances. First, there rode the colonel, our "lord of the manor," bare-headed, his gun laid across his saddle-bow, and his hunting skirt open at the collar, and thrown negligently back over his shoulders. By his side were some half dozen dogs, trotting along with their red tongues lolling out and look- ing, for all the world, thoroughly beat out with the day's chase. Behind the colonel came a negro, mounted, with a wounded dog laid across the neck of his horse. Be- hind the negro, riding on elegantly shaped horses, cantered two young men, one of them very handsome, but dressed in a frock coat, and gaiters of blue cottonade. His rifle was slung at his back ; he was belted, and a knife and a powder flask were in his girdle. His companion was more fashionably dressed, and instead of a rifle carried only a light bird gun. In the rear followed two negro men on foot, bearing between them a slain deer, slung by the fetlocks to a newly-cut branch. Two or three African boys, and some half dozen more dogs completed 38 THE SUNNY SOUTH; OK, the cortege. One of the young men (the handsome one in the kerseys) carried a horn, which, ever and anon, he wound cheerily to give notice at the Lodge of their ap- proach. So I will leave them to make their way to the house, and fulfil the promise made in my last, to let you understand why a Yankee girl finds herself a dweller in the far South-west. Shall I begin in the true romantic vein, Mr. , or in the style biographique? I think I will, for the sake of trying my forte that way, assume the manner of the tale- writers ; for perhaps one of these days, who knows? I may get to the dignity of being a story-writer to the Ledger or magazines, a distinction (all things being equal — that is, the quid being equal to the quo as my brother used to say) I should feel highly honored, I confess, to arrive at. Now to my own story : Once upon a time there stood in a New England village, not far from Portland in Maine, a little cottage, white, with a portico trellised by honeysuckles, and a little gate in the paling in the front of it. The cottage stood upon a quiet street, near the outskirts of the village, and was so near the river-bank, that I, who was one of the "cottagers," could toss pebbles into its lucid bosom from my window. It was a quiet spot, this village with its garden-buried houses, its one tin-plated spire, shining in the sun like a silver "extinguisher," its green river shores, and pleasant woodlands where the boys had famous bird's-nesting of Saturday afternoons. My father, a naval ofiicer of name and honor, fell sick and died on a foreign station, leaving my mother with six little mouths to feed, and six little backs to keep warm, and six little heads to fill with learning. To aid THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. S9 her to do all this, she received a narrow pension allowed her for her widowhood. It was a sore struggle for the mother to guard and nourish and cover her large hrood with such narrow wings. Her widowed feathers would hardly cover us all, and some of us always were suf- ferers, either for supper, a pair of shoes, or may be a frock, or jacket, or a necessary school-book. But Providence takes care of the widow, and so none of us perished ; nay, were ever sick, and what with kind neighbors, (oh, how many hind neighbors there are in the world !) what, with presents of Christmas-days, Thanks- giving-days, and the blessed Common-school where we all went without cost, we managed to weather the beginning of life bravely. Charles, my elder brother, through the kindness of the member of Congress from our district, had his name presented to the Secretary of the Navy for a midship- man's warrant ; but, none ofifering, soon the same kind influence placed him in West Point as a cadet, and now he is a lieutenant, and won, though it is a sister's praise, a distinguished name on the fields of Mexico. If I dared name him, sir, you would at once bear testimony to the truthfulness of my eulogy. The second child, a daughter, after as good an edu- cation as the village school ofi"ered, was chosen at the age of sixteen as its assistant, and after three years she married a young minister, near Norfolk, Ya., who sub- sequently went abroad as a missionary, and is now a resident in a far, far land. The third child was a son, who, inspired by the tales of his father's exploits on the ocean during the war, went to sea, before the mast, as he said, "to win a 40 THE SUNNY SOUTH; OR, name." Seven years have elapsed since his departure, and he has not been heard from, and I fear that we shall meet no more in this life. He was a noble, bold, chival- rous boy, and my mother's joy ! If he is alive, I know that he is yet worthy of our love and pride. The fourth child is your humble correspondent, of whom I will speak when I have dismissed the remaining two. The fifth is a girl ; but alas ! she is an invalid, having a lame hip, which confines her to the house. She is the loveliest flower of our family parterre ! Never were such deep, dark, glorious eyes as hers ! They speak ! Her face is exquisitely shaped, every feature as soft and spi- ritual as the gentle angel faces we see in dreams ! I can behold her now — the enchanting Ida, seated by my mother's knee on her favorite stool, her heavenly face of pure intelligence blended with love, upturned with a smile. She is now sixteen, but there is so much wisdom in her eyes, so much gravity in her manner, the result of suffering, that she seems twenty. But her figure is child-like, and faultless as that of the chiseled Greek Slave ! Noble Ida ! If thy eyes should rest on these lines, accept, sweet sister mine, this tribute of love and memory ! She is my mother's second self, the partner of her hours, the confidant of her heart's secrets, the angel of her presence. The sixth is a boy, a buoyant, laughing, rollicking boy, with spirits enough in him for half a dozen girls, of whom, however, he is as shy as if he had no fine, handsome face to commend him to the romping hoydens. lie is fourteen years old, and the hahy ! He has no idea of books, and never could bend his fingers to pen- holding. His genius lies in kite-flying, fishing, rabbit- THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. ^1 (Snaring, bird's-nesting, boating on the river, and in rid- ing the ministQp's old blind horse to water, full gallop, a feat, (that is, the galloping,) the minister could never succeed in getting out of him. This brother is his mo- ther's other joy ; or, rather, Ida is her joy, and Preble (so named by my father after the gallant commodore) is her admiration. Now, if you have listened as becomes you to listen when a "fayre ladye" speaks, you know all about my family and myself. No — not myself. Be patient, and you shall have your ignorance enlightened on this score. Shall I describe myself? or shall I leave you to guess that my height is five feet four, that my hair is a dark brown, and worn smoothly so as to hide both ears like a coif, and knotted behind in very abundant folds; that my cast of beauty is brunette ; that my eyes are said to be like my sister Ida's, only less, that is to say, a little more saucy in their brilliancy ; that my nose is a very good nose as noses go ; that I have a good mouth and very fine teeth, which I don't show too much when I smile ; that I usually dress in white in summer and ma- roon in winter, and that my hand is — is — like too many of the hands of northern maidens, better looking in a glove than out of one ? I do not sing at all. I never was taught the piano, for you must by this time be aware that our little cottage had no room for such a costly afi'air, though somehow the instrument does seem to find room in a great many houses too small for it ! I do not dance, for we had no dancing-school in our village, and our mother was too sensible to have sent me to one if there had been. She knew that there were temptations enough in this naughty world to surround young people, 42 THE SUNNY SOUTH; OR, without adding to them the love of dancing, -which tempts many a sweet, good girl into many a folly, after- wards bitterly repented of. Parlor dancing, in the home circle, where grandpa joins in it, that is the only danc- ing that is truly innocent and cheerful. I draw, for my mother taught me ; I sometimes sketch, and color my efforts ; I speak and write French, being taught this by my brother when he came home at intervals from West Point. I have mastered German and Italian, and know enough of Spanish to pronounce correctly the names of all our victorious battle-fields, — a no mean acquisition in itself, they are so numerous. Lastly, I am a governess, and am aiming, with all modest difiidence and deference to your decisions, dreadful sir, to be an authoress. When I had attained my fifteenth year, I also was ad- vanced to be assistant in the school where I had been educated from a child. After two years' pleasant toil, I heard that in Massachusetts there were institutions, called Normal Schools, where young females were edu- cated to be teachers. Having some money, the fruits of my teaching, I applied to be received into this noble school, and after due time I received my diploma, attest- ing my qualifications to teach. I soon obtained a school in a considerable town, and had no expectations of doing any thing else than growing gray in my vocation, when, about a year and a half after I had come to the town, as I was locking up my castle one evening after my day's duties were over, my attention was drawn to a handsome private carriage rolling along the road. In it sat a fine- looking man, with the unmistakeable air and aspect of a Southerner, and by his side was a young girl of fifteen or sixteen, with that rich olive cheek and Italian form THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. 48 of face which distinguishes the maidens of our more sunny South. My school-house was a very pretty one, with a hand- some portico, green blinds, granite steps, a grassy yard, and neat, snow-white fence, while trees shaded as well as adorned the premises. I saw him cast his eyes over the whole with a pleased look, and then his gaze fell upon me. I dropped my eyes, and taking out the keys, put them in my bag, and was turning to go hoiiieward, when I saw the carriage stop. The gentleman, who was a man of fifty, with a fine bearing, and gray and brown locks mingled about his forehead, raised his hat, and courteously beckoned to me to approach. "Pardon me. Miss," he said, in that half apologetic tone which marked the thorough-bred gentleman, " May I take the liberty to inquire if you are a teacher?" I bowed affirmatively. " You will excuse the liberty I take, but I am desir- ous of obtaining a teacher to 'go south-west with me, and having applied to the Normal School, I was directed to this town by the Principal, who told me that there was a young lady here whom I could, no doubt, succeed in employing. As he spoke so highly of her, and gave me her address, I have driven here to have an interview with her. You will be likely to know her abode, and will oblige me by directing me to it." "What is her name, sir?" I inquired. "Miss Catharine Conyngham," he read ofi" from the back of a letter. I started with surprise and pleased confusion. lie saw my embarrassment, and read plainly the, secret in my tell-tale face. 44 THE SUNNY south; or, "Perhaps," he added, with a look of gratification, "perhaps I have the pleasure of addressing the very- person — Miss Conyngham herself?" I informed him that I was that person, when, inter- changing a glance of satisfaction with the young lady, he handed me the letter, and requested me to read it ; but first that I must get up into the carriage and sit down, but this courtesy I declined, and breaking the seal I read as follows : — But I will defer the letter to my next, as I am invited down to look at the slain deer in the back gallerj. Yours, Kate. THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. 4S LETTER V. I HAVE to apologize to you, sir, for not keeping you in "Needles," and I hope you will not say any thing very naughty, because you have not heard from me so long. I have been traveling, and could not devote any time to my pen. You know that it is the custom for planters to leave their homes for the summer months, and tour it; and, being governess, I, of course, accom- panied our family, in order to keep up my pupils in their books, though little book was learned, be assured, either at the mountains or the springs, for young folks have too much to tempt them at these places to con lessons. After a pleasant summer jaunt, we are once more in our lovely home, and I trust I shall be able to continue to write you in my leisure. Perhaps, one of these days, I may give you a description of our three months in the Mountains of Cumberland, and at the Springs of Vir- ginia. I will now resume my "Needles" where I left off, which, perhaps, you will remember was when I had just shut up my village school, and broken the seal of a letter handed to me by a strange gentleman in a car- riage. The letter was as follows, written by the super- intendent of the State Normal School : — Normal School. Dear Miss Conyngham: The bearer is Colonel Peyton, a planter of intelli- gence and fortune, who wishes a governess, who will be 46 THE SUNNY south; OPw, charged with the education of his daughter. The posi- tion seems to be a very desirable one, and I would re- commend you to accept it, if he should, after seeing you, oflfer it to you. Truly your friend, B. W. Upon reading this epistle, I looked up and saw the eyes of both Colonel Peyton and his daughter fixed upon my face, as if trying to divine the effect it had upon me. The gentle eyes of the maiden, who looked earnestly at me, as if she hoped I was not going to say "no," and the gentlemanly, agreeable manners, and the fine expres- sion of the father's face, decided me at once. " If the place is offered to me," said I, mentally, "I will not refuse it. I know I shall be happy with such persons as these." Yet I hesitated and could not speak ; for I thought of my little pupils, some of whom had entwined themselves around my heart; and I felt reluctant to leave them. While I was thinking between hope and sorrow what answer I should make — an answer that would perhaps govern my future destiny — Colonel Peyton was pleased to say kindly : " I fear. Miss, that you are going to disappoint us. The high terms in which you have been spoken of to me, are confirmed by seeing you. Are you willing to accept the situation alluded to in the letter ?" I hesitated. My eyes filled with tears — tears at the thought of parting with my school — tears of gratitude, that I was thought worthy of so much confidence. "Oh, do not refuse — do say yes," cried his lovely THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. 47 daughter, extending her hand, and clasping mine warmly in her own. " You shall be my eldest sister, and I will make you as happy as I can. Please, say you will go with us." " I cannot refuse," said I, smiling at her enthusiasm. " If your father wishes, I give my consent," answered I, without a thought about terms : for I felt that I could be happy to be one of the inmates of the family, and call such excellent persons "friends." My heart seemed to feel like a daughter's heart towards Colonel Peyton, and certainly glowed with sisterly love towards Isabel. " The matter is settled, then," said Colonel Peyton, with animation. " We are more fortunate than we anti- cipated. Come, Miss Katharine, let me drive ycu to your residence, and then leave you to make preparations, while we remain at the hotel." When I alighted from the chariot at the door of the house in which I boarded, there were a great many heads at the neighboring windows, to see the fine " Boston carriage," as they called it ; and when they soon learned, by the cries of three or four little girls, my scholars, that it had come to take me far away to the South, there was more commotion than I dreamed such a body as I could cause. When I made known to my landlady and to the neigh- bors, who flocked in to hear the news, my prospects, some congratulated me, but more said they would not part with their " school-mistress," that it would break the children's hearts ; and the children, inspired by their words, began to cling round me, and take on so dread- fully, that I was near sending over word to the tavern 48 THE SUNNY SOUTH; OR, to Colonel Peyton, withdrawing my consent to go with him. In half an hour I succeeded in convincing the most zealous of my friends, that it would be greatly to my advantage to go with the Southern family, and, by bed- time, all opposition, save in the form of a lovely little lame scholar of mine, was appeased. This child, to which I was very much attached, would not leave the house to go to its home, but, creeping up stairs, clung to my pillow, and bathed it in tears. Her little prayers of entreaty had nearly conquered me. The result of all was, however, that the succeeding afternoon, I bade fare- well to all my village friends, and left the town by the road passing the school-house. Here, to my surprise, and to the increase of my grief, I found all my scho- lars, some forty in number, drawn up to see me for the last time. They had reached the school-house by a path across the fields. Colonel Peyton stopped the car- riage, and every one climbed up to kiss me — some put- ting wreaths upon my head, and others placing in my hands little tokens to remember them by. " Don't forget me. Miss Kate !" cried a score of little voices, "We'll never forget you, Miss Kate!" called out others, as we once more drove on. My little, lame pupil was not among them, for I had left her sobbing as if her heart would break, up stairs on my bed. As the carriage turned and hid the town, we heard a shout of " Good-bye, Miss Kate ! Good-bye ! Come back again, won't you ?" Their voices no longer heard, I gave vent to my feel- ings in a gush of tears. Colonel Peyton did not disturb THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. 49 them. Isabel nestled her hand in mine, and I felt her tears dropping warm upon it. • The same evening, we reached Boston, and in a few days afterwards were en route to the West, by the way of Philadelphia and Pittsburg. I will not detain you by describing our journey, but close this letter by saying, that after a delightful trip of three weeks, we reached the elegant, interior city of Nashville, from which a ride of two hours and a half brought Colonel Peyton and his daughter home, and me to what will be "a home" for me two years to come. In my next, I will resume the description of things in the West, which I have interrupted to give you the his- tory of my first coming thither. I am, sir, yours, respectfully, 4 Kate. 60 THE SUNNY SOUTH; OR, LETTER VI. Mr. I HAVE seen in your paper a little notice of ray letters by some lady, (I am sure it was a female,) who takes me to task for writing about myself. She says it does not matter what the color of an authoress's eyes are, or I whether she have small or large hands, or feet ; and she takes it upon herself to box my ears for talking about myself. Now, Mr. , I think that a great deal can || be learned about an authoress, by knowing the hue of || the eyes, and the number of the shoe or glove she hides foot or hand in. It don't matter much, perhaps, whether a man who writes an arithmetic, or a woman who writes a geography, have gray locks or red, long noses or short, beards or no beards, for I have seen, (ah, shock- , ing!) women with beards, and they always seem to be | proud of them, the way they cherish them! While I write, I recall a " lady" with four moles on her chin, each of which is tufted with a respectable camel's hair pencil. Do not such monsters know there are such inventions as tweezers? When one writes to interest, and writes one's thoughts, then it is agreeable to the reader to know something about the writer's person. I am sure (now don't call me vain, lady critic severe) that my readers will not like mo any thing the less for the description I have given of THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. 61 myself. I see also that one of your readers "wishes to know the address of the "Yankee Girl," and that you decline giving it. Very good, Mr. ; and pray, who gave it to you? How coolly you decline to give what you do not possess ; for I am sure you could not tell how to reach me by a letter, if you wished to do so. But one of these days, if I see a paragraph in your paper, saying that after my ten trial "needles" are written, you will engage me to persevere in authorship, I will then remove the veil. I have already described to you the happiness I enjoy in my new and stately home, the appearance of things, and the beautiful scenery with which the villa is sur- rounded. I will now give you some account of the man- ner in which we pass the day on the plantation, and every day is pretty much the same, save when Sunday comes, or a party of visitors from town, or from some neighboring plantation arrives. About half past four in the morning, I am regularly awakened by a bell, as loud as a college or chapel bell ; which is rung in the belfry of the overseer's house, to call the slaves up. Its clear lively peal continues for about three minutes. I open my eyes, see that all is dark, and then sink to sleep again. Or if I lie awake, I soon hear the tramp of the laborers passing along the avenue, and the jingling of horse chains, as the horses and mules are led by to the field. All is soon again still as midnight; for the plan- tation bell does not disturb the domestic servants in the house, who generally indulge in bed a half hour longer. I believe that I am the only one in the house that the bell disturbs ; yet I do not begrudge the few minutes' .'52 THE SUNNY SOUTH; OR, loss of sleep it causes me, it sounds so pleasantly in the half-dreamy morning. About six o'clock I am awakened for the day, by the soft footstep of my pretty negress Eda, who steals to my bedside to whisper — "Missy Kate, six o'clock, missy," and next goes to withdraw the curtains, and let in the glorious sumbeams, to gild the atmosphere of the room. She then brings me a laver of cool fresh water from the spring, and snowy napkins ; and for the first three or four mornings after my arrival, she brought me a wine mint julep. Yes, sir, a regular mint julep ! And when I refused it, spite of its delicious taste and aroma, (for I am a Daughter of Temperance, Mr. ,) she opened her large eyes with wonder, saying, "Why, missy, dey nebber so nice!" Her assurance, that it was the custom of the house to guests, never moved me, though I must confess they looked very tempting. When she found that I was not to be tempted, she brought me coiFee, black, and clear, and fragrant enough for a Turkish Sul- )^tana. But I had been raised in the plain, simple, Yankee way, and so had no use for such luxury, and have ban- ished both julep and coffee before I get up in the morn- . ing. My sable maid aids me in my toilet, combs and twists my long hair with the grace and art of a Parisienne, and makes herself most useful. Indeed one does not know of how many uses a servant may be, till one has one, " as • I have now for the first time in my life. How differently brought up are we Yankee girls from the Southern girls, who never do any thing themselves, being always at- tended by a shadow of a little negress, or an ancient . mammy! For my part, I find it very pleasant: — "Eda, THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. 53 a glass of water;" or, "Eda, bring me such a book from the parlor below;" or, "Eda, hand me mj fan;" or, "Eda, a dozen other things." Oh, it is very convenient ; and I do believe a Northern girl in these circumstances, will, in a year, render herself more helpless than even a Southerner to the manor born. At seven, a clear-ringing, silver table bell calls all from their rooms to the breakfast apartment, which is a spacious, cool piazza, shut in by green blinds, and adorned with cages of mocking and canary birds, which sing all the meal time. Breakfast usually consumes half an hour. Four or five varieties of warm bread load the table, with succotash, and hominy, and ham always. Two men and two negresses, all well dressed and in white aprons, wait on table, and anticipate every wish. The colonel always asks a devout blessing, all being seated, and all respond a loud "Amen." Two noble dogs generally crouch either side of the colonel's arm chair, and a monstrous Maltese cat, having taken a liking to me, seats herself by my chair with a wistful look. After breakfast the colonel lights a cigar at a coal brought him, unbidden, by a negro boy, for he knows his master's habits ; and another servant holds a ready saddled horse at the door. The colonel mounts him, and rides away to overlook his estate, sometimes accompanied by Isabel and me, when we have brave gallops home alone. About nine o'clock we take to our books or our needles, and sit wherever we choose ; in our rooms, in the breezy hall, on the piazza, or in the drawing-room. At eleven an at- tentive servant brings refreshments, when studies and 54 THE SUNNY south; or, needles arc dropped, and we have gossip, music, and sometimes jump the rope, swing, or play at battledore. If we have calls to make, the carriage is ordered at half- past eleven, and after a drive of two hours or three, we return to dine at two o'clock. The dinner table is placed in the large central hall of the house, and every dish elegantly served. Above the table is a huge silk covered fan, the breadth of the table. Tassels are attached to it, and it is fringed with crimson. From rings in the corners lead red cords, which are pulled to and fro by a little negro, all dinner time. This regular and ceaseless movement of the fan above our heads creates an agreeable breeze, which in this climate is most luxurious. The dinner consists of many courses, with wine and dessert of fruit, sweetmeats, ices, nuts, domestic grapes, and black coffee. The ladies then leave the gentlemen at the table to smoke, and re- tire to their own rooms to sleep till the cool of the day. The "lords" sometimes at hunting dinners sleep at the table. Towards evening all is animation. Saddle horses are ordered, and away we scamper, now to the tarn, or to climb the lion's head, or to canter along the turnpike. "We generally get back by twilight in fine spirits. Tea and coffee are handed to us whenever we choose to have it, no table being ever set for the evening repast. It takes three servants to hand it. One comes with a waiter of napkins first; another follows with coffee and sugar; a third with cakes of all sorts, and sometimes a fourth with purple finger glasses. In the evening we all as- semble in the brilliantly lighted parlors, where we have THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. 55 music, play at chess, (the colonel and I take a game at backgammon usually,) read, or talk. By ten we all re- tire ; and soon the house is buried in the repose of mid- night. So pass the happy days at Overton Lodge. Yours, Kate. 66 THE SUNNY SOUTH; OR, LETTER VII. Mr. Have you ever been fox hunting? If you hare, you have seen very respectable, rough and tumble en- joyment ; if you have not, there are yet before you certain experiences. I have already spoken of the fine, broadly spread landscape, visible from the portico of Overton Park Lodge. In the late autumnal months when the crops are well gathered, and there is nothing to trample down in the fields, this wide landscape is converted into a vast fox hunting ground, full eleven miles across. By con- cert the neighboring planters open their fences with many a gap across the country, and so a clear ride of ten or twelve miles is left free to the adventurous hunts- man or huntswoman. Two evenings ago as I was about to mount my beauti- ful dapple mule, (don't laugh at my mule, for it is the dearest little fellow with ears like velvet, and feet and fetlocks like an antelope's, a special gift to me for its beauty and gentleness, from Colonel Peyton,) to pace down the avenue to the turnpike, I was surprised to see suddenly appear in sight a party of seven young gentle- men. They were riding at top speed, and in great glee, and all came dashing up toward the villa at that rapid rate the Tenncsscean loves to ride. THE SOUTHEENER AT HOME. 57 "Ah, my boys," cried the colonel, who was about to ride out with me, removing his foot from the stirrup, while I hesitated whether to remain on the flight of steps or fly from such a battalion. "Don't go. Miss Kate. They are only some of the young fox hunters come over to make preparations." And before I could escape — "Miss Conyngham, gentlemen!" The young men, who drew up their horses on seeing a lady, lifted their caps and hats, and I was struck with their general appearance ; four of them being fine-looking, yet dressed in blue linsey-woolsey, with boots pulled on over their pantaloons ; and the other three in thick coats and caps, or broad felt hats slouched behind — a very common head covering in these parts and not unpictu- resque. Every young man was armed with a gun, and attended at least by two dogs, and beautiful creatures some of them were — not the young men, Mr. , but the hounds. "Well, colonel, we have come over to settle upon the day," said one of the young gentlemen. "That is right! I like to see the rising generation prompt to engage in such noble sports. I think that the day after to-morrow we will give Reynard our compli- ments in person. I will have my men ready, and if you will meet me at the edge of the wood, by the lion's head cliff, at six in the morning, we will do our best for a day's sport." "We'll be there, colonel," was the response; "and then we shall stand a chance of bringing down a deer or two," added one of them. "I saw one on the ridge by the creek as I rode over." 58 THE SUNNY SOUTH; OR, "No doubt we shall see plenty of sport. And you must accompany us, Miss Kate," added the colonel turning to me, as I stood with the bridle of my mule in my hand, trying to check his restive movements, for the prancing horses of the young men fired his ambition to prance too. After suffering myself to be urged a little by two of the young gentlemen, I consented to join the party, if other ladies did so. The cavalcade then escorted us to the gate of the main road, and the horsemen separated each to his own home ; while the colonel and I took a forest road, that, after a league's windings, came out near the villa. As we rode, the colonel entertained me with a great many anecdotes of hunting, from Bruin to the Hare. As we approached the mansion on our return, the avenue was temporarily blocked up by not less than fifty slaves of both sexes ; for it was now twilight, and they had just completed their day's work, and were wending their way to their village, or quartier. The women carried hoes upon their shoulders, and trudged along, some dull, and with expressionless faces, others laughing and singing. The men, I remarked, Avere more cheerful than the women, and had more lively countenances. One and all were clad in their coarse white cloth, known as negro cloth — the men with straw hats and the women with handkerchiefs upon their heads. JL have not yet seen a negro woman wear a bonnet on Sundays, it is only a gayer kerchief. As we passed, they drew up on each side of the narrow road for us to pass — the men all taking off, or touching their hats, and replying with a smile to their master's salutation of "Good evening, boys!" and the women — THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. 59 some of them, slightly nodding, but without the smile. One of them had a huge cotton basket upon her head. "Peep into it," said the colonel, as I rode by. I did so, and beheld four little cunning black babies ! — they were nestled together, and quite naked. These babies had been taken by their mothers to the field, and while they were at work, were placed under the care of the girl had them in charge. 1 am already getting reconciled to slavery, since I find that it does not, in reality, exhibit the revolting horrors I was taught in the North to discover in it. There are many things to admire and to interest one in the social and domestic condition of the slaves, and I am almost ready to acknowledge that the African is happier in~ bondage than free ! At least one thing is certain : nearly all the free negroes I have ever seen in the North were miserable creatures, poor, ragged, and often criminal. Here they are well clad, moral, nearly all religious, and the temptations that demoralize the free blacks in our northern cities are unknown to, and cannot approach them^ As we drew near the front of the villa, my mule, not liking the shrill cry of a superb peacock, which conceived the idea of welcoming us with a song, and a resplendent unfolding of his prismatic-eyed tail, started to run with me at top speed. I am a tolerable rider, and as I could not fall far if I were thrown, the mule being so little and low, I did not feel half the alarm the colonel manifested for my safety, who began to ride after me ; when finding his horse only gave fresh impetus to the speed of my mule, he drew rein, and called to a negro man to stop my career. But the mule was not to be stopped. In- CO THE SUNNY SOUTH; OR, stead of taking the carriage-way, he bolted across the lawn, and made straight for the stable. To stop him was impossible. I found I might as well pull at a granite column as at his jaws. The door of his stable was open, and I saw that he would only stop at his crib. I measured the ground to spring to it, but the dreadful idea that my skirt might entangle with the horns of the saddle, de- terred me. In another moment the stable was reached ! The door was open. I threw myself forward, clasped neck and mane, and stooping low went safely in with him. The suddenness with which he stopped at his manger, tossed me into the rack, out of which I was taken unhurt, and with many a joke and laugh upon my mule race. But a mule race is not a fox hunt, you say ! Bide a wee, sir. Yours, Kate. THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. 