A Thousand-Mile Walk 



sparsely planted pines. The soil is mostly white, 

 fine-grained sand. 



September 26. Reached Athens in the after 

 noon, a remarkably beautiful and aristocratic 

 town, containing many classic and magnificent 

 mansions of wealthy planters, who formerly 

 owned large negro-stocked plantations in the 

 best cotton and sugar regions farther south. 

 Unmistakable marks of culture and refinement, 

 as well as wealth, were everywhere apparent. 

 This is the most beautiful town I have seen on 

 the journey, so far, and the only one in the 

 South that I would like to revisit. 



The negroes here have been well trained and 

 are extremely polite. When they come in sight 

 of a white man on the road, off go their hats, 

 even at a distance of forty or fifty yards, 

 and they walk bare-headed until he is out of 

 sight. 



September 27. Long zigzag walk amid the 

 old plantations, a few of which are still cul 

 tivated in the old way by the same negroes 

 that worked them before the war, and who 

 [52! 



