Chapter I: Foreword

Though much has been written of the South, it seems to me that this part of our country is less understood than any other part. Certainly the South, itself, feels that this is true. Its relationship to the North makes me think of nothing so much as that of a pretty, sensitive wife, to a big, strong, amiable, if somewhat thick-skinned husband. These two had one great quarrel which nearly resulted in divorce. He thought her headstrong; she thought him overbearing. The quarrel made her ill; she has been for some time recovering. But though they have settled their difficulties and are living again in amity together, and though he, man-like, has half forgotten that they ever quarreled at all, now that peace reigns in the house again, _she_ has _not_ forgotten. There still lingers in her mind the feeling that he never really understood her, that he never understood her problems and her struggles, and that he never will. And it seems to me further that, as is usually the case with wives who consider themselves misunderstood, the fault is partly, but by no means altogether, hers. He, upon one hand, is inclined to pass the matter off with a: "There, there! It's all over now. Just be good and forget it!" while she, in the depths of her heart, retains a little bit of wistfulness, a little wounded feeling, which causes her to say to herself: "Thank God our home was not broken up, but--I wish that he could be a little more considerate, sometimes, in view of all that I have suffered."

For my part, I am the humble but devoted friend of the family. Having known him first, having been from boyhood his companion, I may perhaps have sympathized with him in the beginning. But since I have come to know her, too, that is no longer so. And I do think I know her--proud, sensitive, high-strung, generous, captivating beauty that she is! Moreover, after the fashion of many another "friend of the family," I have fallen in love with her. Loving her from afar, I send her as a nosegay these chapters gathered in her own gardens. If some of the flowers are of a kind for which she does not care, if some have thorns, even if some are only weeds, I pray her to remember that from what was growing in her gardens I was forced to make my choice, and to believe that, whatever the defects of my bouquet, it is meant to be a bunch of roses.

J.S.
_October 1, 1917._

The Author makes his grateful acknowledgments to the old friends
and the new ones who assisted him upon this journey. And once more
he desires to express his gratitude to the friend and
fellow-traveler whose illustrations are far from being his only
contribution to this volume.

--J.S.
New York, October, 1917.

CONTENTS

THE BORDERLAND

CHAPTER PAGE

I ON JOURNEYS THROUGH THE STATES 3

II A BALTIMORE EVENING 13

III WHERE THE CLIMATES MEET 27

IV TRIUMPHANT DEFEAT 38

V TERRAPIN AND THINGS 44

VI DOUGHOREGAN MANOR AND THE CARROLLS 53

VII A RARE OLD TOWN 69

VIII WE MEET THE HAMPTON GHOST 80

IX ARE WE STANDARDIZED? 89

X HARPER'S FERRY AND JOHN BROWN 97

XI THE VIRGINIAS AND THE WASHINGTONS 105

XII I RIDE A HORSE 117

XIII INTO THE OLD DOMINION 136

XIV CHARLOTTESVILLE AND MONTICELLO 150

XV THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA 159

XVI FOX-HUNTING IN VIRGINIA 169

XVII "A CERTAIN PARTY" 186

XVIII THE LEGACY OF HATE 193

XIX "YOU-ALL" AND OTHER SECTIONAL MISUNDERSTANDINGS 203

XX IDIOMS AND ARISTOCRACY 214

XXI THE CONFEDERATE CAPITAL 222

XXII RANDOM RICHMOND NOTES 233

XXIII JEDGE CRUTCHFIELD'S COT 242

XXIV NORFOLK AND ITS NEIGHBORHOOD 248

XXV COLONEL TAYLOR AND GENERAL LEE 258

THE HEART OF THE SOUTH

XXVI RALEIGH AND JOSEPHUS DANIELS 273

XXVII ITEMS FROM "THE OLD NORTH STATE" 285

XXVIII UNDER ST. MICHAEL'S CHIMES 296

XXIX HISTORY AND ARISTOCRACY 312

XXX POLITICS, A NEWSPAPER AND ST. CECILIA 326

XXXI "GULLA" AND THE BACK COUNTRY 338

XXXII OUT OF THE PAST 349

XXXIII ALIVE ATLANTA 356

XXXIV GEORGIA JOURNALISM 369

XXXV SOME ATLANTA INSTITUTIONS 384

XXXVI A BIT OF RURAL GEORGIA 392

XXXVII A YOUNG METROPOLIS 403

XXXVIII BUSY BIRMINGHAM 417

XXXIX AN ALLEGORY OF ACHIEVEMENT 426

XL THE ROAD TO ARCADY 440

XLI A MISSISSIPPI TOWN 447

XLII OLD TALES AND A NEW GAME 458

XLIII OUT OF THE LONG AGO 467

XLIV THE GIRL HE LEFT BEHIND HIM 474

XLV VICKSBURG OLD AND NEW 482

XLVI SHREDS AND PATCHES 494

XLVII THE BAFFLING MISSISSIPPI 500

XLVIII OLD RIVER DAYS 508

XLIX WHAT MEMPHIS HAS ENDURED 518

L MODERN MEMPHIS 535

FARTHEST SOUTH

LI BEAUTIFUL SAVANNAH 553

LII MISS "JAX" AND SOME FLORIDA GOSSIP 572

LIII PASSIONATE PALM BEACH 579

LIV ASSORTED AND RESORTED FLORIDA 595

LV A DAY IN MONTGOMERY 603

LVI THE CITY OF THE CREOLE 619

LVII HISTORY, THE CREOLE, AND HIS DUELS 629

LVIII FROM ANTIQUES TO PIRATES 648

LIX ANTOINE'S AND MARDI GRAS 663

LX FINALE 675

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

FACING PAGE Charleston is the last stronghold of a unified American upper class; the last remaining American city in which Madeira and Port and _noblesse oblige_ are fully and widely understood, and are employed according to the best traditions _Frontispiece_