61 LETTER VIII. In my last, I said I would give you an account of a foX'innt, but ended my letter with a mule-race. But I will now redeem my pledge. Early in the morning, the day but one after the party of young men called at the lodge, we all were up with the ringing of the overseer's bell. By six o'clock we were assembled in the hall, where a lunch and a cup of hot coffee awaited us. By half-past six, ten of us in the saddle, including three ladies, were cantering at a brisk rate down the avenue, in the direction of a gate which led into the wide cotton fields, spread a league away beyond the villa. Not less than seven Africans, mounted, or on foot, brought up the rear of our cavalcade. Reaching the gate, which one of the impatient young gentlemen opened almost at a speed, managing his horse adroitly the while, we dashed through, and emerged in the old hickory grove, the smooth grass of which glittered with dew-drops. The woods echoed with the tramp of our horses, and the laugh and merry talk of the young men and ourselves, not excluding the white-locked colonel, whose cheerful voice rose above all others. After a spirited gallop of half a mile through the grove, we emerged upon an open field, ^rhere once corn had grown, but which, having been harvested, left a desolate wastcy In the midst of this field was a ravine, thickly 62 THE SUNNY SOUTH; OR, grown with bushes, which was known to be a favorite haunt of Reynard. The negroes, who had followed us with the dogs, were now called up, and ordered to ap- proach the thicket, and stir up such gentlemen of the red brush as might sojourn therein. The order to ad- vance was obeyed by the negroes and dogs with emulous alacrity. It was, for the first hundred yards, a laughable race between quadruped and biped ; but the last were distanced, and the dogs reaching the covert, dashed into it, a dozen in all, in perfect silence of tongue. But the negroes kept up an incessant yell as they neared the bushes, which they began to beat, uttering loud shouts and challenges to master Reynard to "come out and show hisself like a gemman, and not to be 'fraid of white folks." Reynard, however, did not feel inclined to respond to their polite and repeated invitations. The dogs, in the meantime, were busy in the ravine. We could hear them crashing about over the dry sticks, but not a single bark from them. " They know the fox is there, or they would be noisy," said the colonel, as he watched the copse. " Now, Miss Kate, we shall soon have sport. Hark ! hear that! Isn't it music?" And music it was, such as I had never before listened to. The whole pack, taking the deep short bark of one of them as their cue, suddenly opened in full voice from the ravine. A dozen sonorous canine voices were bay- ing at once. The noise was singularly exciting. It made my pulse bound, and my heart tremble with ex- pectation. If you should hear the burst of the full tones of a pack of hounds, you would never forget the THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. G3 •wild and startling music. My spirited horse caught the excitement, pricked up his slender ears, and stamped impatiently with his forefoot, yet obediently suffered himself to be restrained by the light pressure of a finger upon his rein. The barking of the dogs set the whole party on the qui vive ! Every eye was strained to watch for the appearance of Reynard, when he should emerge from the ravine. Some of the young gentlemen galloped "like mad" to the south of it, while others swept round to the north of it. I kept at the colonel's side, who remained in "our first position," as Monsieur Cheffier, the dancing master, says. "Look! There he goes!" shouted half a score of eager voices, and the fox appeared in full view to all eyes, scampering out of the thicket, and taking a direction straight for us ladies ! "Your whips — lash him as he passes!" shouted the colonel to us. "We must turn him back, and not let him get into the wood, or the sport is up. The fox came gallantly on, as if either he did not care for us, or did not see us. The colonel kept urging "us to whip at him," and turn him. We three ladies, therefore, placed our horses right across the only way by which he could reach the wood, and prepared to do battle bravely, we being the only persons on that side of the field; the rest of the party having spread themselves over the field, ex- pecting the fox to emerge from cover in a different direction from that which he took. I must confess I felt some trepidation as I saw the fox, which was a large one, making as straight as an arrow for my horse. My riding whip was not very long, but I prepared to use it as valiantly as I could. G4 THE SUNNY SOUTH; OR, "He makes for you, Miss Kate! Don't let him pass under your horse," shouted the colonel. In three leaps the fox was within six feet of my steed, and was passing, or rather aiming to pass under him, when I hit him smartly with my ivory-handled whip. The blow had the effect of checking his leap, so far as to give it another direction, and that was over the horse. A snarl — a showing of teeth — a dreadful horrid scram- ble with sharp claws, right up the flank of my horse, and over my saddle — a sweep of his brush in my face — and he was off upon the ground on the other side, with my green veil entangled about his head and forefeet ! " We have him ! You've fought bravely, Miss Kate. He's meshed !" shouted several of the gentlemen. " Was any thing ever done handsomer ? Never saw a bolder leap than that in a fox !" The fox was indeed fairly meshed ! the veil blinding and fettering him so hard that he did nothing but roll over and over, spit and snarl, like twenty cats tied up in a sack ! The colonel leaped from his horse and ap- proached him with his whip. The other gentlemen did the same as fast as they reached the spot. The negroes yelled and laughed with obstreperous joy at the pickle " Massa Fox was in." But Reynard was not yet cap- tured. He now began to tumble and struggle for life so fearfully, that he released one foot from my poor, torn veil, and, thus relieved in part, he managed, by the most extraordinary somersets, to travel at a pace diflScult for the gentlemen to keep up with, laughing, too, as they all were, at his perplexity, which was comical enough. The progress of the fox was a one-legged lope, a roll, and a somerset, alternately, varied by a yelp at every new THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. 65 change in his extraordinary locomotion. He got a dozen blows with the whips, but still marvelously kept ahead of his pursuers, till at length he tumbled blindly into a deep hole, out of which a tree had been taken, when the dogs plunged in upon him and strangled him. The brush was brought to me as a trophy, the gentlemen de- claring that I was his captor. I, however, referred that honor to my poor veil, which was torn and soiled most pitiful to behold. The colonel has, since that adventure, dubbed me as " The lady of the veiled fox." Kate. 66 THE SUNNY SOUTH; OR, LETTER IX. My dear Sir : — I do not recollect whether in my former letter, I have mentioned the rural little Gothic chapel which is on the estate. It was erected at the private expense of the noble-hearted Christian gentleman who is its proprietor. The model is borrowed from an exquisite chapel which the colonel saw on the estate of the Earl of C , when he was in England. The situation of our chapel is ro- mantic ; and, being seen from all parts of the plantation, is an interesting feature in the scenery. It is about fifty-five feet long and built of stone ; with turrets and mullioned Gothic windows of stained glass, and a floor of Tennessee marble. Its site is upon the verge of a green plantation, which overhangs the brook, and is, in its turn, overhung by a projecting spur of the lion's clifi". Majestic oaks embrace it, and ivy is trained up its walls. A broad lawn, crossed by graveled paths, sur- rounds it. These paths lead : one to the villa, one to the next plantation, and one to the African village where the slaves reside; for, be it known to you, that this beautiful chapel, the cost of which was $3000, has been built for the slaves of the estate. The body of the chapel is reserved for them, while in a gallery above the en- trance are four pews, two on each side of the organ, in which the colonel's family, and sometimes the families THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. 67 of one or two of the neighboring planters, sit during ser- vice. This is performed every Sabbath morning by a gray-headed gentleman, who acts as lay reader, and on week days occupies himself in teaching the classics to two sons of a gentleman who lives two miles off. For his services on Sunday the colonel gives him a salary. The second Sunday ajfter I came here I was invited to attend service in the chapel with the family. Upon entering it, I found the body of the floor occupied by the black men and women of the plantation, seated in chairs with the utmost decency and quiet, and all neatly and cleanly attired. We took our seats in the gallery, while Isabel placed herself at the organ to play a voluntary. Until the old gentleman who officiated entered, I had time to look at the interior of this bijou of a church. On the right of the chancel was an exquisite group of statuary, executed in Italy expressly for this chapel by the colonel's order, at an expense of $800. It represented the Ma- donna and her child. The design was full of taste and ar- tistic excellencies. On the opposite side was a table of the purest white marble, surmounted by a dove with its wings extended. It was a memento of the death of a little son of the colonel. There were no pews in the body of the church, only low chairs of oak, a chair to each worshiper, with an aisle between. The service was very solemn ; and my Puritanic ob- jections to praying from a prayer-book, have been wholly removed by this day's experience. The singing was very remarkable. The African women all sing well, having naturally soft voices ; with the organ, and full fifty fine voices swelling in harmony with it, the eifect was very fine. "Is it possible," I asked myself, "that 68 THE SUNNY SOUTH; OR, these are slaves ? Is it possible that this rich voice which leads in such manly tones is their master's ? Is it possible that the fair girl who unites, by an accompani- ment upon the organ, her praise Avith theirs, is one of the ' haughty daughters of the South ?'" The responses were all full and timely ; for the slaves soon learn words by ear ; and many of them go through the whole service, save the psalter, without a mistake. The sermon, which was printed, was read well by the elderly layman; it was simple, suitable, and practical. After service, the gray-headed old slaves stood respect- fully without the door, and, with uncovered heads, bowed to the colonel and ladies, the latter of whom stopped to speak to some of them, and to make kind inquiries of the old "aunties," as all old female slaves are affectionately termed, as the term "uncle" is applied to the old men. ( I have seen a good deal of the African race since I have been here, and I am persuaded that they are far more reli- giously disposed than the lower and middle class of whites. There are but four negroes on the colonel's plantation, that are not "members" of the church, and who do not try to square their lives with the precepts of the Gospel so far as they understand them. This is the case, I learn, on all the neighboring plantations, and I am informed by intelligent persons that it is more or less so through- out the whole South. It would thus seem, that God, in his providence, has permitted slavery to be the instrument of christianizing Africa, by bringing Africa to Christian shores ; and colonization by re-action on the shores of Africa, is completing the mysterious dispensatiory I have an amusing incident to relate of which our chapel was last Sunday the scene. The annual visita- THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. 69 tion of the Bishop being expected, the venerable lay- reader got ready some twenty adults to be confirmed, and forty children to be baptized. The Bishop duly arrived, accompanied by two clergymen. Our little chapel, you may be assured, felt quite honored with the presence of such distinguished visitors. There were several neighboring families present, who, with ours, quite filled the gallery. \\Tien the time came to baptize them, the marble font being filled with fair water, the black babies were brought up by their ebony papas. The colonel stood sponsor for the boys, and his sister, an excellent and witty maiden lady, for the girls. "What is his name?" asked a clergyman who was to baptize, taking in his arms a little inky ball of ebony infancy with a pair of white, shining eyes. "Alexander de Great, massa !" I saw a smile pass from face to face of the reverend gentlemen in the chancel. The babe was duly baptized. "What name?" he demanded of another Congo papa. " General Jackson, massa !" and by this name the lit- tle barbarian was duly made a Christian. "What name?" "Walter Scott!" "What name?" "Peter Simple!" "What name?" "Napoleon Bona- parte !" Splash went the water upon its face, and an- other ebony succeeded. His name was "Potiphar." Another's was "Pharaoh." Another was christened "General Twiggs;" another " Polk and Dallas;" another "General Taylor;" indeed, every General in the Ame- rican army was honored, while "Jupiter," "Mars," "Apollo Belvidere," and "Nicodemus," will give you a specimen of the rest of the names. The female in- 70 THE SUNNY SOUTH; OR, fants received such names as " Queen Victoria," " Lady Morgan," "Lady Jane Grey," "Madame de Stael," "Zenobia," "Venus," "Juno," "Vesta," "Miss Mar- tineau," "Fanny Wright," "Juliana Johnson," and " Coal Black Rose." The water in the font, greasy and blackened by the process of baptizing so many black babies, had to be twice removed and replaced by fresh. The Bishop could scarcely keep his countenance as name after name was given, and the assistant clergy- man twice had to leave the church, I verily believe, to prevent laughing in the church. The whole of this scandalous naming originated in the merry brain of the colonel's sister. Of course, the clergyman had to bap- tize by the name given, and the whole scene was irre- sistible. Your friend, Kate. THE SOUTHERXER AT HOME. 71 LETTER X. Dear Sir : On Saturday last we all rode into the city, which, as I have told you, is about two and a half hours' fast driving from Overton Park. The road is a smooth turnpike, and runs through a beautiful country of field and woodland, hill and dale. The landscape is con- stantly varied and constantly interesting. Numerous pretty villas lined the road, which being much used, was thronged with carriages and horsemen. The number of gentlemen we found on horseback would be matter of surprise to a Northerner, who usually rides only in a gig. ^K Southerner seldom trusts him- self inside of a carriage. If his wife rides out in her finely-appointed barouche, he canters well-mounted by the carriage window. I believe the Tennessee gentle- man looks upon it as decidedly eflfeminate to be seen taking his ease in a cushioned carriage. On the way we passed the site of an old fort, where the army of Jackson encamped before marching to New Orleans. A few yards from the ramparts, the place where a man was shot for desertion, was pointed out to me. It is a sweet-looking, green spot, and calls up any other associations than those of bloodshed. The Hermitage where Andrew Jackson, jr., now re- sides, was not many miles from us. It is a good-looking 72 THE SUNNY SOUTH; OR, mansion with a portico, and surrounded by lawns and gardens. At the foot of the garden is visible, through foliage, the snow-white tomb of the hero and statesman. fl. was charmed with the beauty of the scenery on both sides of our road. The whole landscape undulated like a mighty green sea. About two miles from Nash- ville a hill commands a fine view of it. We stopped to gaze upon it as it rose, crowning a sort of lofty island amid a valley, the Cumberland flowing on the east side. The view was exceedingly fine and imposing. For every roof there was a tree, and what with alternate terraces of foliage and porticoes, with the domes and spires rising above all, I was so struck with admiration that I wished for a painter's pencil to transfer the noble picture to canvass. The highest portion of the city is distinguished by a large mansion cresting it like a coronet. This was the residence of the late President Polk, now occupied by his estimable widow, who, I am told, has shut herself up, a prey to inconsolable grief ever since the death of her distinguished husband. From the distance at which we were viewing the house, I could see that the large co- lumns were craped with black. Nashville has been celebrated for its gaiety, its wealth, its luxury, its sociability, and the beauty of its females. I was not disappointed in the latter. As we approached the city, we met at least fifty carriages driving out for the usual evening ride, for which these people are so famous. In nearly every one of them I beheld one or more lovely faces. We met also a large cavalcade of school girls mounted on pretty ponies, and every face was handsome. So it was after we entered the city, and THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. 7S ■went among the shops. All the girls we met were pretty; and especially, we noticed an unusual number of genteel, lovely widows ; for men live faster than wo- men, and die early. The equipages of the city are numerous, and some of them handsome. They drive fast, and usually in open carriages. Before leaving the city, which carries elegance and taste to a high degree, we paid a visit to the Capitol, which is one-third completed. It is a majestic new ruin in its present aspect, and by moonlight must remind travelers from Italy of a Roman temple, half dismantled. Mr. Wm. Strickland is the architect. It has been four years in building, and will not be completed in five more. Its cost will be $2,000,000. The material is a white limestone, with delicately "watered" veins. When com- pleted it will be the finest edifice in the Union, without exception. Crowning a cliflF that rises like an island rock from the heart of the city, it will have very much the appear- ance of the Castle at Edinburgh, and be a distin- guished mark for the eye for leagues around. I was never more disappointed than I was in the air and style of the city. Everything indicates taste, and the uses of wealth. There is as much fashion here as in New York ; and the ladies dress far more than anywhere else I have been. Jewelry is much worn, even in the street, and especially at church. Riding on horseback is very fashionable, and the costume a cJieval is elegant and re- cherche. The dwellings are richly furnished. One house I passed, built after the plan of the Borghes^ Palace at Rome, is furnished throughout with furniture 74 THE SUNNY SOUTH; OR, made to order in Paris, and is adorned with European pictures and statuary. The churches of this city are not handsome or impos- ingTj And who do you suppose I heard read the service, the last Sabbath I was in town ? Mr. H , once an author, who has been for two years past studying for orders in the church. He is also principal of an Academy for young ladies in the city, a position which he holds temporarily, until he shall be ordained. I trust he will be eminently useful as a clergyman. Speaking of authors, what a change has come over the literary sky ! Star after star disappears or falls from it; Mellen is dead; Bryant writes not; Halleck will write no more ; Hoffman has changed his poet's pen to an accompter's ; Bird is a politician ; Simms has become an editor and historian; Poe, poor Mr. Poe, is dead! Hastings Weld has taken orders. Willis has almost ceased to write, except editorially, and very hastily at that ; for, give Mr. Willis time to polish and adorn, prune and shape his sentences, and put in the pretty thoughts, and his articles are faultless. No one can excel him therein. But let him write currente calamo, as the col- lege men say, and he is not so interesting. Morris is editor, too. I hear his songs sung everywhere in the West. He takes the pianos in fair rivalry with Tom Moore. If he wants to know what posterity will think of him, let him come out West. Willis too, is a favorite this way. In a girl's school the other day, I heard two of his pieces recited by two lovely girls, in a manner that would have made the gentlemanly author feel, had he been present, that he was well repaid for the time and care of their composition. I heard, at tlie same time, THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. ,75 a dark-eyed Grecian looking maiden recite, with pathos and fine taste, Hallcck's Marco Bozzaris. The voice of the West is the echo of posterity. There are no poets among the men West, save Pren- tice ; and few females who write. There is much said of the playful genius of southern women, and the fertile imagination of the men ; hut these produce hut few au- thors. Amelia of Kentucky is almost the only one known. There is far more poetical talent in cold New England, than in the sunny West. Portland is pecu- liarly favorable to this development, I have heard. It has produced Mrs. Stephens, Mrs. Elizabeth Oakes Smith, the most imaginative of American poetesses; Longfellow who will long be remembered by his noble "Psalm of Life;" Mellen, the forgotten, and others. AVhat country colder than Sweden — what genius greater than that of that sweet writer, Frederika Bremer ! 4^ It seems to me that the American press is putting forth nothing new from American authors. Our writers seem all to have turned Magazine writers.* By the way, French is much studied here, and forms a part of every young lady's education. It strikes me Mr. , that if you would add a French department to your other headings in your paper, it would be very well received by the thousand school misses into whose hands your paper falls. I would suggest the regular publication of well written moral French tales, or letters, with an exactly literal translation in the opposite column. It would be quite as acceptable to numerous contributors, as charades, and aid them in their French, while it will f^ * These letters were written from 1852 to 1855. 76 THE SUNNY SOUTH; OR, improve their minds. I think it would be an interest- ing, as well as a new feature in your columns. This being the last of the test letters I Avas to write you, to see whether you should judge me fit to be a con- tributor "on remuneration." I shall write no further till I learn the decision of your august tribunal. Yours, Kate. THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. 77 LETTER XI. Mr. : Your very kind letter of the 1st inst., conveying to me the unhoped for, but welcome intelligence, that you have decided to enlist me among your corps of contribu- tors, was duly received. I know not how, adequately, to express to you, the deep gratitude of my heart, for this decision ; for I feel that it was given rather through your kind generosity, than through any merit which my un- fledged pen could lay claim to. I shall, therefore, do my best to show you how deeply I appreciate your good- ness, and resolve that my "Needles" shall be always sharp withal, that you shall never have cause to regret your decision in my favor. My simple goose quill already begins to feel its dignity, held in an authoress's fingers ! It bristles its snowy mane and curves its polished neek with the pride of an Arabian courser. It realizes its importance. It feels that it is possible that one day it may be knocked off at an auc- tion of "rare curiosities," for not less than ten golden eagles, as authors' stump pens have been before to-day. My inkstand, which is a lion couchant, with the ink in his ears, seems to raise his majestic head with unwonted dignity as he yields it to the thirsty pen. The very paper is eloquent in its spotless robes, and seems to say : "Remember thou art an authoress, and be careful what 78 THE SUNNY SOUTH; OB, you trace upon me, for thy words may be immortal I" Oh, the sweet, trembling, timid, happy feeling of author- ship ! How the heart bounds at the sight of our first thoughts, which we know (yet hardly realize it; have been made visible to the eyes of other in type ! We think little of seeing our own ideas written; hut printed, they create sensations indescribable, half delight, half awe, a mingled state of bliss and fear, that none who have not been "in print," can ever experience. I suppose the young merchant, who, for the first time, sees his name heading his showy advertisement in the morning paper, or gazes from the opposite side of the way upon it painted upon his sign in gold letters, upon a blue ground, experiences pleasure, novel and strange. But this emotion is not to be compared with that of the author, who, for the first time, sees the copy of the deep, hitherto unspoken, unconfided thoughts of his soul legible in type to every eye ! Ilis thoughts thus made public, are more than a mere painted name, they are a part of himself, a ray of the outgoings of his spirit ! It is like beholding himself with an introverted mirror ! Therefore, the poet loves his verses, after has subsided his first awe and surprise at beholding them in print, (which a little time before he had found dwelling in the bottom of his soul's deep being,) loves them as a man, with all his faults, loves himself ! Who then will laugh at the dullest rhymer for being enamored with his own verses ? We might as well laugh at him for loving himself. He thinks his verses as good as his talk, and what man was ever persuaded that he did not talk well ; or else all bad talkers would be for- ever silent ! When we can convince a poor talker that THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. 79 he ^8 a poor talker, then will appear the Eighth wonder, viz : a poor poet convinced that he is a poor poet. His poetry, like his conversation, is himself, and himself like China on the "Celestial" map, is the centre of the universe. Now from what I have said, good Mr. , you will be fairly persuaded that, write I ever so stupidly, it will be useless in you or anybody else, to attempt to impress upon my mind a healthy sense of stupidity. This is, therefore, throwing down the gauntlet to you and the critics, (if such a little bird as I be worthy of their aim,) not to make the attempt to enlighten my intellectual twilight. I have to thank some friendly pen for a letter addressed to me in your columns ; although it appears to come from a juvenile author, it is, nevertheless, worthy of my attentive recognition, as an evidence that some warm heart seeks to express its approving sense of my brief literary attempts. I have also seen a pretty poem, addressed to me, which, albeit, something bold and school-boyish in its audacity, yet it is frank and hearty in its tone, and the writer merits my thanks for his kind wishes. Speaking of poetry, reminds me how little true poetry there is written now-a-days. Some one has said that there are fifteen hundred papers printed in the Union ; in most of these, weekly, appear one or more pieces of original poetry, say twelve hundred perpetrations rhythmical, per week, which multiplied by 52, the num- ber of weeks in a year, would give the amazing number of 60,000 pieces of original poetry, printed in our news- paper columns in a year ! Of these not more than sixty annually are worth preserving or republishing, that is, one in a thousand! What a despairing computation! 80 THE SUNNY SOUTH; OR, I am half afraid that, by daring to have made it, I shall be the innocent cause of driving some hundreds of these ambitious poets to running themselves through the heart with their steel pens, or taking ink inwardly. I have been recently looking over the '' Male and Fe- male Poets of America," and I cannot lay my finger on a score of poems of which I could unhesitatingly say, " That is imperishable !" Most of the poems of our book poets, like the editorials of editors, have fulfilled their destiny when once in print. Longfellow has written two pieces, his Psalm of Life, and the noble verses in which the Union is finely metaphored as a builded ship of oak and iron, which will weather all time. Bryant's Thana- topsis, (if he will revise and strengthen by condensing it here and there,) will never cease to be admired so long as men are born to die. Halleck's Marco Bozzaris, it seems to me, holds in suspension the elements of undy- ing life. Simms in the South is a noble poet. One or more songs of the lyric poet, Morris, and two or three of Willis's sacred pieces, are imperishable so long as nature and veneration remain the same as they now are in the human breast. Besides these, I can find none that give promise of surviving the ages to come ! We have written a great deal for the nineteenth century, but scarcely any thing for the twenty-fifth ! What is literary immortality ? Do our poets know what it means, that each expects it? It is the thoughts of one or two individual men surviving the oblivion of 800,000,000 of men, their contemporaries. For of every generation of 800,000,000 of men in all ages past, but two or three have left their names or works to us ! It is but a twenty minutes' task to enumerate all the immortal writers of THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. 81 all nations, from Moses to Chaucer. They are hardly as many for 3000 years as appear in the monthly pub- lished list of letters in a city newspaper ! They are one living man to a hundred millions dead ! Who, then, shall dare to prophesy for his productions, or for his name, immortality? Who shall be so vain as to take offence when it is questioned if after the 800,000,000 now on earth have been two thousand years dead, he himself, or aught that he has written, though he be embalmed in Griswold's "Doomsday Book," shall be remembered ! Immortality ! Perpetuity of memory in the hearts of the myriads of the mighty future ! For whose single brow, now on earth, shall the men of the year 6000 wreath the laureled crown? Whose name, of those millions of men who walk the city streets to- day, shall the youths and maidens to be born twelve hundred years hence, have familiarly on their lips, as we have the names of Homer, of Virgil, of Shakespeare, of Milton, of David ? Immortality ! How few under- stand thy meaning when they speak of thee ! You will see, dear Mr. , that I have very little hopes of being immortalized through my pen ! I confess the chances are against me, 800,000,000 to 1. You have, therefore, the unique satisfaction of having a contributor who never expects to be quoted by the literati of the year 6000, A. M. There is an immortality, however, which all may gain — which springs from the heart, not from the intel- lect — which looks to the approbation of angels, and not of men — to a world that shall exist when the last year of the last century of this earth shall have closed forever upon all human hopes, compared with which immortality, that of this world is but an echo. 6 82 THE SUNNY south; or, The colonel has just laid on my table Ticknor's Spa- nish Literature, and Emerson's "Nature." I shall, therefore, feast for the next three days. If I find any I thing that strikes me as valuable in either of these books, you shall have the benefit of my reading. I have heard rifles or shot-guns cracking all the morn- ing in the forest over by the tarn, and therefore judge the game to be abundant. To-morrow I am going deer- hunting ! I don't mean to be so cruel as to kill (for I can shoot, Mr. , and hit too !) the pretty white- breasted does, or the majestic stag, with his proud, an- tlered head tossing in the air ! Yet, I am all curiosity to witness a hunt. Good-bye, sir, Kate. THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. 83 LETTER XII. Mr. : My dear sir, did you ever shoot a deer? But I dare say you don't have deer to shoot in Independence Square ! Do you think it would be cruel to kill one if you had them there? One week ago I was innocent of the blood of any one of these pretty, brown animals ; but, alas ! I am sorry to confess that I have shot a deer since I last wrote you, and although it is not dead, I feel as badly as if I had wounded a helpless, human be- ing. Its reproachful, pleading look, as it turned its large, intelligent eyes upon me, I can never forget ! I will tell you how it happened. The colonel had been invited to "Chestnut Ridge," seven miles from the Park, by an old military friend, who is as keen a sportsman as Nimrod ever was, to hunt deer. The invitation was accepted, and Isabel and my- self were taken along with the gallant colonel to witness the sport ! Sad sport to see the innocent animals that so grace the glade of the green forest slaughtered ! Rising with the dawn, we took an early breakfast, and mounted our horses just as the sun, like a wheel of gold, rolled up the east. I was no longer mounted on the spirited and pretty little mule, which played me such a runaway prank last November, but rode a handsome black pony, with a long tail and a magnificent mane, and the smallest M THE SUNNY SOUTH; OR, ears conceivable. His pace was as gentle as a cradle, and he stepped over the grass, as if he trod on velvet in a drawing-room. The colonel rode a noble charger, of a dark-baj color, with a neck arched and proud, like a war-horse ; and such he was, for the colonel had rid- den him into many a battle strife on the fields of Mexico. The superb animal, as he pawed the earth and pranced along through the woodlands, seemed still " to smell the battle afar off, and the thunder of the captains and the shouting." What grace and strength were united in him ! Next to man, the horse is unquestionably the noblest created thing. But of all majestic forms conceivable to human imagination, I have never seen any thing that equals that mighty tri-formed figure to be found por- trayed in Layard's Nineveh. I mean the sublime form composed of a body of a lion, of the wings of an eagle, and of the face of a man. No one can gaze upon it with- out admiration and awe. It represents strength, fleet- ness, and intelligence embodied, and the result is a creature that rivals in dignity, majesty, and glory, and symmetry, man himself! But I am running away from my party. Isabel, the beautiful, Spanish-looking Isabel, rode by her father's left hand, mounted upon a mottled palfrey that seemed formed especially for herself. His small head, his trans- parent, pink nostrils, his slender fetlocks as neat as a lady's ankle, his dainty footfall, as his deerlike hoofs picked out the smoothest way for his mistress, were all characteristics of the Arabian race, from which it claimed lineage. What decided aristocracy there is in the horse ! They differ as widely from each other as men do, and how widely these are separate in excellency of lineage I THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. 85 There is nobility of birth as there is vulgarity of birth ! There are gentlemen who are gentlemen by nature. I am not a believer in the axiom that all men are born equal, and that education, or the "want of it, makes men equal. There is gentility and refinement of feature that education cannot give, and there is vulgarity of feature that education cannot ennoble. When a double-headed, double-jointed plough-horse, or any of its kith, can be educated to win a Derby cup, then I shall believe that a vulgar mind and a vulgar face can, by education, be re- fined and ennobled. We had a merry ride of it through the grand woods ! How we laughed till echo laughed again. One can be as noisy as one pleases in the coun- try. There was a white frost on the ground, and the crisp grass crashed and crackled as we pressed its crystal spears. The birds (for many birds dwell in the forest here all the year round) were singing to the morning with gladness in their tiny breasts ; the squirrel bounded from limb to limb, or raced with nimble feet across the sward, and darted up some tall trunk, going higher and higher, and carefully keeping on the side opposite to us ; for they are a cunning wee thing, with their bushy tails arched over their round backs, and their twinkling, pretty eyes as watchful as weasels. There was no regular forest path, but we threaded the wood at will, for the trees grew far asunder, and the total absence of underbrush made it like park-land. The surface of the country was undulating and picturesque. At one time we would descend to a gurgling brook rushing hoarsely away from the rocks in its bed, and, fording its translucent waters at another time, find ourselves at the top of a ridge that opened to us a far spread river view. 86 THE SUNNY SOUTH; OR, In our ride of five miles we met but three persons. One of these was an old African with a head as white as wool, and a face, venerable and lined with age, and a snowy beard. His appearance was striking, and reminded me of a hlach patriarch, especially as he wore a gray blanket over his shoulder like a mantle. And let me remark, that a blanket completes a negro's winter costume here ; sometimes it is made into a coat, but more fre- quently, for the advantage of having it as a covering at night, worn entire, like a shawl, or a Spanish poncho. The African was leading a tall Congo stripling, half-naked to the waist, who had a hanging -countenance, as if he were an offender of some sort. " That is old Juba with his grandson Tom, tied," said the colonel, as they drew near. " Tom has been playing the runaway in the woods these three weeks. So, uncle Juba," added the colonel in the kind, famihar tone in which masters here, who are gentlemen, address their old slaves ; "so you've caught Tom ?" " Ees, mosse, me cotch de berry bad boy ! He nebber raise hcself for noting good uf he get de habit ob runnin' 'way dis way ! Old Juba feel berry shame ob him. Me gib him frashun, me git him home. He disgrace to de family ! Come 'long, you nigger, a'n't you shame youself, run off in de wood like a dog-tief ?" With this appeal, the old man gave the thong a jerk, and, touching his old hat in respectful homage to his master and to ourselves as "young mississes," dragged his ragamuffin grandson of eighteen years on the way back to the plantation. "That old negro," said the colonel, as we rode on, " has been in my family seventy-eight years. He was THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. 