A 'Thousand-Mile JValk 
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 goes 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 
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