plates full of unutterable-looking things, which made one feel as if one
should never swallow food again. There were some eggs, all begrimed with
smoke, and powdered with cinders; some unbaked dough, cut into little
lumps, by way of bread; and a white, hard substance, calling itself
butter, which had an infinitely nearer resemblance to tallow. The
mixture presented to us by way of tea was absolutely undrinkable; and
when I begged for a glass of milk, they brought a tumbler covered with
dust and dirt, full of such sour stuff that I was obliged to put it
aside, after endeavoring to taste it. Thus _refreshed_, we set forth
again through the eternal pine-lands, on and on, the tall stems rising
all round us for miles and miles in dreary monotony, like a spell-land
of dismal enchantment, to which there seemed no end....
North Carolina is, I believe, the poorest State in the Union: the part
of it through which we traveled should seem to indicate as much. From
Suffolk to Wilmington we did not pass a single town,--scarcely anything
deserving the name of a village. The few detached houses on the road
were mean and beggarly in their appearance; and the people whom we saw
when the coach stopped had a squalid, and at the same time fierce air,
which at once bore witness to the unfortunate influences of their
existence. Not the least of these is the circumstance that their
subsistence is derived in great measure from the spontaneous produce of
the land, which, yielding without cultivation the timber and turpentine,
by the sale of which they are mainly supported, denies to them all the
blessings which flow from labor. How is it that the fable ever
originated of God's having cursed man with the doom of toil? How is it
that men have ever been blind to the exceeding profitableness of labor,
even for its own sake, whose moral harvest alone--industry, economy,
patience, foresight, knowledge--is in itself an exceeding great reward,
to which add the physical blessings which wait on this universal
law--health, strength, activity, cheerfulness, the content that springs
from honest exertion, and the lawful pride that grows from conquered
difficulty? How invariably have the inhabitants of southern countries,
whose teeming soil produced, unurged, the means of life, been cursed
with indolence, with recklessness, with the sleepy slothfulness which,
while basking in the sunshine, and gathering the earth's spontaneous
fruits, satisfied itself with this animal existence, forgetting all the
nobler purposes of life in the mere ease of living? Therefore, too,
southern lands have always been the prey of northern conquerors; and the
bleak regions of Upper Europe and Asia have poured forth from time to
time the hungry hordes, whose iron sinews swept the nerveless children
of the gardens of the earth from the face of their idle paradises: and,
but for this stream of keener life and nobler energy, it would be
difficult to imagine a more complete race of lotus-eaters than would now
cumber the fairest regions of the earth.
Doubtless it is to counteract the enervating effects of soil and
climate that this northern tide of vigorous life flows forever towards
the countries of the sun, that the races may be renewed, the earth
reclaimed, and the world, and all its various tribes, rescued from
disease and decay by the influence of the stern northern vitality,
searching and strong, and purifying as the keen piercing winds that blow
from that quarter of the heavens. To descend to rather a familiar
illustration of this, it is really quite curious to observe how many New
England adventurers come to the Southern States, and bringing their
enterprising, active character to bear upon the means of wealth, which
in the North they lack, but which abound in these more favored regions,
return home after a short season of exertion, laden with the spoils of
the indolent southerners. The southern people are growing poorer every
day, in the midst of their slaves and their vast landed estates: whilst
every day sees the arrival amongst them of some penniless Yankee, who
presently turns the very ground he stands upon into wealth, and departs
a lord of riches at the end of a few years, leaving the sleepy
population, among whom he has amassed them, floated still farther down
the tide of dwindling prosperity....
At a small place called Waynesborough, ... I asked for a glass of milk,
and they told me they had no such thing. Upon entering our new vehicle,
we found another stranger added to our party, to my unspeakable
annoyance. Complaint or remonstrance, I knew, however, would be of no
avail, and I therefore submitted in silence to what I could not help. At
a short distance beyond Waynesborough we were desired to alight, in
order to walk over a bridge, which was in so rotten a condition as to
render it very probable that it would give way under our weight. This
same bridge, whose appearance was indeed most perilous, is built at a
considerable height over a broad and rapid stream, called the Neuse, the
color of whose water we had an excellent opportunity of admiring through
the numerous holes in the plankage, over which we walked as lightly and
rapidly as we could, stopping afterwards to see our coach come at a
foot's pace after us. This may be called safe and pleasant traveling.
