conscious exemption from the vicissitndes of 

 party, and the caprices of power, you must make 

 interest to get him in the military ? and is it 

 not the common public impression, that if you 

 would have him acquire intellectual renown — be 

 the ornament and the focus of attraction in the 

 public councils, or the social circle — in a word, 

 a man of consideration and influence in tlie 

 world, he must eschew all thought of being a 

 tiller of the soil, on whose products all profes- 

 sions live, as the mistletoe on the oak, and be- 

 take himself to the office of //^e Doctor or the 

 Lawyer, or to the Army, or the Navy ! 



But this is a digression suggested by the resi- 

 dence at that ford of the Meherriu called Hicks'. 



as aforesaid, of Doctors M and B 



possessing, either of them, talents and informa- 

 tion enough to relieve a larger place from the 

 discredit of being wanting in intellectual refine- 

 ment. 



Lands through that region of country trav- 

 ersed by the great Southern line of railroad, 

 may be had — many farms, with dwellings as good 

 as those of the opuknt Creole Planters on the 

 Mississippi, for fi-om $2 to $5 an acre on long 

 time. Cotton is still cultivated there, but not 

 with results to remunerate the labor and capital 

 employed in it. There, as well as at Petersburg 

 and Richmond, there is a vast amount of natu- 

 ral water power unoccupied, but that resource, 

 like some others, has been exploded or impaired 

 by the application of steam-power to manufac- 

 tures in large towns, to and from which the raw 

 material and the manufactured articles are borne 

 on the wings of Commerce, and where capital- 

 ists fchoose to employ their means under their 

 own more immediate supei-vision. 



Were it not that I would avoid another di- 

 gression, although my roving commission car- 

 ries with it no obligation to sail any given course, 

 it would not be difficult to .show that all that part 

 of Virginia at all distant from navigation, and of 

 which Grain or even Cotton is the staple, must 

 be. sooner or later, and is now fast being, aban- 

 doned. It will not pay expenses and repair wear 

 and tear. The ship so manned must ultimately 

 go dow^n ; and those who soonest discover that 

 there is a leak in the bottom which may be 

 jiatched and caulked for a time, but can never be 

 permanently stopped, will save the most from 

 the wreck which is inevitable. Your readers 

 in the North will hardly believe that there are 

 many hundred thousand acres of land in Vir- 

 ginia, that maybe purchased for from 20 cents to 

 S2 an acre ; and, in the high regions of Georgia, 

 may be entered 160 acres for $1.5. 



A circumstance which seems to indicate that 

 want of thought (not knowing what else to call 

 it), w^hich is too characteristic of agriculturists, 

 is the practice of advertising their lands, when 

 they wish to sell, so exdasivdy in the local 

 (1130) 



neighborhood papers — thus circulating their no- 

 tices among those so many of whom are in the 

 same condition with themselves. Common sense 

 would seem to suggest that notices of commodi- 

 ties for .sale should be distributed where there is 

 the greatest probability of demand, and means 

 of purchase ; and not where all are alike sellers 

 and none buyers— or only a few, who lie by, 

 with their money-bags, ready to pounce on the 

 victim of imprudence or misfortune, as the spi- 

 der on the luckless fly that falls into his web. — 

 The practiced, keen-sighted merchant, in this as 

 in other things, shows more sagacity. He sends 

 his advertisement to the region, however dis- 

 tant, where it is most likely to tell. 



From Hicksford you proceed by railroad in 

 one night to Raleigh, if curiosity or business 

 should lead you to the capital town of the Old 

 North State. There is to be seen, probably, the 

 handsomest Capitol of any State in the Union ; 

 but what enterprise of that sort does Southern 

 entci-prise carry out ? The grounds around this 

 beautiful building, so susceptible of easy and el- 

 egant enibclli.shment, remain as open commons, 

 where any beast may pasture and repose in the 

 shade of its native oaks. The building cost, it 

 seems, so much be3ond the estimate, as is usual 

 in such cases, that both parties are afraid to risk 

 their popularity on voting the sum of a few 

 thousand dollars to enclose and improve it. 



Raleigh is distinguished as the residence of 

 Mr. Badger, an eminent la\vyer, whose income 

 for twenty years has been from 6 to $10,000 an- 

 nually. He was Secretary of the Navy under 

 Mr. Tyler, and resigned on finding, as he stated, 

 that that gentleman had determined to repudiate 

 what he had authorized his Cabinet to promise, 

 in his behalf, on certain measures of importance. 



I ^^'a^ struck, on the Gaston and Raleigla 

 Railroad, with the singular process adopted 

 for watering- the passengers / Occasionally, 

 through the night, Cuffee enters at one door of 

 the car, and passes on slowly to the other, with 

 a large stone pitcher in his left hand. En pas- 

 sant — a drowsy passenger, between waking 

 and sleeping, grasps at the handle of the pitcher, 

 .supposing he is to take his drink by word of 

 mouth; but Cuifee holds fast, and, without even 

 casting his eyes in the direction of what is going 

 on, only and briefly remarks, " Gourd in dar." 

 This is all he can be provoked to .say. At last 

 the passenger begins to apprehend him. and, 

 thrusting his hand into the pitcher, pulls up a 

 gourd full of water, of which he j)artakes what 

 his thirst demands, and, having no place for the 

 residue, lets fall the whole again into the pitcher 

 — when Blacky (Casar, or Wellington, or some 

 such great character) proceeds, and as another 

 passenger awakes, and reaches to take the 

 pitcher, he again is told, " Gourd in dar," — and 

 thus the passengers are watered about as often 