87 bought by my grandfather before the Revolution from an African trader that came into Jamestown with a load of slaves from the coast of Africa. He was then a lad of fourteen, and is of course now ninety -two ; yet he is never idle, is active and faithful, and is a sort of patri- arch over the rest of the slaves, half of whom are his descendants. He has not yet forgotten his African lan- guage, which he still speaks when he is vexed, nor has he dropped his heathenish superstitions. He wears about his neck full half a dozen charms of one sort or another, and is a firm believer in the devil, whom he says he has seen bodily a hundred times. His influence over the negroes is very extraordinary. They stand in awe of him. His grandson, you see, is a tall, stout fellow, and might get away from him ; but he would as soon think of striking the old man as resisting his authority. We had not ridden more than a mile after parting with Juba and his captive, when we saw a figure standing as motionless as a statue in the forest ahead of us. The attitude was free and commanding, and a nearer ap- proach showed us that it was an Indian. He was lean- ing on his rifle. He wore a sort of coronet, made of brass, encircling his crow-black head, and ornamented with crow and eagle's feathers. He was dressed in a blue frock, trimmed with tarnished gold lace, and belted close to his body by a stout leathern cincture. Hanging upon his brawny chest were several silver medals. On liis left wrist were five hoops or bracelets of brass, close together, and being riveted on whole, were evidently meant to be worn till his death. He wore deer-skin leg- gins, the seams fringed, and his feet were encated in once handsomely ornamented moccasins, which haa seen >t 88 THE SUNNY SOUTH: OR, service. In his belt were a powder-horn, a long knife in a sheath of serpent's skin, a pouch for balls, flints, &c, and another large one for miscellaneous articles. His rifle was very long, slender, without any groove-stock for the barrel to rest in, and had a flint lock. I had time to observe all these particulars, for we stopped and held some minutes' "talk" with the warrior; for warrior he was, having fought under General Jackson long years agone ; and two of the medals suspended from his neck were bestowed upon him, the colonel said, by the "hero." The Indian was full sixty years of age, but time had scarcely whitened a hair of his lofty head. Proud, stern, dignified as a king, he neither moved nor regarded us as we rode up to him. "Good morning. Captain John," said the colonel; "a fine day for the deer ! You seem to be on the chase as well as we!" The Indian chief smiled at hearing the courteous and bland words of the colonel, and answered in a deep bary- tone, that completely came up to my idea of a "manly voice." "Ya, white chief! Good morn'! Deer not much plenty ! Good day hunt, but deer not much plenty ! White man leave no more deer for Indian rifle!" and he slowly shook his head, cast his eyes sadly to the earth, and remained silent. "Why do you and your people not remove west, chief?" asked the colonel. " You will find vast hunting grounds there — no white man will intrude upon you— you can there be happy and powerful !" "Indian never more be great, white chiefl" responded THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. W the old warrior, with a heavy cloud darkening the noble outline of his Washington like features. As he spoke, he turned and strode away with the air and bearing of Forrest as Metamora, save that the one is imitation, and the other nature. "Who is that noble looking chief?" I inquired of the colonel, for his sullen pride and solitary condition had inspired me with a curiosity to know his history. "That is the celebrated Creek chief Nelastora," was his reply, as we resumed our ride, while the chief disap- peared in the depths of the woodland. "He was an ally of Jackson's in the Indian wars, and was of great assist- ance to the cause. The encroachments of civilization upon his hunting grounds, which were once a hundred miles in extent through this region, have compelled most of his tribe to remove to the west of the Mississippi. But he and a few of his friends refuse to go. He has sworn, I am told, upon the graves of his fathers, that he will never desert them, but remain to protect and die upon them ! And he will keep his word. Sometimes he is seen a hundred miles south of this, but he is never long absent from the central seat of his tribe, which is a beautiful valley thirty miles to the east and south of us. I have before met him in the forest, but he refused all offers of hospitality, and will cross the threshold of no white man. Crockett and this chief were once like brothers, yet he never sat at the American hunter's board. Three years ago, Nelastora was seen standing by General Jackson's grave at the Hermitage, regarding it in silence ; but when he was approached, he haughtily retired." By the time the colonel had ended this history, we 90 THE SUNNY SOUTH; OR, ■were winding up an avenue that led to the mansion house of the old soldier, whom we had visited for the purpose of hunting deer with him. On either hand, the ancient woods were replaced bj broad cotton fields, which at this season were unplanted. A quarter of a mile from the house, a white gate, thrown open by half a dozen little shining-eyed negroes, con- ducted us to the grounds more immediately contiguous with the house, viz : a wide rolling lawn, adorned at in- tervals with native fruit trees. We approached the verandah of the house at a hard gallop, and were re- ceived by our military host with a hearty old-fashioned hospitality, that could only be exceeded by the polished courtesy of his manners. He kissed both Isabel and me! But then, Mr. , he was full fifty-nine, had gray whiskers, and — and he always made it a point of kissing all pretty young ladies that came to see him. So, unless you are fifty-nine, and have gray whiskers, you mustn't presume upon this circumstance to think — to think — ^you may end the sentence yourself, if you please. Good bye, Kate. THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. 91 LETTER XIII. Dear Mr. : Please present fny smiling thanks to your talented correspondent " Rusticus," of Wilmington, for his grace- ful verses addressed to me. I feel flattered bj his com- pliments, while I blush that I am not more deserving of them. The thought is singularly pleasing to me, that the crude efforts of my untutored pen find readers who sympathize with and understand me. These kind per- sons are all my friends 'henceforward ! I see them with the eyes of my spirit, and embrace them with my heart. One day, if not on earth, we shall meet in heaven, and recognize each other, and be friends in sweet communion forever. When I by chance meet here, in this poor world, a kindred being, whom to know and love is happiness, I think how many such gentle and good ones the world contains, whom I shall never see on earth ! When this thought comes over my spirit, I feel sad that we must pass away unknown to each other ; but the bright world seen by faith beyond this reassures me, and I take cour- age and rejoice, believing that in the spaces of eternity all who are shaped in the same mould of love will find each other, and so the beautiful, and good, and lovely of earth, though on earth I meet them not, are not for- ever lost to me. Is not this a thought to make the lone 92 THE SUNNY SOUTH; OR, heart strong ? But I must tell you about my deer-hunt. Rusticus seems to question the truth of the account of the fox-hunt, but if he had spent a few days in this re- gion of adventure, he would not hedge in his credulity so closely. Pray, why may not a lady have adventures, and dashing ones, too, as well as the "Lords?" Be- shrew me, but the esprit du camp is not all under the round hat ! I know a young lady not six miles from the Park, who is a celebrated tamer of young steeds, and, mounted upon their backs, whips them bravely into sub- mission. Di Vernon is a tame maiden compared with her. She can shoot a rifle, hit a rose-bud at ten paces with a pistol, and take a partridge on the wing. I will, perhaps, talk about her at another time. I must now make myself heroine. Mr. Rusticus Doubtful, I shall rap you over the knuckles, sir poet ! I have told you, Mr. , how we were met by the old soldier when we drew rein at his gallery, ^he house was a long, low, rambling edifice, such as is peculiar to the plantations in the South, with a light gallery sup- ported by slender columns extending along the front. A wide, natural lawn, dotted with huge forest-trees, ex- tended around it, smooth as a green plush-carpet. On it were four or five beautiful horses cropping the sweet grass, two gentle-eyed, tame deer, a heady-looking goat with a beard like a Jew, a little innocent lambkin with a broken leg which was neatly splintered and bandaged by the old soldier's own hands, and a strutting turkey-gob- bler with pride enough for the Autocrat of all the Russias, and scarlet enough for a Cardinal's cap. It was a pretty, quiet scene, with the golden bars of sunshine laid along between the openings among the trees, and the birds THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. 93 singing in the branches, which the morning wind was waving and stirring with the motion of life. The old white-whiskered warrior escorted us into his spacious drawing-room, holding Isabel by one hand and me with the other, like a gallant gentleman of the old school as he was. We were no sooner seated, one on each side of him, than a servant entered with a quaternion of mint-juleps, in tall silver tumblers, a golden straw of wheat projecting from each verdant pyramid a-top. Nothing would do but that Isabel and I should take one. The old gentleman would not be said Nay. He was one of that class of men who fancy that "no" means "yes," when spoken by young ladies ; nay, he even went so far as to asseverate as much^ I had to take the julep. Just imagine me, Mr. , seated with a riding-whip in one hand, and a mint-julep, piled up like " Ossa upon Pelion," in the other, communicating with my lips by the hollow tube of straw aforesaid, and imbibing like a smoker his tobacco, the perfumed nectar of the distilled and delicate compound. I must confess it was delicious ! Don't tell the good temperance folks that I say so for the world ! but it was truly refreshing. I didn't wish to sip enough to get into my head; so, after five or six charming sips, I placed the silver goblet, still full, upon the salver. Do you not admire my self-denial imder the circumstances ? I spent an hour admiring the pictures and curiosities in the old soldier's handsomely-arranged rooms. Over the mantel was a large, full length of the Hero of New Orleans, at middle age, in the uniform of a colonel. It was an admirable head, and struck me as the personifi- cation of energy of will, a quality for which the " Gene- 94 THE SUNNY SOUTH; OR, ral" was afterward distinguished above all other Ame- ricans. " You admire the Hero?" said the host, as he observed us closely studying the expression of the face of the Iron Man of the New World. " Greatly," I answered. "He was a great man. Miss Kate!" responded the soldier and companion in arms, with a liquid sparkle visible in his eyes. I love to see tears in brave men's eyes ! "You knew him well, major?" I said, interrogatively. " We were as brothers, or rather as father and son, for though I am gray, he was twenty years my senior. He was a lion in battle, and an eagle in pursuit. He was born to command. He read men as I read a child's book. They have said he was cruel. It is not true ! He loved to exercise mercy. Let me tell you an anec- dote to illustrate his character. A soldier had deserted his post to go home to a dying father. He was arrested kneeling at his father's bedside receiving his dying blessing. He begged to be permitted to remain to close his eyes, 'when,' he said, 'he would ready.' He was taken to the camp, then in Florida. He was tried by a court-martial, and condemned to be shot. The General signed his sentence of death on a drum- head. I saw him do it, and I saw a tear drop, like a drop of falling rain upon the hollow drum-head. But those who saw not the tear, but marked only the stern lines of his face, thought him unfeeling !" Here the major frowned, and looked fierce to hide and keep back the liquid drops that had been growing larger every moment, too large for his eyes to hold; but spite of his bent THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. 95 brows, they found their channels and rolled, pearls of price, adown his -battle-browned cheeks. What are tears? Can any tell what and why are tears? "The poor man was at length led forth to execution," resumed the major, who had caught one of his tears slyly on the back of his hand, while the other broke, as he thought unobserved, upon the marble hearthstone; "the detachment which was detailed to execute the sentence, was drawn up about fifty paces from the general's tent. The whole army were drawn up in line to witness the death of the deserter. The general remained in his tent. He was pacing up and down calmly and thoughtfully. There wanted but a minute to the signal for death, when suddenly he ordered the deserter to be brought before him. The man was led blindfolded as he was to his tent. 'Larnham,' said the general to the deadly pale man, 'you have forfeited your life by the laws of war. I therefore signed the warrant for your execution. You have merited life by your filial obedience ; I therefore repeal the sentence of the court martial and pardon you ; and may every son be as worthy of the name as you have proved yourself to be!' The poor man fell at the general's feet and embraced his knees, and the army without hurrahed as one man ; for the filial piety of the deserter had found a responsive chord in every heart, and the pardoning act awakened its echo." There was a stand of colors in the corner of the room which the m^'or had carried at the head of his battalion ; and there were many ornaments around, consisting of war-hatchets, bows, quivers, wampums, crests of eagle's feathers, painted deer skins, fringed and embroidered, all presents from Indian chiefs. The major showed me a 96 THE SUNNY SOUTH; OR, war club which was fringed with human hair, and which he said had killed many a warrior in its day. But the sight of it was revolting to my imagination. But he had paintings of favorite horses and hounds, of game and hunting scenes, and the candelabra of his rooms were deer's antlers, with silver tops terminating the extremities to hold the candles. One horned branch held thirteen sockets, which he called his Federal Chandelier. He took us to one room which was literally hung around with rifles, old, long, and short, and of all sizes ; pistols, fowling pieces, deer's antlers, powder flasks and horns, game bags, dried game, game in glass cases, and all sorts of things which I could not imagine the use of, but which he gravely declared were all essential to the making up of a good hunter. He would take us to his stables too, to see his blind war-horse. We found the venerable steed occupying a neat brick cottage opening into a green paddock in which he was grazing. As soon as he heard his master's voice he pricked up his aged ears and came trotting along till he was within two yards, when he stopped and felt his way to the gate with his feet. We patted him and spoke kindly to him, and he licked salt out of my hand. His teeth were all gone, and his eyes were as white as those of a fish. How pitiable was the noble wreck ! He had been through the Alabama and Florida wars, and bore a scar on his left shoulder from the blow of a tomahawk. His master talked with him as if he were a human being, and as affectionately as if he were a com- rade. It was a fine picture ; the white-headed soldier leaning upon and talking kindly with the aged war-horse THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. 9f ■vrho had seen better days, but had now grown old to- gether with his master. When we returned to the house we found all ready for the hunt. Our horses were saddled and at the door, each held by an African. We were soon a-saddle, fol- lowed by four servants a-foot, two of whom led a leash of dogs a-piece. How the hounds' intelligent eyes spoke of anticipated sport ! Our party consisted of our colo- nel, the old soldier, Isabel, and myself, of the Saxon race ; of the four negroes, and a fifth, half breed, who was a sort of forest-keeper to our host. He was a man skilled, the major told us, in every kind of wood-craft, and not to be matched for a deer in all Tennessee. He was mounted on a nag that looked like a half breed, having a head like a bull dog, a mane like a buffalo, and a thick mane on each fetlock. He was shaggy as an Angola rug, black, and ugly in temper. Our elegant, aristocratic jennets shied away from him if he chanced to trot near either of them, with a proud flash of their eyes and a haughty whinny of their nostrils. We at length reached a noble wood extending to a ridge, from which there was a precipitous path leading to a romantic stream that emptied into the Harpeth which conveys its waters to the broader Cumberland. In this forest the deer usually feed, and, crossing the ridge, de- scend the winding path to the water side to drink. After getting through the wood, we took up our posi- tion upon the ridge, between the forest and the water. There were four deer paths leading across it, near each of which stood an oak of enormous breadth of branches, with trunks like colossal columns of Thebes. We dis- mounted on the ridge, and giving our horses to the 98 THE SUNKY SOUTH; OR, Africans, wlio led them away to a distant eminence, we each of us took a position behind a tree. I would have preferred standing by the colonel's side at his tree, but he and the major insisted that Isabel and I should each have our tree, "so that," said they, "the four paths leading from the forest to the river might be com- manded." So for the sake of a military disposition of their forces by the two old soldiers, I had to take post behind one of the huge oaks. Next to me was the major, fifty feet off to the south; and on the north of me was Isabel, with the colonel on the north flank. For form's sake we were both armed. (Isabel and I with small bird guns, London make, and exquisitely ornamented with silver inlaying.) These guns were ours, — New Year's presents from the colonel, who regularly gave us lessons in the science of shooting, averring that every American lady ought to know how to take sight and pull a trigger. Now, when I took the post assigned me, I had no more malice aforethought against any deer of the forest, Mr. , than I have against that "dear gazelle" the song sings about. I was as innocent of any intention of firing, as a timid young gent who has been dragged into a duello by his "friends" would be likely to have. The tall half-breed had left us some time before we reached the ridge, and turned off into the depths of the forest with the dogs, about a dozen of them in all. We had hardly well taken our "stands" when, from the { bosom of the old wood, came to our ears the low basso baying of the hounds, sounding full a mile off. "There, they wake them up, girls!" cried the major, with eyes sparkling with something of their old battle fire. " Stand firm and keep your trees when they come. THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. M| Take cool aim and pull trigger when you see the color of their eyes. They will be up in about five minutes!" The baying of the hounds now grew nearer and louder, mingled at intervals with the shrill, human cry of the deer driver. From the colonel I understood that the dogs had doubled round the deer as they were feeding, and were driving them towards the ridge, which they would soon fly across, to dash for the river. Nearer and louder, and wilder was the uproar in the forest ! The open mouths of a dozen dogs, cheered on by the half- breed, filled the woods with a continuous roar. Soon were heard close at hand the crashing of branches and rustling of leaves, as the antlers of the deer brushed them in their mad escapade. Then came the quick pat- ter of hoofs, and the rush of the air like the "noise of many waters." "Look! see! they are in sight!" cried Isabel, her dark eyes sparkling like a spirited young knight's, when he first sees his foe advancing against him, lance in rest! And they were in sight ! First, a noble stag, leading the van of the flight ; then half a dozen graceful does ; then two or three smaller stags ; then a confused crowd of a score of all sizes. With heads laid flat back on their shoulders, they came up the ridge side with incredible swiftness. As they approached our stands, they divided into four beaten paths, and came on like a rolling sea, bearing a fleet of antlers. Behind them, following hard on their flanks, coursed the dogs, with their heads in the air, and their deep bay deafening the ear. It was a moment of intense excitement. It was like a battle commencing, with the foe charging ! I did not 100 THE SUNNY SOUTH; OR, feel fear, but excitement ! My pulse bounded ! My heart leaped with heroic springs ! My spirit caught the wild inspiration of the scene ! "Stand firm!" eagerly whispered the colonel to us, aa they got so near that we could see their brown, womanly looking eyes. "Draw your sight coolly, girls," cried the major. The next moment they were upon us ! The leading stag dashed like a race horse past the oak where Isabel stood, four or five following him at top speed. But I had no time to observe others. My eyes were bent with a stern energy (my brow is hardly yet restored to its natural smoothness) upon a phalanx that was rushing to- wards me like the wind. An instant, and they passed, leaving a hurricane in the air of their track following them. I shut my eyes involuntarily, (Crack ! crack ! went rifles on each side of me!) As I opened them again, I saw the last of the party making for my tree like a launched javelin. (At this instant Isabel's gun was heard.) It was a beautiful doe, and as I had, in the bewildering moment of the exciting scene, stepped a little out, and exposed myself unconsciously to her attack, she came leveling her frontal battery unerringly to butt me over. I saw my danger, and was paralyzed at it ! "Fire, or you are killed," shouted the colonel, in a tone of horror. "Fall down, and let her bound oyer you!" hallooed the major. Instinctively I levelled my pretty bird gun and fired. I saw the beautiful animal leap into the air, the red blood pouring down its snow-white breast, and plunge THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. 101 forward headlong at my feet. I sunk, almost insensible, upon the warm body, scarcely hearing the dries: "Bravo!" "Capital shot!" A shriek from Isabel, who believed me wounded by the doe's hoofs, and who flung herself by my side, recalled me from the momentary stupor which the mingled emo- tions of my danger and my escape, and my horror at the sight of the bleeding breast of the deer, had produced. Judge my happiness, Mr. , when it was found that the doe was not mortally wounded. The major, at my entreaty, said it should be taken to his house and nursed for me till it recovered. This was done, and I have the pleasure of assuring you that it is rapidly con- valescing, and it seems to be grateful to me for riding over every day to see how it fares. The result of the day's "sport" was two stags, three does, and one rabbit, which Isabel caught alive on our way home, after running it down on horseback. She also wounded a deer, which escaped from her. Now, then, you have a veritable account of my deer hunt. When you make your promised tour of the Union, "d la President," and come to this garden of the West, Tennessee, we will get up a hunt especially for your edification, fox, deer, or rabbit, as may chime in with your fancy. Tours, respectfully, Kate. 1,02 THB SUNNY SOUTH; OB, LETTER XIV. My wounded deer has quite recovered. You cannot imagine my joy at this result. If it had died, I should have carried the poor, affectionate, mild-eyed creature's death upon my conscience to my last hour. It already knows my voice, and suffered me to lead it by my saddle- horn yesterday, from the major's to the Park ; though, to confess the truth, it came twice near bounding away from me when it discovered a herd of deer, which, scared at our approach, went scampering down the glades. But a gentle word and a pat upon the neck re-assured and quieted it. The worst part of bringing it over was to keep two hounds, that always ride out with Isabel, from tearing it in pieces. They could not comprehend the mystery why man should one day hunt deer down and slay them, and the next, pet and protect one. Brutes are not very able logicians, and are beyond the compre- hension of mixed motives. No doubt a great deal of the conduct of their intelligent masters puzzles them vastly. Brutes follow instinct that never deviates from a straight line, while intelligence is unconfined. Buck and Wolf could not be reasoned Avith, so I used my whip smartly; and, thus seconded, at length got my protegde safely housed at home. What splendid orbs the mild creature has for eyes ! Their expression is soft and pleading, with a slight glitter of timidity. I have seen a beautiful THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. 10$ •woman who had just such eyes as my deer has. To keep my treasure from the dogs, I have shut it up in the paddock for poultry, which has a high fence around it ; I have had to whip the hounds half a score of times to teach them not to stick their black noses through the palings and yelp at it, half terrifying it to death. By the way, talking of hounds, I was awakened this morning at sunrise by a great uproar in the kennel, where at least twenty hounds are kept. Every dog was in full howl, and such a noise! It was not the clear, heart- stirring bay they utter when they are in chase, but a melancholy, cross, snappish wailing and howling, as if some hitherto unheard of tribulation had befallen them generally and individually. The whole house was roused. The colonel first reached the scene of the canine tur- moil, and, upon inquiring, ascertained from a black wo- man, that they were "mad because she baked their corn- bread for dem." It appeared that old, purblind mam' Daphny, who does nothing but cook for the hounds, was sick in bed "with the rheumatics," and delegated her duties to another for the day. The hounds, whose alimentary tastes, as well as olfactory nerves, are keenly sensitive, had detected the new and less skillful hand " at the bel- lows," and so bellowed forth, in the fashion I have described, their grief and rage at this innovation upon established usages. They left the corn-bread untouched, and would not eat until old aunt Daphny — good-hearted Congoese — crawled out of bed, and made up a " batch" which was no sooner placed before the epicurean quad- rupeds, than they devoured it greedily. It takes as much 104 THE SUA'NY south; or, good bread to keep these hounds as it does a dozen ne- groes. They, the dogs, are dainty wretches. I was witness, yesterday afternoon, to a scene that afforded me infinite amusement. The negroes had pre- sents all round at Christmas and Newyear's ; but, on Washington's birth-day, old George, a favorite and vene- rable slave, whose father once belonged to Washington, argued that he ought to have a special present ! The colonel therefore sent into Nashville and bought him a new violin. A more acceptable gift could hardly have been made to him, as he has a fine ear for music, and is the Orpheus and "Ole Bull" of the plantation. It has been his custom of evenings, after the day's work is over, to seat himself upon a bench beneath a large elm that grows in the centre of the African village or Quartier. Here, at the sound of his fiddle, would gather the whole ebon population to dance. At such times he gives re- gular lessons to the young negroes in dancing to the banjo, and teaches their juvenile voices the classic airs of Mondango and Guinea ; hereditary tunes, that have been brought from Africa, and which are now spread over the land to such words as "Juliana Johnson, don't you cry," " Old Dan Tucker," "Long Time Ago," &c. We had just risen from the tea-table, last evening, when old George made his appearance at the steps of the gallery, and, baring his bald head, he bowed with a politeness that Lord Chesterfield would have envied, and made us this speech : "Young Missises and Massa colonel; old George take de liberty to 'vite you to come to de dance out door by de ol' elm. Massa hab giv' me new fiddle, THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. 105 and I takes pleasure to giv' de white folks a consart, and show de young ladieses how my scholars dance." We accepted George's polite invitation, and as the moon was full we went over to the village. We were guided to the tree by the bright light shed from half a dozen pine torches, held in the hands of as many Afri- can animated statues, whom George had conspicuously stationed to throw light upon the scene. As I approached the spot, I was struck with its no- velty, for I have not yet been long enough here to be- come familiar with all plantation customs. I have told you that the negro village of the estate is picturesquely disposed on the borders of a pretty mere^ a few hundred yards from the house. We crossed the water, by a wicker bridge, and had most of the dwellings of the slaves in full view, occupying two streets and three sides of a square. The lights of pine-wood flung a red and wild glare upon their fronts, and upon the lake, and upon a group of more than a hundred Africans of both sexes, who were assembled about the tree. It revealed, also, here and there an old man or woman, helpless through age, seated in their hut-doors, in order to enjoy as much of what was going on as they could. We already found the dignified George seated upon his bench, fiddle in hand. On his right stood a short, fat negro, holding a banjo, and on his left was another slave, with eyes like the bottoms of China cups, holding two hollow sticks in his hand. Behind George was a toothless negress, having before her a section of a hol- low tree, shaped like a drum, with a dried deer-skin drawn tightly over it ; in her shining fist she grasped a sort of mallet. Chairs, assiduously provided, were placed lOl THE SUNNY SOUTH; OK, for US, and the buzzing of pleasure, occasioned among the numerous company of Ham's posterity, having sub- sided, at a majestic wave of George's fiddle-bow, the concert began ! The first tune was a solo, and new to me, and so beautiful and simple that I made old George play it for me to-day in the house, and I copied the music as he did so. He says his father taught it to him. Certainly the negroes have striking native airs, charac- terized by delightful surprises and touching simplicity. Their chief peculiarity is cheerfulness. ^ George having first played a soft strain, the banjo struck in a second ; then came the hollow sticks, like cas- tanets, but five times as large, hollow, and more musical ; and, lastly, the old negress thumped in a base on her hollow drum. The perfect time, the sweet harmony, the novelty of the strange sounds, the singular combination enchanted me. I must confess that I never heard true music before ; but then I should acknowledge I have not heard any operatic music in an opera-house. But do not smile if I say that I believe George and his three aiders and abettors would be listened to with pleasur- able surprise, if they should play as I heard them play, by a Walnut street audience. Real African concert- singers are not, however, in fashion. White men blacked are only comme ilfaut. Is it not odd that a city audi- ence will listen to imitation negroes, and yet despise a concerto composed of the Simon pures? After George had played several pieces, one of which was "Lucy Long," as I had never heard it before, and had received our praises, he said, always speaking with the dignity of an oracle : "Now, if massa and de young ladieses please, we THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. 107 hab de small-fry show demselve ! Come, tand out here, you litty niggers ! Show de white folk how you dance de corn dance !" Thereupon a score of little darkies, from five years of age to a dozen years, girls and boys together, sprang from the crowd, and placed themselves in the space in front of us. Half of them were demi-clad, those that had shirts not being troubled with any superfluous ap- parel, and those that had trousers being shirtless ; in a word, not a black skin was covered with but one species of garment, and this was generally a very short and very dirty, coarse eamisa. " Now make de dirt fly !" shouted George, as he struck up a brisk air alone — banjo, hollow sticks, and drum be- ing silent. The younglings obeyed the command to the letter. They danced like mad ! The short-skirt flaps flew up and down, the black legs were as thickly mixed up as those of a centipede waltzing ; woolly heads, white eyes, glittering teeth, yells and whoops, yah-yahs, and wou- wous, all united, created a scene that my shocked pen refuses to describe. The little negroes did full credit to old George's skill, and he evidently^felt it. He sawed away desperately till the sweat rained from his furrowed brow. He writhed, and rose, and bent over, and stood up, and did every thing but lie down, playing all the while without cessation, and in a sort of rapturous ecs- tasy. Banjo caught the inspiration, and hollow sticks started after, while drum pounded away like young thun- der, yelling a chant all the while, that, had her grand- mother sung it to Mungo Park, would have driven him from the shelter of her hut to the less horrible howls 10$ THE SUNNY SOUTH; OR, of the desert. The little Africans danced harder and harder. Their parents caught the spirit of the moment, and this one, dashing his old cap down, sprang into the arena, and that one, uttering a whoop, followed, till full fifty were engaged at once. I never enjoyed any thing so much ! I could fancy myself witnessing some hea- then incantation dance in the groves of Africa ! The moonlight shining through the trees, the red glare of the torches upon them, their wild movements, their strange and not unmusical cries, as they kept time with their voices to their quick tramping feet, their dark forms, their contortions, and perfect abandon, constituted a tout ensemble that must he witnessed to he appreciated. Suddenly, in the height of their diversion, the planta- tion bell began to strike eight o'clock. When the first stroke was heard from the turret of the overseer's house, there was a burst of mingled surprise and regret. They shouted to each other to "do their best;" and between the first and eighth stroke, take my word for it, Mr. , more dancing was done, and harder, and faster, and noisier, than was over done before in so small a limitation of time. It seemed they were all determined to heap as much pleasure into this fleeting space as it could contain. With the last stroke, every man, woman, and youngling, uttered a yell, gave a final leap into the air, and with the dying vibration of the bell's sound, all was quiet. George even was arrested with his bow in the air, in an attitude of expiring delight, as if "Dying of a tune in Orpheanio pain," "Good night, boys," said the colonel, in the cordial frank way he has when he speaks to his people; "you THE souther:s^er at home. 109 hare enjoyed yourselves, and so have we. George, your pupils, young and old, do you credit." " Tankee, Massa Colonel ; I know'd you'd be berry much gratify. I hope de young ladieses is ekally charmed." "We are charmed, George," I answered; at which he made me a superb bow, when we took our departure. The slaves also retired each to his own cabin, the torches were extinguished, and before we reached the house, stillness reigned in the green moonlit square of the Afri- can quarter. "Now let us have some of your music, Bel," said her father, as we entered the dining-room, which was richly lighted with a solar sphere of ground glass. As my eyes fell upon the superb furniture, the gorgeous carpet, the luxurious drapery of the windows, and the golden harp and rosewood piano, and the peerless beauty of the young girl seated at the costly instrument, I could not help contrasting the refined character of the whole en- semble with that we had just borne a part in. It ap- peared like a transition from one world to another! Isabel's voice is surpassingly rich in compass and sweet- ness. She sings much like Biscaccianti, and warbles in her throat in the same dulcet, dove-like manner. She can soar too, to the same lark-like notes, taking the soul far up on the wing of her song, to the very skies, till it melts into heaven. Don't think me extravagant, but music ever needs adequate language to describe its effects. Types, transpose them into any shape of words, fail to express the impression music makes upon the soul. While I was looking at the African dance, and listened to their voices, which went to the tune of the dance in a continuous chant, I was led to the reflection that the 110 THE SUNNY SOUTH; OR, dance, even in our assemblies, is a barbaric relic, and that civilization in retaining, has only rejected the vocal feature which characterizes it among all barbarous peo- ple. We dance mutely; Indians and Africans singingly. Who shall judge between us ? Since I wrote the above, I have seen the gentleman who rode the bull six miles on a steeple chase, half across the country ! He called to see the colonel on some business, and was presented to us. He is a young man, resolute, and rather dissipated looking ; and I discerned the butt of a small pistol sticking out of his pocket, which did not prepossess me favorably, for it strikes me that a brave man will not go armed day-by-day. Carrying weapons is a sign either of a quarrelsome temper, or a cowardly heart ! After our visitor left, the colonel told us that three years ago he laid a wager that he would ride a famous fierce bull twice around a pasture. The bet was taken, and the young man managed to get astride the bull with only a stout whip in his hand. The bull, as might be expected, at being thus taken "a-back," plunged, roared, pawed, and set off at full speed. At the first dash he broke through the fence, and laid his mad course straight across the country. The young man, putting his whip in his teeth, and grasping a horn in each hand, held on for his life. Unable to guide the enraged brute, unable to check him, and fearing to throw himself off, he committed himself to the creature's will, which led him two leagues to the Cumberland, into which, sans peur, the bull plunged headlong, and so gave his involuntary rider liberty. It is needless to say he won "the stakes." Can you tell me, Mr. , if General Morris has THE SU]!fNY SOUTH; OR, 111 lately published any new pieces ? Next to Tom Moore's, his songs are admired in the West. If the gallant gene- ral should come out here, he would have a pretty fair notion of what post mortem fame is ; for the appreciation which an author receives in a strange land, as I have said, is equal to the voice of posterity. Respectfully, Kate. 112 THE SUNNY SOUTH; OR, LETTER XV. My dear Mr. Ci ^ CAN convey to you no adequate idea of the pic- turesque character of the scenery of this estate. It is made up of groves, uplands, cliffs, grotto-like springs, level, green meadows, and undulating fields. In what- soever direction we ride or walk, there are interesting features to please the eye. Our drives from the villa are all charming. Eleven miles in one direction, east- ward, we come to the venerated tomh of Jackson, at the Hermitage; in another we find ourselves, after three hours' ride, in the beautiful and wealthy city of Nashville. A longer ride, south, brings us to the handsome village of Columbia, where President Polk was born and lived, and where is one of the most eminent collegiate institu- tions for females in the United States; and beyond, an hour's ride farther, lies Ashwood, the princely domain of the four brothers Polk, Avhose estates extend for miles, in continuous and English like cultivation. Of this lovely region I shall write you by and by. A shaded road, leading four miles north of us, terminates on the pebbly shore of the romantic Cumberland, where, as we sit upon our horses, we can watch the steamers pass, and the keel boats and huge barges floating down with the current. Here, too, we sometimes catch fish, and have a rare pic- nic time of it/) THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. 