The ten miles which followed were over heavy sandy roads, and it was
near sunset when we reached the place where we were to take the
railroad. The train, however, had not arrived, and we sat still in the
coaches, there being neither town, village, nor even a road-side inn at
hand, where we might take shelter from the bitter blast which swept
through the pine-woods by which we were surrounded; and so we waited
patiently, the day gradually drooping, the evening air becoming colder,
and the howling wilderness around us more dismal every moment.
In the mean time the coaches were surrounded by a troop of gazing boors,
who had come from far and near to see the hot-water carriages come up
for only the third time into the midst of their savage solitude. A more
forlorn, fierce, poor, and wild-looking set of people, short of absolute
savages, I never saw. They wandered round and round us, with a stupid
kind of dismayed wonder. The men clothed in the coarsest manner, and the
women also, of whom there were not a few, with the grotesque addition of
pink and blue silk bonnets, with artificial flowers, and
imitation-blonde veils. Here the gentlemen of our party informed us that
they observed, for the first time, a custom prevalent in North Carolina,
of which I had myself frequently heard before--the women chewing
tobacco, and that, too, in a most disgusting and disagreeable way, if
one way can be more disgusting than another. They carry habitually a
small stick, like the implement for cleaning the teeth, usually known in
England by the name of a root,--this they thrust away in their glove, or
their garter-string, and, whenever occasion offers, plunge it into a
snuff-box, and begin chewing it. The practice is so common that the
proffer of the snuff-box, and its passing from hand to hand, is the
usual civility of a morning visit among the country-people; and I was
not a little amused at hearing the gentlemen who were with us describe
the process as they witnessed it in their visit to a miserable
farm-house across the fields, whither they went to try to obtain
something to eat.
It was now becoming dark, and the male members of our caravan held
council round a pine fire as to what course had better be adopted for
sheltering themselves and us during the night, which we seemed destined
to pass in the woods. After some debate, it was recollected that one
Colonel ----, a man of some standing in that neighborhood, had a farm
about a mile distant, immediately upon the line of the railroad; and
thither it was determined we should all repair, and ask quarters for the
night. Fortunately, an empty truck stood at hand upon the iron road, and
to this the luggage and the women and children of the party, were
transferred. A number of negroes, who were loitering about, were pressed
into the service, and pushed it along; and the gentlemen, walking,
brought up the rear. I don't know that I ever in my life felt so
completely desolate as during that half-hour's slow progress. We sat
cowering among the trunks, my faithful Margery and I, each with a baby
in our arms, sheltering ourselves and our poor little burthens from the
bleak northern wind that whistled over us.
The last embers of daylight were dying out in dusky red streaks along
the horizon, and the dreary waste around us looked like the very shaggy
edge of all creation. The men who pushed us along encouraged each other
with wild shouts and yells, and every now and then their labor was one
of no little danger, as well as difficulty,--for the road crossed one or
two deep ravines and morasses at a considerable height, and, as it was
not completed, and nothing but the iron rails were laid across piles
driven into these places, it became a service of considerable risk to
run along these narrow ledges, at the same time urging our car along. No
accident happened, however, fortunately, and we presently beheld, with
no small satisfaction, a cluster of houses in the fields at some little
distance from the road. To the principal one I made my way, followed by
the rest of the poor womankind, and, entering the house without further
ceremony, ushered them into a large species of wooden room, where blazed
a huge pine-wood fire. By this welcome light we descried, sitting in the
corner of the vast chimney, an old, ruddy-faced man, with silver hair,
and a good-humored countenance, who, welcoming us with ready
hospitality, announced himself as Colonel ----, and invited us to draw
near the fire.