"Railroad tickets!" said the baggageman with exaggerated patience 8

Can most travellers, I wonder, enjoy as I do a solitary walk, by night, through the mysterious streets of a strange city? 17

Coming out of my slumber with the curious and unpleasant sense of being stared at, I found his eyes fixed upon me 24

Mount Vernon Place is the centre of Baltimore 32

If she is shopping for a dinner party, she may order the costly and aristocratic diamond-back terrapin, sacred in Baltimore as is the Sacred Cod in Boston 48

Doughoregan Manor--the house was a buff-colored brick 65

I began to realize that there was no one coming 80

Harper's Ferry is an entrancing old town; a drowsy place piled up beautifully yet carelessly upon terraced roads clinging to steep hillsides 100

"What's the matter with him?" I asked, stopping 117

When I came down, dressed for riding, my companion was making a drawing; the four young ladies were with him, none of them in riding habits 124

Claymont Court is one of the old Washington houses 132

Chatham, the old Fitzhugh house, now the residence of Mark Sullivan 148

Monticello stands on a lofty hilltop, with vistas, between trees of neighboring valleys, hills, and mountains 157

Like Venice, the University of Virginia should first be seen by moonlight 168

One party was stationed on the top of an old-time mail-coach, bearing the significant initials "F.F.V." 180

The Piedmont Hunt Race Meet 189

The Southern negro is the world's peasant supreme 200

The Country Club of Virginia, out to the west of Richmond 216

Judge Crutchfield 228

Negro women squatting upon boxes in old shadowy lofts stem the tobacco leaves 237

The Judge: "What did he do, Mandy?" 244

Some genuine old-time New York ferryboats help to complete the illusion that Norfolk is New York 253

"The Southern statesman who serves his section best, serves his country best" 280

St. Philip's is the more beautiful for the open space before it 300

Opposite St. Philip's, a perfect example of the rude architecture of an old French village 305

In the doorway and gates of the Smyth house, in Legaré Street, I was struck with a Venetian suggestion 316

Nor is the Charleston background a mere arras of recollection 320

Charleston has a stronger, deeper-rooted city entity than all the cities of the Middle West rolled into one 328

The interior is the oldest looking thing in the United States--Goose Creek Church 344

A reminder of the Chicago River--Atlanta 353

With the whole Metropolitan Orchestra playing dance music all night long 368

The office buildings are city office buildings, and are sufficiently numerous to look very much at home 376

The negro roof-garden, Odd Fellows' Building, Atlanta 385

I was never so conscious, as at the time of our visit to the Burge Plantation, of the superlative soft sweetness of the spring 396

The planters cease their work 400

Birmingham--the thin veil of smoke from far-off iron furnaces softens the city's serrated outlines 408

Birmingham practices unremittingly the pestilential habit of "cutting in" at dances 424

Gigantic movements and mutations, Niagara-like noises, great bursts of flame like falling fragments from the sun 437

A shaggy, unshaven, rawboned man, gray-haired and collarless, sat near the window 444

Gaze upon the character called Daniel Voorhees Pike! 456

The houses were full of the suggestion of an easy-going home life and an informal hospitality 465

Her hands looked very white and small against his dark coat 480

As water flows down the hills of Vicksburg to the river, so the visitor's thoughts flow down to the great spectacular, mischievous, dominating stream 485

Over the tenement roofs one catches sight of sundry other buildings of a more self-respecting character 492

Vicksburg negroes 497

On some of the boats negro fish-markets are conducted 504

The old Klein house 512

Citizens go at midday to the square 520

Hanging in the air above the middle of the stream 536

These small parks give Savannah the quality which differentiates it from all other American cities 556

The Thomas house, in Franklin Square 561

You will see them having tea, and dancing under the palm fronds of the cocoanut grove 576

Cocktail hour at The Breakers 581

Nowhere is the sand more like a deep warm dust of yellow gold 588

The couples on the platform were "ragging" 600

Harness held together by that especial Providence which watches over negro mending 613

It was a very jolly fair 616

The mysterious old Absinthe House, founded 1799 620

St. Anthony's Garden 632

Courtyard of the old Orleans Hotel 641

The little lady who sits behind the desk 656

The lights are always lowered at Antoine's when the spectacular Café Boulot Diabolique is served 664

Passing between the brilliantly illuminated buildings, the Mardi Gras parades are glorious sights for children from eight to eighty years of age 672

THE BORDERLAND

O magnet-South! O glistening, perfumed South!
O quick mettle, rich blood, impulse and love! good and evil!
O all dear to me!

WALT WHITMAN.

AMERICAN ADVENTURES