113 Be sure of it, Mr. , you never will have enjoyed life till you come to our Park. If I dared tell the colonel ■what I was doing, he would heartily invite you through me; but I would not let him know for the world that I am "takin' notes an' printin' 'em," so pray don't send your paper to him. He doesn't read much, save politics, or I should tremble lest, when he rides to the city, he should fall in with my "Needles." But, then, I have not said any thing in them very naughty, have I, Mr. ■ ? I am sure all is love and kindness that I write ; at least, I see them in my inkstand when I dip my pen therein. My deer follows me like a greyhound. It has a heart that holds gratitude as a full cup holds rich wine. When I look into its intelligent eyes I seem to be looking down into a pair of deep, shadowy wells, at the bottom of which I see visible the star of its spirit. It seems to have almost a human soul ! It loves, and is grateful, and is dependent like a woman ! Nothing pleases it so much as to have me talk to it. It listens, moves its graceful ears, and smiles out of its eyes, its calm joy! "What," asks Emerson, "what is a brute?" Who can answer? What a mystery they are ! By the way, I nearly lost my life defending my pet yesterday. I had walked down to a spring that gushes out of a cavernous rock in a lovely green glen, a short distance from the house. My deer followed me. As I sat by the spring and read "Willis's People I have Seen," — a very readable book, by-the-bye, my deer ambled off to a little emerald knob, and began to browse. It was a quiet scene, and the idea of danger never entered either of our foolish heads. All at once I heard a wolf-like 114 THE SUNNY SOUTH; OR, bay from a deep throat ; then a swift rushing of a blood- hound so closely past me, that I felt the warm breath of the animal upon my face. The next moment he was within a bound of my deer ! With a cry of warning, I thoughtlessly hastened to the rescue of the deer, ,_ich no sooner saw its danger than it sprang into the air, completely over the dog, as he crouched couchant to pounce upon him, and flew to me. The bloodhound doubled and came back after him. The deer stopped and stood trembling at my side. I threw myself for- ward, and endeavored to intimidate the red eyed monster by shaking Willis at him ! But, I know not from what influence, he turned aside from me and leaped upon the animal's shoulder. The helpless deer sunk upon its knees, uttering a piteous cry. At this my courage was roused, and grasping like a stiletto the steel inlaid paper- cutter I had been using, I was in the act of driving it into the fiery eye of the savage brute, when a loud voice caused the dog to release his hold, and me to suspend the blow. With a growl like a bear robbed of his prey, the bloodhound slunk away, evidently fearing to encounter the owner of the voice, who proved to be the overseer. "You had an escape, miss," said the man, politely raising his broad black hat. " I did not know any one was in this field, or I should have kept him close by me. It was the deer he was after. I hope you were not hur. " "Only frightened for my poor deer," I answered. "Her shoulf' 'r> bleeds, sir." "It is only a tooth mark through the skin. Let me see that dirk, if you please. If you had stuck him with THE SOUTHERNEK AT HOME. 115 that in the eye you would have killed him outright. It is a little, but sure weapon." "It is a paper-cutter, sir," I said, mortified to think he should suppose I carried a dirk. ■^ ib is as good a cutter as a knife. I am glad you did not strike the dog. He is worth a round hundred and fifty dollars, and he is the only one we have. They will track a footstep for miles," he added ; " and the negroes fear them so, that one on a plantation is enough to keep them from running away. I keep this ugly fellow more as a preventive than really to hunt them. Come, Tiger," he said, calling the dog ; and in a few moments I was left alone with my wounded deer. It was not, fortun- ately, badly hurt, and in an hour was as lively as ever. On my way home, I called at a neat hut, built under a shady catalpa tree. A clean, broad stone was the door- step ; white half-curtains were visible at the small windows, and an air of neatness pervaded the whole. Before it was a small yard, in which grew two " Pride of China" trees, for shade, and a cabbage and gourd plat were on either side of the doorway. In the door sat old Aunt Phillisy, a negress withered to parchment by extreme age. She says she is over a hundred years old, of which I have no doubt. She is African born, and still retains many words of her native dialect, with a strange gibber- ish of broken English. She was smoking a pipe,'- Made of corn-cob, and rocking her body to and fro in the sun- shine, in pure animal enjoyment. Hoi husband, old Daddy Cusha, who was nearly as old as his wife, was seated on a low stool in the room, but where the sun fell upon him. He was the most venerable object I ever 116 THE SUNNY SOUTH; OR, beheld, in his way. He was stone blind, his head bald, and shining like burnished copper, and his beard white as fleeces of wool. His hands were folded upon his knees, and he seemed to be in silent communion with the depths of his own spirit. These two persons had not labored for years, and their master was providing for them in their old age. On every plantation you will find one or more old couples thus passing their declining years, in calm repose, after the toils of life, awaiting their transfer to another state of being. The care taken of the aged servants in this country is honorable both to master and slave. I had often seen Mammy Phillisy and old Daddy Cusha — as Isabel, who was attached to them, almost every day brings them, with her own hand, " something nice" from the table. The first day I took dinner at the Park, I noticed this noble girl setting aside several dainties, and directing the servant in attendance, in a whisper, to place them on a side table ; and I was led from it to believe some person, some very dear friend in the house, was an invalid. But I soon found that they were for Aunt Phillisy, Aunt Daphny, and Father Jack, and other venerable Africans of the estate, whose age and helplessness were thus tenderly regarded by the children of the master they had once faithfully served. "Good morning, Aunt Phillisy," I said. "Eh, goo' mornee, Mishy Katawinee," answered the old slave, with a brightening expression, "howee do, Mishy ?" " Very well. Aunt Phillisy," replied I, "Ihope you and old Cusha are doing well." " Yeesha, Mishy, we welly wellee. Takee seatee, THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. 117 Mishy," she said, rising and handing me a wicker chair. So I sat down and had a long chat with them. Old Cusha could recollect when he was taken prisoner in Africa. He said his people and another tribe fought together, that his tribe was beaten, and he, and his mo- ther, and brothers, and sisters were all taken by " de oder brackee men for gold backshee ; den dey put me board de leety ship," continued Cusha, "and, by'm by, we come to land, and dey sellee me in Wirginny. Oh, it long time 'go, Missee!" Aunt Phillisy's memory traveled no farther back than " the big blue sea." Her life in a slaver seemed to have made such an indelible impression upon her that it had become the era of her memory. Before it, she remem- bered nothing. Her face, breast, and arms were tattooed with scars of gashes, as were those also of her husband. While I was talking with them, one of their great-grand- children came into the cabin. It was as black, as thick of lip, as white of eye, as long of heel, as thick of skull, as its genuine Afric forebears ; which proved to me that the African loses none of his primal characteristics by change of climate and circumstances, nor by the progress of generations. The reflection was then forced upon my , mind that these familiar looking negroes, which we see every day about us, are indelibly foreigners I Yet what Southerner looks upon his slave as a barbarian, from a strange, barbarous land, domesticated in his own house, his attendant at table, the nurse of his children ? Yet no alien in America is so much a foreigner as the ne- gro ! QWhat a race they are ! How naturally they fall into the dependence of bondage ! How familiarly they dwell 118 THE SUNNY SOUTH ; OR, « . in Southern households ! How intimately they are asso- ciated with the inmates ! How necessary to the happi- ness and comfort of the beautiful daughter or aristocratic lady of the planter, is the constant presence of an Afri- caness, black, thick-lipped, and speaking broken English, — a black daughter of Kedar — whose grandmother may have danced the Fetish by the fires of human bones, and whose father sacrificed to idols more hideous than them- selves ! How little, I say, does the Southerner realize who and what the negro is ! Yet these descendants of barbarians and wild Afric tribes are docile, gentle, affec- tionate, grateful, submissive, and faithful ! In a word, they possess every quality that should constitute a good servant. No race of the earth makes such excellent do- mestics. It is not in training ! They seem to be born .■i* to it p Look at the American Indian, and contrast him with the African. In the early history of the United States, many of these were forced into bondage, but soon pined and died ! In the West Indies the Spaniards would have made the native Indians slaves, and did compel them to toil, but in what island of the West Indies are now to be found any of their descendants in bondage ? Perished all ! The proud spirit of the Indian will not brook vassalage. His will bends not, but breaks ! A few months' subjec- tion to imprisonment broke the great heart of Osceola ! Oh, when I think on the base act of treachery (and by an American officer, too) by which that gallant and chivalrous chief was inveigled into the hands of the Americans, my pulse throbs quicker, and I feel my cheek warm ! It is the darkest act that stains Ame- rican history ! And our government connived at it ! THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. 110 Our government, which, next to God's, should be su- preme in greatness and glory, justice and mercy, over the earth, our government availed itself of the treachery, and so made it its own ! Shame on the American arms ! Infamy on the name of an officer, who, under a flag of truce, could thus violate every principle of honor ! There is just now a good deal of talk about the disso-** lution of the Union.* We ladies even engage in the discussion, and, if not with ability, at least with warmth and patriotism. With but one exception, I am glad to find all the Tennessee ladies I have met are firm union- ists. This lady said she hoped to see the " North cast^ * off," Nashville the capital of a new republic or kingdom, when Charleston would rival New York, and New Or- leans would be the Constantinople of the world ! How my heart pitied her ! Dissolve the Union ! It is to ex- patriate ourselves. It is to blot the name of America from the scroll of nations. I have no patience with such talkers. They know not what they say. What a speech Mr. Clay has given the nation ! Last and migh- tiest effort of all. As he advances in years, his intellect seems to catch glory from the splendor of the world to which he is near approaching ! His speech will be re- membered through all time. Why should such a man as Mr. Clay or Mr. Webster wish to be President? This position can add no new lustre to their names. As Presidents they would be lost in the long list of Presidents that is to be unrolled along the tide of time ; but simply as American Sena- tors, (titles, than which none are more dignified on earth,) they will descend to posterity as the Cicero and * Written in 1852. 120 THE SUNNY SOUTH; OR, Demosthenes of the early ages of the republic. I would say to them, " Senators, if you wish to be great for all time, lie down in your sepulchres with the senatorial mantle folded upon your breasts." You must pardon my bit of politics, Mr. , but the Tennessee ladies are all politicians, I believe the most zealous to be found anywhere, and I have caught their spirit. It strikes me that every true American woman should understand the affairs of government, political motives, great men, and exciting questions of public in- terest. So did the Roman matrons, and, doubtless, the Roman maidens. But, my paper tells me I must close. Respectfully yours, Kate. THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. 121 LETTER XVI. Dear Mr. : I HAVE just finished reading Emerson's great book, "Nature." What a well of thought it is! What a wonderful man he is to write such wonderful things ! He is a metaphysical anatomist. He lays open the uni- verse to the soul's eye. He is one of those few writers that put in words for us, our own unspoken thoughts, those great thoughts that come upon us in the waking hours of night, and in the still, holy hour of twilight. How many thoughts that I never dreamt of uttering, not dreaming they could be written in words, have I been startled and pleased to find in this book ! He seems to comprehend the mystery of life, and teach us what and for what we are. The questions which a child asks, and which puzzle a philosopher to answer, this philosopher answers with the simplicity of a child. He delights us, because we feel that he has felt, and thought, and wondered, as we have felt, and thought, and won- dered ! His book must make its way to the hearts of all who think ; of all who look at the stars, and ponder with awe and solemn curiosity thereupon; of all who look downward into their own spirits, and meditate upon the mystery they are ! Mr. Emerson calls the visible universe the scoria of spirit! He says, that all spirit has a tendency to visi- 122 THE SUNNY SOUTH; OR, bility — hence result the visible world, the heavens, and the earth. A visible creature is the ultimatum of spirit. The physical powers of Deity are visible in the grandeur of creation — the moral were made visible in the person of Jesus Christ, who was the "Godhead visible." These are wonderful sayings to think upon. They help vastly towards unfolding the mighty thoughts that rush upon the soul at times. Mr. Emerson's must delight all right minds. The whole scope of his Christian philosophy, hoAvever, I can not accept. He stops short of revelation, and all true philosophy should point to the Christian doctrine of the cross. Ticknor's charming and elaborate work on Spanish literature, I have just completed. How shall I express my thanks to this laborious and elegant scholar, for the delight and instruction I have been recipient of from its pages ! How little have the best Spanish students known of Castilian literature ! The educated world, both sides of the sea, are under infinite obligations to Mr. Ticknor for this book. The only fault I can find with it, is the obscurity in which he has left the question touching the authorship of that fascinating work, Gon- salvo de Cordova. I have two books with this title, but am at a loss to know which it is he describes, whether the one commencing "Castas musas," or another. But one fault is a spot on the sun. I have no doubt Mr. Ticknor's work will create a taste for Spanish literature. There is none that surpasses it. The best of it is still in MS., and some of it remains locked up in the Arabic character. It is odd that the bulk of Spanish literature should consist of comedies, when we reflect that the Spaniards are the gravest people in Europe. The THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. 123 French, who are the lightest people, excel most in tragedy! These facts need accounting for. Last evening Isabel read to us one of Mrs. Lee Hentz's finely conceived and gracefully penned stories. We were all charmed with it, and the colonel, naughty man ! who thinks ladies are good for nothing but to stitch and sew, play the guitar and piano, marveled "that a woman could write so well." He even goes so far in his pre- judice as to refuse to read a book written by a female I Isabel read Madame de Stael's "Corinne" in French, to him, lately, and he was as charmed with it as the authoress could have desired. He would even forego his afternoon nap and cigar after dinner, to come to the drawing-room to listen. We have a conspiracy against him, and mean he shall yet confess that books written by women are the only books worth reading. We are somewhat puzzled to know who wrote " Shir- ley," a man or woman! I am satisfied it is a woman. It is a well told story, but does not deserve half the praise that has been lavished upon it. Mrs. Ann S. Stephens has more talent, and can write better than the author of "Shirley." If this book had been trimmed of full one hundred and fifty pages of prosy verbiage, the balance would have entitled it to a place by the side of the "Vicar of Wakefield ;" but as it is, it will not live two years, — it will never become a library book. Poor Goldsmith! What a pity he is not alive to enjoy the sunshine of his posthumous popularity! Last week I saw a copy of Shakspeare, superbly illustrated. It cost $150. I sighed that "Witty Will" was not living to read his own works in such splendid drapery. How such things mock all human glory ! Great men live and 124 THE SUNNY SOUTH; OR, struggle, and toil, not for themselves, but for the future. They die ignorant that they leave an imperishable name on the earth. How few men have cotemporaneous fame! Washington Irving, Bryant, and Tom Moore, have it! and they say poor Moore has become imbecile. I mentioned this to a young lady whom I heard singing one of his songs. "Is he?" she replied, in a half inquiring, half indiffer- ent tone, and went on with her song. "Such," thought I, "is immortality! Such is human glory! A great man dies — a great poet becomes in- sane — and the world says, 'Is he?' and rolls on as before !" I have been for a couple of days past on a visit to a neighboring estate. Upon it is a large, green mound, which the proprietor excavated for our entertainment. The result was the dishumation of several beautiful vases of lemon-colored clay, baked like porcelain ; arrow heads, beads, bones, amulets, and idols. One of the last weighed seventy pounds, was the size of a boy six years old, carved out of limestone. It was seated a la Turk, and had a hideously ugly face. It, nevertheless, proves that the Indians had notions of sculpture. It is pre- cisely like the pictures of such deities in Stephens' book on Central America. It is to be sent to the celebrated cabinet of Professor Troost, in Nashville, a collection not surpassed in the Union. The doctor is a venerable Dr. Franklin looking man, is an enthusiastic geologist, and is polite to the ladies, especially the young and beautiful, for though he has seen eighty-one years, he can distinguish specimens in that way. A young friend of ours, who lives not far distant, and THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. 125 is a frequent visitor at the Park, after paving a visit to this cabinet, was seized with the cacoethes of geologizing. He passed two weeks in the woods and hills, and wander- ing along rivulets, till he loaded himself and two slaves down with specimens. With them he made his way to the presence of the worthy doctor, whom he intended both to gratify and surprise with his rich donations to science. The venerable professor received him and his treasures with his characteristic courtesy, and when he under- stood that the specimens were destined to enrich the cabinet, his fine old Franklin face brightened with de- light. I will describe the scene in our friend's own words : " The first rock he took out he glanced at, and tossed it aside, with some indistinct sounds I could not under- stand. I thought it was German. The next rock, which I took to be a fine agate, he tossed away with the same muttering. So he went on till he had thrown away a dozen, each one with looks of increased disappointment and unconcealed contempt. "'What is that you say about them, doctor?' I asked. " ' Vater vorn — all vater vorn.' "'Water worn? What is that?' I asked. '"Worn smoot'; not'in' but bebbles. Dey goot for not'in', if dey all de same!' " ' They are all the same,' I replied, chop-fallen. '"Den dey all good for not'in'.' "I told the boys to shovel them back into the bags, and as I saw a shy twinkle in the professoi''s eye, I dis- solved!" Perhaps no state is so rich as Tennessee in geology. 126 THE SUNNY south; OR, A bare inspection of this cabinet will show this. The doctor has some rare diamonds and jewels, which he takes great pleasure in showing to the ladies; and his collection of polished stones will shame even the most brilliant show-case of your much extolled Bailey & Co. Among the curiosities is a bowie-knife wrought out of a thunderbolt, (magnetic iron,) which fell in this state. The iron of this description is beautifully crystalized, unlike any thing belonging to terrestrial geology. The "water worn" specimen collector, above mentioned, was, not a great while since, the subject of an amusing inci- dent. He has been for some time an admirer of a cousin of Isabel's, a belle and a fortune: and it was settled they were to marry. But one evening when he called, he found her unaccountably distant and cold. She would only answer him in monosyllables, and with scarcely an opening in her lips. If he drew near her, she would draw back; if he demanded an explanation, she replied only by silence. At length he arose and left, and she silently bowed him "good night." Unable to account for such conduct, and wondering how he could have offended her, he early next morning came riding at spur-speed to the Park, to unfold his distress to his fair friend, Isabel, and beg her intercession to heal the breach. He had hardly got 'through his story and received Isabel's promise, before her cousin was announced. She entered, arrayed in an elegant green riding costume, with a snow white plume pending to her .shoulder. She looked earnest and anxious. But, seeing her lover, she was about to smile and address him in a frank and THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. 127 usual manner, when his cold bow and haughty air chilled her. She turned away, and, embracing her cousin, walked through the folding doors into the farther room with her. Here she told her how she had offended her betrothed, and had ridden over to get her to explain matters. "You must know, Isabel, that the doctor prescribed for my sick-headache, yesterday, six onions, cut fine, eaten raw, with vinegar, pepper, and salt. Well, I fol- lowed the prescription; and I assure you they were very nice; and they cured my head. So I went into the parlor to practice a new waltz, when, without my know- ing he was in the house, Harry entered the parlor. I instantly remembered the horrid onions and felt like a culprit ! I would have fled, but it was too late. What should I do ? I had to remain and entertain him. But mercy! I dared not open my mouth, lest my breath should betray the fatal secret ! So I monosyllabled him — kept as far off from him as possible ; and at last he went off, his handsome eyes flashing like two stars. Now you must go and tell him how it was, and make it up." . You may be sure, Mr. , that with two willing hearts the reconciliation was not long in being effected ; and the lovers rode away together perfectly happy. Poor Harry ! water-worn pebbles, and onions with vinfegar and pepper, are now his abhorrence ! I have half a mind to try my pen at a tale for you, Mr. . Mrs. Lee Hentz's beautiful stories have in- spired me with a desire to attempt something in the same way. I feel diffident of my ability to adventure 128 THE SUNNY SOUTH; OR, into the higher field of literature — ^but I can try. If it will not pass "the ordeal of your critic's eye," you have only to call it "water worn;" and throw it away with other pebbles. Respectfully, Kate. THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. 129 LETTER XVII. My dear Mr. : When you hear I have been to the great "Nashville Convention," I fear me you will have no more to do with me. It was curiosity that tempted me, and, being a "Yankee Girl," I felt the greatest desire to be present at a meeting which was drawing the attention of the whole Union, if not of the whole world. The colonel is a true Southern man in interests as well as feeling, and, at breakfast table on the morning of the 3d inst., he said, in his badinage manner : "Kate, what say you to going to the Convention?" "The Nashville Convention, sir?" I exclaimed, with a start of innate horror. " Yes ; it begins its session to-day. It is but three hours' drive into town, and I am going in to see what they are going to do. Isabel is desirous of being pre- sent, as ladies are especially invited to grace the assem- blage." " I thought they were to meet with closed doors, colo- nel," I said, in my innocence, having the ghost of the Hartford Convention before my eyes. "No; they will do all open and fearlessly, Kate. If you can overcome your scruples enough to be of the party, we should be delighted to have you go." After a few moments' reflection, I concluded to con- 9 130 THE SUNNY south; or, sent, though I must confess with some compunctions of conscience, Mr. , for I religiously believed the Con- vention to be traitorous in its spirit, in its views, and in its tendencies. The carriage was at the door as soon as breakfast was over, and, after three hours' drive, we entered Nashville, a city, as I have before remarked, presenting the most charming aspect to the approacher of any inland town in the Union. The tall, Egyptian towers of the Presbyte- rain church, the Gothic battlements of the Episcopalian, and the pointed turrets of the Baptist, the fortress-like outline of the half-finished Capitol, and the dome of the Court house, with the numerous cupolas, galleries, groves, and bridges, together form a coup d'oeil that enchants the eye. On our road, we had overtaken an open traveling barouche, containing two South Caro- linians, on their way to the Convention. One of them being known and recognized by the colonel, we had quite an animated conversation, as we rode side by side. Arrived in town, we stopped at an elegant mansion, the abode of a relation of the colonel, where we were made as much at home as Ave could have been at the Park. We found the city thronged with strangers from all the Southern states, and the houses of the best fami- lies were hospitably opened to entertain them. Upon expressing my surprise to an eminent whig jurist opposed to the Convention, that he should have thrown open the larffcst and best rooms of his house to the members of it, he remarked that "he could never forget the laws of hospitality, and that it was his opinion that strangers visiting the city should be received with kindness and THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. 131 civility." I honored the venerable gentleman for this specimen of old Roman feeling. The Convention at first convened in the Odd Fellows' Hall, a large and beautiful edifice, but not being found convenient for the accommodation of spectators, espe- cially the ladies, the McKendree Church, which is the most spacious in the city, was ofi"ered to it and accepted. As we entered the vestibule, which was thronged with gentlemen, I noticed a placard, reading in large letters as follows : " The pews on each side of the church on the floor, reserved for ladies ; and no gentleman without a lady to be admitted on the floor unless he is a member. This rule will be strictly enforced." Upon entering, we found the house filled, the mem- bers occupying the body of the church, the ladies, like borders of flowers, (that is a gallant delegate's figure of speech,) enclosing them on each side, and the galleries packed with lookers-on and lookers-down, some of them with their hats on their heads, for there are some men that don't know when they ought to keep their hats ofi". Through the politeness of General , a gen- tleman as distinguished for his patriotism as for his politeness, we were escorted to an advantageous seat near the platform, although we did not turn any gentleman out of his seat in order to get places for ourselves. I know of nothing more uncivil or worthy of being re- buked, than that rudeness so common among ladies, which leads them to make a gentleman sacrifice to them a seat, which, perhaps, he has with much difficulty obtained for himself. It is the duty of every man coming into a crowded room with ladies, io find places for them without discommoding other men. I saw two " ladies" come in and 132 THE SUNNY SOUTH; OR, stand before a pew, and look steadily at an elderly gen- tleman in it, as if they were resolved to look him out of his seat, though his wife and daughters were with him in the pew ; but the height of impertinence is for a man with females under escort, to ask another gentleman to rise and give his seat to the ladies ; yet, during the session of the Convention, I saw this thing done repeatedly. Madame de Stael says, in her admirable " Corinne :" "I'idi^e que les grands seigneurs de Rome ont de I'hon- neur et du devoir, c'est d^ ne pas quitter d'un pas ni d'un instant leur dame." I fully subscribe to this law of manners in its application to the present purpose. When we entered, Mr. Hammond, of South Carolina, was addressing the chair, which was filled by a dignified, Andrew Jackson-looking man, who, I learned from the colonel, who knows almost everybody, was Judge Sharkey, of Mississippi. Mr. Hammond's head struck me as very fine. He is of a pale, intellectual aspect, with a high forehead, white and polished ; indeed, his whole face was almost as colorless as alabaster, and seemed chiseled out of marble. What he said was moderate and conser- vative, and what particularly surprised me throughout the nine days sitting of the Convention, was the calm, dignified, and impassioned attitude taken and held by the South Carolina delegation. They spoke little, giv- ing the lead to others rather than taking it themselves, yet it was perhaps the most talented, Mississippi alone excepted, delegation in the Convention. Barnwell Rhet, of South Carolina, spoke during the day, and made a favorable impression. He is a strong-minded man, with a head something like late Attorney-General Lcgard's, and a manner highly courteous in debate; and this THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. 133 finished courtesy seems to me characteristic of these Carolinian gentlemen. Mr. Barnwell (since chosen United States Senator in place of Mr. Elmore) also made a short reply to one of the delegates. He is a strong man, and holds rank with the leading intellects of the South. His intellectual weight will be felt in the Senate. Mr. Cheves, of the same delegation, is a hale, white-headed old gentleman, with a fine port-wine tint to his florid cheek. He has a high reputation, I believe, but during the session he said but little. The most eloquent man of this delegation is Mr. Pickens. He made a speech on the sixth day that surpassed any thing in the way of forensic eloquence I ever imagined. He has a face like one of the old Roman emperors, which I have seen on a coin, Nerva, I think, and his oratory is worthy of the Forum. By turns, calm and tempestuous, gentle and strong, witty and withering, logical and ima- ginative ; at one moment, the audience would be startled with the thunders of the rock-beating surges; and at another, soothed by the soft zephyrs of a summer sea. His rhetoric was profusely ornamented with figures and metaphors, like an exquisite mosaic. Altogether, he is one of the most finished orators it has been my good fortune to listen to ; and the colonel says, his speech on this occasion was worthy to be compared to the most noble efforts of Wirt and Patrick Henry. South Caro- lina, in truth, sent her jewels here, and their talents have won them golden opinions. Be assured, Mr. , that the sentiments of this state have been misrepresented. Throughout the Convention, her sons were models of conservatism and healthy patriotism. Seated near them was the Mayor of Charleston, called "the handsome 134 THE SUNNY south; or, Mayor," Mr. H , a worthy descendant of Colonel Hutchinson, of Cromwell's time, and of the Mrs. Hutch- inson, whose memoirs are so well known. He was pointed out to me by a lady with : " Don't you think he is the handsomest man in the house?" He is not a de- legate, hut only a " looker-on in Venice." He has been to the Mammoth Cave, near here, within a few days past, and his description of it to me I must give you, it is so truthful : " The sensation," said he, " on beholding it when standing beneath the main dome is precisely like that experienced in gazing upon Niagara ; it is Niagara in reposed The Virginia delegation took a very active part in all the debates. It was, if possible, more ultra than any of the rest. The Hon. Beverly Tucker, a half brother of John Randolph, spoke often, but what he said did not please me. He is, moreover, past his vigor, and enter- ing his dotage. His speech was exceedingly bitter, and out of temper. It was the only one that was recrimi- nating against the North ; for a spirit of forbearance in this direction has peculiarly marked the whole body. The North is alluded to as " our northern brethren," or " our sister states," &c., and there is almost, as I have said, a total absence of vituperation. Mr. Tucker, however, something in the spirit and something in the manner of Randolph, of Roanoke, let out his bitterness, and was sometimes forgetful that ladies were present. He is a venerable and gentlemanly-looking man, and bears a high reputation, I believe, but it is rather for what he has been. The most able and patriotic member of the Vir- ginia delegation was Mr. Gordon, who spoke always well, and to the purpose. He has something of the massive- THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. 