62 
LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH-NO. 3. 
generally afford a tolerably distinct view of the op¬ 
posite scenery through the unchunked double walls. 
The chimneys in most of the country, and some of 
the city houses, -from Maryland to the Gulf, are 
placed on the outside of one or both ends, and are 
built entirely independent of the houses, though 
connected with the first floor by a single fire-place. 
This may abate a little of the intense heat of sum¬ 
mer; but it has a most unsightly and forbidding 
appearance. The best houses are sometimes 
painted, and the chimneys are well laid up in brick 
and mortar, while those attached to the poorest are 
more frequently made of mud and sticks, and the 
surrounding buildings are limited to a rough hovel 
or two, about as closely housed in, as a field under 
a well laid worm fence. The shuck provided for 
the winter forage of the cattle, is one or more stacks 
of corn blades or husks, some 12 or 15 feet high, 
and 5 or 6 in diameter. A fourth rate Vermont 
farmer’s cattle would consume the winter’s stock in 
a single frosty night, and need baiting early the 
next morning. The working mules or horses are 
fed with corn ; but all the remainder of the quadru¬ 
peds must betake themselves to the woods for 
brouse, or starve. The latter alternative they are 
sometimes not slow in accepting as the best of the 
two. Yet'as the range is illimitable, and vegetation 
has a torpid existence through the winter, they will 
frequently do very well on it, though they have in 
many cases to go so far for it, that they do not 
think it worth while returning to report progress 
till the feed has again become deserving their atten¬ 
tion home. Of course, milking the cows is out of 
the question, unless half of one’s time is used in 
pursuit of them. Where there are cane brakes, as 
is frequently the case on rich bottom lands, the 
animals have a good winter subsistence on the 
young shoots of this gigantic grass. Its rich ever¬ 
green leaves acquire a palatable nutritiveness after 
the frosts, which it does not possess during the 
summer and autumn, and when abundant, cattle 
will fatten on this alone. The swine through this 
country are the vilest brutes a farmer’s eye ever 
rested on. They are of all colors, but principally 
black, grey, red, blue or striped and dotted like a 
hyena, which comely beast, and its congener, the 
wolf, they more nearly resemble than any of their 
own well bred family. Even the fattening porkers 
are only in a passably growing condition, while the 
nomads could hardly lay claim to hide enough to 
hold their bones together. As the stages rattled 
along, they rushed out of the woods in all direc¬ 
tions, to gather up the droppings of the horses, 
which they followed for miles, if their strength 
held out, till they could refresh themselves with the 
savory repast. I asked the driver the cause of their 
leanness when the woods were full of oaks and 
chestnuts. He said the former bore no acorns, and 
the people gathered the latter to avoid starvation. 
I pointed to one pot-bellied specimen of humanity, 
as an evidence of some addition to this primitive 
food, but he stoutly claimed that the protuberance 
was the sole product of the forest! Whether he 
was quizzing or not I don’t know. The meals one 
gets here at four bits each (50 cents), are strictly in 
keeping with the character of the enterprising hosts. 
They seem to provide on the same principle with 
the old dame, who thus explained her success in 
cheap boarding. “ She found out what folks 
didn’t like, and gave them enough of it.” It was 
stoutly asserted by some of the more knowing pas¬ 
sengers, that the proprietors of this route, not con¬ 
tent with 10 cents a mile for the fare, run their 
stages to such houses as will give them the largest 
division of spoils ; and as there are 60 or 80 meals 
per day, disposed of at each house, at half as many 
dollars, seven-eighths of which must be clear profit, 
this alone will afford no inconsiderable income to 
the enterprising participants of this scheme of 
wholesale plunder. I have never seen a Yankee 
trick north of Mason and Dixon, quite so successful 
as this. If in carrying out this praiseworthy 
scheme, there happens some slight inconvenience 
to the jaded, night-worn traveller, he must console 
himself with the reflection that his loss is the land¬ 
lord’s gain ; and as considerate Jack Fa!staff said 
to the simple travellers he was robbing —“ Honest 
men must live.” A fellow passenger told me it was 
not far from our route, that in company with two 
or three ladies, they were served with a beverage 
passing under the name .of tea or coffee, out of the 
odds and ends of some tin vessels, while the pota¬ 
toes and Indian cakes were appropriately handed 
to each guest by a strapping negro boy of 12 or 
14, out of his shirt, which was adroitly held up to 
contain them. He had no other article of clothing on 
him.(ci) I advise every one coming from any point 
north of Washington to this place, to take the 
northern lake, or Ohio River route. It will require 
a few days longer, but can be accomplished with 
half the fatigue, and with little more than half the 
expense. 
We were glad to get on a boat at Montgo¬ 
mery. Had the river been at moderate height, we 
should have passed down the 400 miles to Mobile 
in two days instead of five, owing to our fre¬ 
quently grounding. The Alabama is a fine winding 
stream, hemmed in by banks from 20 to 80 feet 
high. These are sometimes worn, and shelve off 
from the action of the stream; but are generally 
fringed with a great variety of forest trees, shrubs, 
and frequently the cane, which, springing up from 
the water’s edge, surmounts the banks, and extends 
for miles in one impenetrable mass. It grows from 
15 to 20 feet high, straight as an arrow and almost 
as thick ,as standing wheat. It throws out delicate 
branches near the tops, whose gracefully tapering 
foliage, at a distance, nearly resembles a field of 
luxuriant hemp, and these become so closely inter¬ 
woven at their tops as to resemble one vast carpet 
of resplendent green. A variety of beautiful 
branching, evergreen, and deciduous oaks, hereto¬ 
fore mentioned, are found on the banks and border¬ 
ing table lands, and occasionally the pine and other 
resinous trees. Here and there a magnolia may 
be seen shooting up with perfect symmetry for 50 
to 70 feet, and bearing the dark-hued evergreen 
leaves, in a beautiful cone. In May ahd June, 
this is gemmed over its entire surface with beauti¬ 
ful snowy flowers, 5 to 7 inches in diameter and 
of great fragrance. The cypress that everywhere 
fills up the low grounds south of Virginia, is always 
to be found in its appropriate place here; and 
from nearly every tree, of whatever species, the 