The worthy colonel seemed in no way dismayed at this sudden inbreak of
distressed women, which was very soon followed by the arrival of the
gentlemen, to whom he repeated the same courteous reception he had given
us, replying to their rather hesitating demands for something to eat, by
ordering to the right and left a tribe of staring negroes, who bustled
about preparing supper, under the active superintendence of the
hospitable colonel. His residence (considering his rank) was quite the
most primitive imaginable,--a rough brick-and-plank chamber, of
considerable dimensions, not even whitewashed, with the great beams and
rafters by which it was supported displaying the skeleton of the
building, to the complete satisfaction of any one who might be curious
in architecture. The windows could close neither at the top, bottom,
sides, nor middle, and were, besides, broken so as to admit several
delightful currents of air, which might be received as purely
accidental. In one corner of this primitive apartment stood a
clean-looking bed, with coarse furniture; whilst in the opposite one, an
old case-clock was ticking away its time and its master's with cheerful
monotony. The rush-bottomed chairs were of as many different shapes and
sizes as those in a modern fine lady's drawing-room, and the walls were
hung all round with a curious miscellany, consisting principally of
physic vials, turkey-feather fans, bunches of dried herbs, and the
colonel's arsenal, in the shape of one or two old guns, etc.
According to the worthy man's hearty invitation, I proceeded to make
myself and my companions at home, pinning, skewering, and otherwise
suspending our cloaks and shawls across the various intentional and
unintentional air-gaps, thereby increasing both the comfort and the
grotesqueness of the apartment in no small degree. The babies had bowls
of milk furnished them, and the elder portion of the caravan was regaled
with a taste of the colonel's home-made wine, pending the supper to
which he continued to entreat our stay. Meantime he entered into
conversation with the gentlemen; and my veneration waxed deep, when the
old man, unfolding his history, proclaimed himself one of the heroes of
the revolution,--a fellow-fighter with Washington. I, who, comforted to
a degree of high spirits by our sudden transition from the cold and
darkness of the railroad to the light and shelter of this rude mansion,
had been flippantly bandying jokes, and proceeded some way in a lively
flirtation with this illustrious American, grew thrice respectful, and
hardly ventured to raise either my eyes or my voice as I inquired if he
lived alone in this remote place. Yes, alone now; his wife had been dead
near upon two years.
Suddenly we were broken in upon by the arrival of the expected train. It
was past eight o'clock. If we delayed we should have to travel all
night; but then, the colonel pressed us to stay and sup (the bereaved
colonel, the last touching revelation of whose lonely existence had
turned all my mirth into sympathizing sadness). The gentlemen were
famished and well inclined to stay; the ladies were famished too, for we
had eaten nothing all day. The bustle of preparation, urged by the
warmhearted colonel, began afresh; the negro girls shambled in and out
more vigorously than ever, and finally we were called to eat and refresh
ourselves with--dirty water--I cannot call it tea,--old cheese, bad
butter, and old dry biscuits. The gentlemen bethought them of the good
supper they might have secured a few miles further and groaned; but the
hospitable colonel merely asked them half a dollar apiece (there were
about ten of them); paying which, we departed, with our enthusiasm a
little damped for the warrior of the revolution; and a tinge of rather
deeper misgiving as to some of his virtues stole over our minds, on
learning that three of the sable damsels who trudged about at our supper
service were the colonel's own progeny. I believe only three,--though
the young negro girl, whose loquacity made us aware of the fact, added,
with a burst of commendable pride and gratitude, "Indeed, he is a
father to us all!" Whether she spoke figuratively, or literally, we
could not determine. So much for a three hours' shelter in North
Carolina....
F. A. B.
DEAREST HARRIET,
I had been very much struck with the appearance of the horses we passed
occasionally in enclosures, or gathered round some lonely roadside
pine-wood shop, or post-office, fastened to trees in the surrounding
forest, and waiting for their riders. I had been always led to expect a
great improvement in the breed of horses as we went southward, and the
appearance of those I saw on the road was certainly in favor of the
claim. They were generally small, but in good condition, and remarkably
well made. They seemed to be tolerably well cared for, too; and those
which we saw caparisoned were ornamented with gay saddle-cloths, and
rather a superfluity of trappings for _civil_ animals.