135 ness of Webster in his n^nner of speaking, and was always listened to with deep interest. The several dele- gations from the several states, (nine states in all,) were seated each bj itself. The two places of honor, the front pews on each side of the broad aisle, directly in front of the President's chair, were given to South Carolina and Mississippi ; on the right of the latter was Virginia, occupying two pews ; on the left of Carolina was Florida. In the rear of South Carolina was Alabama, and in the rear of Mississippi were placed the Georgians. The Ten- nessee delegates, among whom was General Pillow, in a military white vest, and Major W. H. Polk, the late Pre- sident's brother, occupied the side pew on the left of the pulpit. In front of the pulpit is a carpeted platform, within the chancel-railing, on which a dozen little green tables were placed for editors and reporters. In the centre, before the desk, sat Judge Sharkey and the vice-president. Gov. McDonald of Georgia, supported by their secretaries. What, with the vast assemblage before them, and the reflections upon the important sub- ject which had convened such a House, the whole scene was imposing and solemn in the extreme. Perhaps since the meeting of the Signers of the Declaration of our priceless Independence, no Convention has been as- sembled in the Union, so fraught with profound and sober interest as this. It was no assemblage of young politicians, ambitious for notoriety. Everywhere, as I looked over the house, my eyes fell on gray heads vene- rable by wisdom. The majority of the members were men whose names are known to the world with distinc- tion, — men who are the pride, and glory, and honor of the South. Governors, Judges, ex-members of Congress, 13G THE SUNNY south; or, eminent jurists, and distinguished orators, composed the -assembly. Dignified in its character, calm, and delibe- rate in its debates, — as if impressed with the solem- nity of their combined attitude before the country and the world, — they struck me as forming, for the time being, the true Congress of the country; for the consti- tutional assemblies at Washington seemed to be sus- pended in action while tliis one was in session, as if wait- ing for the result of its deliberations. And there is lit- tle doubt but there was as much talent in this Congress as in that. All its proceedings were marked by the severest parliamentary etiquette ; and I heard gentlemen, who dined at the house where we were guests, say that the whole tone and temper of the proceedings and discussions were not unworthy of the United States Senate. You see I am getting to be quite a Southerner in feeling. But I must describe as I saw, and write as I feel. Opposed as I was to the Convention, I cannot withhold justice where it is due. At first the citizens of Nashville were opposed to it ; but day-by-day, as its sessions advanced, it grew into favor. The galleries (the people sovereign) thundered applause, and the ladies smiled approbation. The members beguiled the tedium of the reading of the resolutions in going from pew to pew, chatting with the beautiful women, and the sessions were thus varied by some interesting flirtations on the part of the hand- some widowers, and married men, too, to say nothing of bachelors, who seem to live single in order to flirt. Brilliant parties had been given nearly every evening to the delegates, and dinner parties were the order of the day. The whole city, all the time of the session, was in THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. 137 deliffhtful excitement; and fair widows and beautiful girls reigned in all their splendor and power. Many a heart was lost, — and some of the most firm disunionists brought over to the opinion that one kind of union is at least very desirable. Probably Nashville has never seen so gay a fortnight as that during the sitting of this brilliant Convention. The most talented and active member of the Mississippi delegation was a Mr. McRea, a young man, but who has made himself a man of mark, by the display of his talents for debate on this occasion. The most exciting speech made, was by the Hon. Mr. Colquitt of Georgia. He is athletic, short, compact, and iron-looking, with a large intellectual head, thick with wiry, gray hair, grow- ing erect all over it ; a jutting, black brow, and a firm mouth, the whole man and the whole face being stamped with a rough, fiery energy. He rose to reply to some moderate member, against the Compromise, I believe, — and growing excited, he jumped from his pew into the broad aisle, to have more space. Here he spoke with perfect abandonment ! His voice rung like a bugle ! He would rapidly advance, sometimes five or six steps, as if about to leap the chancel railing at a bound, and then stopping full, terribly stamp, stamp his right foot, and discharge his artillery-like thoughts, which seemed bursting for more vehemence than he could give them ; (and never man had more;) at another time he would re- treat step by step, speaking slowly in whispering irony, half down the aisle, when suddenly leaping into the air, his voice would explode like a shell, and electrify us all. Now he would turn round and appeal to this delegate — now face an opposite one ; now he would advance like a 138 THE SUNNY SOUTH; OR, skirmisher, and utter hoarse, denunciatory whispers to the President in the chair, as if for his especial ear. In a word, he made a most extraordinary speech, in which the manner of all the best orators of the land was mixed up with that of some of the worst. It was in oratory, what a medley would be in song ! It was wild, fierce, terrible, dreadful, mad — yet most wonderful to listen to. It was eloquence tied to the back of a wild horse, Ma- zeppa-like ! General Pillow also spoke several times, and spoke well. I had the greatest curiosity to see him, having heard so much of him. He lives in elegant and opulent retirement, not far south of Nashville, and is ycr^ popular in this state, and may be the next governor. All those foolish stories told about him by the papers, have been proved to have no foundation, and ought to be dismissed from the public mind. He is in the prime of life, de- cidedly a handsome man, with a marked military air. There is a smile in his eyes, and which generally plays about his finely shaped firm mouth, that renders the ex- pression of his countenance singularly pleasing. He looks like a gallant and chivalrous gentleman, and his speeches were all patriotic and to the point. This dis- tinguished man has been called vain, because some sup- pose he wrote a self-commending account of the battle in which he had fought so well. There is classic authority for such a sentiment, which I believe is not an unworthy part of human nature. Pliny says, in his nineteenth letter, book ninth, to Rufo : "In my opinion, every man who has acted a great, a distinguished part, deserves not only to be excused, but approved, if lie endeavors to secure immortality to the THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. 139 fame he has merited, and to perpetuate an everlasting remembrance of himself." Frontinus forbade a monu- ment to be erected to him, saying, " The remembrance of me will remain if mj actions deserve it !" Some men call this modest in Frontinus, but in my opinion it is the perfection of vanity ; for he is so impressed with the cer- tainty that his actions will be remembered, that he pro- claims it to the world. I think every man who performs noble actions, should take pains that they are set right for the eyes of posterity; and if such a course be vain, then is Caesar the vainest of men, as he was among the bravest and wisest. Why is it, Mr. , (listening to the debates has led me to the reflection,) that men talk to one or two per- sons, but declaim to a hundred ? You see the absurdity of making a loud and oratorical harangue to a single auditor, yet let another and another be added, till there is an assembly, and the conversation is elevated to ora- torical declamation. Pliny, who is a great favorite with me, speaking of the same subject, says : " The reason I imagine to be, that there is, I know not what dignity in the collective sentiments of a mul- titude, and though separately their judgment is, per- haps, of little weight, yet, when united, it becomes re- spectable." Major Wm. H. Polk spoke two or three times early in the session. He has a remarkable voice, deep as a volcano. He is a handsome man, but is bearded like an Ottoman chief. His manner of delivery is striking, from his emphatic enunciation. AVith every word, he makes an energetic nod forward, and the vowels are all enunciated with the precision of an elocutionist, in 140 THE SUNNY SOUTH; OR, particular the terminations ioriy wliich he pronounces round and full in two distinct syllables, like a Spaniard speaking his own sonorous tongue. He always spoke to the purpose, and with great boldness. To show you how little popular applause can be ap- pealed to as a criterion of opinions, I heard the galleries one hour applaud a suggestion of " non-intercourse," and the next hour a defence of the Union. After passing their series of resolutions and "Address to the Southern States," on the ninth day the Convention adjourned to meet again at Nashville, where they have been so agreeably entertained, the sixth Monday after the ad- journment of Congress, if the action of that body prove hostile to Southern interests. Moderate men regard this as an imprudent challenge, and perilous to be taken up. After a few local resolutions, voting thanks to tho citizens of Nashville for their hospitality and to " the ladies for their smiles," the president made a neat fare- well speech, and the house adjourned. The gallant Charleston delegation won high favor by making a pre- sent to the church of a superb carpet to compensate for the wear of that which covered the floor during the ses- sion. These South Carolina gentlemen have a thought- — -ful savoir faire way of doing just what ought to be done. Now, Mr. , I have given you a sketch of my impres- sions of this famed Convention. I hope you will not deem ^ it treasonable to publish it. What the result and influ- ence of the action of this body will be, is not for a fe- male pen to venture to say, but I believe firmly that it -^will have a tendency to consolidate the Union. The whole temper and tone of the proceedings cannot fail to command the respect of the North; and I hope and TUV JSOTJTnERNER AT HOME. 141 heartily pray that the end of this unhappy difference will be to settle upon a firmer basis, the noble political institu- tions which command the admiration and homage of the nations of the earth. ^ Respectfully, Kate. 142 THE SUNNY SOUTH; OE^ LETTER XYIII. My dear Me. : I HAVE a secret for your especial ear-trumpet, but, perhaps you are not old and deaf, and so don't use a trumpet ; but the only two editors I ever saw, were both deaf, and kept clapping their ear-trumpets to their tym- pana, like two sportsmen bringing Colt's rifles to their eyes. The secret is this : Last evening, Juba, who brings our mail from town, placed a letter in my hand, ad- dressed, "Miss Catharine Conyngham, care of Col. , &c." I thought the hand- writing was my brother's, the midshipman, and tore the seal with fingers trembling, and heart bounding. But it proved to be from an editor — yes, Mr. , a real editor, and publisher of a weekly literary paper. And what do you think was the pur- port of it ? I dare say, if I left it to you to say, you would be wicked enough to reply, "A declaration of love." It was no such thing ! It w^as a very polite re- quest that I would contribute some "Needles" to his paper, and if I could not furnish him with a series of "Needles," to oblige him with a series of "Tales." Tales ? I, who have not the least grain of imagination, write tales ! My reply I shall defer, till I hear from you and have your permission ; for, I do not feel that I can, in justice, contribute to any other columns without your full consent — for you arc my literary god-father, Mr. THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. 148 . Suppose I Trritc a tale for you. I will try. Perhaps it may turn out a simple affair, in that case you won't publish it, and so no harm will be done. It is one thing to write sketches, and quite another thing to write a thrilling tale. In a week or two, I will see what I can do, and send you the first fruit of my venture into the world of fiction. " Perhaps it may turn out a song, perhaps turn out a sermon." You will be interested to know that I have not heard a blow struck on this estate, and the colonel says he has not punished one of his slaves in seven years. It is true all men are not like the good colonel, yet for the most part the planters are kind and considerate towards their slaves. They often give them Saturday afternoons, and all day Sunday, when they appear in holiday attire, gayest of the gay. They are all great lovers of going to meeting, and delight in hearing preaching^ and their fixed and earnest attention in church, might be an ex- ample to their superiors. Marriages are performed by the planters themselves, with great show of ceremony, by gravely reading the service from the prayer-book. We had a wedding last week ; Jenny, the sempstress, a pretty mulatress, being married to Charles, the ebony coachman of Dr. Bellman, who lives three miles from us. At seven o'clock, the whole party made its appearance in the great hall, at one end of which stood the colonel, Isabel, myself, and several friends from the neighboring plantations. Dressed in white — a white satin petticoat, with book-muslin robe worn over, and with a wreath of flowers, which Isabel had gathered from rare plants in the conservatory upon her head, with a high comb, and long lace veil, ear-rings, bracelets, and satin shoes with span- 144 THE SUNNY SOUTH; OR, gles, the bride first entered, attended by ' er two bride's- maids — one of these, my handsome negress, Eda. The bride's-maids were both dressed very richly, Isabel having given one of them one of her beautiful dresses, and loaned her diamond pin and ruby bracelets. I also decked out my Eda in a figured white muslin, two bracelets, a neck- lace and brooch, and she really looked superb, with her large, fine eyes and graceful figure. From the neigh- boring estates were several females, handsomely dressed, and wearing their mistresses' willingly loaned jewels, so that, at this wedding of slaves, shone more jewels (thanks to the kind indulgence of masters and mistresses) than are often seen in more elegant assemblies. The hall Avas soon filled, and as far as I could sec into the piazza beyond, was a sea of woolly heads, of "cul- lered" gentlemen and ladies. Dr. Bellman, a hale gen- tleman of the most frank and cordial manners, white hair, ruddy cheeks, portly form, and always laughing, and telling some funny story — he himself "gave away the bride." The colonel read the service for the ceremony in a clear and solemn voice ; and all passed ofi" with the utmost decorum and gravity. The bride was not kissed by the colonel ! The marriage ended, the whole party, full three hundred Africans in all, went to the lower gal- lery that half surrounds the house, and is full one hun- dred feet long, by eighteen wide, and here they formed into cotillions. The gallery, enclosed by Venetian blinds, was lighted up for the occasion, and three fiddlers, and a banjo, and castinets, were perched upon a platform at one end, where they played with a zeal and unweariness that I had never seen cijualed. At eleven o'clock, they were invited by the colonel to supper, which was laid in I THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. 145 the gallery of Ji^he kitchen, itself a long structure, en- closed by a broad piazza. We all stood by and enjoyed the happiness of the Congoese festivity. One young "cuUered gentleman," brother to the bride, and some- thing of a Beau Brummel in his way, remarked to me, with a low bow, and with his hand on his heart — "Nebber see, young missis, nebber see so much beauty afore, at no weddin'. De ladies looks splendid, specially de purty Miss Edy! She de belle ob de party!" Throughout the supper the utmost order prevailed — nay, politeness reigned! Give me "cullered gemmen" at a "cullered" party for your true and genuine polite- ness ! The white gemmen are not one half so courteously polite to us white ladies, as the^/ are to their "fair sec!" Bows and smiles, and Brummellian bends of the body, displayings of teeth, and white perfumed pocket hand- kerchiefs, and glances of adoring white eyes, were the chief features of the scene. In the course of the evening, a strange, odd, amusing sea captain dropped in. He had been all over the world, and lived longer on a ship than on land. He was now on a visit to his sister, who was married to a planter who lives near us, and where we visit intimately, and whom he had not seen in twenty years past. Among other curiosities which he brought her, and which in- cluded two live monkeys, to say nothing of ugly-faced gods of all the heathen nations on earth, was a Bengal tiger ! The animal had been given him when a cub, for some service he had performed for some Rajah, and he had kept it as a pet till it had got nearly its full growth, and too large to stay in his ship. T,^deed, he said that it had, on the voyage home to New Orleans, nearly killed 10 i4i THE SUNNY south; OR, one of Lis seamen. So he brought him up to Tennessee in a cage, and his monkeys in another, and some half score of splendid foreign birds in a third. No wonder, as he laughingly says they did, that they took him for a menagerie exhibitor. His sister was delighted with the birds ! amused with the pranky monkeys ! and horri- fied at the Bengal gentleman in velvet ! yy- This famous captain, having, as he said, "boarded us in the midst of the sport," after looking on awhile, came to the resolution to show us a regular built " Guinea Coast fandango dance," which he said he had often witnessed on the coast of Africa. Never was any thing so ridicu- lous as the scene which now took place. The captain, having selected eight of the genteel "cullered pussons," four men and four women, the former in white waist- coats, the latter in white muslins and net gloves, pro- ceeded to explain the dance to them with amusing min- uteness. He seemed to be much surprised that they showed so little aptitude to learn, expressing it as his opinion that the dance ought to come to them naturally. But he soon found that the fashionable African gentlemen and ladies, whom he was trying to initiate into the heathen mysteries of their ancestors, had no more penchant to- wards such outlandish doings, than other civilized people. Indeed, the cullered circle upon which he would have forced this "old country" cotillion, felt their feelings hurt by the insinuation which his efforts conveyed. The civilized negro is very desirous to bury his pagan juba- jumping ancestors in oblivion. He wishes to forget his heathen origin ; and the more removed he is from them, the more aristocratic he is. A newly-imported African is THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. 147 decidedly vnlgar I The merry captain at last gave up his pupils in despair, and entertained us for an hour after we reached the drawing-room, with graphic and well given stories of what he had seen in far lands, "be- yond the rising place of the sun." At twelve the party broke up, and the invited guests from other plantations mounted their plough horses or mules, loaned for the purpose, and sought their own dwellings, galloping away in the moonlight, and laugh* ing and talking like children on a holiday, till they were out of hearing. I forgot to say that the supper had been gotten up by Isabel and myself, and that it was both handsome and costly. A dozen frosted cakes, jellies, preserved fruits, pies, custards, floating island, blanc mange, and other nice things too numerous to mention, were upon the table. In the centre, and at each end, was a pyra- mid of cake, wreathed with flowers. Indeed, had the colonel given a party to Isabel, her supper could not have been much more elegant or expensive. The captain, who accepted the colonel's hospitality for the night, caused a great deal of sport this morning by trying to ride ! He absolutely knew nothing about a horse ; hardly can tell the stirrup from the bridle ! With a horse-block to aid him, he got into the saddle, but the horse had not trotted six steps before he was out of it on the ground, having lost his balance. After three attempts, each of which ended in his being tossed out of his seat, by the motion of the horse, he insisted on being tied by the feet, or " lashed under the keel," as he called it. Peter, the black hostler, always accustomed to obey, gratified him by performing this favor for him, 14$ THE SUNNY south; ok, and thus firmly secured, he gave the animal the bit and a blow with his fist simultaneously on the haunch. The consequence was that Arab, who is a spirited fellow, set off with him at full gallop, and as the park-gate was fortunately not open to the forest, he swept with him at full speed round and round the circular carriage-way of the lawn. Isabel and I were already in our saddles, for we were going out on a morning gallop, and we began to feel some anxiety for the worthy captain, who passed us bare-headed, his teeth set, and his hands grasping Arab's mane, while the reins flew wildly in the air. If the rope, by which his feet were tied, had parted, he would have been dashed to the earth. As it was, he began to slip, and hang sidewise upon the horse's neck, and I really believe if the colonel's commanding voice had not caused Arab to stop, the captain would the next minute have been underneath the horse, with his feet bottom upwards over the saddle ! " I would rather ride out an equinoctial gale, lashed to the fore-top gallant cross-trees !" cried the captain, as he was relieved from his perilous situation, "than mount a live animal again ! Nature never intended the critters to be backed !" I like the captain, because I have discovered that he saw and spoke with my recovered brother in the Medi- terranean, where he visited his ship ; and I felt with him in his defeat, and declined to ride. How necessary it is that we should behold men in their proper position and pursuits, in order to know and give them due honor ! Out of them they are often ridiculous, helpless, and ignorant. Here is a man who could 'battle with a storm on the ocean, and ride upon the wings of THE SOUTHEKNER AT HOME. 149 the hurricane, its master ! who would unerringly guide a mighty ship across the pathless waste of waters, and who, by his skill, had belted the round earth ; whose courageous eye had met fearful perils without quailing, and whose manly voice had given courage and rekindled hope in the sinking bosom of the timid — here was this man, on land, in unfamiliar scenes, surpassed and laughed at by the least, ragged, black urchin that can bestride a wild colt. Yours respectfully, Kate. 150 THE SUNNY SOUTH; OR, LETTEE XIX. Dear Mr. : L You will remember that I promised to write a tale, or rather to make the attempt. I have written one, and will send it to you for your decision. I hope you will be very severe with it, and reject it at once, if it is wanting in the points that go to make up a "thrilling story." Do not let any consideration for my vanity (what woman is without vanity, especially one who writes for printers?) prevent you from judging and condemning impartially ; for candor on your side may save me on my side from many a foolish perpetration in the literary way hereafter. If editors would show more courage and candor, there would be fewer scribblers, and more ster- ling writers. So, if they complain that periodical lite- rature is at a low ebb, they ought to blame their own indolent criticisms, and not fasten the guilt upon poor literateurs, who only live upon the nod of the editorial tribunal. It depends wholly on you editors, sir, whe- ther our manuscript sees print or lights candles. You will now understand, Mr. , that I am honest in wishing you to be so ; for if you, in the goodness of your heart, and because "I am a lady," publish my story, and it is a poor one, I shall write nothing clso but just such poor talcs all my life ! There is my fore- finger up with the caution. Do you know that Isabel THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. 151 has a very neat talent for writing? I have some of her MSS. which would delight you, and if you will never tell, I will send you some of it, but you must not publish it for the world, if you like it never so much, for it is a " dead secret." I have a beautiful story to tell you of Isabel. A few days since she went to C , twenty miles distant, in the stage. Among the passengers was a white-headed, poorly-clad man, with his arm in a sling, and lame from a bullet in his knee. He was pale, and seemed to suffer, yet was cheerful, and related to her deeply thrilHng stories of his war scenes in Mexico, where he received the wounds which now disabled him. He had been for some months in a hospital, at New Orleans, and was now just returning to his family, after two years' absence, and moneyless. At the inn, at Columbia, he alighted with difficulty, and appeared so ill that Isabel told the land- lord that if he would send for a physician, and have him well attended to, she would be responsible. Isabel was then driven to the elegant residence to which she was going on a visit. After tea, she took a bundle of com- forts, and in her friend's carriage drove to the inn, sought out the old soldier, who was very sick in bed, bathed his temples, and even assisted the doctor in ban- daging his arm. She remained nursing him two hours, and then left money to hire an attendant. After an illness of a week, every day of which saw Isabel at his bedside, the old white-headed soldier recovered so as to pursue his journey, his expenses paid from the purse of this benevolent and generous girl, who is as good as she is brave and beautiful. How few girls of seventeen would have thought a second time of the old soldier 152 THE SUNNY SOUTH; OR, after leaving him at the inn ! When Isabel was asked by a fashionable friend, "how she could do so?" she an- swered like a true Tennessee girl, " Soldiers fight the bat- tles of our country, and the least we can do is to cherish them in their helplessness, and bind up their wounds. Every true American woman, who loves her country and the defenders of its glory and honor, would have done as I did." Her father heard this spirited yet modest reply, and taking her in his arms, he kissed her on both cheeks, and smiling with pride called her a "true soldier's daughter." A letter came this morning from the old man, to Isabel, and every line is gloAving with praise of her, and warm with grateful words — though some of them are spelled wrong. But the heart has little heed of orthography. I know a lady who always slips in her spelling, when she writes a letter under any deep emotion. I do not go 80 far as a certain matter of fact, but warm hearted doctor, whose early education had not been done full justice to, whose maxim was " correct spelling and a cool head go together ; but a warm heart don't stop to pick letters." If the old soldier had not written so heartily, therefore, it is very likely, we see, that his orthography might have been less erratic. You recollect that I alluded to a Bengal tiger, in my last. I have quite an incident to relate of which he was the hero, and I one of the heroines, alas ! a poor heroine you will say when you hear the story. Three days ago, the colonel, Isabel, and I, were invited to spend the day and dine at the plantation of Mr. Henry Elliott, the gentleman who is husband to our riding sea- THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. 153 captain's sister. After half an hour's delightful drive in the carriage, along a picturesque road, with a brawling brook on one side", running at even pace with the horses, and woods and rocks overhanging on the other, we reached the tasteful, English-looking mansion which was to terminate our drive. After dinner, while Isabel was standing by a marble table, looking over a superb copy oi Boydell's Shaks- peare, by her side, Harry Elliott, a handsome young collegian, at home on vacation, admiring her rather than the pictures to which she was drawing his attention, and while I was seated in a lounge, reading Simms' last novel to Mrs. Elliott; and the colonel, and "the captain," and our host were smoking their cigars on the front portico, suddenly, with a bound as noiseless as that of a cat, the Bengal tiger entered through an open window, and pounced into the drawing room. Mrs. Elliott sprung to her feet, and pointed in speechless horror at the terrible and beautiful creature, as it stood for a moment where it touched the soft carpet, and gazed slowly and fear- lessly around as if selecting its victim from one of us. Isabel and her young friend had not yet seen him, their backs being towards the window. As for poor me, I sat like a statue, motionless and without power of motion. The blood froze in my veins ! I caught the glittering eyes of the tiger, and, for an instant, was fascinated ; and I do not know, if he had not turned away his look with dignified contempt, that I should not have risen up and advanced irresistibly, like a charmed bird towards the serpent. He moved a step, crouching. I looked at Mrs. Elliott. I saw courage coming into her eyes, and she said to me, whispering, " If I catch his eye, I can 154 THE SUNNY south; or, detain and cower him." But ere she could catch it, the tiger advanced three fearful bounds, and then Isabel, for the first time, beheld him ! Harry Elliott no sooner saw him, than he laid one hand on the wrist of Isabel, who seemed to gaze more with wonder than with fear upon the mottled Bengalese, and pointed with the other to the piano. " To the piano, Isabel ! Play, quickly ! Music, or he will do mischief — music, quickly!" The tiger now slowly sunk down couchant upon the carpet, and I could see him unsheath his curved white claws, and his eyes burned as if fires were kindled in their orbs. He seemed about to spring upon Henry, who fixed his gaze resolutely upon him with a courage I could not but admire, terrified as I was at such a draw- ing-room companion. My fears were not lessened by the recollection, which just then came upon me, that I had been told that day as one of the feats of the " captain's pet" that he would snap oflf a cat's head at a bite, and make nothing of it. I always knew my head was small, and I felt that it was now smaller than ever. The hor- rid creature gaped all at once, as if to increase my apprehensions, and I was now certain he would make as sure of my head as a guillotine would do it. Isabel glided backward, pale as snow, and as cold, — glided backward, step by step, so as not to seem to re- treat, and reached the piano. Running her icy, cold fingers over the keys in a fearfully brilliant prelude, she commenced a superb cavalry march, — a new Hungarian piece — with a world of war music in it. The tiger, as soon as she began to play, rose from his crouching atti- tude, and moved with a sedate step to the piano, and THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. 155 took his stand bj Isabel, and so near that her snowy arm, as she reached to the distant keys, -would nearly touch his glossy shoulder. We were as still as death! We began to have faith in the music, seeing that he no- ticed it in so marked a manner, for he stood as if listen- ing, charmed. White as a Medician statue, yet Isabel played on. I expected each instant to see her fall from the music stool, or pause in pure terror, when I felt confident the fangs of the terrible creature would be buried in her bosom. Yet we dared not give the alarm ! The voices of the three gentlemen could be heard on the gallery, yet we feared to call for aid lest we should draw the tiger to spring upon us. So silent, and nearly dead with awful fear, we waited the issue, trusting to Providence, or the music, for a diversion in our favor. Henry Elliott, in the meanwhile, leaving Isabel play- ing, stole out of the room, unseen by the tiger, and reaching the portico, made known to the gentlemen, in scarcely articulate words, the state of affairs in the drawing room. Mr. Elliott would have run for his rifle, and the colonel was calling for pistols, when the captain, motioning for them both to preserve silence, hastened to the scene of danger. When I saw him enter I felt inex- pressibly relieved, for I believed in him that he could help us. He moved noiselessly across the room, and coming round at the end of the piano, he faced the animal, and bending his glance upon him, he caught the glittering eye of the tiger full with his own ! The effect of his fixed and commanding gaze upon him was won- derful. The monster gradually dropped his body upon his haunches, and sank c[uietly into an attitude of sub- 156 THE suNXY south; or, mission at Isabel's feet. The captain then placed himself at a bound between her and the animal, and grasping him by his jaw, he spoke to him in a tone so absolute and bold, that he rose and suffered himself to be led out of the room like a hound, and locked up in his cage in the poultry yard. He had no sooner disappeared than Isabel, who had not ceased to play, dropped to the floor, but half-arrested in her fall by her father's embracing arm. Mrs. Elliott fainted outright. As for myself, I did nothing but cry for half an hour, I was so happy we had all escaped so well. Even the courageous Harry's voice trembled two hours afterwards when he was con- gratulating me on my escape. And was it not an escape, Mr. ? To be called upon by a gentleman tiger, and only saved from being eaten up by him by treating his lordship Avith music. It appeared, on inquiry, that the captain had let his "pet" out for air, and tied him to a chestnut tree that stands in the centre of the yard, from which freeing himself, he had taken the liberty of bounding into the parlor, through the window which opens directly upon the lawn. •You may be sure, we, and Mrs. Elliott in particular, gave the captain a good rating for bringing such a pet into a peaceable neighborhood, frightening young ladies out of their senses. Mrs. Elliott roundly informed her brother that the monster must be shot, or she should not sleep a wink all night for thinking he might get into the bed-room. The captain, who had been terribly alarmed at our perilous situations, promised he should be shot, but said he could not have the heart to be the death of his old friend. It was decided that the negro driver of the THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. 