A LETTER FROM CAROLINA
"'THE BATH,' ENTERPRISE, S.C.,
"January 27, 19--
"MY DEAR MR. HOWARD:--If only I could drop in on you this evening and
make my report in person, what couldn't I tell! You would laugh if you
knew why we call our house The Bath. But first, have I ever told you
that we have a house? Well, Guildford is so far from even Whitehall,
which is the nearest place we visited, that I lost too much time in
coming and going. I must have been eight hours in the saddle some days,
and I didn't get on fast enough to suit my leaping
ambition,--and--bathrooms are scarce in the country, so Cousin Lois and
I decided to build a model cabin or quarters before we started the
house, and live on the place. There was already a windmill, so I ordered
a porcelain tub in Charleston, and built my house around it. Cousin
Lois preempts it most of the time, but I get my full share, and it is a
luxury. Did you ever try going without a bathroom? Try it. It will
make you 't'ink ob yo' marcies,' as the negroes say.
"Oh, we are so happy! Every day some of the dear neighbours who knew
Guildford in its prime ride or drive over to tell me little forgotten
quirks of the blessed place, and to assure me that I am copying it
faithfully. Cousin Lois calls it curiosity, but I think it is interest.
But the primitive methods in vogue in the South--well, you simply would
not believe me unless you saw them. For example, at the turpentine
plant at Schoville, which I will tell you more of later, my engineer
found them ladling out the crude turpentine by hand, when you know it
ought to be piped, and half the time this cheap negro labour, which they
hire to save machinery, is drunk or striking, which often shuts down the
plant for days at a time,--ten days at Christmas always. Machinery may
be expensive, but, at least, it doesn't get drunk, and by means of it a
man may run his business, even in the South, regularly, and so build up
a reputation for reliability, which, honestly, Mr. Howard, nobody down
here seems to know the meaning of, as we understand it! Any excuse
serves. Just make your excuse--that's all. It not only seems to
relieve the conscience of the purveyor, but satisfies the consumer as
well. In Georgia it is a State law not to move freight on Sunday.
Imagine that, added to the railroad service as it stands! And in a
certain town in Middle Georgia, the fire-engines are drawn by oxen. I
enclose the kodak I took of it, for I know you won't believe me else.
One thing the South needs more than anything else is some of our
Northern Italian labour. Then the negroes will see what it really is to
work.
"But I am running away with myself.
"I shall skip all I can, and only tell the essentials.
"After we left Whitehall, nothing would do but we must pay a round of
visits among the Lees and La Granges, which we did, staying as short a
time as possible with each, partly because I could not properly attend
to my work, and partly because of the heart-breaking poverty of all my
poor dear relatives. If you could only see their bravery, their pride,
and their wholly absurd fury at the bare suggestion that ease and
comfort might come to them from admitting Northern capital! I think if
they knew that my money comes through you, they would force me to starve
with them rather than be indebted to a ---- Yankee. The ladies don't
use that word with their lips, but their eyes say it. As it is, they
think I am still selling my jewels. And I don't contradict them, simply
because there is no use in giving them pain. Their hatred of the North
is something which cannot be eradicated in a day. It is a factor in
business which blocks the path of every well-wisher of the South, and is
an entity to be reckoned with just as palpably as credit. The man who
ignores it makes a mistake which sooner or later will bring him up with
a jerk. I dwell upon this, because, if we form the syndicate which you
propose, it must be managed craftily, and I know you will not disregard
my warning.
"As an example of it, let me tell what has befallen the plant for making
wood turpentine at Schoville, Georgia. It is a fine, modern, up-to-date
plant of the steam process, backed and controlled by Judd Brothers &
Morgan, of Brooklyn. Their representative approached my counsel,
offering to sell. The Brooklyn firm own fifty-one per cent. of the
stock, and the rest is taken by citizens of Schoville. I sent my man,
Donohue, down to investigate the process, intending, if I didn't buy, to
organize a similar company and operate under their patents, as I find
theirs, if not the best, is at least a satisfactory process, and turns
out a pure water-white turpentine with a specific gravity of 31.70. And
Donohue asserts that by the use of steam he can eliminate the
objectionable odour. He has been in the employ of both the Schoville
and the Lightning companies and is a valuable man, though not strictly
honest. Donohue was satisfied that there was something wrong at
Schoville, and advised me to hold off. He reported the plant out of
repair, although the books showed money in plenty supplied by the
owners. Donohue then visited the plant at Lightning, Georgia, and found
everything all right. It has since transpired that the foreman of the
plant at Schoville, a cracker named Leakin, had deliberately shipped
crude turpentine, which of course was of rank odour and off colour, to
the factors at Savannah, who shipped it to Germany and South America
without giving it a very careful examination. As is usual with these
men, they were too slack to make the thorough examination before making
shipment which the law requires, and paid over an advance of thirty-five
cents a gallon to Leakin like innocent little lambs. Of course, the
inevitable occurred. Buenos Ayres and Berlin not only refused to pay,
but returned the consignment, and the Savannah factors now refuse to
touch wood turpentine at any price.