At our dismal halt in the woods, while waiting for the railroad train,
among our other spectators was a woman on horseback. Her steed was
uncommonly pretty and well-limbed; but her costume was quite the most
eccentric that can be imagined, accustomed as I am to the not over-rigid
equipments of the northern villages. But the North Carolinian damsel
beat all Yankee girls, I ever saw, hollow, in the glorious contempt she
exhibited for the external fitness of things in her exceeding short
skirts and huge sun-bonnet.
After our departure from Colonel ----'s, we traveled all night on the
railroad. One of my children slept in my lap, the other on the narrow
seat opposite to me, from which she was jolted off every quarter of an
hour by the uneasy motion of the carriage, and the checks and stops of
the engine, which was out of order. The carriage, though full of people,
was heated with a stove, and every time this was replenished with coals
we were almost suffocated with the clouds of bituminous smoke which
filled it. Five hours, they said, was the usual time consumed in this
part of the journey; but we were the whole mortal night upon that uneasy
railroad, and it was five o'clock in the morning before we reached
Wilmington, North Carolina. When the train stopped it was yet quite
dark, and most bitterly cold; nevertheless, the distance from the
railroad to the only inn where we could be accommodated was nothing less
than a mile; and, weary and worn out, we trudged along, the poor little
sleeping children carried by their still more unfortunate, sleepless
nurses--and so by the cheerless winter starlight we walked along the
brink of the Cape Fear River, to seek where we might lay our heads.
We were shown into a room without window-curtains or shutters, the
windows, as usual, not half shut, and wholly incapable of shutting.
Here, when I asked if we could have some tea, (having fasted the whole
previous day with the exception of Colonel ----'s bountiful supper), the
host pleasantly informed us that the "public breakfast would not be
ready for some hours yet." I really could not help once again protesting
against this abominable tyranny of the traveling many over the traveling
few in this free country. It is supposed impossible that any individual
can hunger, thirst, or desire sleep at any other than the "public
hours." The consequence is, that let one arrive starved at an inn, one
can obtain nothing till such hours as those who are not starving desire
to eat;--and if one is foredone with travel, weary, and wanting rest,
the pitiless alarum-bell, calling those who may have had twelve hours'
sleep from their beds, must startle those who have only just closed
their eyes for the first time, perhaps for three nights,--as if the
whole traveling community were again at boarding-school, and as if a
private summons by the boots or chambermaid to each apartment would not
answer the same purpose.
We were, however, so utterly exhausted, that waiting for the public
appetite was out of the question; and, by dint of much supplication, we
at length obtained some breakfast. When, however, we stated that we had
not been in bed for two successive nights, and asked to be shown to our
rooms, the same gentleman, our host, an exceedingly pleasant person,
informed us that _our_ chamber was prepared,--adding, with the most
facetious familiarity, when I exclaimed "Our chamber!" (we were three,
and two children)--
"Oh! madam, I presume you will have no objection to sleeping with _your
infant_" (he lumped the two into one); "and these two ladies" (Miss ----
and Margery) "will sleep together. I dare say they have done it a
hundred times."
This unheard-of proposition, and the man's cool impudence in making it,
so astonished me that I could hardly speak. At last, however, I found
words to inform him that none of our party were in the habit of sleeping
with each other, and that the arrangement was such as we were not at all
inclined to submit to. The gentleman, apparently very much surprised at
our singular habits, said, "Oh! he didn't know that the ladies were not
acquainted" (as if, forsooth, one went to bed with all one's
acquaintance!) "but that he had but one room in the ladies' part of the
house."