157 estate should kill him, but the black objected from some superstitious feeling, when Harry Elliott proposed that he should be turned loose in the forest and hunted down ! This proposition, so promising of a new kind of sport in the way of Western hunting, was warmly accepted, and would, no doubt, have been carried out, if some one had not started the objection that he might not be easily shot in the chase, and if left to roam the park, might do some fatal mischief. Whereupon, Mr. Elliott went out and shot the handsome, wild brute through the head, with a rifle, at five paces. The captain would not see the deed done, and remaining in the house, jammed his fingers in his ears, to shut out the report of the gun that sealed the fate of his friend. The poor tiger died instantly, and we all went out to look at him as he lay on the green grass, now quite harmless, yet looking strong and terrible in death. He was a beautiful fellow, with the glossiest, silkiest hide, barred and spotted brown and black. The captain says it shall be made into housings for Isabel's saddle and mine. Moreover, he has given me two monkeys and a superb bird of paradise, his sister, Mrs. Elliott, having been made so nervous by the late tiger adventure, pointedly refusing to have any more of the outlandish citizens of earth or air on her premises. Two monkeys, Mr. ! And merry, ugly, little men they are, wrinkled as a negro a hundred years old, and mis- chievous as two imps satanic. They are both with chains round their bodies, fastened one at one pillar and another at another pillar of the gallery, so that they can run up and down at pleasure, and all the little "miniature humans" do, is to take their pleasure. They have done nothing all day but eat nuts and cakes, 158 THE SUNNY SOUTH ; OR, mow and chat together, and make faces at the negroes. The old slaves seem to look upon them with an evil eye and a spice of fear. Our old African says they are "Goobah — no good — hab old one in 'em!" The young fry among the blacks — the little niggers — go mad with delight at witnessing their pranks, wonder at their having tails, and seem to regard them as in some sort cousin- germans of their own race, mysteriously tailed, an addi- tion which they evidently look upon with envy. My magnificent bird of paradise has a disagreeable voice, like a creaking cart wheel, and yet his plumage is splendid beyond description ! With all his prismatic glory, the little brown mocking-bird that sings under my window half the night long, by moonlight, is worth a score of them. The eye soon wearies with the monotony of beauty, but the ear never with the harmony of sound. Yours respectfully, Kate. THE SOUTHEKNER AT HOME. 159 LETTER XX. Dear Mr. : Did you ever go a fishing ? If you have not, I ad- vise you to buy a rod and line, and start brookward on such an adventure; if you have been, you will know how to appreciate my happiness yesterday, when I tell you that I spent it in fishing ! Early in the morning my Afric maid, Eda, stole softly by my bedside, and waking me gently, as if half afraid she should wake me, reminded me that "we were all to go fishing to-day." I was soon dressed in my stout pongee habit, which I wear when I go into the forests, and which just fits my figure. Eda brought me a broad-brimmed leghorn, which I put on, with the brim flapping over my eyes, and shading me like an umbrella, — a sort of man's hat, which the colonel's care for our "fair complexions" had provided for both Bel and me. I also wore a pair of masculine boots; real Wellingtons, Mr. , but made of the softest calf-skin, and setting to the foot like a glove. The high heels added full an inch and a half to my sta- ture, whereat I was not a little vain. Upon descending to the hall, I found Isabel all ready, in man's hat and boots, and a jockey looking tunic of green cloth, elegantly embroidered over the bust, to which it was charmingly confined by a broad, glazed, black belt, "clipping the slender waist," and secured by a silver buckle. Her 160 THE SUNNY SOUTH; OR, small feet looked perfectly bewitching in her huzzar-like boots, and she wore her sombrero with such a dashing, don't-I-look-like-a- very -pretty -boy air, a little tipped over her left ear, that, with her fine Spanish eyes and expressive face, she looked bewitching enough to fall in love with. How is it, good Mr. , that pretty girls always become additionally attractive in masculine costume? A woman never looks so young as in her riding costume, and for the reason that it is partly copied from the dress of the other sex. And have you never been struck with the youthful look a boy's hat, worn upon the side of the head of a woman of thirty years old imparts to her, giv- ing to her face the juvenility of a handsome lad of six- teen? Solve me this mystery, sir Editor, for editors are, of course, supposed to be able to solve everything ! The colonel was in his brown linen hunting coat, with six pockets therein and thereabouts. Having compli- mented us upon our good looks and becoming costume, he escorted us to the room, where a nice hot breakfast was awaiting us. After a hearty meal, partaken of in high, good spirits, we prepared to mount our ponies. Two servants Avere already in attendance upon the gallery; one of them with long rods, for each of us, full twenty feet in length, with hair lines neatly affixed, and boxes of bait — writhing ground worms ! The other was laden with a basket of provisions, nicely covered with a snow- white napkin, in spite of which, peeped out the red-waxed neck of a claret bottle, and also there was just visible the wire-tied cork of a champagne bottle ! But don't tell the temperance people, Mr. ! You know, or if you don't know, you know now, that nobody can go fishing THE SOUTHERXER AT HOME. 161 without such mystic appurtenances in the dinner-basket — at least in these parts. All being a-saddle, and in high pulse, we started on our expedition to war against the innocent fishes. We proceeded in the following order. First, astride a half-broken colt, as shaggy as a bear, rode a young negro urchin in a torn straw hat, and with naked feet. He was pioneer to open the several gates that lay in our road across the plantation. Next rode the colonel, smoking a cigar, and gaily talking with Isa- bel and myself upon the probability of our being joined by the "tiger captain" and young Harry Elliott at the Seven Oaks, and questioning whether the former could be prevailed upon to mount a horse ! Behind us came the gray-headed servant who carried the basket and bait, mounted upon a horse as venerable as himself, and whose ribbed sides he ceaselessly thumped with his two heels, keeping time thereat with every step made by his Eozinante. He was followed by black John, so called to distinguish him from another John on the estate, who is not quite so dead a black as the '■^ black John." He rode a sober, long-eared mule, and carried the slender fishing rods on his shoulder, which as he trotted, bent with the motion like whale-bone. The mule had an odd fashion of throwing out his left hind leg at every third step, which created a rolling motion to his rider, that was infinitely ludicrous. What a merry ride we all had! The colonel sang, and his manly voice made the old woods ring again. Isabel laughed to listen to the laughing echo, and I shouted! The Africans were delighted in our delight, and laughed after their fashion, and the little ragamuffin Peter, our gate opener, who always takes liberties, and 11 16^2 THE SUNNY SOUTH; OR, is notably saucy, -whooped and turned somersets on his pony's back from excess of animal spirits. Three miles from the house we crossed the turnpike road -which leads to Nashville. A stage coach -was going by at the time, and the passengers looked at us -with hard curiosity, and seemed to be amused at the appear- ance of our motley cavalcade, the rear of which I ought to have said was brought up by three dogs, one of whom was a majestic full-blooded Newfoundland. Not far be- hind the stage, came a handsome traveling carriage, from the window of which a gentleman hailed the colonel. As we rode up he was presented to us as a General P , one of the most distinguished officers whose valor in Mexico elevated the military glory of our Republic. After some conversation we separated, he to drive on to his princely estate, a few leagues southward, we to enter the forests and wind our way to the stream. Half a mile from the pike we came to the Seven Oaks, a noble group of forest trees standing by themselves in an open area, where several woodland roads meet. We had hardly reached it when the colonel shouted — "Here they come! Voild the captain." Looking in the direction he indicated, we beheld Henry Elliott riding by the side of an old doctor's sulky, in which was harnessed, a tall, long-bodied steed, which as it drew nearer, proved to be stone-blind. At first we could not distinguish whom the ark-like vehicle contained, but a loud shout to us like Neptune hailing a war-ship in a high wind, left us in no doubt as to the personality of the occupant. Harry, mounted on a superb hunter, and dressed with picturesque effect, but without foppishness, which he is too handsome and sensible to be guilty of, on THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. 168 discovering us left his companion and galloped forward to join us. How superbly he rode ! yet with the ease and natural attitude of a Comanche chief. He was laughing as he came on, and well might he laugh. The sulky was shrieking in anguish at every revolu- tion of its rattling wheels ; the horse reared behind and pitched before with a double-jointed, spasmodic locomotion, that shook the captain from his seat within at every jerk. The vehicle, the horse, the sulky, and the wheels had each a several and independent motion of progression, which four being combined, produced a compound move- ment of the whole, unlike any thing on the earth, or un- der the earth, or in the sea. We all shouted! The captain reached us and then tried to stop his headway; but the ancient horse had an iron jaw calloused by long use, that no bit would twist or hurt, and it was plainly apparent that, once under weigh, and propelled by the complex motions of the entire machinery, he could not stop if he would. "'Vast heaving ahead! LuflF! — Luff you beast!" shouted the captain, with stentorian energy, as he was passing us, pulling at the reins. "This land craft is the crankiest clipper I ever g-g-got a-a-bo-ar-d-d of!" cried he, the last words being jolted out of him by one of the four motions. "'Vast there and heave to! What an infer-fer-na-nal sea is running! — Co-co-co-co-col-on- n-el, heave us a rope ! Bear a hand here, some of you darkies, or I shall soon be hull down and out o' sight to leeward !" The colonel rode ahead of the blind and still des- perately-plunging-forward animal, and had no sooner 164 THE SUNNY SOUTH; OR, touched his head lightly with his whip than he stood stock still. "Thank'ee, colonel, thank'ee," said the old seaman, as he scrambled over the wheel to the ground; "that craft is the hardest thing I ever steered! Catch me aboard of one of your land craft again, if I can help it ! You see this mad-cap nephew of mine wanted to tempt me to ride a horse; but I have had enough of that. Don't laugh, girls, — but it is true. So, cruising about the stables, I run athwart this old lugger, stowed high and dry, and covered with dust and cobwebs. Elliott said it had belonged to a doctor who once lived at the plantation, and it was now condemned as unseaworthy. JBut so long as it didn't leak, and the spars were sound, I didn't care. So I had her hauled out into the stream, her old rigging overhauled, and this blind horse o' my own choosing, out of a score o' faster and better ones to tow it along. And here you see me, with my innards shook out, because I forgot to put ballast aboard to keep her trim ; and then, for yawing wide before the wind, I never saw the equal of that blind beast ; and as for short- ening sail or coming-to off port, he doesn't know what that means." We all enjoyed the captain's professional account of his voyage, and, as the stream was yet a mile off, we set forward, the captain once more aboard his land craft, but with the precaution of having one of the negro men lead the blind horse along, with his hand on his head-stall. Relieved "by this towing," as he termed it, from the direct command of the vessel, the captain lighted a cigar, lolled along and smoked as well as he could for THE SOUTHEKNER AT HOME. 165 the rough sea produced by the resumption of the quadru- plex motion of, the whole apparatus. We at length reached the creek, though Isabel and Harry were somehow loiterers, and always were, somehow, on such occasions, and did not come up till we had alighted. What a delightful spot it was where we stopped to prepare for our sport ! Mighty trees overshadowing us, a limpid stream eighty feet wide at our feet, its clear Avaters sparkling over snowy sands, and gurgling and rushing around and between gray mossy rocks lying in its bed. Higher up was a waterfall, with a constant murmur, and to the left of us the bank receded, leaving a dark, deep pool, in the depths of which, the darting fish, in their silvery armor, gleamed like meteors in a lower sky. Just where we alighted was a verdant carpet of soft thick grass, with three or four fine old rocks scat- tered over it like granite lounges, which use we made of three of them ; the fourth having a shape somewhat tabular, being converted by us into a table for our pic- nic dinner. Altogether, the place was romantic, secluded, and still, and would have delighted dear good Izaak Wal- ton, whose shade we invoked as we prepared our lines for the sport ! Sport ! ah, poor Pisces ! what was to be sport to us, was death to you ! But so goes life, Mr. ; one half of God's creatures, both brute and intelligent, pursue their pleasure at the expense of the other half. The tiger-captain attached himself assiduously to me for the day, no doubt seeing that Isabel was Avell provided for in young Elliott's devoted attentions, and taking pity upon a lonely demoiselle. He taught me how to cut 166 THE SUNNY SOUTH; OR, bullets half through, and affix them to the line for sinkers ; he gave me a lesson in making and fitting a quilled cork ; initiated me into the mysteries of "bending on a hook," which good Mrs. Partington could do, as it is done by knitting stitches upon the shaft, as one would upon a needle ; and he gave me a horrid lesson in the art of scientifically putting a worm upon the hook. The squirmy creatures, how they did curl about my fingers ! yet I was afraid to incur the captain's contempt by even shrieking or throwing them from me. But isn't it a cruel murder, sir, to cut in three sections a living worm, and then thread longitudinally your barbed hook with one of the soft, cold, twisting pieces ? But a lady who goes a fish- ing with a sea-captain who has tigers for pets, must have no nerves. I found the captain an admirable instructor. He showed me where to find the deep pools, and how to cast my line thirty feet outwardly at a sweep, without bungling or lodging it in the branches overhead. He instructed me how to watch the little green and red painted cork, and how to spring the line when it bobbed under — in a word, he proved a valuable comrade for a tyro in fishing like me, and an unexceptionable beau, except when I once let a large trout drag my hook, line, pole, and all out of my grasp, and dart away with it down the stream like a rocket, when he " made a great Bwear," as I heard an Indian say of another great per- sonage. With this nautical exception, the tiger-captain was a delightful companion on a fishing picnic. After three or four hours of various successes, during which some eighty -five fish were caught by the whole party, negroes included, one of the servants announced, *'Pic-nic ready, Massas and Misseses !" THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. 167 As the captain and I, after winding up our lines, has- tened to the spot, I passed the little negro Pete squatted on a rock, fishing, holding a huge sti/sk for a pole, with twine for line, and, for bait-box, the captain said that he made use of his enormous mouth, which he kept full of live worms ready for use ! Oh, shocking, Peter ! It took some time to find Isabel and Harry, who, at length, made their appearance from up the stream, but with only three fish between them. I suspect they passed their time so pleasantly in each other's society, that they thought little of the little fishes. The captain rallied them on their ill luck, and made them both blush. We had a capital feast under the trees, with the grass for our seats, and a rock for our table. I placed a chance copy of the Picayune before me for a table-cloth, and thus, reading and eating, I enjoyed " a feast of rea- son," as well as a more substantial one. We had ham, sandwiches, pickles, cold-chicken, cold broiled pigeons, salad, pic-nic crackers, Scotch ale, champagne, and claret. The two negro men waited on us with the pre- cision and etiquette of the dining-room. Our horses, and ponies, and mules, picturesquely tethered around us, cropped the grass, or stood, meditating, doubtless, upon our conduct, our laughter, our toasts, our uproarious be- haviour, so in contrast with their sedate gravity, which never departs from its propriety. Especially the cap- tain's blind horse looked melancholy and lonely, tied to the wheel of the sulky, with a basket of corn hanging at the end of his venerable nose. At every Borean burst of quarter-deck laughter from the captain, he would crop his overgrown ears, and roll his white, fishy- looking eyes about as if in bodily apprehension. 168 THE SUNA'Y SOUTH; Oil, We toasted, in lady-like sips of the iced wine, the President, Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and Jenny Lind, and, in silence, drank to the memory of the warrior-sage of the Hermitage, who sleeps not many hours' ride from where we were. It would be difficult to impress persons out of Tennessee with the veneration with which the green memory of the Hero of New Orleans is held by all Tennesseans. Through the rolling ages, his secluded tomb will be the fane of pilgrimage for the sons of this state. We intend shortly to pay a second visit to the Hermitage, of which I will give you an account after- wards. After our pic-nic dinner was over, the table-rock was vacated to the servants, and the gentlemen laid at length on the grassy bank, smoked, and entertained us with stories. Kate. THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. 169 LETTER XXI. I HAVE had a mind to make this a literary "Needle" and talk book ; for I have lately been reading so many delightful authors, that, like the busy bee, the wings of my soul are laden with their sweets, and I must, per force, make honey. The last work I have laid down, is "Emerson's Representative Men." How suggestive is this book! How it teems with thought, and food for thought! How deep he goes down into the being of man, and how he walks among the stars ! What a faculty he has for putting mind into type ! He touches nothing that he does not find a kernel in it, where most other writers and thinkers see only a husk. He beholds with the eye of the poet, and the contemplation of the sage, the "splendor of meaning" that plays over the visible world, and by its light, he looks down, down into the human heart, and then tells us with terrible strength of word, all he discovers there! We tremble before the man who thus boldly drops his plumb-line into the abyss of our being, and reports to us its depth. Mr. Emerson has a great mind. Grave errors of theory he has, but new and hitherto untold truths so burn in his pages, that his discrepancies are lost in their light. His sentences are a "carved thought," every one of them. He uses Avords for the frame work of his pre- cious thoughts with the economy of a jeweler, his gold 170 THE SUNNY SOUTH; OR, in setting precious stones. Every page is an intellec- tual pabulum on "which the intellect of a man may be nourished. He sets you thinking, and thinking, and thinking ! He has the rare talent of expressing to the eye the deep and unbroken musings of the spirit of man about God, about Nature, about the mystery of the past, the awe of the future, the riddle of life, the infinitude of the Universe — musings that all indulge, but never impart the secret of what they think. Mr. Emerson puts such twilight and star-light thoughts into shape, and startles us at recognizing them, as much as if we had seen our own ghosts rising from the misty emptiness of space! We all love to discover that our own speculations upon the m stories that surround us, have been the specula- tions of another mind; and if that other mind will lead us farther than we have gone, we follow with a charmed awe, confident in his pilotage, thongh he lead us into the unfathomable ! Some of Mr. Emerson's propositions and opinions savour of Swedenborg, of Grecian philosophy, of Jewish skepticism, of German transcendentalism, neither of •which by itself complete, yet in combination they pro- duce a synthetic whole, that is the just representative of the modern mind of philosophy. If Mr. Emerson could only combine a fifth element in his circle, the humble faith of the New Testament, his philosophy would be in- destructible. How so great a mind can approach so near the Cross and not see it, and be dazzled by its glory, is to me a cause of the profoundest marvel. Aside from this radical defect in his philosophy, his book is laden with the richest intellectual ore which the "v^ipc searcher will gath.., and know how to free from the THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. 171 alloy. Did Mr. Emerson live in the days of Plato, he would have founded an Academy of Philosophy, to which the youth of that classic land would have flocked to learn wisdom! -Why do not our learned and wise men now become teachers like the old philosophers? Such a man as Emerson might crowd his rural retirement with intellectual young men, and establish a school of thought, that would produce a positive efiect upon the age. But rather let oar able divines become such teachers in Christian Philosophy, such men as — but I Vrill not give the names that come to my pen, lest it should seem invidious ; if these able doctors of divinity would open their homes, they would be filled with disciples. If emi- nent retired physicians would receive young '^en as discipuli, how many would avail themselves of the privi- lege ! If retired lawyers and statesmen would thus be- come teachers of legal and political philosophy, how many talented youths of our land would become rivals for these inestimable advantages ! Suppose it were un- derstood that Henry Clay (God bless him) or Daniel Webster (all honor be to his mighty mind) would, the one at Ashland, the other at Marshfield, receive a limited number of disciples, to instruct them in "the things of their wisdom," what price would be counted by ambitious young Americans, if they could attain to the honor of sitting at their feet? Schools of politics are needed in our country, where statesmen should be graduated ! Dear me ! Mr. , how boldly I am making my pen write! Only a young woman, perhaps I ought not to touch upon such weighty matters ; but please permit me to suggest that there ought to be a Diplomatic College at Washington, where our Foreigu -'Ministers, Charges, 172 THE SUNNY SOUTH; OR, &c., should be educated, and take out diplomas, certify- ing their qualifications to hold those important positions, bj the incumbents of which our country is judged by all nations. The requisites should be a thorough knowledge of international law, of the elementary principles of our Federal Constitution, and those of the thirty States, of the history, products, resources, and commerce of the country, the history of political parties, and the internal operation of our domestic institutions. Lastly, as a sine qua non, they should write and speak French fluently, the ignorance of which in nearly all our foreign ministers renders them incompetent, and often ridicu- lous. There, Mr. , I've done on this hobby. Another book I have been reading is Dickens' " Cop- perfield." I do not read novels often, nor do I read them ever for the story or plot, but for the thoughts which the writer may string upon it. Dickens' stories seldom have any but the most indifferent plots. He never invents surprises, but writes you a story as trans- parent as gossamer. Nobody looks for plots in this charming writer, but for his witty sparklings, his quiet humor, his inimitable sketches of character, his pic- tures of every-day people, whom we afterwards do not so much seem to have read about as to have known. This deficiency of plot, which characterizes Dickens' stories, and their wealth of original ideas, is what ren- ders young people somewhat indifferent to reading them, and more mature heads fond of them. Like Emerson, he is an analyzer, but Emerson builds theories on what he discovers, while Dickens works his discoveries into practical life. Like Emerson, in his knowledge of the * THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. 173 springs of our being, Dickens is a philosopher, but rather of the heart than of the intellect. Emerson "will unlock the abyss and unveil to us the foundations of the universe, and even the spirit-world beyond. Dic- kens will take us to these beings, and make us know and love them. Emerson would explain the temple ; Dickens would present to you the worshipers, maid and and mother, child and patriarch, the poor widow with her mite, and the haughty Pharisee. Emerson's pen records discoveries in the world of thoughts ; Dickens* pen records experiences in the world of hearts. I have heard of the death of Fanny Osgood with much and deep sorrow. She was a bright spirit, with a noble nature and taste cultivated in the highest de- gree. I once met her, and the remembrance of that interview, short as it was, will ever be fresh ; my only regret was the feeling that I had not known her inti- mately. If she had lived, for she has fled the earth young, she would have done great deeds with her pen. But God be thanked, there is a world of reunion, where death will no more intrude his severing scythe, where the poet's immortal mind shall have scope measurable with its immortality. Kate. 1T4 THE SUNNY SOUTH: OR, LETTER XXII. After the literary letter which I sent you last month, you will no doubt feel particularly grateful to my learning, if it will dispense with such lofty writing in future, and give you something more in the descrip- tive and gossip way. It isn't every day I get my head crammed with "book," but when I do, it must be emp- tied ; for, as you have before been informed by me, my head is a very little one, and won't hold a whole library. Having relieved its fulness in my last, I now begin per- fectly in vacuo (this Latin my brother taught me) to write you, solemnly averring to you that I havn't read a book through for a month. This epistle will, there- fore, be about what 1 have seen, and of that of which I have been "a part." Last week it was resolved, after several days of doubt- ing and of deliberation, that we would all go and spend a couple of weeks at Beaver Dam Springs, in this state, not that we were any of us invalids, but as all our neigh bors had gone packing either to the North or some of the watering-places, we had to imitate them, in self-de- fence, to get rid of the loneliness of the neighborhood. One morning, for instance, we would take a gallop over to Kenton Hall, only to be told that " ]\Iassa, and Missus, and all de young people had gone to de Nort'." Or, in the evening we would canter to Bell Park, to find every THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. 175 soul away, and the noble halls in charge of an African housekeeper. In a word, the country was deserted, and as one might as well be out of the world as out of the fashion thereof, the order was at length given for mir departure also. It seemed to me a great pity to quit the elegant man- sion, and beautiful grounds, and sweet retirement of Overton Park, for unknown inconveniences at some un- comfortable and crowded watering-place, but as Isabel insisted that there would be a great many fine beaux there, and dancing, and all that, I was reconciled to the change ; for, though I don't care much about beaux till they have got a little gray, and therefore a little wisdom withal, and seldom dance except with the colonel, or the tiger captain, at a parlor reunion, yet I knew she would be very happy there, and so I turned my sighs into smiles for her sake, and went cheerfully to work packing. Mr. , did you ever pack a trunk ? If you have not, and resolutely intend never to pack one, you are an en- viable gentleman. The great art, especially in fixing away for the springs, is to cram the contents of four large trunks and a wardrobe into one small trunk ; at least, this was the system Isabel and I went to work upon, for the colonel said, very positively, that we must have all baggage put into two trunks, for the traveling carriages wouldn't carry any more. More than once in our stowing processes I wished for the aid of the cotton- press, and believed, at last, we should have to send the trunk to the gin, to be placed underneath the cotton- bale screw, in order to consolidate the contents. But, as this would utterly have demolished cologne and rose- water bottles, ruined silks and lawns, and generally and 176 THE SUNNY SOUTH; OK, miscellaneously annihilated every thing, we called in two stout African dames from the laundry, and, making them stand together upon the top, we caused two negro boys to draw the straps, one at each strap, and another to watch the opportunity, when the women on top sprung up in order to make the cover go down, to turn the key in the lock. But the eflForts of the latter were entirely unsuccessful, and with the trunk only strapped and buc- kled by the extreme ends, we pronounced that it would do, no rogue would know the difference. The next question was, what should we do with our hats? The colonel had forbidden bandboxes, and yet we must carry our bonnets in some way. It was in vain the colonel assured us we should have no need of bonnets at the springs. We did not know what might happen, and de- termined to take them. The bandbox finally was safely smuggled under the feet of Phillip, the driver, the ham- mer-cloth scarcely covering it. This important matter being arranged, we took an early breakfast, and set forth on our journey, which was to occupy us two days. You should have seen our cavalcade, Mr. . Let me describe it to you. First and foremost rode Charles, the colonel's intelligent and well-dressed serving-man, well mounted on a serviceable traveling horse, and lead- ing by the bridle his master's noble battle-steed, which he still keeps as his favorite riding-horse. The horse is a large, finely-formed animal, and with his gorgeous Spanish saddle half covered with silver, and his plated bridle, half of which was massive silver-chain, he moved on his way, tossing his head, and stepping off as if he " smelled the battle afar off." Next came our family coach, a large, Philadelphia-built carriage, as roomy as THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. ITT one could wish, with drab linings, luxuriantly soft, broad, comfortable seats, that one could almost use as sofas. There were a dozen pockets in the sides, the two larger ones crammed for the occasion with books, magazines, and newspapers, to read on the way, when we should tire of each other, for the most social folks, with the most praiseworthy loquacity, can't always talk while ti'aveling. One of the others was charged with cakes, and another thoughtfully teemed with peaches and ap- ples, the foresight of the careful housekeeper, who had traveled with her mistress in her younger days, and knew how to make "white folk comfortable." A fifth, which was long and narrow, was neatly packed with cigars, to be conveniently in reach of the colonel, the only smoker in our party ; this care for making " white folks comfortable" being referable to the attention of Charles, who was au fait in all things appertaining to his master's habits. A sixth pocket, in the front, con- tains a box of lucifer matches, to light the cigars with ; and from a seventh projected the brass top of a small spy-glass, with which to view distant prospects as we rode through the country. In each corner swung a bril- liant feather fan, ready for our use, and in a rack over Isabel's head was a silver cup with which to drink from the springs or running brooks. There was an additional contrivance to the carriage I have never seen in any other ; this was an arrangement by which the lower half of the front could be let down under the hammer-cloth, and so make room for an extension of the feet of an in- valid to recline at length ; a luxury that the indolence of voluptuousness, rather than the comforts of indisposi- tion, originated. Behind our carriage rode a little mu- 12 178 THE SUNNY SOUTH; OK, latto of fourteen, who is taken along as a pupil to initiate him into the mysteries of his future duties, as body-ser- vant to the colonel when Charles grows gray : he is an intelligent lad, and has a thirst for books that it is my delight to gratify, and it is amusing to witness the ex- pansion of his large, handsome eyes at every new idea his little books give him. He thinks there is no one like Missy Kate, and says to me frequently: "When you get marry. Missy Kate, me wait on you' husband — me love b'long to you, Missy." Beyond being in the possession — the property of some- body/ — the born slave has no idea. Like the beautiful daughters of Circassia, who look forward to a harem as the crowning honor of their sex, and the completion of their happiness, the Afric youths in slavery, of both sexes, contemplate only, as a second or rather their first nature, the condition of servitude: so strong are habits and the influence of education. The little fellow is in raptures with his journey and at every thing he sees, put- ting his smiling orange-tawny face round the corner of the coach to speak to me in the window, to point out to me something strange to his optics, but familiar enough to ours. In the rear of the carriage, at a sufficient distance to avoid our dust, and not to lend us theirs, rode on ambling nags two female slaves, one of them Isabel's maid, who attends her every where, and Edith, who has been in- stalled from the first, as my factotum. It was useless for me to say that I did not wish to take her along, that I could do without her. Go she must, first because I should need her ; secondly she wanted to go and have the pleasure of the trip; and thirdly, Jane, Isabel's maid, uould be lonesome without her companion to gossip with; THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. 179 aud servants are better contented when they are together. So I had my maid. They were both dressed in well-fit- ting pongee riding-dresses, were mounted on side-saddles ; and at the horns thereof hung the neatly tied bundles that contained their respective wardrobes. They paced along side by side after us, as merry as two young black crows in a corn field, and made the air ring with their mirthful and not unmusical laughter; for musical ever are the voices of the dark daughters of Afric ; and I am not sur- prised to hear that there is a prima donna of this raco in Paris, filling it with wonder at the richness of her notes. I can name half a score of . negresses, on the estate of the Park, whose voices are charming, and, with cultiva- tion, would surprise and enchant the cultivated listener. In the rear of these two "ladies," who only cease their talk with each other, to switch up their nags, comes the coachman's boy, a fat-faced, oily, saucy -lipped son of Ham, black and brilliant as a newly japanned boot. He is the coachman's page, and boy of all work about the stable and horses ; and rubber-down and harnesser-up ; the polisher of the stable plate and the waterer of the horses; for your true "gentleman's coachman," is a gen- tleman in his way, and there are the "meaner things" of his profession, which he leaves to the " low ambition" of such coarser colored clay as Dick. (^In a word, the theory of division of labor is completely carried out into practical working system on a southern estate with its hundred slaves) The carriage-driver must not only have his deputy ostler, but the laundress must be waited on by a little negress, to kindle her fires, heat her irons, and do every thing that the dignity of the "lady" in 180 THE SUNNY SOUTH; OK. question deems it " derogatorum" for her to put her hands to. The chief washer-woman has from two to four ebony maids, who do the grosser work while she does the "fancy washing." The cook must have a strapping negress, with eyes like anthracite, to peel and pick; a strapping lad, with feet like two copies of Mitchell's School Atlas for breadth, to chop the wood, bring water, and be at hand whenever he is wanted ; and two or three small fry to catch the poultry, turn the spit, and steal all they can. The gardener has his aids; the "marm- nurse" hers to tote the children; the housekeeper hers; and all this army of juveniles are thus in full training to take the places, by-and-by, of those to whom they are appended. Thus every negro child is brought up (educated shall I say?) to one thing, and comes to understand that par- ticular branch perfectly by the time it gets to be a man or a woman, hence the admirable, the perfect servants, one always finds on a well-regulated plantation. Out of their particular province they know nothing — abso- lutely nothing ; and no judicious master ever thinks of exacting of them, duties out of their regular work. Dick, the ostler's boy, doesn't know horse-radish from a pumpkin-vine ; and Bob, the gardener's boy, could solve a problem in Euclid as easily as he could place the harness on the carriage horses. The cook never enters the house, and the nurse is never seen in the kitchen ; the wash-woman is never put to ironing, nor the woman who has charge of the ironing-room ever put to washing. Each one rules supreme in her wash-house, her ironing- room, her kitchen, her nursery, her housekeeper's room ; and thus, none interfering with the duties of the other, THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. 