Show A Southern Editor I found one man an editor at Meridian Me-ridian Mississippi who seemed more solid than any gone else I saw in the South and I was somewhat inclined in-clined to think that he and a let others like him might constitute the whole of the solid South of which I had heard BO much This gentleman gentle-man was troubled by the vulgarity of Northerners or of the Northern character He said tbatif we would only send gentlemen te the South as would be glad to welcome them but BO many Northern men were low and ordid and were never in a gentlemans bones in their lives and when they came to tbe south they made people think they were representative Northern men I told him we could not well afford to send all our best people to tbe Southas we needed them at home I admitted that we had not eo many gentlemen i or really superior citizens in the II North as we should like to have and that there are traits in the character of many Northerners which are not wholly admirable but suggested that my travels had given me tbe impression impres-sion that in these matters the North and South were much alike Are Southern men all or generally gentlemen gen-tlemen of the highest character Then following a long and rambling talk interesting but too diffuse to be reproduced here This man was not a politician nor was he in any way I thought a bad fellow He bad good intentionsand some excellent personal perso-nal qualities Bat he was yoaogand he cherished an absurd worship and regret lor some features of the old regime in the South He would not have slavery backbut bo was repelled by the harsh practical vulgar features fea-tures of tbe advancing new order of things He had studied Northern character if as he insisted there ia such a thing as distinct from Southern character nnly from a distance dis-tance and he saw only the lower or worse side of our society and civilization t civiliza-tion Muoh that he said about Northern people was true but was not the whole truth He and a very Few men like himat least I could find but a fewwere doing the Bouth ill uorviceas I suppose they had done for eome years before Every now and then he wrote something which fired the Northern heart beauti fully He uttered absurdities in two hours to supply material for anti Southern speeches for a whole political campaign in the Northern States I could not see that such men had any considerable influence in the South at the time of my visit Leading Southern men democrats everywhere warned me against them and said they were fools I found no elderly man among them They werethose whom I sawaU of them impracticable romantic young sentimentalists senti-mentalists and all of them were edi torsAs As I was leaving this gentleman I said 1 wish you would take hold and help us with the new order of hinge I am lather sorry for those who feel asyou do Thank you said he but the sympathy our conquerors is galling sometimes II Oh no I laughingly replied lido not feel conquered That seems a little absurd under circumstances and so long after the fight He wag a rather engaging young fellow but he somehow reminded me of a young Confederate officer whom I once met on a battlefield in Virginia a few tours alter a hard fight Oar forces had captured the enemys stores and JI was engaged with n detail of men opening boxes and packages and taking account of the property when this officer a prisoner who was helping the rebel l surgeons in the care of their own wounded in a tent near by came up and said You have no right to meddle with these things sir Why rjotsir I asked Because they are tbe property of the Confederate States of America sir Then why dont the Confederate States of America tate care of tb eir property I inquired The old order of things in the south has gone the way of the other property of the Confederate Con-federate States of America January Atlantic |