Miss ---- immediately professed her readiness to take one in the
gentlemen's "part of the house," when it appeared that there was none
vacant there which had a fireplace in it. As the morning was intensely
cold, this could not be thought of. I could not take shelter in ----'s
room; for he, according to this decent and comfortable mode of lodging
travelers, had another man to share it with him. To our common dormitory
we therefore repaired, as it was impossible that we could any of us go
any longer without rest. I established Margery and the two babies in the
largest bed; poor Miss ---- betook herself to a sort of curtainless cot
that stood in one corner; and I laid myself down on a mattress on the
floor; and we soon all forgot the conveniences of a Wilmington hotel in
the supreme convenience of sleep.
It was bright morning, and drawing towards one o'clock, when we rose,
and were presently summoned to the "public dinner." The dirt and
discomfort of everything was so intolerable that I could not eat; and
having obtained some tea, we set forth to walk to the steamboat
_Governor Dudley_, which was to convey us to Charleston. The midday sun
took from Wilmington some of the desolateness which the wintry darkness
of the morning gave it; yet it looked to me like a place I could sooner
die than live in,--ruinous, yet not old,--poor, dirty, and mean, and
unvenerable in its poverty and decay. The river that runs by it is
called Cape Fear River; above, on the opposite shore, lies Mount
Misery,--and heaven-forsaken enough seemed place and people to me. How
good one should be to live in such places! How heavenly would one's
thoughts and imaginations of hard necessity become, if one existed in
Wilmington, North Carolina! The afternoon was beautiful, golden, mild,
and bright,--the boat we were in extremely comfortable and clean, and
the captain especially courteous. The whole furniture of this vessel was
remarkably tasteful, as well as convenient,--not forgetting the
fawn-colored and blue curtains to the berths.
But what a deplorable mistake it is--be-draperying up these narrow
nests, so as to impede the poor, meagre mouthfuls of air which their
dimensions alone necessarily limit one to. These crimson and yellow, or
even fawn-colored and blue silk suffocators, are a poor compensation for
free ventilation; and I always look at these elaborate adornments of
sea-beds as ingenious and elegant incentives to sea-sickness, graceful
emetics in themselves, all provocation from the water set aside. The
captain's wife and ourselves were the only passengers; and, after a
most delightful walk on deck in the afternoon, and comfortable tea, we
retired for the night, and did not wake till we bumped on the Charleston
bar on the morning of Christmas-day.
The _William Seabrook_, the boat which is to convey us from hence to
Savannah, only goes once a week.... This unfrequent communication
between the principal cities of the great Southern States is rather a
curious contrast to the almost unintermitting intercourse which goes on
between the northern towns. The boat itself, too, is a species of small
monopoly, being built and chiefly used for the convenience of certain
wealthy planters residing on Edisto Island, a small insulated tract
between Charleston and Savannah, where the finest cotton that is raised
in this country grows. This city is the oldest I have yet seen in
America--I should think it must be the oldest in it. I cannot say that
the first impression produced by the wharf at which we landed, or the
streets we drove through in reaching our hotel, was particularly lively.
Rickety, dark, dirty, tumble-down streets and warehouses, with every now
and then a mansion of loftier pretensions, but equally neglected and
ruinous in its appearance, would probably not have been objects of
special admiration to many people on this side the water; but I belong
to that infirm, decrepit, bedridden old country, England, and must
acknowledge, with a blush for the stupidity of the prejudice, that it is
so very long since I have seen anything old, that the lower streets of
Charleston, in all their dinginess and decay, were a refreshment and a
rest to my spirit.
I have had a perfect red-brick-and-white-board fever ever since I came
to this country; and once more to see a house which looks as if it had
stood long enough to get warmed through, is a balm to my senses,
oppressed with newness. Boston had two or three fine old
dwelling-houses, with antique gardens and old-fashioned court-yards; but
they have come down to the dust before the improving spirit of the age.
One would think, that after ten years a house gets weak in the knees.
Perhaps these houses do; but I have lodged under roof-trees that have
stood hundreds of years, and may stand hundreds more,--marry, they have
good foundations.