181 a complete system of domesticdom is established to the amazing comfort and luxury of all who enjoy its advan- tages^} This, however, is a digression ; but, as I am not writing by the rule, whatever ramblings my pen takes should be regarded as a regular part of my letter, as a deviation contemplated in the beginning. I will now re- turn to Dick, or Dickon as he was called " for short," as Charles saith. Dick was mounted on the same low, black, shaggy, Mex- ican pony I have before described, his feet dangling as if they were two weights to balance him, and encased with a pair of brogans, the bottoms of-which were still of that fresh polished leather-brown, which showed they had not yet touched mother earth, but were span new. Indeed, I had seen Dickon mount his Mexican bare-footed, and then cause one of his black companions to put his shoes on for him, in order that they might shine with newness, and as long as possible delight the eyes, and kindle envy in the bosoms of all " darkies" whom he might encounter on the road. In this vanity, Dickon was not peculiar, for the whole race are more pleased with a pair of new boots or shoes than any other portion of apparel. I have seen both men and women, in going to meeting with new Christ- mas-gift shoes, walk half the distance on the Virginia fence, in order that they might reach the "meetin' hus" with the bottoms of their brogans "spick and span." White "gemmen," I believe, think most of a new hat, if one might judge from the habit of "betting a hat, and the gentle pleasure they seem to enjoy in smoothing its glossy coat down with their palm or a kid glove, and the jealousy with which they protect it, when it is new, 182 THE SUNNY SOUTH; OR, from all soiling. The new coat may sit down in a dusty chair without much compunctious visitings to the trem- bling conscience of the wearer ; but did any lady ever see a gentleman deposit his hat upon a table barely susceptible of dust ? Between us, Mr. , fear of such contact with its immaculate ebon causes gentlemen to keep their hats in hand in parlor visitations, protesting, with a hypocriti- cal smile, if you try to deprive them of it, that it is really the fashion ! Bless me ! If the fashion should change, what would be the substitute ? There can be none ; for I have seen fine beaux use their castors as if they were pet kittens, stroking down and stroking down the soft fur with affectionate endearment, as if it were a baby, tap- ping and smoothing its glossy crown, as if it were a fan, with which to cool their be-whiskered faces, or a pocket handkerchief, to hide a temporarily missing tooth, or wine-tainted (more's the pity) exhalations of breath, or an escritoire to pencil a letter upon, and as a mail-bag, to put one in ! — as a weapon of war to drive a wasp or a bat out of the room, as an individual fire-screen, and for illustrating any ideas in conversation : as, for instance, I have seen a hat called (only for the sake of illustration, Mr. ,) a steam boiler, a new novel, a church, the Mexican general Santa Anna ; while the coal-scuttle stood for General Taylor, Mount Vesuvius, the tomb of Ma- homet, a patent coffee-mill, a newly invented horse-shoe, and a negro's head. It has enabled many a difiident gentleman to retain his self-possession, and give a use for his hands for a whole evening, who, otherwise, would have suffered excruciatingly from the embarrassment of being alone with himself. You might as well ask some THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. 183 nervous gentlemen if you should take their boots, as to ask them if you should "take their hats." It occurs to me, Mr. , that only one thing is wanted to perfect the drawing-room hat. This idea has been suggested to my mind more than once, when I have seen gentlemen, during a pause in the conversation, gaze ab- stractedly down into the recesses of their castors, as if they were trying to discover stars at noon-day in a well. The idea is this : That in the next issue of fashionable hats by your tonish artistes, Oakford of Chestnut street, or Genin of Broadway, there should be elegantly inserted within the crown, where the maker's name usually is found, a small mirror, encircled by the manufacturer's name.* Ladies have them in their fans, and the hat is the gentleman's fan. Such an arrangement would meet with favor, I have no doubt. The gentlemen at a loss for ideas could catch inspiration from the depth of their castors ; for what will inspire a person with such a flow of agreeable ideas as the contemplation of himself ? The introduction of this hat would be productive of the highest social benefits, and impart a charm and vivacity to drawing-room conversations that cannot now be properly estimated. Dear me ! Let us go back to Dickon, whom I have fairly taken for my text; for what I understand by a text, is some point which gives the preacher a starting vantage, like the starting pole to the foot-racer, who, once leaving it at his back, never expects to behold it more. But we won't lose sight of Dickon, nor of his brogans. When we came near any dwelling, to the front of which any of his sooty brethren might be drawn to gaze on us, * This has since (1853) been done. 184 THE SUNNY SOUTH; OR, he would throw out his legs horizontally, in order to display the full glory and splendor of his pegged shoes, the soles of which were three-quarters of an inch in thickness, and the leather of which they were made, as thick as the hide of a rhinoceros ; yet they filled his dark soul with delight, and he rejoiced in them as if they had been as beautiful as the slippers of Cinderella. He led by the bridle Isabel's riding horse, the hand- some creature I have before described, fully caparisoned, and my beautiful mule, accoutred with Mexican magni- ficence. These accompany us in order that, when we are tired of the carriage, we can ride, and also for our convenience while at the Springs. My mule is a perfect beauty ! He is none of the Sancho Panza donkey race, but as symmetrical as a deer, with an ankle like a hind of the forest, or like a fine lady's ; with hide as glossy as that of a mouse, ears not too large, and well cut; a pretty head, a soft and aflfectionate eye, with a little mischief in it, (observable only when Isabel would try to pass him,) and as swift as an antelope, and thirteen and a half hands high. It comes at my voice, and does not like for any one but me to be in the saddle. The value of this mule, Mr. -^ , is three hundred dollars. You have no idea of the beauty and cost of these useful crea- tures in this country, and how universally they are used. Out of nine private carriages at the Church last Sab- bath, four of them were drawn by beautiful spans of mules. Even our own traveling carriage, which I have described to you, is drawn by a pair of large mules, six- teen hands, and which the colonel has been ofiered one thousand dollars for. ^t is only the rich that cari afford the luxury of the use of these elegant animals] So THE SOUTUERNER AT HOME. 185 dcn't smile at my saddled mule, which I have named •'Jenny Lind." Having now introdued you to our traveling party, Mr. , I will in my next give you some account of what events took place on our journey. Yours, Kate. P. S. Many thanks to the kind editorial people who have been plea&ed to treat my faults as a writer so leni- ently, and to encourage me with such words of approba- tion. I will do my best to merit their esteem. 185 THE SUNNY SOUTH; OR, LETTER XXIII. Mp.. : My Dear Sir, — It is all up now ! Everybody knows it ! The secret is out, and I am distressed beyond mea- 6\xX%>. I wouldn't for the world it should have been k\iOwn I write these letters ; and I have done my best that it shouldn't be suspected ; and if it had not been for certain over-wise busy bodies, the colonel and Isabel would have been none the wiser ; for they never see your paper — I have taken nice care of that. I will tell you how it was, Mr. . You must know that on the even- ing of the day we left the Park for the Springs, we reached the village of Columbia, where there is a cele- brated Institute for Young Ladies, romantically situated near the town. Isabel had a friend or two there, and proposed to call and pay them a visit. The colonel said he would accompany us; and off we set on foot through the principal street. On the way we passed a one story white cottage house, with a little shaded green yard in front. This, the colonel told us, was the residence of Mr. Polk, when he was called to occupy the White House. It is wholly unpretending, and might rent for one hundred and fifty dollars per annum. In coming to Columbia, six miles out, we had passed a small country dwelling, of the humblest aspect, which we were told was his birth-place. THE SOUTHERNER AT JIOME. 187 After looking a moment at the plain dwelling on the street, and reflecting from what various positions of so- ciety our Presidents spring, the ^bode of Madam, the venerable mother of the late President Polk, was shown to me — a two story brick house, without ornament or grounds, and approached only by an uncomfortable look- ing side-walk. She is greatly beloved, and is said to be both an intelligent and witty old lady. Near her resides Mrs. Dr. Hays, a sister of the late President, and said strikingly to resemble him in talents and appearance. At length we came in sight of the Gothic turrets and Norman towers of the battlemented structure towards which we were directing our steps. It is truly a noble edifice, commandingly situated, and complete in all its appointments to the eye. Its color is a grayish blue. It is approached through imposing gate-ways, by wind- ing avenues that bring the visitor soon upon a green plateau. The entrance is spacious, and hung with pic- tures. We were ushered by a well-dressed female slave into a parlor on the left, handsomely furnished, but not a single book to be seen in it. This showed that the proprietors regarded books as tools in that place, and kept them for the shop — that is the study-room. The colonel sent up our names to the Rector ; for the Institu- tion, which numbers three hundred pupils, is Episcopa- lian, and is under the charge of a clergyman of the Church. A gentleman shortly made his appearance, dressed with the nicest care and attention to his personal appear- ance. He was rather a handsome man, inclined to gen- teel corpulency, wore gold rimmed glasses, nankeen trousers, white vest, and full whiskers accurately trimmed 188 THE SUNNY SOUTH; OR,*; to a hair. He was the heau ideal of preceptor-in-chief of a large and fashionable boarding-school of young misses. He was the most polite man I ever saw. Lord Chesterfield would have embraced hira with demonstra- tions of enthusiasm. Yet, with all this formality of courteousness, which the head of a ladies' school must of necessity get into the habit of exercising towards all, his face bore the impress of a scholarly mind. I always note with great particularity the peculiarities of those who educate youth, for so much depends upon example, and is learned by involuntary imitation. The young ladies, whom Isabel had sent for, soon made their ap- pearance, both dressed plainly in white, and I observed that they both eyed me askance and curiously in a pecu- liar way, and then both whispered to Isabel, and then looked mysteriously again at me harder than before. At length, we rose to accompany the courteous Rector over the vast establishment which calls him lord. I was amazed at its extent, at the number of its rooms, at the profusion of its pictures and maps, hanging from all the walls, at the crowd of girls, so many of them, and so full of the promise of future loveliness, and the perfect or- der and system which prevailed throughout. But if these gratified me, I did not a little marvel at finding myself waylaid and watched by knots of juvenile belles, with rosy lips buzzing, and their handsome eyes flashing and staring at me as if I was a "show" of some kind, while Isabel and the colonel were scarcely noticed. " What can have happened to me?" I asked myself, and ima^ gined I had in some way disfigured my face, and so made a fright and sight of myself; but happening to pass a mirror, and finding my "beauty" unimpaired, and my THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. 189 appearance as it should be, I was excessively annoyed and curious to know why I was stared at and whispered about so. It was not done rudely, however, but civilly, and with a sort of pleased reverence. I did not discover the secret of it all until we had re- turned to the inn, when a gentleman, who is a poet, but I believe has never published any thing, called and sent in his card for me, his name written gracefully in a scroll held in the bill of a dove, all done with shining black lead. When he was admitted, he approached me with a dozen bows, and said he was happy to have the honor of wel- coming me to Columbia. He had just heard from some young ladies of the Academy that I had honored it with a visit, and he begged to assure me that I was appre- ciated, in the most distinguished manner, by all intellec- tual persons who had had the pleasure of reading my Let- ters from Overton Park, published in the Model Courier. " I trust I have also the honor," here the young gen- tleman turned and bowed low to the amazed colonel, " of seeing the celebrated colonel whom your pen has immor- talized, and this" — and here he made two very low bows to the puzzled Isabella — "is, without doubt, the bold and beautiful Miss Peyton, whom I have learned to ad- mire, though I have never before had the happiness of paying my respects to her." Mr. ! can you appreciate, have you nerves and sensibility enough to appreciate my position at that aw- ful moment ? I felt that the crisis had arrived ! I did not open my lips, but pale and motionless I sat and looked him into annihilation, and then I moved my eyes towards the colonel and Isabel, in a sort of helpless 190 THE SUNNY SOUTH; OR, despair, to see the effect of this contretemps upon their unsuspecting minds. "What is this, Kate, eh? What is it the gentleman would say?" he asked, in an amusingly bewildered way. " I can explain, dear father ! Don't look so like the white lady in wax, dear Kate !" added Isabel, smiling. " I heard something of it at the school, and the girls all wondered I had never heard of it before, especially as I was spoken of in the Letters." "What letters, Bel?" asked her father. "You mys- tify me ! I heard something once, I now recollect, but it passed from my mind." " Why, sir, the truth is, there is a spy in the camp, dear father," answered Bel, with an arch smile, and glancing aside at me, "and this gentleman has been so good as to let the poor kitten loose in sight of everybody. Kate has been writing letters to a paper in Philadelphia, which have been printed, at least, so I was told at the Academy, a score of them, and every one of them dated at Overton Park, and descriptive of every thing that she saw or experienced there that she thought would be inte- resting ; and in these letters she has been so naughty as to speak of both of us, at least so I was told, for I have not seen one of the letters, but I am dying to do so." "Nor I," said the colonel. "So! so! Then we have a literatteuriste in our family, 'takin' notes an' printin' 'em' too, i' faith! You sly rogue, Kate," he added, turning to me, "you have got the advantage of me. So you have been making us all sit for our portraits, poor innocents !" "But she has not written one word, she would be afraid to have us read, that I know," said Isabel. THE SOUTHERXER AT HOME. 191 "That I'll vouch for, Kate! so don't look so blank!" . "That she hasn't, sir," officiously exclaimed the wretched poet, as if he were eager to atone for his faux pas. "Dear me! I didn't know but — but — everybody knew — or — ! But sir ! but, Miss ! you may rest assured that not a word is written, that, * Dying, she would wish to blot/ She has alluded to you in every instance in the most princely, and affectionate, and respectful — " "My very good sir," interrupted the colonel, "the lady needs no apologist. We know well she has not. Now, Kate, if I had these Letters, I would, as a punish- ment to you, make you read every one of them aloud to us when we get back to the Park." "It would be a punishment," I said, smiling and taking heart again, at the kind and affectionate manner in which the discovery had been received by my two dear friends. "But if it will be received in full atone- ment — " "Full — complete," answered the colonel. "I have most all the Letters, sir; seventeen in number, sir, up to the last week," eagerly remarked the poet ; " they are at your service, sir !" "And so, sir," said I, half angrily, "you would com- plete the mischief you have involuntarily done by a voluntary proposition to contribute to my punishment." "Ten thousand pardons. Miss Kate — I beg pardon, Miss Conyngham — I will withhold the Letters, then." "Nay, since you have them," said I, "and are willing to part with them for a time, (they shall be returned to your address again,) I will accept the offer ; for. Colonel, 192 THE SUNNY SOUTH; OR, I wish you to see all that I have written, and the sooner my mind will be relieved." "I am full of curiosity to read them," said Isabel eagerly. Thereupon the blabbing poet departed to bring them, when the colonel and Isabel, feeling for my chagrin, succeeded in reconciling me to myself; and when the miserable youth came back with the bale of Couriers un- der his arm, I was in a mood to receive them with a merry laugh, though still a tear or two of vexation trembled in my eyes, that the discovery had been made, and I heartily wished I had never written a line. But, who ever dreamed of my Letters being read here, out West, or being thought of a week after they were written ? You know, sir, how insensibly they were drawn out from paper to paper, and increased to their present number, almost without my knowledge. "If I had reflected," as I now said to the colonel and Isabel, "that what is published in an Eastern paper is read as well in the West as if it had been printed there, for newspapers circulate everywhere, I should not have written, or written less freely in my use of names and places. I did not then understand that communications sent out from Tennessee, to a widely circulating paper m Philadelphia, will as certainly come back to Tennessee, and be read by all the next door neighbors of the writer, as certainly as if they had been printed in his own town. I did not understand, as I now do, that newspapers are without geographical limits and boundaries, but that their voices, like those of the stars, 'go into all lands, and their words to the end of the world!' that to them belong neither climates nor latitudes; that the same journal THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME- 198 which is read around the elegant fireside of glowing an- thracite in Walnut street, is also read, word for word and column for column, before the light of the log fire in the woodman's hut on the Mississippi." I have decided to continue to write my Letters, Mr. , for the colonel and Isabel have read all which I have written, (this being the third day since the discovery,) and find nothing that I should not have set down, save names, and, as they say, giving them both better characters than they deserve. I shall therefore resume my "journey" and give you an account of a delightful day passed at Ashwood, en route to the watering place, seven miles west of Columbia. The unlucky poet felt so badly at the scrape he had unwittingly got me into, that in the morning, when we left the inn, he came to the carriage, and bidding me good bye, begged me to pardon him, a request which I very cheerfully complied with. The last I saw of him, as the carriage turned the corner, was standing fixed to the spot where I had charitably shaken hands with him, his hat raised, and his body bowing, with his left hand frantically placed on his heart. Mr. , if you receive a piece of poetry from these parts, addressed to me, " On meeting me" in Columbia, I implore you not to insert it, for I saw the mad phrensy of such an act in his eyes as I parted with him, and he will be sure to perpetrate the deed there fore-shadowed. Respectfully, yours, Kate. 13 194 THE SUNNY SOUTH; OR, LETTER XXIV. This letter, my Dear Sir, is addressed to you from the loveliest region of this state, and from the " Garden of Eden" of this loveliest region. Maury county, (pro- nounced here Murry,) you must know, is the gem of Tennessee. It contains the most beautiful hills, the clearest brooks, the prettiest vales, the stateliest trees, the handsomest native parks, the richest farms, the wealthiest planters, the most intelligent population, the best seminaries of learning, and the loveliest ladies of all Tennessee ; at least the good people of Maury say so, and who should know so well as they, pray ? They also boast of having given a President to the United States, and its greatest astronomer to it — Lieutenant Maury, of the Observatory at Washington. So far as my ex- perience goes, I am ready to endorse all the good folks say; for Ashwood, which is the setting in the ring of Maury, and where I now am, is enough in itself to give grace to a much more inferior country. I will describe Ashwood to you. Fancy yourself, Mr. , (where you may be in per- son whenever you take it into your ambulatory brain to ramble this way,) seated in our roomy and luxurious carriage, by my side, if you are not too stout, and don't fill up too large a space, for, of all things, I love to ride comfortably; or by Isabel's side, — but then she is so THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. 195 handsome, I dare say you would rather sit opposite to her, where you could watch the intelligent play of her beautiful features ; or, perhaps, better still, imagine your- self on horseback, riding by our window, with no object to obstruct your view of the country ; this will be best, after all — especially as you are supposed to be traveling to see and print the country ; for I conceive that every- thing is vieAved by an editor — ^typically — not as it really is, but how it will look in type — ^how many squares or paragraphs it will make ! Fancy yourself thus d cheval, and riding by our coach windows as we sally forth from the village of Columbia, with its one broad, rocky, side- walkloss street. On your right you will not fail to notice the former cottage abode of the late President Polk, and on the left, the plain residence of Madame, his aged mother, to both of which I have before drawn your at- tention. A few minutes farther will bring you opposite the castellated edifice known far and near as the Columbia Institute, where I had "the honors" paid me the day before, and where is preserved a conservatory of loveli- ness, each virgin flower awaiting her turn of annual transplanting into the great wilderness of the world. Ah, girls ! if you knew the storms and clouds, the sad- nesses and sorrows, the cares and anguishes, the biting frosts and chilling winds that wither the heart and blight the spirit in the open world, you would hug your pre- sent shelter, and long linger, — dreading and shrinking to go forth, — within its protecting and safe embrace ! This reflection is supposed to be made by yourself, Mr. , in the philosophical m.ood which becomes an editor en voyage to see the earth he lives upon. After 190 THE SUNNY SOUTH: OR, losing sight of the Institute, you will come to the top of the hill, and glance back to take a parting look of the village of Columbia, which is nestled picturesquely amid trees, with a tower or two peering above them, on the banks of the romantic Duck ! Yes, Mr. , the classic, and erudite, and scholastic Columbia is situated on the "Duck river." "What is in a name?" you ask — " Duck, or Doddle, or Dunkins, or Dumplins ; all very good names in their way, if they mean good. A rose by any other name would no doubt smell like a rose." Suppose a rose were called "Quashee," would you name your lovely daughter Quashee ? Ah, Mr. , can you fancy your smiling babe looking as sweet with the name of Quashee indelibly fixed upon her, as she now does ? One of these days, we have no doubt that the refined polish of the Columbians will lead them to see the affin- ity between Duck and Quashee, and at least adorn their rock-cliffed river with a more euphonious name. After losing sight of the village, you will find yourself pacing smoothly along a level and broad pike, not roughened by even a pebble to disturb the even roll of the carriage wheels. The fields on one side are green and undulating — on the other is a fine wood. In a few minutes a dark brown villa meets your eye, some distance from the road, on the left hand, with a neat gate-way opening into a well-kept carriage-way, that sweeps hand- somely round a laAvn up to its portico. The grounds are ornamented, well kept, and neatly enclosed, and the whole place has an air of scholarly seclusion, combined with the most enviable domestic comfort. This is the abode of the Right Rev. Bishop Otey, of the Tennessee Diocese of the American Episcopal Church. This resi- THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. 1^ dcnce is the seat of true clerical hospitality. Bishop Otey is indeed the reverend father in God of all his clergy, who look up to him with a filial love, combined with a fraternal confidence, that speaks volumes for the traits of character of a Bishop, who can command such voluntary affection. Bishop Otey stands among the very first Prelates of the Church, which his piety and learn- ing so eminently adorn. If you will turn your eyes in that direction, you will discover him in a brown linen coat, and home-made trowsers, and an old straw hat, working amid his shrubbery. That bright-eyed young girl, with a shade hat in her hand, and a cloud of sunny hair, is his youngest daughter, the pride of her father's heart, who has recently laid beneath the green earth two still more beautiful ones. It is only the hope of the Christian that can strengthen and bind up the heart broken by such heavy strokes as these. Calm and holy confidence in a life beyond the stars, where the severed here shall entwine in each other's embrace, holy lip to holy lip, loving heart to loving heart, — can only lend en- durance to separations in this. Without this sure and steadfast hope, what a bottomless pit of crushed affections would the grave be ? The road now divides a green and verdant landscape, more woodland than field, but made up of both, with here and there a tenement of some small proprietor. You are pleased with the beauty of the trees, the height and majesty of the silver-trunked sycamore, overshadow- ing some rock-bound crystal spring, or by the graceful bondings of a group of willows bordering a rivulet ; or by the breadth of the broad-armed oak on the sunny hill- side ; or by the feathering and stately elegance of the 198 THE SUNNY SOUTH; OR, Indian salex ; or the columnar altitude of the poplar, marking the site of some hidden cottage. * I see you gaze with admiration into the sun-dappled forests, whose broad patches of light and shade look like scenes in Claude Lorraines's pictures, and remind you of them. You wonder at the green sward beneath the trees being so green and soft, as if it had been the work of trained English gardeners ; when the extent of these lawn like forests convinces you that they are as nature's gardening left them. I see you stretch your neck to see where the deer are. They seldom come near the road, and in the vicinity of towns are rarely seen now. There are few or no deer in this county of Maury, but those that are tamed and kept for gentle adornment to the vi- cinage of some villa. Did you ever trot over a smoother road, sir ? For the last three miles, not a stone the size of your watch seal has been encountered by the polished wheel-tire. Does not the stately span of mules move with a truly equinine bravery and speed ? I see by your eye, as you are watch- ing their pace, that you mean to have a pair for Broad street, or whatever other avenue you Philadelphia gentle- men make a fashionable driving thoroughfare. The col- onel offers you a cigar out of the window. Don't refuse it, Mr. . They were brought from Havana oj the tiger- captain, and are pronounced nonpareil. I love to see a gentleman smoke who knows how to smoke ; but, bless mc ! when they do not know how, what filthy work they make of it ! The awkward way they embrace the cigar with the unskilled lips, as if it were an unusually large stick of bitter barley candy — the jaundice-colored exuda- tions of juice, which must be expectorated twice in every THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. Ifl© minute — the — but enough : if these may not be written about by pens polite, how can the spectacle be endured as it is by hundreds of polite eyes and polite nerves daily ? Oh ! ye monstrosities of smokers — ^ye caricaturists of a cigarilian luxury — ^ye unsuccessful imitators of the inimitable ! — chew tobacco at once, but don't — don't join together in one operation what was ever intended to be kept asunder. I see you smoke your cigar like a true smoker, Mr. . You use it as familiarly as the jockey his whip, or the fine lady her fan. You handle it as delicately as if it were made of gossamer, yet puflF it as vigorously as if it were of the consistency of gutta percha. You do not so much smoke as inspire and exhale azurely — as if it were as natural to you as to breathe ordinarily. You never remove it from your mouth, save to laugh, for you converse with it as if it incommoded you no more than your lips or teeth, and then you touch it delicately and regard it affectionately. An admirably finished and endui-able smoker ! Such smoking is not unlawful, and can never be indicted as nuisable. Colonel, please hand Mr. another cigar. Kate. 200 THB SUNNY SOUTH; OR, LETTER XXV. Ma. : My Dear Sir, — There is probably no purgatory on earth (for purgatories abound in this world) so effectually conducive to penitence and repentance as a watering place. If good cannot come out of evil, nor light out of darkness, nor laughter out of sorrow, neither can any thing interesting proceed from a watering place. Never- theless, I have to fly to my pen for solace. I have read till reading is insufferably tiresome — I have walked till I could walk no longer — I have talked till I am tired hearing my own voice and the voices of others — I have jumped the rope till I have blistered the soles of my feet, and made my hands burn — I have drunk the waters until I shall never bear to hear water mentioned again — I have danced under the trees, and looked on in the old dancing-room, till dancing is worn out — I have yawned till I have nearly put my jaws out — and I have sat till I could hardly keep my eyes open, looking at the trees, the hot walks, the listlessly-wandering-about people, that look ^s if they could take laudanum, hang themselves, or cut their throats, "just as lief do it as not," if it were not so impolite and wicked to shock people's nerves by perpetrating such dreadful things ! I have slept till ray eyes won't hold any more sleep, . his back against an oak, a long rod in his hand, the hook at the extremity of which has been baitless for the last hour, while the angler sleeps with his mouth wide open ; and I fancy I hear his sonorous snore mingling not un- harmoniously with the guttural noise of the brook. Not . many paces from him is stretched, in ponderous length, a huge brown horse, his head a little cast to one side, as if he were eagerly listening ; but it is all a deception ; a little closer scrutiny will show you that his large eyes are both shut, and that he is also as sound asleep as the old lawyer, only he doesn't hold his mouth open. Brutes always sleep, I have observed, with dignity. An eastern sase has said that men and beasts are on a level when they sleep ! There is, doubtless, something deep | lying under this observation, if we could think it out ; but it would take other heads to do that ! The bowling alley is in full sight. Its thunder is silent — its thunder- bolts repose. The negro boy who sets up is now lying down upon the broad of his back, in the sun, and seems to be enjoying sleep as only an African can. On the benches are stretched gentlemen in various picturesque attitudes, some sleeping, others smoking, and idly con- versing. The air is so still, the buzzing of the flies is heard in the sunny air, like the distant murmur of a busy spinning-wheel. The mosquitoes are the only things that seem to be taking time by the fore-lock. There, under an opposite gallery, reclines a fat gentleman in an THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. 203 arm-chair, and doing his best to get to sleep, in order to forget that he is at these horrid Springs. Now he slaps at a mosquito with his right hand, then he hits at another with his left, his eyes both shut all the while ; now he brings his fleshy palm down upon his forehead, with a slap loud enough to wake the ancient lawyer with the fishing-rod; and now he grumbles out a half-choked oath, and throws his great red silk-handkerchief over his face. But I see they bite through this, for he kicks out his short legs in a kind of frenzy of desperation. I can see the Etna-like tip of his nose pointing upwards under- neath the handkerchief, a fair mark for a sharp pro- boscis. A shrewd mosquito has found the place vulne- rable, and the victim, seizing the end of his nose, wrings it as if he were wringing off the head of a chicken ; at the same time being bitten on the knee, the fat gentle- man roars and kicks fiercely out, and the chair, which was never manufactured for such trials of strength as this, refuses longer to sustain him in his freaks, and dis- solves into its primitive parts, every round and leg unglu- ing and separating from its bed, and letting him down bodily amid the wreck like a huge globe fallen from its sphere. What a change ! Presto, how the Springs are alive ! The crash, heard all around, starts fifty sleepers, one hundred and fifty idlers, two hundred dozers, black and white, and all run to the scene of disaster, to see what has happened ; for, at the Springs, an incident is worth five hundred dollars, Mr. , if it is worth a dime. The fat gentleman finds himself the cynosure of all eyes, and the butt of all possible inquiries of — "What is it? How did it happen ? Who's hurt or killed? Bless me, my dear sir, are any of your bones broken?" 2di THE SUNNY SOUTH; OR, The latter inquiry could never have been satisfactorily responded to by the fat gentleman, as, without doubt, he had lost sight of his bones many years before, under- neath the masses of superincumbent flesh which lay larded eight fingers deep thereupon. There is no describing the effect this little incident has produced upon the whole circle of animated life. The bowlers, once aroused, are playing at mimic thunder again — the ancient barrister has shut his huge mouth, opened his eyes, put on his spectacles, and resumed his occupation of fishing for subaqueous clients. The old brown horse has thrust out his two fore-legs on the grass, and pulled himself heavily up from his haunches to his hoofs, and begun to crop the sward. The cabins, lately so quiet, resound with the laughter of young girls, and the octave voices of ladies calling to their maids to pre- pare them for dinner, for the hour of this important event is at hand. In half an hour the dancing-room will be filled with beaux and belles, papas and mammas, buzzing, and walking, and gazing, and waiting for the dinner-bell. We shall have a dinner, such as it may bo, but luxurious enough for people who will leave pleasant homes to go to watering-places ! Ten o'clock, P. M. The day is past; and as it is our last day at the Springs, therefore rejoice with me, Mr. . I am im- patient to be back once more to my dear, familiar room, with its thousand and one comforts. I want to see my pet deer, my doves, my squirrel, my flowers, my books, my own looking-glass, for I don't look like myself in these at the Springs, which look as if they had been THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. 