"It seems that, when the Northern owners sent their representative down
to investigate, Leakin frankly told him that he did not intend to make
money for any ---- Yankees. They thereupon swore out a warrant for his
arrest, but he wrecked the plant at night and was hurried out of town by
his relatives.
"Now, so far from discouraging me, this serves my purpose well. For
with sixty per cent. profit on the manufacture of wood turpentine on
paper (as per my previous reports), which cuts to between forty and
fifty in actual operation, it is one of the future industries of the
South. Of course the little plant I propose to build at Guildford or
near by will only be a mouthful. I figure that between ten and twelve
millions of dollars would corner the turpentine market, and then put the
price of orchard turpentine so high that it would practically be off the
market. Then we could force the consumers to take wood turpentine in
its place, and in this way show them that it will do the same work and
bring the same results as the regular orchard turpentine. They are
afraid of it now, so they must be reduced by compulsion to giving it a
fair trial. I bought ten barrels of wood turpentine made by the company
at Lightning, and sent a small sample to every paint and varnish
manufacturer in the United States, with a letter giving them the
chemical analysis and asking the recipient to give it a fair trial.
About one-third replied that it seemed satisfactory, and sent me orders
for from five to ten barrels for a trial, but they want it at about ten
cents per gallon less than the orchard. It seems that no one will pay
within ten cents of the regular market price. I turned these orders over
to the Lightning company on a commission, and am making quite a neat
little sum out of it, though I never thought of that end of the
proposition when I sent out the samples. I tried the experiment to see
what sort of a market I could look for. There is no reason why this
wood turpentine should not be shipped and sold as regular turpentine,
and one good strong corner on the market will bring this about.
"To continue my investigations, I want you to organize a small company,
giving me control. I shall erect a twenty-cord plant between Enterprise
and Guildford, within wagon distance of the wood-supply of the estate.
Recollect that this process uses only the fallen trees and stumps of the
long-leafed pine, which are reduced to a sawdust, and this is then put
into the retorts. Steam is then injected, which tries out the
turpentine, which is then run into the refining still.
"I can arouse no interest whatever among my relatives. They simply
think I am crazy. I even suggested to my uncle, Judge Fanshaw Lee, of
Charleston, the simple proposition of joining me in the purchase of a
stump-puller to clear his land for rice and cotton, but he wouldn't do
it, and continues to plant in fields dotted with old stumps. But he will
rent it from me if _I_ buy one! So please order immediately the most
improved sort, and consign it to me at Enterprise, S.C.
"Even though I am a Southerner by blood, and anxious to improve the
country in general, and my relatives in particular, I work under
inconceivable difficulties. I sent my lawyer to one of the biggest
factors in Savannah, by the name of James Oldfield, to suggest a combine
to corner turpentine, offering to raise nine million dollars, if he and
his friends would raise one million. Legare reported that 'Oldfield's
head hit the ceiling' at the mere suggestion. But, upon being drawn
out, Oldfield admitted that twenty years ago he had entertained a
similar idea, although, of course, at that time not for the purpose of
introducing wood turpentine. But his ideas were on too narrow-gauge a
plan to admit the suggestion now. So we shall simply be obliged to do
it without him.
"It seems to me that, with the South in the mental attitude it now
holds, it will need some radical means, such as a turpentine corner, to
force Southern landowners to reinvest money in their own property. Many
a man is land poor with thousands of dollars' worth of stumps and fallen
trees on his land which are suitable for wood turpentine. In order to
supply the demand, the orchard people are obliged each year to find two
million acres of virgin forest for their operations. After bleeding
these for three years, the lumber men then enter and cut the timber,
thus leaving millions of fallen trees and stumps, all of which are
suitable for our process. Now, it would take years to educate these
landowners in the process of extracting turpentine from this stumpage,
while a corner in orchard turpentine would, in three months, turn the
attention of half the chemists and inventors in the United States toward
bettering present processes and discovering new ones. Every newspaper
in the land would give this New Southern Industry millions of dollars'
worth of free advertising, and inside of ten years the whole South would
blossom as a rose.
"I have hinted at this before, but have not explained it because the
time was not ripe. Now, after six months of untiring investigation by
trustworthy agents, and after bitter personal experience, I find that no
help whatsoever can be expected from the South. Rather they will fight
us at every step, like children compelled to take medicine. Did you
ever see a health officer try to vaccinate a negro settlement on the
outbreak of a smallpox epidemic?
"You understand me, do you not? Tell me if I make my point sufficiently
clear. I propose to corner turpentine, not for the purpose of raising
the price, but to take the orchard stuff completely off the market until
we have forced the public to give wood turpentine a trial. It has been
demonstrated in every department that the patented product will do the
work of the orchard, not only just as well, but in some cases, as that
of paint, it actually holds the colour better.
"If you are still interested, let me know and I will explain my
developed plan. Meanwhile I welcome suggestions from you, or any of
your interested parties.
"With devoted love to all in your dear house, I am,
Always affectionately yours,
"CAROLINA LEE."