Shall the Spartan Virtues of the South Survive the War? [pp. 145-150]

SPARTAN VIRTUES OF THE SOUTH.
eat a scant allowance of indifferent and stale food. The Roman peo ple, when treated by the nobility as our vulgar bosses treat modern
white laborers, used to run away to Mount Saere, or Mount Aven tine, to strike for higher wages, but the nobility always got the better
of them as they do of our trades' union folks when they strike for
better wages. There is but one means of escape from slavery to
skill and capital, and that is to run clean off into the wilderness,
where there is no skill or capital, and become wise, indolent, free,
and philosophic savages. You have tried trades' unions, tried the
ballot, tried strikes, tried the ten-hours rule, but all in tvain. We
advise you, our friends, to pack up some duds in carpet bags and
flee to the far-off forests and prairies, or join the negroes in Africa, if
you would be free, and wise, and philosophic, and live by light labor,
or by delightful amusement. Ift' we were young,er we should cer tainly join you; at all events, you shall have our very best wishes.
Now, we have a moral in this matter. We write for the people of
the South. We strenuously advise them to cut loose from the
tyranny of fashion, and lessen thereby, fully by one-half, the expenses
of reasonable and comrfortable living. Never did people fight more
bravely, or evince more patience and fortitude in bearing up against
want and privation than did we in our late war. We cared nothing
for fashion then. Shall we, in our present poor and destitute condi tion, become again the slaves of fashion, and quadruple our labors
thereby? Shall the Empress Eugenic dictate to us what we shall wear,
and how we shall live? for at present shle sets the fashions for Pairis,
and Paris for the world. Together, they exercise a power over civi lized Christendom greater than that of the Pope, far greater, for
weal or for woe, than was ever wielded by any imperial potentate.
We of the South have abundance, superabundance of fertile lands,
and may live by very light labor if we will but reject the superfluities that fashion dictates. Why not have falshions of our own? Why
not imitate the fashions of old Rome, in her early, palmy and glorious days? Why not win distinction by the simplicity of our lives,
and the economy and frugality of our living? Do we not all admire
far more a Socrates in his little house, with his bare head and shoeless feet, or Diogenes in his shirt and tub, or F'abricius, or Cincinnatus, or the Cat )s, in all their simplicity and poverty, to Croesus
or Lucullus? Do not simplicity of living and firugality always command a respect and admiration that wealth, extravagance and luxury
never can! The world intuitively and unconsciously knows that
the man who labors not, and produces not, yet extravagantly wastes,
is stealing. Disguise it as you may, luxury and extravagance are
dishonesty, and in time mankind find it out, and hate and despise the
luxurious and dishonest. We of the South may borrow useful hints
from the negro-fromn savage life-for the negro in America is still,
and ever will be, a savage, but in some respects a practical philosopher. Or, if we scorn to take lessons from the savage negro, let us
adopt the manners and mode of living of the Spartans, of the Greek
philosophers, and of the early Romans. Let us sedulously attend to
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