205 made while a stiff breeze was rippling across their molten surface. I write to the measure of the dance in the hall, and the merry jingle of violins and castanets. The young folks are enjoying themselves while they are young. The happiest persons I saw in the ball-room, however, were the blacks. You who live in a free State, have no idea of the privileges this class are permitted in a slave State by the white people. They stand in the doors and otherwise vacant places of the ball-room, and laugh, and are as much at home as "massa and missis." They go and come around or across it as they please; a favored aunty will even ask you, "Please, missis, stand dis way little bit, so I can see!" and "missis" complies as readily as if a lady had asked her. One reason of this is that the system is so intimately interwoven with domestic arrangements, and associations, and habits, that, to all Southerners, slaves are necessary appurtenances in all places. If they see not their own slaves, they see those of others, and pay no attention to their goings and comings. The slave will even attend her mistress with her umbrella or cloak to her pew, and, leaving them, go out again down the broad aisle, no one noticing her. I have seen slaves sent from one part of a church to another, during service, without attracting observation; nay, even into the pulpit, to restore the clergyman his pocket-handkerchief, which he had let fall. But in the North, who would suffer "negroes" to appear in such places ? A Southerner never objects nor thinks of objecting to the presence of a servant any- where. I might travel with Edith in a stage from Mem- phis to Savannah, and not a Southern gentleman in it THE SUNNY south; OR, would speak of it, or think of it; wliile from a New Eng- land coach, she would be ejected. Tell me, Mr. , why is this so? How is it, as it is certainly the faet^ that the Northern people have a positive dislike for the negro ? But I will not discuss this question. These Springs have only within a few years attracted attention. They are embosomed in the depths of a wil- derness far from village, or civilized habitation. The road by which we reached them after quitting Mount Pleasant, a pretty and dirty village this side of Ashwood, lay for tAventy-eight miles through a forest, which was scarcely invaded by the woodman's axe. For fifteen miles we did not see a habitation. The solitude was grand. The surface of the country was undulating, and we could see long vistas into the depths of glens, where I imagined lay the deer in covert, and where once crouched the wild beast in his lair. It seemed at every winding in our road that we should come upon some Indian hunter. But the red man was not there. Wasted "like the April snows in the warm noon," he had disappeared be- fore the sun of civilization. Now and then a squirrel would cross our path, or a gray-plumed woodpecker star- tle the echoes with his busy knocking at the doors of the insects' homes, in the bark of the trees, for them to come out and be eaten. Once a huge black snake lay directly in our path, and would not stir till Charles lashed him with the whip, when he moved off as deliber- ately as if he did not care for us, — a spice of the old Eden pride of power left in him. Of all things, why should a serpent have been made use of by Sathanas to tempt Eve? It were more likely to frighten her. Per- haps, however, that to Eve, before the Fall, all things THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. 207 (all of God's creatures) were beautiful, — for it is sin only that deforms and brings deformity ! That Eve is not surprised that the serpent has a voice, is, because she and Adam spoke, and it was natural for her to suppose, until experience taught her to the con- trary, that all brutes were likewise gifted with speech. We see her evince no amazement at the vocal powers of the serpent. Dear me ! if I had been Eve — ^but nobody knows what a body would have done, had a body been Eve ! — the pro- bability is, that I should have eaten two apples instead of one. The arrival of our cavalcade at the Springs produced a sensation, as new arrivals always do, — but nobody seemed to notice its size and variety. Indeed, since we have been here, quite a dozen of arrivals quite as formi- dable in largeness of retinue have occurred. Nay, one young lady had a wagon bringing up the rear containing her harp and guitar. Some of the parties brought an extra wagon for baggage. Last Saturday, quite a horse troop of lads and lasses, from the adjacent country, broke in upon us like a foray of Highlanders upon the lowlands. Some of the young men, every soul of whom was full six feet tall, brought their rifles, and the girls an extra pair of shoes for a dance. Some of the girls were handsome, but bold looking, and with very fine figures. They actually took possession of the hall, and danced half the day ; and then the young men went down to a level meadow and passed an hour shooting at a mark at fifty and eighty yards ; and excel- lent marksmen, I am told, these Tennesseans are. They are brave men too ! There is a look of quiet resolution THE SUNNY SOUTH; OR, about them that gives indications of that martial spirit which the trumpet of war so readily awakes in their bosoms. General Jackson was not so much one individual as he was the repi-esentative man of Tennessee. All true born Tennesseans are more or less like him in as- pect, build, courage, and indomitable resolution. They take a pride in him ! They teach their children to imi- tate him ! His name was the most stirring war-cry used by the Tennessee legions in Mexico. Not long since Isabel was at a party where, during the evening, the bust of General Jackson was brought out and placed upon a pedestal in the hall. It was hailed with three cheers by the lads, and crowned with flowers by the girls, who hand in hand danced around it, and sang with spirit, -O-.)- "Hail to the Chief!" {^i| The days at the Springs are passed pretty much alike^ — the three meals being the most important points of interest. What, with bowling and quaffing the waters, dancing and walking, sleeping and talking, dressing and eating, fighting the mosquitoes, and watching what others do, we manage to kill each day, but are half killed in our turn. To-morrow we leave. All is excitement among our party. Dickon is in ecstasies, and when he runs he turns a somerset at every third step. Charles looks happy. Philip's serene face shows his content. Edith expresses herself heartily tired of the place, albeit she has been the belle here. Do not think, Mr. , that the "darker shades" of our party do not find "reliefs." Probably there are here two hundred ser- vants, belonging to the various families. Now as people generally travel with their body servants, which are of THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. 209 a caste superior to the rest, of course at the Springs they enjoj the elite of the best society of Darkeydom. The position of each colored individual is indisputably fixed by that of his master. A servant of the President of the United States, would of course be recognized as "fuss class airystokrasy" by his fellow servants. The richer and more respectable the master, the more re- spectable the man or maid. Hence our colored circle is exceedingly recherche. "It is," as Edith says, "ob de highest exstinction." If you would take your stand near the spring when they come down after pitchers of water, you would wit- ness practical politeness. The courtesy of Samuel, the coachman of Dr. W to Mary, the maid of Mrs. Col. , as he solicits the honor of filling her pitcher for her, and placing it on the polished mahogany veneering of her rounded shoulders of the brightest brown tint, would edify you. The polite salaams of Jacob to Rachel, the dressing woman, and of Isaac, the footman, to Rebecca, the nursery maid, would charm you. But you should see the aristocracy of the shades dining. After the masters and mistresses have left the dining hall, the long table is relaid, and they who whilom served are now feasted. I have been twice in to look at them. Not less than one hundred Ethiopian and Nubian ladies and gemmen were seated in the places occupied an hour before by their masters and mistresses. The entrees were con- ducted comme ilfaut. There were servants of "de lower klass," scullions and ostlers, boot-blacks and idlers, to wait on them. The order, courtesy, civility, and pro- priety that were observed at the table, could not have 14 210 THE SUNNY SOUTH; OR, been surpassed at a dinner at Windsor Castle : on the contrary, thej were more polite than people at a Royal dinner. The bowing and handing across the table to the ladies — the "Shall I help you to a piece of de tender loinjMissee Cinderella?" "Will you take a purtatur, Mistress Betty?" "Thank you, Mister Thomas, I will if you pleases." "Here is a nice slice of the bres' of de turkey for you. Missy Arabella." "Thankee ! much obligated; it berry nice. Mister Napoleon Bonaparte." "Ladies and gemmen, here de health of our Massas and Missesses, and may dey nebber die till dere time come, an' den lib forebber." This toast being drunk in the residue of claret, there was a more positive set-to upon the viands. And so these black rogues dine every day ! I say to you, truthfully, Mr. , the slaves in this state seem to be quite as well content as their masters ; in fact, are only second to them in all that they enjoy. I am becoming more and more reconciled to the system ; but I don't think I could charge myself with the responsibility of owning a slave. Not that I think it wrong. The Bible allows it. But to feel that a human being was mine ! that I was ac- countable to him for his happiness and comfort here, and to God for his soul's weal hereafter ! This is, I think, one of the most responsible filatures of domestic servitude. "I feel," said an intelligent Christian lady to me, "I feel more deeply the weight of responsibility which the ownership of the slaves my father has left me, places upon me, than I do that of my own children. I tremble at the reflection that God will ask their soul's lives at my hands !" The sound of the feet of the dancers has ceased, and THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. 211 silence reigns in the hall so lately the scene of merriment. Night is hushing all sounds. Here and there a star can be seen, twinkling down through the opening in the trees. The murmur of the brook reaches my ear like an audible voice. Some sleepless Orpheus is now waking the si- lence with an ill-touched flute. Distant laughter of young men, at cards, or wine, comes from yonder cabin. A baby is crying in the room next to mine ! I hear the sleepy father's growl, and the patient mother's low "•hush." A mosquito sings in my ears, and another bold wretch has bitten me on the hand. These are warn- ings for me to retire, especially as we are to make an early start homeward. So, good-night. Kate. 212 THE SUNNY SOUTH; OR, LETTER XXVI. OvKRTON Park. Mr. : Once more in my own room, at my own desk and escritoire, with familiar objects, I resume my pen to ad- dress you. How much what one writes depends for its character upon the place in which it is penned ? To write at ease, I must have everything about me that I have been accustomed to. I must have my light ar- ranged in just such a way, so that a soft radiance, mellow- ing everything in the room, shall fall upon my paper, just distinctly enough for me to see, yet not strong enough to distract my attention by glare. I must have perfect quiet, too. I can write best by lamp-light, a shaded lamp, with the light thrown softly upon the paper. In a rainy day my thoughts flow freest. I must have an old- fashioned goose-quill. I cannot accustom myself to a steel pen. It trips me up, and I have an awkward way of bearing on when I write that a steel pen won't yield to with sufficient flexibility. Half the people in this country write on ruled paper. This is my abhorrence ! I don't stop to notice lines, and so if I can't get any but ruled paper, I write as often between the lines as on them. I was taught, fortunately, to write straight at school; and so were all my schoolmates ; and, till lately, I supposed everybody could write on unruled paper. THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. 213 But when I was last in Nashville, I went to three book stores on an unsuccessful search for unruled letter paper. " We don't keep it — it is hardly ever called for — every- body buys the ruled," were the answers we received : but at length I have obtained some by sending away for it. The colonel says he has seen letters both from Henry Clay and Daniel Webster written on lines. This is no doubt owing to the accident of not having unruled paper by them. It is school-boyish to follow this habit. Cer- tainly no young lady ought to be considered educated until she can write a letter on paper without ruled lines. My last epistle left me just on the eve of departing from the Springs. Well, we did leave the following morning, taking up our line of travel, in the same impos- ing caravanish manner in which we had come. Towards evening, after a cool day's ride through the forest, before described, we reached the little town of Mount Pleasant, which is situated amid the loveliest scenery possible. Here we remained all night, putting up with indifferent accommodations. This village ought to be the prettiest in the state. But its population seems to have no taste or pride. They let enormous hogs, with noses like ploughshares, turn up their streets, which the rain converts into bog holes; they neglect to paint, or, at least, white-wash their fences ; they pay no attention to the neatness of their front yards ; they are without passable side-walks, and destitute of shade trees. Why, if the scores of idlers we saw lounging about the shops and tavern, would go to work for a week, in earn- est, they might make their town truly a Mount Pleasant, and double the value of it. How dirty some of these Western towns are kept. I 214 THE SUNNY south; or, feel as if I wanted to take up the people and show them the New England villages, as they show children Lon- don. I am told the citizens are intelligent and highly respectable; how then can they sit down in so much un- tidiness ? Why is it that they don't know that rocks, barrel hoops, rails, old shoes, old hats, boot legs, rags, broken crockery, and such trash, disfigure a street, and would mar the finest avenue that ever ran through a vil- lage? The worst of it is, Mr. , Western people don't care one fig for the opinion of strangers ; while Northerners live, as you may say, for the eyes of others. Hence the attention of the one to the looks of everything about his house and town, and the indifiference of the other to those things. After leaving Mount Pleasant, our road lay through a sweet valley, along the margin of a romantic stream. The scenery Avas charming. In the course of an hour's ride, Isabel selected fifty superb sites for villas; for she has a penchant for looking out pretty places to build upon ; and, for that matter, so have I. But as I am not an heiress, I fear the only house I shall ever call mine, will be one of those "mansions" spoken of in the good Book. About nine o'clock we passed Ashwood school, nestled beneath the wooded cone of Ken Hill, and were so for- tunate as to meet at the gate the learned Professor of Belles Lettres, Donald McLeod, Esq., of Glasgow Uni- versity, — a gentleman well known in the literary con- stellation of our land. He is said to possess one of the most scholarly minds in this country. How is it that all Glasgow, and Dublin, and Oxford men that I meet, arc so much better educated than Harvard and Yale men? Is the American system superficial? One would think THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. 215 SO. The most eloquent scholar I recollect ever to have seen was a graduate of the University of Dublin. I have never seen an American, even a Professor, who could converse fluently in Latin, or write Greek prose with facility ; yet I have seen many from the above Uni- versities do both. As for the young men here in the West, their education is scarcely deserving of the name. There is not a college in Tennessee of much higher rank than a New England Academy, and ambitious young men, after taking degrees at these Western "Colleges," go to Harvard, and enter Sophomore. Perhaps a senior Harvard man would have to enter low at Oxford ! Who knows ? The education of girls West is far beyond that of the youths. Expense is not taken into account where a daughter is to be educated; but fathers seem to think money is thrown away in educating boys. Tennessee has no common school system in operation, and in her capital, hundreds of children are growing up wholly ignorant. Mr. McLeod was accompanied by a short, little, for- eign-looking old gentleman, with gray whiskers, and a demi-military air, who was over-dressed like a French petit maitre of the ancient school. He was mounted on a large gray horse, which he managed with a skilled hand. He was presented to us as " The Compte Neolis." He bowed to his saddle bow, and lifted his chapeau with dignified and smiling politeness, and said he was " our very humble servant." "Neolis," said I, thoughtfully, "There was a Gover- nor of Rome of that name, sir?" "Yes," he answered; "that is me, at your service, Miss," he responded, bowing. 21$ THE SUNNY SOUTH; OR, I gazed on him with curiosity, for I now recalled to mind that General Neolis of Rome, was commander of the Garde Mobile, which was composed of Knights; and that he held Rome against the Spanish troops. This warrior was then, in person, this old Knight of serenty now before me, riding by the side of the carriage, his riding whip and bridle in one hand, and his open snuff- box in the other. As we passed a cart which was dis- charging stone, the noise alarmed the old Count's horse, and he had an opportunity of displaying his admirable horsemanship, by skillfully restraining the fire of his animal ; but in the caracolling, a paper was released from the rider's gaping coat pocket, which bursting as it fell, strewed the ground with candy and bon-bons. Then he dismounted carefully to gather them up, smiling good humoredly at the mishap, and telling us that he always carried them when he went to the school, '■^pour leg en- fants." We found him social and amusing, and quite a gallant homme, and really regretted his departure when he took leave of us at the marble gate-way of Mon- mouth, the residence of Mr. A. Polk, where he resides. When he left us, he bowed to his horse's mane, and slowly rode up the avenue, as if he regretted to quit such good company as Isabel and me. Mr. McLeod left us previously, to call at St. John's Chapel. From the colonel I learned that the Count was an old French exile; that he was a nephew of Marshal Ney, and had been a distinguished oflScer under Napoleon. That he had been many years in this country, had ta.ught at Germantown, and a few years since was invited to take the chair of Modern Languages in the Columbia Insti- tute; but that, being now almost too old to teach, Mr. THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. 217 Polk, with genuine Southern hospitality, has invited him to become an inmate of his house, where he has given him a home for life. The Count is a man of excellent amiability, and a good deal of simplicity of character ; but his friends say, as his memory of past events fails, he draws a little on his imagination, and they sometimes run him somewhat hard upon having said he was at two places on the same day, which were five hundred miles apart, doing good fighting at both. But the Count takes the quizzing in good part, shrugs his shoulders, plies his snuff, smiles ineffably, and says, "Maybe, jentilmen, I vas mistake de day. But vera good ! You may laugh, I laugh next time!" The Count is fond of children, for whom he always has his pockets full of cakes or candy ; he is a good "churchman," and occasionally still teaches the French class en amateur at Ken Hill School. May he live a thousand years ! if his generous host has no objections. After passing the Ashwood gate and post-office, we drove rapidly into Columbia, a distance of seven miles ; and by three o'clock in the afternoon, we once more be- held the roofs and chimneys of Overton Hall towering above the oaks which environ it. How delightful the sensation of realizing that one's wanderings have ceased, and that one is at home again ! It is worth enduring the discomforts of a watering-place a short time, to en- joy this feeling. Every thing seems to be more beauti- ful here than before. And how many changes have taken place in the few weeks we have been absent ! The peaches have ripened ; the apples are becoming rosy red ; a new set of flowers have made their appearance, 218 THE SUNNY SOUTH; OR, and instead of the little eggs which we left in the mock- ing-bird's cage are three innocent little things that look something like mice, on the eve of feathering. Then the canaries were so glad to see us, sending forth the wildest and most joyous carols from their tiny throats for very happiness. The rabbits frisked about us, and all the dogs, "Tray, Blanche, and Sweetheart," acted as if they would shake their tails off with their rough and gyratory welcomings, running around and around us,, and then around the house, chasing each other in full, race, and tumbling and rolling over the grass, from sheerr excess of spirits. Then the old blind war-horse pricked up his ears, when he heard my voice, and gave three great whisks of his heavy tail, ending with a low whine of joy. But you should have seen my pet deer, thai once wounded invalid. I had no sooner entered the green paddock where it was, then it came bounding to- wards me with long, graceful leaps, and would fairly have run over me, if I had not stepped aside. As it was, it gave me a rough and honest-hearted welcome, rubbing its nose against my shoulder, and almost, nay, I very believe, the rogue tried to kiss me, but this salu- tation I adroitly escaped, and hugged my pet about the neck in lieu thereof, and patted its shoulder. But this was too quiet a way of expressing its joy at seeing me again ; so it broke from me, and began to caper about the paddock, flying around it, then across it at right angles, then from corner to corner, and then miscellane- ously in every direction, all at once, and finally ter- minating this mikra mania by suddenly crouching at my feet. But the best welcome of all was that from the scr- THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. 219 vanfcs. They flocked around the carriage, every dark face radiant with smiles, and exhibiting ivory enough for half a mile of piano-keys placed in a row. Jenny Lind's reception in New York was a trifle compared with ours. I thought they would shake our hands off". After I had been a little while in my room, in came Aunt Winny, the fat cook, in her Sunday fix, having rigged up to welcome me, being too particular to come in, in her work- ing dress. She seemed so glad to see me, and said it so many times, that I did not at all regret a trip, the re- turn from which could be productive of so much simple and hearty joy. She then told me how they had all missed us, and " 'specially the deer. Missy Kate," she added, " it acted just like a human a'ter you went away, and cried a'ter you like a baby, and wouldn't eat noffin' for de fuss two days, and I had to cook it someat nice, and coax it, and then 'twouldn't eat till I made Jake put on your old rainy cloak and old sun hat and come and stand by me, to make b'lieve it's you, you know, and the simple t'ing begin to eat right off" I" At the idea of seeing the black imp Jake, her long-heeled, thick-lipped son, personating me, I burst into a hearty fit of laughter, but I did not fail to compliment Aunt Winny's sagacity, and to reward her solicitude for my pet. All is now as it was before we left. I have Isabel at her piano again before breakfast, practising Jenny Lind's songs ; the colonel goes galloping a-field ere the dew is off" the grass, and I am at my morning studies in Ger- man as before. There is, however, some prospect that ere long we shall make another excursion, but not to any watering-place. The colonel will have to visit New Orleans to arrange for the sale of his cotton and tobacco, 220 THE SUNNY SOUTH; OR, in October, and he has invited us to accompany him. The trip will be a delightful one, the first two hundred miles being down the dark flowing Cumberland, which is described as one of the most beautiful of Western rivers, then on the Ohio, and thence launched upon the Missis- sippi, we shall keep its mighty current for a thousand miles. The idea of such a voyage in the superb steamers that float upon these western waters is pleasant, and I have no doubt that we shall greatly enjoy ourselves. Yet I sigh at the prospect of once more quitting our retreat. But in this world, says the wise man, "No- thing is in one stay." Every thing, indeed, is moving. The earth races round the sun, the moon around the earth, which rolls around itself ; Mars and Jupiter chassd with Venus, and the sun itself, say the astronomers, marches at a dignified pace around some unknown cen- tre of the universe. "Keep moving," then, being the watchword of the planets, how can we insignificant dwellers thereon but follow the example of our betters ! So we shall go to New Orleans. Whether I write you again before we are en routes will depend on circumstances. I promised you a letter from the Hermitage, and this you shall have, if possible, as next week we ride over there, it being but a short two hours' gallop across the country. I am glad to find the Americans received Jenny Lind with so much enthusiasm. A love for music is common to men and angels. It allies us to them in sympathies the more we delight in song. It is a divine talent, and if we believe the Bible, it will go with us beyond the grave ; for the happy beings in Paradise are represented as singing now the " Song of the Lamb," and now tho THE SOUTHERNEU AT HOME. 221 "New Song," to the sublime accompaniment of ten thousand times ten thousand angels striking their harps of gold, saying : " Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing ; and every creature which is on the earth, and under the earth, heard I saying. Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever ;" and they ended this celestial chorus by casting their glittering crowns before the throne of Him who liveth forever and ever. It is a hopeful thing for a nation to rise up as one man, and do homage to this personification of earthly music. They do not so much worship her, as recognize the existence in her of the perfection of that which be- longs to humanity en masse, but is vouchsafed to but one in a generation. To see them doing homage to her kindles hope for the elevation of our country, just as following in the chariot-wheels of a conqueror, with his garments rolled in blood, would darken hopes of the ad- vancement of humanity. One thing only is wanting to complete the halo of glory which encircles the modest brow of Jenny Lind. It is to consecrate her voice by singing therewith one Hymn to the Being who endowed her with it. Let her pour forth in the sacred chaunts of the princely David, or the queenly Miriam, that thril- ling voice, and our souls would soar on wings of her songs to the very gates of Paradise. Then, indeed, would she be able to prove to the world that music is a "gift of God wherewith to praise Him." Yours respectfully, Kate. 222 THE SUNNY SOUTH; OK, LETTER XXVII. f Mr. : ,0 Dear Sir, — A residence on a large plantation is ion a Northerner rich with subjects of interest. Every thing is so different from what he has been accustomed to, his curiosity is continually excited by the novelties which are brought before him, or which he is running his face against. First, there is the slave himself, his condition, his cabin, his dress, his manners, his labors,* his amusements, his religion, his domestic relations ; then there is the plantation, with fences a mile apart, present- ing in one broad enclosure land enough to make a score of Yankee pastures ; then there is the cotton-plant, with its rich, pure, white, fleecy treasures, hanging to the ga- thering hand ; then there is the tobacco-plant, with its beautiful, tender, green leaf in spring, and its broad, palmetto-looking leaf in autumn, green lined with brown ; then there is the cotton-gin, with the negroes at work in it, the snowy cotton flying from the wind-fans in fleecy eshowers that mock a December snow-storm ! then there is the baling and screwing, the roping and marking with planter's name, all objects of interest to witness ; then there is the planter himself, so different in his manners, tastes, education, prejudices, notions, bearing, feelings, and associations, from the New England man ; then there is his lady, accustomed to have slaves attend upon the THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. 223 glance of her eye from childliood, commanding and direct- ing her large domestic establishment, where the food, clothing, comfort, and health sometimes of a hundred slaves depend upon her managing care ; then there is- the son, who is raised half-hunter, half-rustic, with as much hook learning as his pastimes in the field and wood will allow him to turn his attention to — the idol of the old negroes and the hope of the younger ones^who has never seen a city, but may one day walk Broadway, or Chestnut street, "a fine young Southern blood," with a fortune to spend, high-spirited, chivalrous, quick to re- sent an insult, too proud to give one, ready to fight for his lady-love or his country ! prone to high living and horse-racing, but at home courteous and hospitable as becomes a true country gentleman ; then there is the' daughter of the house, too, a lovely girl, with beautiful hands, for she has never used them at harder work than tuning her harp, (and hardly at this, if she can trust her maid,) who rides like Di Vernon, is not afraid of a gun, nor, eke ! a pistol, is inclined to be indolent, loves to write letters, to read the late poets, is in love with Byron, sings Jenny Lind's songs with great taste and sweetness, has taken her diploma at the Columbia Institute, or some other conservatory of hot-house plants, knows enough French to guess at it when she comes across it in an English book, and of Italian to pronounce the names of her opera songs ! she has ma's carriage at her command to go and come at her pleasure in the neighborhood, re- ceives long forenoon visits from young gentlemen who come on horseback, flirts at evening promenades on the piazza with others, and is married at sixteen without being courted ! 224 THE SUNNY SOUTH ; OR, The manners and customs thus enumerated arc quite different from those at the North. Let me describe some of the more striking differences a little in detail. Who ever sees an old gray-headed gentleman, mounted on horseback, and a spirited horse at that, galloping along the road with a cigar in his mouth, in New England? Yet we never ride out that we don't meet one or more gray-headed planters, booted and spurred, — sometimes, with a cloth cap on when the day is windy, — trotting to or from town at a slapping pace ; and followed by one or more dogs. You might ride all over the state of Connecticut or Massachusetts without seeing the like.. There they drive about in chaises, or buggies, or carry-- alls. Where at the north would we meet elegant coach eS] with plaited harness, and all the appointments rich and,- complete, drawn by a pair of mules ? Yet here it is an, every day occurrence to see them, for mules here are highly esteemed. Where in the North would fashionable ladies ride mules ? Yet here it is by no means uncommon 4 for a handsome mule to be preferred, especially by timid persons. To what rural church on the Sabbath would every family come in its own carriage? Yet a private carriage stands outside of our church for every family in it. The customs, too, are different in respect to the license given to daughters. In the North the young lady is left alone with her beaux, and pa and her ma retire. In the South it is deemed indecorous for them to be left alone by themselves, and the mother or some member of the family is always in the room ; and if none of these, a female slave is seated on the rug at the door. This is a relic of the Spanish duenna system. Young girls are kept in very THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. 225 Strict bounds by mammas in this respect ; and I was told by a married gentleman, a few days since, that his wife never took his arm till she took it to be led to church on her wedding day ; and that he never had an opportunity of kissing her but twice while he was addressing her, (they were six months engaged !) and in both cases by means of a stratagem he resorted to of drugging a peach with laudanum which he gave to the attending servant, and thereby put her into a sound sleep. To this custom is to be attributed so many runaway matches. If the girls were confided in by their mothers, and suffered to see and become acquainted with those Avho address them, they would hardly elope. Freedom of intercourse would put an end to these clandestine marriages. I like, of the two customs, the Northern best; but both of them are carried too near the extreme. I know several young ladies in this vicinity who have told me that they were never for two hours out of sight of their mammas. This watchfulness, by and by, defeats its own aim. The lover is piqued, and begins to regard the whole matter as a fair field for strategy ; and instead of looking upon the mother of his future wife with respect and affec- tion, he beholds in her an enemy, whom it would be a victory to circumvent. The daughter soon begins to look at it in the same view, and away they fly together to some Gretna Green. But runaway matches seem to be marked with Divine displeasure. I have never heard of a happy one. Not far from us resides a widow lady, who eloped from an excel- lent mother, when she was young, with a worthless young man. She is now the mother of three grown daughters, every one of which has eloped and left her, the youngest 15 226 THE SUNNY SOUTH; OR, only last June, at fifteen years of age, and she is left desolate and broken-hearted ! Thus is the example of the mother followed by the children ; and whom can she blame but herself? But the worst remains to be told. The eldest has already been deserted by her husband, who has gone to California, and she last week had to seek shelter in the home of her childhood ; the second daugh- ter is suing for a divorce, though she has not been thir- teen months married. Ah, girls ! never in an evil hour place your hand in that of the young man who would counsel you to desert your paternal home ! It is cruel to deprive those who have nourished you, and with sweet hope looked forward to the happy day of your honorable marriage beneath their own roof ; it is cruel to rob them of the enjoyment of this happiness. It is their right to give you to him who is the choice of your heart. It is their blessed privilege to bless your union, and witness your and your husband's joy. How can you then rob them of their participation in that joyous bridal, towards which they have been so many years looking forward? Daughters who elope, wrest from their parents that crowning joy of a father's and a mother's life — the gra- tification of seeing their daughter married at their own fireside ! A bridal elsewhere is unnatural, and God's blessing will not follow it. There is a custom here of kissing when ladies meet, that seems to me quite a waste of the "raw material," as some envious gentleman has remarked, doubtless some bachelor editor. You might see in Boston the meeting of one hundred pair of young ladies during the day, and not seven couple would salute each other on the lips. Yet in Tennessee all females kiss, old and young, even if THE SOUTHERNER AT HOME. 227 tliey see each other as often as every day. 1 am ac- quainted with a teacher of young ladies here, who says that his scholars all kiss when they meet in the morning ; and he has seen them when they enter late, in going past several girls to their seats, kiss every pair of lips they pass en route. At church doors of a Sunday there is quite a /^